Listening to
the world The International Music Council 1949-2019
EXHIBITION
Timeline The former IMC logo.
Professor Charles Seeger, his wife Constance and their sons, 23 May 1921. Credit: National Photo Company
1947: Charles Seeger appeals for an International Music Institute
1974: Creation of the Musicians International Mutual Aid Fund (MIMAF)
1949: The International Music Council is created
1975: Inauguration of the International Music Day
1953: Birth of the International Society for Music
Creation of the IMC International Music Prize (which
Education 1955: First International Rostrum of Composers 1956: A first anthology dedicated to contemporary music is published (Webern, Nono, Stockhausen and Boulez) 1957: Launch of The World of Music journal 1958: David Oistrakh, Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar inaugurate the Paris International Musical Weeks 1961: Launch of the Musical Anthology of the Orient record collection 1961: Creation of the Music and Media Center (IMZ) in Vienna 1966: Launch of the Anthology of African Music record collection 1969: Creation of the Asian Music Rostrum (ASMR) and the International Rostrum of Young Performers (IRYP) 1970: First African Music Rostrum (AFMR)
became the IMC / UNESCO Music Prize in 1978) 1979: First Music Rostrum of Latin America and the Caribbean (TRIMALCA) 1980: "Music in the Life of Man" programme for the publication of a world history of music 1984: First International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music (IREM) 1995: Launch of the Resonance magazine, Creation of the Music Council of the Three Americas 1996: Workshops on Baroque music in Argentina and France 2003: Launch of the "ManyMusics" Action Programme (MMAP) 2005: First World Forum on Music (Los Angeles) 2007: Creation of the African Music Council 2009: Inauguration of the IMC Music Rights Awards
1972: Launch of the Musical Atlas record collection The
2011: Launch of the “Music Empowers Global Youth“
European Regional Group is created (which became the
programme (MEGY)
European Music Council in 1992) 1973: "Music and the audience of tomorrow" programme Launch of the Musical Sources record collection
2014: African Music Development Programme (AMDP) 2015: Music and Resilience Support project (MARS) 2015: Rostrum+ project
The current IMC logo celebrating the 70th anniversary (2019).
Opening of the 5th IMC World Forum on Music in Brisbane (2013). IMC Archives
Listening to
the world
The International Music Council (1949-2019)
70 years of History For 70 years, the International Music Council has been involved in the promotion of music around the world and has focused on several objectives: to strengthen cooperation between music organisations, to encourage the free movement of musicians, musical works and knowledge, to preserve the diversity of musical cultures, to guarantee access to music for all and to protect its creators. The wide range of activities (assemblies, colloquiums, festivals and concerts, radio rostrums, records, books and magazines, awards, cooperation projects) and the vast community gathered around its principles reflect the vitality and the place of the IMC in music and more Indian artist Ravi Shankar, surrounded by violinists Yehudi Menuhin (USA) and David Oistrakh (USSR), before the start of a concert at the Salle Pleyel on United Nations Day. Paris, October 24, 1958. Credits: UN photo by Louis Falquet.
Front page of the first issue of The World of Music, published in June 1957.
generally in the field of international cultural relations.
The International Rostrum of Composers, IMC emblematic programme since 1954. Booklet from 1999.
The first booklet published by the IMC in 1951: « International Music Council Foundation, first and second General Assemblies… ».
The Musical Atlas collection (IMC / UNESCO).
An exhibition commissioned by the International Music Council, with the support of the Centre d’Histoire culturelle des Sociétés contemporaines (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines) and the Institut Universitaire de France. Curator: Anaïs Fléchet assisted by Germain Le Roch. Texts: Anaïs Fléchet, Germain Le Roch. Translation: Carole Idczak Graphic design: Anne-Claire Fayolle Acknowledgments: Simha Arom, Xavier Bellenger, Sarah Blum, Linda Cimardi, Jacques Cloarec, Ethnologisches Museum (Berlin), Anne-Claire Fayolle, Silja Fischer, Giovanni Giurati, Davide Grosso, Istituto Interculturale di Studi Musicali Comparati (Venice), Lars-Christian Koch, Lupwishi Mbuyamba, Philip Schuyler, Eng Sengsavang, UNESCO Archives (Paris), Ivan Vandor.
