Pro Musica Nova was a biennial festival for contemporary music sponsored by Radio Bremen from 1958 to 2001. It was founded by

Hans Otte Hans Günther Franz Otte (3 December 1926, Plauen – 25 December 2007, Bremen) was a German composer, pianist, radio promoter, and author of many pieces of musical theatre, sound installations, poems, drawings, and art videos. From 1959 to 198 ...

. A number of experimental and electronic composers contributed.

History

From 1960 it was held in alternate years to the Pro Musica Antiqua festival of the same radio station, which also ceased in 2001. The two festivals took their name from Pro Musica Antiqua founded by Safford Cape in the 1930s which had influenced the creation of Archiv Produktion by Deutsche Grammophon. Pro Musica Nova introduced the public to the music of composers including Karlheinz Stockhausen,

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti, Terry Riley,

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best kno ...

, Conlon Nancarrow and Hans-Joachim Hespos. Otte also commissioned many new works for the festival.

Kerala J. Snyder Kerala Johnson Snyder is an American musicologist and educator. She is Professor Emerita of Musicology and Affiliate Faculty of Organ, Sacred Music and Historical Keyboards at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. She previously ta ...

''The Organ As a Mirror of Its Time'' University of Rochester Professor Emerita of Musicology at The Eastman School of Music - 2002 Page 312 "When Hans Otte, then head of the contemporary music department of Radio Bremen, asked Ligeti and Hambraeus to contribute new organ works for a concert to take place in 1962 as part of the Radio Bremen series pro musica nova, they .."

History

References

See also