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Sep. 2021 New-Music Internationalism: The ISCM Festival, 1922–1939 Giles Masters PhD King’s College London 2021 Contents Abstract 3 List of Figures 4 Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 8 Chapter 1 43 Looking Backward: Trauma, Nostalgia and Ageing Chapter 2 74 Music and the New: The Iron Foundry and Mimetic Mechanicity Chapter 3 110 Patchwork Internationalism: Festival-Making and National Heritage Chapter 4 143 A ‘Musical League of Nations’: Musician-Diplomats in Times of Crisis Epilogue 178 Appendix 1 188 Itinerary of the 1931 ISCM Festival, Oxford and London Appendix 2 192 Musica antica italiana at the 1928 ISCM Festival, Siena Bibliography 193 2 Abstract This thesis examines the conjuncture of modernism and internationalism in European musical culture. Its focus is the festivals organised in the 1920s and 30s by the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). Sometimes referred to at the time as the ‘musical League of Nations’, the ISCM was the most high-profile of the internationalist musical initiatives launched in Europe after the First World War. Its annual festival provides an unrivalled lens through which to observe shifting attitudes and approaches to the imagined symbiosis of the ‘contemporary’ and the ‘international’. Taking a cue from cross-disciplinary efforts to reappraise interwar internationalisms (long overshadowed by the two world wars), I explore how the ideas and practices of these movements were remoulded by actors at the margins of international politics, and interrogate the enduring assumption that the moral or political value of music anointed as ‘new’ is manifest in its association with internationalism. The Introduction situates the ISCM’s founding in the larger histories of new music and internationalism. Chapter One describes how Edward J. Dent, the ISCM’s first president, remembered the organisation’s early years; his nostalgia illuminates new-music internationalism as an affective and ethical project. Chapter Two reassesses interwar machine aesthetics by examining the intensive dissemination of Alexander Mosolov’s Iron Foundry, following the work’s performance at the 1930 ISCM festival in Liège. Chapter Three takes the surprising prominence of early music at ISCM gatherings as a starting point for investigating early twentieth-century conceptions of the relationship between national heritage and transnational affiliations. Chapter Four explores the fissures that arose within the ISCM in the mid- to late-1930s, as musicians struggled to agree on a collective response to the moral and political dilemmas presented by Europe’s geopolitical turmoil. The Epilogue surveys the ISCM’s waning prestige after 1945, a decline that brings into relief the distinctive conditions that facilitated the organisation’s unique standing in European musical life between the wars. 3 List of Figures Figure 1 14 A group of musicians at the International Chamber Music Performances in Salzburg 1922 Figure 2 51 J. Palmer Clarke, portrait photograph of Edward J. Dent (1900) Figure 3 72 Edmond Xavier Kapp, Professor E.J. Dent (1941) Figure 4 93 Programme book for the 1930 ISCM festival, p. 80 Figure 5 100 Programme for the third performance of The Spirit of the Factory at the Hollywood Bowl, 12 August 1932 Figure 6 101 A rehearsal for The Spirit of the Factory at the Hollywood Bowl, 1931 Figure 7 123 Programme book for the 1931 ISCM festival, cover page Figure 8 140 Programme book for the 1928 ISCM festival, inside cover Figure 9 147 The Oxford meeting of the ISCM’s General Assembly, 1931 Table 1 15 ISCM festivals, 1923–1939 4 Acknowledgements 2020 has been, to say the least, a strange year in which to finish a PhD. The circumstances have lent a particular poignancy to the writing of these acknowledgements: in the last nine months, I’ve not once been in the same room as most of the people I’m about to mention. So it feels all the more important to show my appreciation in writing. I must begin by thanking Heather Wiebe, who has been an extraordinarily astute and supportive supervisor. I’ve learnt enormously from her wise counsel and the elegant precision of her thinking and writing. It’s a real pleasure to express here even just a fraction of my gratitude for her generosity, patience and care. I feel very lucky indeed that in my two stints as a Teaching