Contemporary Music Policy

Abstract

The classification of contemporary music as a distinct sector of cultural policy may at first appear questionable. In France as in most other countries of Western Europe, the ‘production’ and performance of contemporary ‘academic’ music are closely integrated with, and dependent on, a traditional musical infrastructure of orchestras, concert venues and teaching institutions. Moreover, the activities generally grouped together under the heading ‘contemporary music’ are highly differentiated, and range from orchestral performances to electro-acoustic or musicological research with no immediate public application. Nevertheless, it is possible to delineate a policy-making subsystem concerned with contemporary music which, in important respects, is distinct from the traditional classical music sector. First, at a purely administrative level, policy aimed both at the production and performance of new work and at supporting ‘musical research’ was, for most of the period we are considering, the responsibility of a single department of the direction de la Musique et de la Danse (DMD) of the Ministry of Culture.