MUSIC OF TODAY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 545, 2 December 1949, Page 12

MUSIC OF TODAY

ARLY this year a group of musicians met in Wellington to form a New Zealand section of the [International Society for Contemporary Music. The idea of forming a local section came originally from Francis Rosner, violinist, of Wellington, and it was taken up by Dr. H. J. Finlay and others. Now the New Zealand section is ready to give its first concert. Like the parent society in Great Britain, it has two objectives-the performance of new music and its theoretical explanation-and it makes its approach on two fronts, national and international. The latter is served by annual international festivals and by the interchange of information between sections. In the field of national music the plan is to discover and foster the talent of young composers, especially those who are struggling to find individual expression, and to make sure that the public is accurately informed about the chief trends in contemporary music in general. The New Zealand section will directly serve musicians, in that local composers may send manuscripts for reading by the committee, and the committee (if it thinks fit) will forward them for trial by an international jury. At least two concerts will be presented each year by the New Zealand section,

and each programme will cgntain at least one work by a New Zealander. The first will take place in Wellington on Tuesday, December 6, and the first part of the programme will be broadcast at 8.0 p.m., by 2YA. The items to be heard over the air will be a Sonata for Violin and Piano by the British composer Bernard Stevens, played by Francis Rosner (violin) and Bessie Pollard (piano); Sonata for Piano by the New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn, played by Frederick Page; and Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano by Khachaturian, played by Ken Wilson (clarinet), Francis Rosner (violin) and Dorothy Davies (piano). The International Society for Contemporary Music was organised as a result of the International Festival held at Salzburg in 1922 by a group of younger Viennese composers, chiefly pupils of Schonberg. At this festival seven programmes of chamber music by contemporary composers were presented in four days. Subsequent meetings under the chairmanship of Professor E. J. Dent, English musician, educator and author, led to the formation of the society in 1923, with headquarters in ,London at the Contemporary Music Centre of the British Music Society. Dent was the first president, with a committee consisting of Busoni, Ravel, Schonberg, (continued on next page)

Sibelius, Strauss and Stravinsky. Today the society has sections in almost every country in the world. The constitution provides that gach national section may have two representatives and one vote at all international meetings, and be eligible to participate in the election of the committee which decides the programmes for all festivals. The society’s activities include an annual demonstration of the most interesting of contemporary music, and ensure an exchange of ideas, social intercourse and a wider performance of new music. But each individual section decides for itself what it considers to be contemporary music. The United States section of the society, for example, is principally concerned to discover and encourage talent for musical expression in America, and to send works each year for consideration by the international jury. The: New Zealand section will work along the same lines. \ (See also page 14) e_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-------pe ne re rn eo