Page 264 - 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
Musicians was the only professional society in the country that was a mem-
ber of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) as well as
the International Society for Music Education (ISME), responsible for the
international networks of music libraries and music information centres.
Let us not go back to the 1950s, when the composers’ department of
the AHM had a yearly plenary meeting in which composers criticised each
other’s works, sometimes in a rather unsophisticated manner, especially
when there was a political motive behind the critical opinion – and aesthet-
ics were easily influenced by politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, there
was a much more open-minded atmosphere in and around the association,
and there were no serious struggles between musicians and the political au-
thorities. István Láng was the General Secretary of the AHM from 1978 to
1989, when the association terminated its activity, and was himself an inter-
nationally renowned composer and a member of the Executive Committee
1
of the ISCM for several years. Once it happened that two important figures
in the musical life of Hungary reported the New Music Studio – which in-
2
cluded composers such as Jeney, Vidovszky and László Sáry – to the cul-
tural leader of the Communist Party, György Aczél. Aczél called Láng, and
after Láng made one comment in favour of the Studio, Aczél replied that
he could do whatever he wanted to, thus giving him official permission
from the Party. However, the New Music Studio officially worked within
the framework of the Communist Youth Organisation, although none of
the members was a member of the Party. So the funding for the Studio’s
concerts and experiments came from very official sources. I just mention
this to draw attention to the peaceful relationship between the authorities
and musicians at that time.
But 1989 and a new system were approaching. In 1987, the first step to-
wards new forms of organisation was made by the composer Zsolt Durkó
and some other outstanding musicians, including instrumentalists, and

1 Antal Boronkay and Rachel Beckles Willson, “Láng, István,” Grove Music On-
line, 2001, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.15963. See also: Péter
Halász, “Láng, István,” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine En-
zyklopädie der Musik, 2 rev. ed., ed. Ludwig Finscher, Personenteil 10: Kem–Ler
nd
(Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2003), 1155.
2 Josef Csikota, Development of Musical Culture in Hungary in the 20th Century, Ad-
vances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 171, At-
lantis Press, p. 27. (pošiljam povezavo do prispevka: https://www.researchgate.net
/publication/322479166_Development_of_Musical_Culture_in_Hungary_in_the
_20th_Century)

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