One of the central objectives of the Konrad Boehmer Foundation (KBF) is to care for the (material) legacy of the foundation’s namesake, the composer and music critic Konrad Boehmer. Making an inventory of this legacy, together with its digitalisation, archiving and availability, entails problems which are by no means unique, and this is also true of various ethical questions. The same issues naturally arise at other institutions that manage such collections. Perhaps the most important and recurrent question is: how do we maintain these archival collections now that the general public seems to be increasingly distant from the terrain of “classical” music.

Representatives of archival institutions throughout Europe take part in the symposium Contemporary Music Heritage with the purpose of exchanging their views, also implying the wish that their organisations establish and maintain mutual contact, in order to take advantage of each other’s expertise.

A number of questions will be addressed concerning archival policies and also practical and managing aspects of the institutions’ actions, such as: motivations for collecting and maintaining the archives of composers and creative musicians with respect to scholarly work and musical life in general; strategies and priorities in digitisation of the collections; expanding and/or preserving the identity of a given archival collection; intermediality and dealing with legacies that include different kinds of documents (e.g. audiovisual media vs. manuscripts); preserving/restoring the heritage of historical electroacoustic music; managing an archive with respect to the different skills required, like musicology, librarianship, and sound engineering; guaranteeing the long-term continuity of the institutions and their collections.

The symposium is also offering two concerts whose programmes include pieces of instrumental, vocal and electroacoustic music within a repertoire connected with the topics of the sessions and discussions.

Programme:

Concert 13 December 2022, Conservatoriumzaal, 19:30

Bruno Maderna (1920–1973)
Musica su due dimensioni for flute and tape (1952/1958)
Jana Machalett, flute
Veniero Rizzardi, sound projection

Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001)
Hibiki hana ma for 8-channel tape (1969)
Kees Tazelaar, re-spatialization and sound projection

Ton de Leeuw (1926–1996)
Antiphonie for wind quintet and tape (1960)
Sarah Ouakrat, flute
Juan Esteban Mendoza, oboe
James Meldrum, clarinet
Amber Mallee, bassoon
Jan Harshagen, horn
Hilde Wollenstein, sound projection

Beatriz Ferreyra (*1937)
Médisances for 4-channel tape (1968–9)
Siamak Anvari, sound projection

Luciano Berio (1925–2003)
Altra voce for alto flute, mezzo-soprano and live electronics (1999)
Jana Machalett, flute
Petra Ehrismann, mezzo-soprano
Marco Accardi and Riccardo Ancona, electronics

Dick Raaijmakers (1930–2013)
Mao leve! for tape and slides (1977)
Johan van Kreij and Kees Tazelaar, digital reconstruction and sound projection

Symposium 14 December 2022, New Music Lab

10:00 –Session 1 – Veniero Rizzardi, chair

Frits Zwart (Konrad Boehmer Foundation and Stichting Nederlands Muziek Instituut)
“Why all these efforts?” The relevance of musical heritage.

Therese Muxeneder (Arnold Schönberg Center, Vienna)
(Re)constructing the (Un)authentic. Process-related collection strategies.

Chris Walton (Hochschule der Künste, Bern)
Problems of collecting, archiving, cataloguing and making accessible composers’ archives in Africa.

Pierluigi Ledda (Archivio Storico Ricordi, Milan)
The living archive. Management and communication strategies.

Philomeen Lelieveldt (Haags Gemeente Archief / Nederlands Muziek Instituut)
Sounding the Archives. Storytelling through Podcasts

14:00 – Session 2 – Kees Tazelaar, chair

Veniero Rizzardi (Università Ca’ Foscari and Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono, Venice)
Networks for research and dissemination. A contemporary archive in Venice.

Angela Ida De Benedictis (Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel and Centro Studi Luciano Berio, Florence)
Glass-walled archives: on some multimedia projects for extended uses of archival materials.

Makis Solomos and Mâhki Xenakis (Paris)
The Iannis Xenakis Archive.

15:30 – Session 3 – Chris Walton, chair

Daniel Teruggi (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, Paris)
Preserving the complexity of contemporary music

Folkmar Hein (International Documentation of Electroacoustic Music EMDoku, Berlin)
Statistics on Electroacoustic Music

Kees Tazelaar (Institute of Sonology and Konrad Boehmer Foundation)
“We don’t have authentic ears”. Considerations of authenticity in the reconstruction of electronic music.

Concert 14 December 2022, Conservatoriumzaal, 19:30

György Ligeti (1923–2006)
Pièce électronique no.3 for 4-channel tape (1957)
Paul Berg, Johan van Kreij and Kees Tazelaar, digital reconstruction (1996)

Konrad Boehmer (1941–2014)
Potential for piano (1961, new version no.1 by Nora Mulder)
Nora Mulder, piano

Jan Boerman (1923–2020)
Kompositie 1972 for 8-channel tape (1972)
Kees Tazelaar, multichannel version and sound projection

Konrad Boehmer (1941–2014)
Potential for piano (1961, new version no.2 by Nora Mulder)
Nora Mulder, piano

Henk Badings (1907–1987)
Capriccio for violin and tape (1959)
Leslee Smucker, violin
Kees Tazelaar, tape restauration
Siamak Anvari, sound projection

Gottfried Michael Koenig (1926–2021)
Klangfiguren II for 4-channel tape (1955–6)
Kees Tazelaar, reconstruction and sound projection

Tera de Marez Oyens (1932–1996)
Charon’s Gift for piano and tape (1982)
Akane Takada, piano
Yota Morimoto, sound projection

Luigi Nono (1924–1990)
La fabbrica illuminata for soprano and 4-channel tape (1964)
acousmatic version with projection of archival materials
Veniero Rizzardi, sound projection

Download the full Symposium and Concert programme