PLaying for peace IMC / UNESCO Prize Starting in 1975, the IMC / UNESCO International Music Prize was awarded to musicians, musicologists and music organisations making a significant contribution to the development of music and the strengthening of peace and international cooperation. Laureates include: Composers: Dimitri Shostakovich (1975), Leonard Bernstein (1979), Olivier Messiaen and Witold Lutosławski (1985), Toru Takemitsu (1991), György Ligeti (1996), Mikis Theodorakis (2005) Performers: Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar (1975), Benny Goodman (1977), Sviatoslav Richter (1979), Daniel Barenboim (1987), Miriam Makeba (1993), Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1995), Cesaria Evora (1998), Oscar Peterson (2000), Gidon Kremer and Oumou Sangaré (2001), Maria Joao Pires (2002), Youssou N'Dour (2004) Musicologists: Zofia Lissa (1979), Alain Daniélou, Kwabena Nketia and Trân Vân Khê (1981) Organisations: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (1981), International Federation of Jeunesses Musicales (1989), Oman Center for Traditional Music (2002)
IMC / UNESCO Music Prize 1998: from left to right: Guy Huot (IMC Secretary General), Iannis Xenakis (laureate), Federico Mayor (UNESCO Director General), Jürgen Linden (Lord Mayor of the City of Aachen), Frans de Ruiter (IMC President) and Isabel de Falla Lopez (Director of the Archivo Manuel de Falla, laureate).
IMC / UNESCO Prize 2001: Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and Malian singer Oumou Sangaré. Credits: Bernd Schröder.
International Music Day
Japanese Stamps for International Music Day. Credits : Foundation for the Promotion of Music Education and Culture (Japan).
"May music events of all kinds take place in all cities, regions, and countries around the world. Personally, I would like to find concerts and broadcasts with music of all times - and especially ours - as well as spontaneous concerts in the streets, by traditional singers, choirs, pop or jazz musicians and classical musicians.” Yehudi Menuhin
Canadian Poster for the International Music Day. Credits: Canada Council for the Arts.
It was with these words that famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin, as President of the IMC, inaugurated the first International Music Day in 1975. On October 1st of every year, International Music Day aims at raising global awareness to the fundamental importance of music for humanity. This pioneering initiative, of which the Fête de la Musique has now taken over, received the support from acknowledged artists such as Aaron Copland, Glenn Gould, Dimitri Shostakovich, Ravi Shankar, Peter Schreier and Alberto Ginastera, as well as thousands of music lovers and amateur musicians.
Music and peace To make music an instrument of peace and harmony between peoples: this is the ideal on which the identity of the IMC was built. While its first president, Roland-Manuel, was already talking about the unifying power of music, the Council has constantly sought to innovate so that the values it defended were embodied in concrete achievements. In 2000, IMC confirmed this ambition by adding the "Music and Peace" programme to the agenda, which it was entrusted with by UNESCO in the framework of the "International Year of the Culture of Peace". Many music events were organised in this context, such as "Waging Peace", "Drums for Peace" or "Music Crossroads", "Musica Esperanza" and the "Music Youth Summer Camp", an academy bringing together Palestinian and Israeli youth.
MUSIC and human rights “It is obvious: we need a number of musical colors on our pallet to have a real freedom of expression. […] People must find in their near environment, live music, recorded music, musical materials, instruments, and opportunities to participate in music making. […] There needs to be ‘room’ for the creative artist, he or she who jumps without any safety net: the uneasy person, the herald, the inventor. By ‘room’ I mean acceptance, support, financial resources, and good working conditions.” Einar Solbu, 1999
5 Music Rights
Defending freedom of expression and the right of all individuals to have access to music, has always been at the heart of the International Music Council’s ambitions. The wording of these fundamental principles is however more recent. In 1999, ISME President and IMC future vice-president, Einar Solbu, spoke for the first time about "music rights" in Resonance. Music is a commonly shared medium of expression around the world. In fact, it is legitimate for it to develop unhindered in our societies. It must therefore be guaranteed that all individuals have the right to learn and express themselves through music. It is essential to develop the listening skills of young people, to provide them with the tools so that they understand music in its diversity. It is also necessary to develop the infrastructure so that music is accessible to all. And, once all these conditions of musical fulfillment have been met, to make a commitment that musicians can practice their art freely, under no economic or political pressure. As a result, the IMC has acted as the guardian of the Five Music Rights, which it included in its strategic agenda in 1999.
