International Society for Contemporary Music

The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.

From left: György Ligeti, his son Lukas, his wife Vera Spitz, Conlon Nancarrow and Michael Daugherty at ISCM World Music Days in Graz, Austria, 1982

The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the Internationale Kammermusikaufführungen Salzburg, a festival of modern chamber music held as part of the Salzburg Festival.[1] It was founded by the Austrian (later British) composer Egon Wellesz and the Cambridge academic Edward J Dent, who first met when Wellesz visited England in 1906.[2][3]

In 1936 the rival Permanent Council for the International Co-operation of Composers, set up under Richard Strauss, was accused of furthering Nazi Party cultural ambitions in opposition to the non-political ISCM.[4] British composer Herbert Bedford, acting as co-Secretary, defended its neutrality.[5]

Aside from hiatuses in 1940 and 1943-5 due to World War II, the ISCM's core activity has been an annual festival of contemporary classical music held every year at a different location, the first of which took place in 1923 in Salzburg, which has come to be known as the ISCM World Music Days (sometimes World New Music Days, abbreviated either WMD or WNMD depending on which name is used). There have been a total of 92 of these thus far, the most recent of which took place in Tallinn, Estonia in May 2019. The next WMD is scheduled to take place in New Zealand in April 2020.[6]

Each year, during the World Music Days. ISCM members also convene in a General Assembly. Membership in the ISCM is organized through national sections that promote contemporary music in each country. These sections are usually organizations independent from the ISCM that send delegates to the ISCM General Assembly. Each member of the national section is also a member of ISCM and may send in 6 works that are evaluated for performance at the World Music Days. National organizations that promote contemporary music, but have not been designated as the nation section of ISCM, are sometimes given an associate membership status. This status also applies to the members of these organizations. Some individual music professionals receive the "honorary membership" status. The ISCM is governed by an Executive Committee consisting of seven people; two (Secretary General and Treasurer) are appointed positions and the remaining five (President, Vice President, and three regular members) are chosen from and by the delegates in an election during the General Assembly.[7]

Since 1991, the ISCM has also published an annual World New Music Magazine, a print publication that is distributed to its members for further dissemination. A total of 28 issues have been produced. The magazine issues from 2006-2018 are available as a digital downloadable PDF from the ISCM's website.[8] ISCM is a member of the International Music Council.

Specific renditions

National sections

Africa

Asia
  • China
    • ISCM BEIJING SECTION
    • ISCM – CHENGDU SECTION, ISCM
    • ISCM – HONG KONG SECTION
    • ISCM – NANNING SECTION
  • The Israeli Composers' League
  • ISCM – Israeli Section
  • ISCM – JAPANESE SECTION
  • Japan Federation of Composers
  • ISCM – SOUTH KOREAN SECTION
  • Tongyeong International Music Festival
  • ISCM – Taiwan Section
  • ISCM – TURKEY SECTION

Eastern Europe
  • Prague Spring Festival
  • ISCM – HUNGARIAN SECTION
  • ISCM – POLISH SECTION
  • Romanian National Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music
  • ISCM – RUSSIAN SECTION
  • Society for Contemporary Music Russia
  • ISCM – SLOVAK SECTION
  • Music Centre Slovakia
  • ISCM – SLOVENIAN SECTION
  • ISCM – UKRAINE SECTION

Northern Europe
  • ISCM – DANISH SECTION
  • ISCM – ESTONIAN SECTION
  • ISCM – FAROE ISLANDS SECTION
  • ISCM – FINNISH SECTION
  • ISCM – ICELANDIC SECTION
  • Association of Irish Composers
  • ISCM – LATVIAN SECTION
  • ISCM – LITHUANIAN SECTION
  • ISCM – NORWEGIAN SECTION
  • ISCM – SWEDISH SECTION
    • ISCM – GOTLAND SECTION
  • Society for the Promotion of New Music
  • ISCM – BRITISH SECTION
    • ISCM – WELSH SECTION

Southern Europe
  • ISCM – CROATIAN SECTION
  • ISCM – GREEK SECTION
  • ISCM – ITALIAN SECTION
  • ISCM – PORTUGUESE SECTION
  • ISCM – SERBIAN SECTION
  • Musikagileak

Western Europe
  • ISCM – AUSTRIAN SECTION
  • Belgium
    • ISCM – FLEMISH SECTION
    • ISCM – WALLONIAN SECTION
  • éOlé
  • ISCM – FRENCH SECTION
  • ISCM – GERMAN SECTION
  • ISCM – LUXEMBOURG SECTION
  • Nieuw Geneco – New Association of Dutch Composers
  • Festival l'Art pour l'Aar
  • ISCM – SWISS SECTION

North America

Oceania

South America
  • ISCM – ARGENTINE SECTION
  • AguaForte/Festival Música Estranha
  • ISCM – CHILE SCD SECTION

References
  1. "archives.nypl.org -- League of Composers/ISCM records". Archives.nypl.org. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  2. Fauser, AnneGret. 'The Scholar behind the Medal: Edward J. Dent (1876-1957) and the Politics of Music History', in Journal of the Royal Musical Association Vol. 139, No. 2 (2014), pp. 235-260
  3. Haas, Michael. 'Egon Wellesz: The Forgotten Modernist', in Forbidden Music, 4 June 2014
  4. Fanning, David (ed.). The Routledge Handbook to Music under German Occupation, 1938-1945
  5. Bedford, Herbert. Letter to The Musical Times, February 1936, p 159
  6. "ISCM World Music Days 2020 in NZ". sounz.org.nz. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-01-07. Retrieved 2016-04-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ISCM (24 May 2018). "World New Music Magazine". Iscm.org. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
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