Assistant I worked with Roger Parker and Flora Willson. Both went far beyond the call of duty to take me under their wings. Roger inculcated in me something of his ruthlessness in decluttering prose (although I still have a long way to go). Flora encouraged me to aspire for sharper and bolder ideas, and recruited me for various side hustles. Perhaps most importantly, their faith in me helped me keep believing that I could complete this project and that to do so would be worthwhile. With mentors such as these, it has been a privilege to be associated with the Department of Music at KCL. I feel very glad to have belonged to an academic community with such a strong ethos of collaboration and mutual respect across sub-disciplinary boundaries. Although some of them may not even remember it, Michael Fend, Andy Fry, Katherine Fry, Emily MacGregor, Katherine Schofield, Arman Schwartz, Martin Stokes and Gavin Williams all helped me in important ways as interlocutors, readers or administrative allies. I’m also grateful to my fellow doctoral students in the Department for their camaraderie and support, including feedback on draft chapters. Thanks especially to Cydonie Banting, Alasdair Cameron, Lewis Coenen-Rowe, Giuliano Danieli, Sue Daniels, Mez Dubois- Van Slageren, Caroline Gleason-Mercier, Susannah Knights, Nick Rheubottom, Sophia Sakellaridis Mangoura, Sacha Scott, Rhys Sparey and Chris Terepin. 5 Many scholars beyond KCL have been generous with their time and ideas. Laura Tunbridge was the first academic to whom I mentioned the idea of this project back in late 2015, an idea sparked in part by her teaching and research. I’m grateful for her continuing support. Laura put me in touch with Sarah Collins, who gave shrewd and inspiring advice. Sarah, in turn, introduced me to two other scholars whose assistance proved invaluable: Karen Arrandale taught me much about Edward J. Dent and helped me navigate his papers at the King’s College Archive Centre in Cambridge; and Astrid Kvalbein shared extensively from her own research at the ISCM Archive at the Kongelige Bibliotek in Copenhagen. I would also like to thank Melita Milin for providing information about the Serbian composers discussed in Chapter Four and Philip Bullock for his advice on Soviet music and his insightful feedback on Chapter Two. Participating in conferences and other academic events has honed my ideas and stretched my horizons. A couple of occasions warrant special mention. Alex Marsden and Joanna Helms were exemplary hosts at the KCL/University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Joint Graduate Music Student Conference in 2018, at which Annegret Fauser asked me some perceptive questions about Dent. Sarah Collins, Barbara Kelly and Laura Tunbridge invited me to speak at the conference ‘A “Musical League of Nations”: Music Institutions and the Politics of Internationalism’ held in London in 2018, and to take part in the follow-up workshop in Oxford in early 2019. I’m grateful to all the participants in these events and especially Patricia Clavin, who gave a thoughtful response to my paper in London. My doctoral studies were funded by a scholarship from KCL’s Arts and Humanities Research Institute. The Faculty of Arts and Humanities at KCL and the Royal Musical Association provided further grants to cover the expenses of research trips. Everywhere I went, I benefited enormously from the expertise and support of archivists and librarians. Hearty thanks, then, to the staff at the following institutions: in the UK, the BBC Written Archives Centre (especially Hannah Ratford), the British Library, King’s College Archive Centre (especially Patricia McGuire and Peter Monteith), the Royal College of Music Library (especially Michael Mullen) and Westminster Music Library (especially Ruth Walters); in 6 Berlin, the Akademie der Künste (especially Daniela Reinhold); in Copenhagen, the Kongelige Bibliotek (especially Axel Teich Geertinger and Claus Røllum-Larsen); in Switzerland, the Paul Sacher Stiftung (especially Simon Obert) and the Stadtbibliothek Winterthur (especially Andres Betschart); and in Vienna, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (especially Andrea Harrandt), the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (especially Gerhard Hubmann) and the library of the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (especially Katharina Krones).