In order to enforce these principles, IMC has been working on the development of musical sectors around the world since the 2000s, with the ManyMusics Action Programme (MMAP, 2003-2005) for the preservation of musical diversity, and the African Music Development Programme (AMDP, 2014-2016). The International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) also plays a central role in promoting the rights of composers.
THE RIGHT FOR ALL CHILDREN AND ADULTS
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THE RIGHT FOR ALL MUSICAL ARTISTS
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To express themselves musically in all freedom To learn musical languages and skills
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To have access to musical involvement through participation, listening, creation, and information
To develop their artistry and communicate through all media, with proper facilities at their disposal
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To obtain just recognition and fair remuneration for their work
Laureates IMC Music Rights Award since 2001 Freemuse Scoil Una Naofa Violin & Orchestra Projet Empowering the community with free instrumental tuition, music theory and participation in perfor,ing ensembles.
The world forum on music & censorship. This unique pro gramme advocates freedom of expression for creators and performers of music.
A programme aining at begining music education and involvment in music back into the Afghan society after the Taliban regime.
Programme aimed at recove ring and giving artistic life to in digenous and for the most part forgotten musical instruments.
A programme which focuses on a form of music which is unique, and which needs spe cial attention and caret as not to be forgotten.
Remix the Orchestra Music and resilience Empowering Palestinian children and adolescents living in refugee camps.
Teaching Music in Pakistan
Festival sur le Niger
Orcherstra of Indegenous Ins truments and New technology:
Teaching Cantonese Opera-
A programme including people with various handicaps and disabilities in choral music making. Revival of Music Education
Give Music a Future A programme that develops new strategies for audience development at youth music conpetitions and boots the career of young emerging European musicians.
Hearts in Harmony
An initiative that contributes to the development of cultural industries in Mali and enhances the national cultural and artistic heritage, using the promotion of culture as a tool for peace and stability.
Laureates IMC Music Rights Award 2013 with representatives of nominating IMC Members. Archives IMC.
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A programme which provides access to music education for children with special education needs and disabilities, thereby transforming their lives through music
Artistic collaboratio between at-risk young people, profes -sional hip-hop artists and or chestra musicians. Music. Play for Life A programme focused on promoting and enhancing school music education.
or es
Social project of the Fayha Choir -
An a cappella choir bringing to gether 50 singers from different social and religisous backgrounds in a country known for its religious
Laureates IMC Music Rights Award 2015 with a represenative of nominating IMC Member. Archives IMC.
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MUSic and diplomacy A plea for equality and cultural diversity
Violinist Yehudi Menuhin, pianist Wilhelm Kempff and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich giving a concert on the occasion of the IMC 25th anniversary. Paris, Salle Pleyel, 9 January 1974. Credits: UNESCO / Dominique Roger.
Violonist and IMC President Yehudi Menuhin in front of an Indian musician during a concert organised by the IMC at UNESCO for the Musicians’ International Mutual Aid Fund. Paris, UNESCO Headquarters, January 26, 1976. Credits: UNESCO / Michel Claude.
