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THE CASE FOR A BRITISH DARMSTADT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2015

Neil Thomas Smith
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Abstract

The problematic relationship between UK composers and the Darmstadt Summer Courses is well known. Christopher Fox, Björn Heile and Martin Iddon among others have discussed why this platform for discussion and ideological conflict has not been to this country's taste. This article argues, however, that just such an event organised in the UK would enliven and enrich contemporary music making through increased knowledge exchange and collaboration. After exploring how Darmstadt operates within Germany, and its perception in the UK, a concluding tentative sketch will be made of how such a British Darmstadt might begin, and the benefits it would bring.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 69 , Issue 274 , October 2015 , pp. 50 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

1 Fox, Christopher, ‘British Music at Darmstadt 1982–1992’, TEMPO, No. 168 (1993), pp. 21–5, here p. 22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 See Fox, ‘British Music at Darmstadt’.

3 Heile, Björn, ‘Darmstadt as Other: British and American Responses to Musical Modernism’, Twentieth Century Music, 1 (2004), pp. 161–78, here p. 170CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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6 See Heile, ‘Darmstadt as Other’.

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12 Fox, ‘British Music at Darmstadt’, p. 24.

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14 Fox, ‘British Music at Darmstadt’, p. 25.

15 Examples include, but are by no means restricted to, his interviews on BBC Radio with Tom Service and Samira Ahmed, as well as his short residency at Birmingham conservatoire in November 2014.

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