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‘There is Music in It, But It is Not Music’: A Reception History of Musique Concrète in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2018

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Abstract

The traditional narrative of the development of musique concrète and elektronische Musik tells a story of esoteric, academic branches of musical modernism emerging out of Paris and Cologne in the 1950s. But this narrative clouds our understanding of the unique ways this music developed in Britain, largely filtered through the BBC, as a relatively populist, accessible iteration of Continental techniques. This article explores how British reactions to contemporary music and, in particular, musique concrète and elektronische Musik, reflected on the one hand continued suspicion towards Continental music and on the other a deep insecurity about Britain's musical position in the world. The predominantly hostile attitude towards electronic music from within establishment musical cultures betray profound concerns about trends that were seen to exert a harmful influence on British musical society.

Type
Articles
Information
Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 211 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2018 

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