"But the 'mental revolution' generated in several countries of the world is, in my opinion, its most marvelous achievement from a qualitative point of view. Within the IMC, all the musical traditions of the world are equal and their preservation, safeguarding and development, by those who are aware of the artistic value of their own culture and open to the culture of others, are constantly encouraged and supported by the Council, which promotes mutual understanding and the respect of all musical traditions, the gathering of peoples, and which removed the inferiority complex among Asian and African musicians and the superiority complex among Western musicians." Trân Vân Khê, 1989
At the heart of the Cold War "It is by deliberately ignoring the political divisions between States and the often arbitrary limits or borders they have created that the IMC can best serve the cause of international understanding." Jack Bornoff, 1978 The Cold War, which quickly spread to the arts, complicated IMC’s task to bring together peoples through music, but it did not undermine the reconciliation efforts of the two blocks. The IMC institutionalized a musical dialogue between the East and the West, allowing, during the rostrums of composers and performers, festivals and symposiums organised under its auspices, the free movement of musicians, works and musical knowledge beyond the Iron Curtain. It also offered a political arena to personalities committed to the defense of basic freedoms. Under the presidency of Yehudi Menuhin (1969-1975), the Council was actively engaged in the defense of human rights. In 1971, the violinist gave a speech on the occasion of the seventh Congress of the IMC in Moscow, in which he boldly expressed his support to dissident artists and condemned the weight of censorship in the Eastern block. At the price of a true show of strength with the Soviet authorities, he then managed to invite dissident musicians, first and foremost, Mstislav Rostropovich, to concerts organised by the IMC in the West. Refusing to bow to national interests and to the bipolar order, the Council engaged in an unprecedented exercise of non-governmental musical diplomacy, which contributed to a certain “cultural détente”.
Ravi Shankar playing the sitar at the East-West musical evening organised by the International Music Council on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of UNESCO. Paris, UNESCO Headquarters, 2 November 1966. Credits: UNESCO / Claude Bablin.
In 70 years of existence, the IMC has kept on restating the principle of equality between cultures by setting the conditions for an East / West and North / South dialogue. In the midst of decolonization, UNESCO launched its programme "Mutual Appreciation of the Cultural Values of the East and the West" (1957-1963). In this context, Alain Daniélou, famous specialist of India, was appointed adviser to the IMC regarding issues related to oriental music. This was a turning point in the policy of the organisation now working for the equality between musical cultures. The musical evening Boulez-Shankar, which took place in 1958 as part of the Paris International Musical Weeks, organised by the IMC, was a perfect illustration of the "mental revolution" mentionned by musicologist Trân Vân Khê. (6) That same year, a symposium was held in Paris on "The Universe of Music and its Various Cultures", bringing together specialists from all over the world to try and identify elements common to both Eastern and Western music and their peculiarities. The safeguard of the heritage and the hybridization of many repertoires were at the center of the Tehran congress in 1961. Five years later, eminent personalities of the musical world gathered for a roundtable, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of UNESCO, to discuss mutual influences between Eastern and Western cultures in the field of music: Yehudi Menuhin, Alain Daniélou, Nicolas Nabokov, Ravi Shankar, Pierre Schaeffer and Trân Vân Khê. (7) In 1979, the musicologist - and future president of the IMC - Barry S. Brook, became in charge of a world music encyclopaedia project on music (and not only Western music): “The Music in the Life of Men" programme was launched and became thereafter "The Universe of music: A History".
"Asia has attributed the utmost signification to the organization of intervals, and with a unique sensitivity [...] The precision in the organization of rhytmic structures also interests me. It is very great in the music of India and Bali. [...] Any study of the various languages is positive in so far as it has the power to exert a fructifying influence and is transcended." VII Congress o f the IMC in Moscow, 1971. Credit : Союз композиторов СССР.
Pierre Boulez, The World of Music, 2/1967 In order to respond to the urgency of preserving the musical traditions threatened by Westernization, IMC also organised regional music rostrums in Asia (ASMR, 1969-1993) in Africa (AFMR, 1970-1992 / 2014), in Latin America (TRIMALCA, 1979-2004) and in the Arab World (AMR, 1990-1999), during which radio organisations selected the best musical pieces and undertook to disseminate them. At the end of the century, regional secretariats were replaced by regional councils with greater political autonomy, such as the Music Council of the Three Americas (1995) and the African Music Council in 2007 (whose current president, Lupwishi Mbuyamba, has played a significant role in affirming African musical culture). These entities have become necessary to cope with the changes in musical activity in a context of globalization.
