Page 352 - 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
Máté Hollós
To be or not to be a civil association?
Before 1989, the Association of Hungarian Musicians was the only profes-
sional organisation for all kinds of musicianship in the country. Depart-
ments for composers, performing artists, musicologists, experts in educa-
tion as well as popular music worked on a more or less reasonable level.
Music was not a real subject of interest in politics, unlike, for instance, lit-
erature, so a relative and growing freedom could be realised from the 1970s
on. No amount of financing can ever be enough for the arts, but solid sup-
port was given for concerts, radio recordings, and publishing, with the re-
cord label financing contemporary works from its own income.
Since 1989 other music societies started to be established, and one of the
first was the Hungarian Composers’ Union (HCU). Most of these gathered
within the framework of Hungarian Music Council. The Composers’ Un-
ion did not join the Council, stating that its voice in the overall music scene
had to be louder than some of the smaller societies. In line with Hungarian
“tradition”, another umbrella organisation was soon founded, with a polit-
ical motive, called the Hungarian Music Chamber, and later renamed the
Forum of Hungarian Musicians. The HCU did not join this, either. This
independence came in useful, as when the government wanted to engage
with the Hungarian music scene its partners became the Council, the Fo-
rum and the HCU.
In the three and a half decades of civil democracy the struggle for financing
has become more and more difficult: the National Cultural Fund has de-
creased, and according to the changes in copyright law the CMOs, mainly
Artisjus, now have to finance composers’ work. At the same time, the role
of civil society has decreased in Hungary, and the governmental authorities
show no interest in contacting independent music societies.
After 35 years of the Hungarian Composers’ Union, the following question
remains open: What is our future in the coming decades?
Keywords: contemporary music scene; composers’ societies; changing
of the system in Central Europe

Luba Kijanovska
Aktivitäten der Lviver Abteilung des Komponistenverbandes der Ukrainischen SSR
in der Konfrontation mit der sowjetischen Ideologie
Im Jahr 1940, kurz nach der sowjetischen Besetzung Galiziens, wurde
die Lviver Sektion des sowjetischen Komponistenverbandes der Ukraine

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