Page 120 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
work in recorded music, which naturally shaped their work for Hollywood
6
during the early sound era. In 1938, the American Society of Musical Ar-
rangers (ASMA) was founded in Hollywood by composers and orchestra-
tors in the movie industry, and had expanded nationwide by the mid-1940s.
This society was concerned with properly crediting the work of arrangers
7
in the context of improved recording technologies. The needs of compos-
ers who worked as arrangers in Hollywood were represented by ASMA, but
also by the AFM. 8
Outside the film industry, there were various organisations that con-
cerned themselves more generally with the work of composers: The Na-
tional Association of American Composers and Conductors (NAACC),
which was founded in 1933 by Henry K. Hadley, aimed at promoting
American music, e.g. through the organisation of concerts with music
by American composers and by fostering collaboration and mutual un-
derstanding between composers and conductors. After Hadley’s death in
1937, his wife Inez took over the organisation. In Hollywood, composers
9
frequently acted as “composer-conductors”, performing their own music.
The names of film composers such as Franz Waxman or Victor Young
appear in a list of “co-operating composers” in the NAACCS Annual Bul-
letin of 1944/45. This indicates that film composers were active in mu-
10
sical networks beyond the film industry, and thus integrated into Amer-
ican musical life.
A decade earlier than the NAACC, the League of Composers (LOC)
11
was established by Claire Reis as an alternative to the International Com-
posers Guild. The LOC intended to promote contemporary music with an
international outlook through its programming and the commissioning

6 For this development and for the continuation of the separation between live-mu-
sic and recorded sound into the twenty-first century, see: Sergi, “Organizing Sound,”
46–7 and 52–4.
7 See: Wanda Marvin, “Arrangers Want Some ‘Cake,’ Too,” Billboard, December 9,
1944, 14, 22.
8 See: AFM, Wage Scales, Hours of Employment, Working Conditions Applying to Mo-
tion Picture Work, effective April 1, 1946 [MHL, SCA Collection, Folder 9. American
Federation of Musicians].
9 On the notion of the “composer-conductor” associated with Hollywood-film music,
see: Zechner, Franz Waxman, 189–95.
10 The NAACC’s records are preserved at US-NYp.
11 For an overview of Reis’ activities in the musical life of the United States, see: Penny
Thomas, “Claire Reis: Advocate for Contemporary Music” (PhD diss., University of
Florida, 1991).

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