New Music Festivals as Agorai: Their Formation and Impact

The project`s thesis, that new music festivals strongly influenced the development of new music and related public cultural practices in the past decades, would have to be proven by the planned survey, which closely reflects the complex structure and content of the festivals` settings. Its starting point would be the increased public interest in new music from about 2000, which can be traced back to impulses from the 1980s. After some decades of occupying a defensive niche-status, the radius of this music scene`s impact expanded, as can be observed in the open and active forums of European Avantgarde-music festivals, which, beginning in the 1980s, led to the establishment of numerous additional new music festivals and ensembles. Festivals in three different European states and language regions-with careful attention paid to include the East European sphere-will be the focus: "Warsaw Autumn" (Poland, first festival in 1956) is arguably the most important and international of the Eastern European festivals. It existed even before Solidarnosc and the fall of the iron curtain in 1989. The other two festivals are "Festival d`Automne" in Paris (France, first festival in 1972, including contemporary theater, dance and new music), and "Wien Modern" (Austria, first festival in 1988). Their size, internal structure, and metropolitan status gives each of the three festivals an institutional character, and with that, a particular importance. New music festivals have become a significant part of the music industry, which includes festival tourism. They mirror the open "postmodern" Zeitgeist, which goes beyond old cultural barriers. Pluralistic aesthetic and interdisciplinary openings correspond with increased interest in alternative concert formats and professionalization of management and public relations, media, audience reference, and music mediation/education concepts. An important part of their success comes from the festivals` agents, especially their curators, composers, and performers, whose interaction has not yet been analyzed, but who would be researched as part of this project in biographical sample portraits. This study would be the first in Musicology to pursue the topic using a methodically complex and multidimensional survey. It would not only capture the international scene of new art music for the first time transnationally, but could also, starting from Austria, become a mediator between national cultures of music research. The concepts of "cultural turns" provide an initial basis, as they have opened up flexible space for interdisciplinary and intercultural activities and given a context for understanding music as practice, which is an important emphasis in the project. The spectrum of the project`s approaches ranges from exploratory documentary archival work (database) through the sociology of music (quantitative polls, qualitative interviews, and participatory observations) and historiographic approaches including cross sections, biographical access to specific agents, and music analysis of representative "works", to the analysis of activities in music mediation/education and management. The comprehensive project intends to include the creation of a website, a public database, an international symposium with (among others) scholars, curators and artists, as well as the production of a final multimedia publication. All three festivals indicated their support of the project in written form, and expect, as does the project applicant, sustainable positive dissemination effects.

This research project investigated the development history of contemporary (art) music since ca. 1980 exemplified by three large festivals of contemporary (art) music in Paris, Vienna, and Warsaw. It is based on the understanding of music as cultural practice. Festivals in these capitals of three European states and language regions - with careful attention paid to include the East European sphere - will be the focus. Warsaw Autumn (Poland, since 1956) is arguably the most important and international of the Eastern European festivals. It existed even before Solidarnosc and the fall of the iron curtain in 1989. The other two festivals are Festival dAutomne in Paris (France, since 1972, including contemporary theater, dance and new music), and Wien Modern (Austria, since 1988). Their size, internal structure, and metropolitan status give each of the three festivals an institutional character, and with that, a particular importance. Western Europe holds a special status worldwide with its extensive number of activities in contemporary (art) music. Many indications affirm the increased public interest in new music from about 2000, which can be traced back to impulses from the 1980s. Meanwhile, such festivals have become open and active forums that are a significant part of the music industry, which includes festival tourism. Their range has been extended aesthetically so that they noticeably mirror the open and creativity-oriented Zeitgeist of the culture-oriented city, which also goes beyond old cultural barriers. Pluralistic aesthetic and interdisciplinary openings correspond with increased interest in alternative concert formats and professionalization of management and public relations, media, audience reference, and music mediation/education concepts. An important part of their success comes from the festivals agents, especially their curators, composers, and performers, whose interaction has been analyzed in biographical sample portraits. This study claims to be the first in musicology to pursue this topic using a methodologically complex and multidimensional approach. It captures the internationalespecially the Europeanscene of new (art) music transnationally for the first time and mediates, starting from Austria, between national cultures of music research and its neighboring disciplines. An essential component is the large and detailed audience survey from the fall of 2014 with more than 1500 completed questionnaires. The research results have been made publicly available in various international conferences and articles. A final online publication (open access) is in preparation.