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Musical Modernism and its Art Worlds [CONFERENCE]
Musical Modernism and its Art Worlds
Organized By
Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, Lucca
IAM – Italian Institute for Applied Musicology
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International Virtual Conference
06-08 June 2025
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Keynote speakers
Martin Iddon (University of Leeds)
Sarah Collins (The University of Western Australia)
Please find more information about the conference, including the program, here.
Lucy Abrams-Husso (Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki),
Paper: The Institutionalization of Contemporary Music Practices in America’s Major Orchestras from 1960-1980
Abstract:
Existing literature regarding the institutionalization of serial, modern, and experimental musical styles in American cultural life has focused predominantly on the role of academic and government-led institutions. There is significantly less research on the role of the nation’s leading orchestras. My initial research into the role of orchestral institutions focused on the institutionalization of ‘uptown’ music practices (those that are in the tradition of European modernism and serialism) in the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall between 1960 and 1975. This research indicated that while contemporary music practices in New York City were more pluralistic in the 1960s than previous studies of Cold War era music practices have implied, important changes occurred through the 1970s that can still be felt in American orchestral programming practices today.
In this paper, I broaden my investigation into the role of orchestras in institutionalizing modern music by looking at the programming practices of the major orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles during this time period. Current study of contemporary music programming indicates that important regional differences in programming practices exist amongst the major orchestras of the US. This study examines whether similar regional differences existed historically, and what those differences were. This paper also investigates whether the changes that occurred from 1960 to 1975 in orchestral practices in New York City can be observed in the programming practices of other major orchestras in the United States between 1960 and 1980.