«Music of the centuries». Special issue of The Unesco Courrier, June 1973.
African music highlighted in The World of Music, January-February 1966. Masked figure (music of the Dan).
Promoting Contemporary music From the early 1950s, the International Music Council sought to arouse the audience’s interest in contemporary music by using various means of mediation. Concerts and festivals are organised in its name such as the famous Paris International Musical Weeks. With the revolution of the microgroove record, the IMC launched several record collections including a Panorama of musique concrète with musical pieces by Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, a serial music record from a concert by the Domaine Musical (works by Anton Webern, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez). Compositions by Goffredo Petrassi, Henri Dutilleux and Olivier Messiaen were also edited as well as Spanish and German contemporary music anthologies.
The Paris International Musical Weeks "A broad and generous formula that excludes no tendency or country, and which avoids as much the Scylla of the festival-type with its programs rehashed as the Charybdis festival-laboratory with its esotericism sectarianism."
In the mind of one of its strongest supporters, Jack Bornoff, then Executive Secretary of the IMC, the creation of the Paris International Musical Weeks in 1958 had to "strike a blow for music in Paris" and offer a wide overview of contemporary music, from traditionalist to neo-romantic, neo-nationalist, neo-medieval or even neo-serial, through electronic and concrete music. This avant-garde event had three goals: to support contemporary composers, to highlight the International Music Council’s work and the activities of some of its member organisations, and to contribute to UNESCO's East-West programme. The Paris International Musical Weeks have hosted renowned soloists such as Isaac Stern, Ravi Shankar, Lili Kraus, Nadia Boulanger, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Mstislav Rostropovitch, prestigious ensembles such as the Juilliard Quartet and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin and Vienna, as well as conductors such as Rafael Kubelik, Guennadi Rozhdestvensky, Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, introduced to the Parisian audience for the very first time on this occasion. It later gave birth to the Paris Autumn Festival in 1972.
Jack Bornoff, 1960
Brochure of the Paris International Musical Weeks 1962. IMC Archives.
The International Rostrum of Composers
Four Hindu poems by Maurice Delage and Second String Quartet by Camargo Guarnieri, recorded under the auspices of the IMC, 1952.
The most emblematic achievement of the Council is the International Rostrum of Composers, launched in 1954 by Jack Bornoff, in collaboration with the French broadcasting and television network, the Hessischer Rundfunk (Germany), the Belgian National Broadcasting Institute and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, still active today. Its main objective was to involve broadcasting organisations in order to facilitate the dissemination and airing of contemporary music works previously selected by the organisations. But the goal was also to help young composers launch their careers. This initiative introduced the audience to works that have become part of the classical repertoire including the Symphony No.1 by Henri Dutilleux and "Chamber Music" by Luciano Berio (1955), Symphony No.3 by Hans Werner Henze (1956), the Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima by Krzysztof Penderecki and the String Quartet No.2 by Elliott Carter (1961), España en el corazón by Luigi Nono (1962) and Lontano by György Ligeti (1969).
The logo of the International Rostrum of Composers.
"IMC has undertaken wide-ranging activities that strive to freedom of expression in the field of artistic creation. As a result, the field of music of our time has been given a strong impetus – as witnessed for example by the emergence of a new generation of composers in Poland who now stand at the forefront of the contemporary movement and have considerable influence at the international level.” Henri Dutilleux, 2009
Canti du Prigiona by Luigi Dallapicola recorded by the choir and orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the direction of Igor Markevich. Disc edited under the auspices of the IMC, 1953.
Panorama de la musique concrète, disc edited under the auspices of the IMC in 1958.
