Der Osten des Westens : Elektroakustische Musik in der Tschechoslowakei von 1948 bis 1992
| Title in English | The east of the west : the context for electroacoustic music in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1992 |
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | The historical period I have chosen, 1948-1992, may be interesting for several reasons. 1948 coincided with the communist putsch in Czechoslovakia. The official doctrine of Socialist Realism, adopted from the Soviet Union, marked a substantial setback in postwar developments. From its point of view, electroacoustic music was very suspect, representing an autonomous movement in opposition to the official doctrine. And as such it was persecuted. This detrimental change not only restricted and delayed the reception of current trends in European music, including electroacoustic music, but also obstructed their application in practice. The political isolation of Czechoslovakia produced a certain scepticism concerning even the mere acceptance of novelties coming from Darmstadt, Paris or Köln. And influences were not derived directly from these places but at second hand (for example through the Warsaw Autumn festival (Warszawska Jesien), founded in 1956, which was the only festival of New Music in the Eastern bloc). The most important impulses for founding electronic music studios in Czechoslovakia came halfway through the 1960s, with a seminar of Electronic Music held at the Czechoslovak Radio Studios in Plzeň in 1964, and especially a performance by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Prague in 1966. The activity of Czech and Slovak composers of electroacoustic music culminated about 1970, shortly before it was politically suppressed. And a second significant wave of interest by composers in electroacoustic music came surprisingly in 1992, at the time when Czechoslovakia split into two separate states. On account of these facts, we must consider politics to have been crucial in the development of electroacoustic music in Czechoslovakia. |