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wanted to work with new music. The circle of very capable
musicians who for little or no remuneration carried the young
Icelandic avant-garde on its shoulders, included the pianist
Gfsli Magnusson, the cellist Petur Porvaldsson, the singer
GuSrun Tomasdottir, and the organist and conductor Ragnar
Bjomsson (cathedral organist from 1968), as well as the
previously mentioned musicians and of course the composers
themselves.
Interest in concerts that promoted only new music declined
after a time, however. The generation of young musicians
was also keen to play new music at ordinary concerts and
Icelandic orchestral music was played more frequently by the
symphony orchestra. The need for Musica Nova declined and
the organization faded away towards the end of the 1960’s (to
be reformed in 1982). One of the most likely causes for this
decline was that the symphony orchestra to a greater extent
became a forum for new music. For the greater part of the
1960’s the orchestra was led by the Polish conductor Bohdan
Wodizcko. He regarded it as self-evident that an Icelandic
symphony orchestra should perform Icelandic orchestral
music and was an eager supporter of its place in concert pro-
grammes. He urged young composers to compose new works
for orchestra and kept in close contact with them during the
actual work of composition. One speaks today of this time as
a golden era for new Icelandic orchestral music.
Among the most significant results of the Musica Nova
epoch during the 1960’s was that new music and the creation
of new music became a part of the musical life of Iceland.
Institutions, authorities and the general public became aware
of the fact that young musicians and composers existed in the
country. Because of the country’s insufficient resources for
education, most of these composers and musicians had been
compelled to travel abroad for their higher education. This
meant that on their return home they carried with them a
stream of different styles, traditions and impulses from the
different comers of the world.
Iceland, however, remained a musically underdeveloped
land in many respects despite the expansion of the 1960’s. It
is true that a music publishing firm, Musica Islandica, was
started in 1962 with financial aid from the Icelandic Cultural
Fund. During a period of four years, twenty-five Icelandic
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