Over the years, the IRC has retained its prestige: for the last 30 years the works of renowned composers have been auditioned such as Philippe Hersant and Carlos Roque-Alsina (1991), Philippe Manoury and Gerard Pesson (1993), Thomas Ades and Paweł Szymański (1994), Péter Eötvös (1997), Bruno Mantovani (2001), Thierry Pécou (2004) and more recently Agata Zubel (2013) and Oscar Bianchi (2016). The list of selected and recommended works testifies to the great stylistic openness of the Rostrum, where the works of electroacoustic music were welcome, before the IMC created a separate Rostrum dedicated to electroacoustic music between 1984 and 2008, which was a great success. Currently, more than 30 national radio networks from all four continents participate in the IRC and around 60 works are presented every year. Between 2015 and 2018, the Rostrum was part of a European Union-funded programme, Rostrum +, which aimed to rethink the ways in which contemporary music connects with audiences through radio network. At the heart of this vast laboratory, three higher music education institutions, three national public radios, two cultural venues and one European cultural network partnered with IMC to organise a series of activities aimed at enhancing the capacity of radio professionals, offering a springboard and a visibility to emerging composers, increasing contemporary music education in conservatories and bringing the general public closer to this repertoire.
Delegates reading scores during the International Rostrum of Composers in 1965. Paris, UNESCO Headquarters. Credits: IMC.
Pierre Colombo, chair of the jury of the International Rostrum of Composers, surrounded by a few delegates from broadcasting organisations, in 1958. Paris, UNESCO Headquarters. Credits: IMC.
International Rostrum of Composers 2016 in Wroclaw. Credit: Lukasz Rajchert.
PRESERVING traditional MUSIC "It is at the height of their singularity that the masterpieces of a culture cross borders and create equality, that of genius, between peoples. Compromises, which tend towards uniformity, do not create mutual esteem and tend to destroy forms of art; elaborated throughout the centuries, which remain the sources of the future." Alain Daniélou, Into the Labyrinth, 1989 At a time when traditional music seems to be at risk of extinction, recording appeared to be a solution to keep a trace of this priceless heritage and introduce it to the world. We owe the creation of the famous IMC / UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music of the World in the early 1960s to the specialist of India: Alain Daniélou, founder of the International Institutes for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation in Berlin (1963) and Venice (1969) - born thanks to the efforts of the IMC. This set of 130 albums is divided into five collections: A Musical Anthology of the Orient, An Anthology of African Music, An Anthology of North Indian Classical Music, Musical Atlas, Musical Sources, a reference from an ethnological and musical viewpoint. Renowned ethnomusicologists have recorded the greatest performers of traditional music for the sake of rehabilitation and dissemination to Western audiences.
"We do not know what to listen to anymore, between the strange borborygmic duos of the Eskimos of Canada, the astonishing incantations to the rain of the aborigines of Australia, the enthusiastic rhythms of the pearl fishermen of Bahrain and the singing poetry of Yemeni Jews. Each new piece is a revelation, an open door on the unheard of."
Alain Daniélou, specialist of India and director of the Collection of Traditional Music of the World (IMC / UNESCO), playing the Northern Vina. Rome, 1981. Credits: Jacques Cloarec.
Le Nouvel Observateur, March 13, 1979
Orient-Afrika UNESCO Collection. Brochure of the Bärenreiter-Musicaphon label.
Musical Sources UNESCO collection. Brochure edited by Philips.
The Musical Sources collection played a significant role in the research of many Western composers like Steve Reich or György Ligeti who were inspired by the Aka Pygmy Music and Banda Polyphonies recorded by Simha Arom.
"But, listening to these musics, we will have learned that the sounds are organised not only with heights and durations, that the Klangfarbenmelodie (melody of the timbres) was not invented by the Viennese school, that the polyphony was not invented at the same time as the towers of Notre-Dame de Paris were built, that there are entire families of instruments, infinites of vocal techniques unknown to us, in short that music is not ours alone."
Performance by the artists of the Bahrain State, pearl divers, on the occasion of the publication of the hundredth album of the IMC / UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music. Credits: UNESCO / Marcel Salvaro.
Maurice Fleuret, Panorama de la musique des instruments, 12/1976
UNESCO Collection MUSICAL SOURCES -Banda Polyphony recorded by Simha Arom.
Sketch of a concerto for violin and orchestra by György Ligeti dedicated to Simah Arom. Photo: Sarah Blum.
“In autumn 1982, a former student of mine, the Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra, brought to my attention a collection of instrument and vocal music of the Banda-Linda tribe from the Central African Republic, recorded by Simha Arom. […] Having never before heard anything quite like it, I listened to it repeatedly and was then, as I still am, deeply impressed by this marvelous polyphonic, polyrhythmic music with its astonishing complexity.” György Ligeti, 1991
Iranian Kamantché player Asdullah Malek hits the headlines of The World of Music in February 1960. (Photo: Raymond Burnier).
The World of Music was the signature magazine of the International Music Council. This periodical underwent several changes since the release of its first issue in 1957. While its role was initially to relay the main events of the music world as well as the activities of the IMC and its members, it turned out to be much more than just a simple magazine. Interviews of famous musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin or Igor Stravinski were included in the first issues of the magazine. Subsequently, the journal became trilingual (English / French / German). Published by the Institute for Comparative Music Studies in Berlin since 1967, WOM became the ethnomusicologists’ preferred platform to disseminate their work, including Trân Vân Khê ("Eastern Music, Western Music", 1966), Alain Daniélou ("Cultural Genocide", 1969) and Alan Lomax ("Appeal for Cultural Equality", 1972). This academic turning point was underlined when the magazine became exclusively devoted to traditional music in 1975. It went on publishing the IMC News Bulletin, the last of which was published in 1988. The RESONANCE magazine then took over until 2003.
Supporting young voices
The International Music Council never ceased to show interest in youth. Education is at the heart of IMC’s agenda, with the creation after its first international conference in 1953, of the International Society for Music Education (ISME). On this occasion, the Cantique de l'Espérance by Paul Hindemith was commissioned with a text by Paul Claudel. Subsequently, education was a recurring theme during IMC meetings, which has been actively defending since the 2000s a diversified musical education for all, a principle highlighted in its Five Music Rights.
The objective of music education, as I see it, should be, rather than pounding “knowledge” of established facts and forms, biographies and musical patterns into the minds of young people, or making them recognize a certain repertoire of unquestionable masterpieces, to stimulate and develop their interest in a wide variety of musics; […] to help them deal with the so far unheard, to explore the world of musics. Instead to easily fall back on the habitual, the already familiar, the fast food in music, children should be conditioned to accept and even find intellectual and emotional satisfaction in new experience, grappling with what appears strange and abnormal. Michael Jenne, The World of Music, 1/1986
Two fund-raising concerts for the Musicians International Mutual Aid Fund at Salle Pleyel, Paris, January 26 and 27, 1976.
For the 25th anniversary of the IMC in 1974, the Musicians’ International Mutual Aid Fund (MIMAF) was created to financially help young musicians launch their careers. On this occasion, two concerts of anthology were organised, and the second one, bringing together great performers such as Wilhelm Kempff, Mstislav Rostropovich, Régine Crespin and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, went described as the "concert of the century". The Council also provided support to young musicians by organising an International Rostrum for Young Performers (IRYP) in Bratislava as of 1969, which introduced pianists such as Catherine Collard, Andrei Gavrilov, Cyprien Katsaris, Mikhail Pletnev as well as violinist Emanuel Krivine and violist Tabea Zimmermann to the general public. In an effort to overcome generational barriers and give young people a voice, IMC created the Youth Advisory Group (YAG) in 2009 and launched in 2011, during the 4th World Forum on Music in Tallinn "Music Empowers Global Youth" (MEGY), a project to facilitate partnerships between youth and music organisations.
Cover of the record of the winners of the International Rostrum for Young Performers, 1985. !
Children discover traditional instruments in the Sound Gallery of the Museum of Modern Art, with Yehudi Menuhin. Paris, 7 January 1974. Credits: UNESCO / Dominique Roger.
Cover of the record of the winners of the International Rostrum for Young Performers, 1985.
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Youth participants at the 4th IMC World Forum on Music in Tallin in 2011.
Young musician congratulated by Yehudi Menuhin and Jack Bornoff, at the end of the International Rostrum for Young Performers, 1970.