IASA 2017 Annual Conference

In this spoken paper we present the Music in Movement (MiM) project. The aim of this project is to disseminate the work of selected noteworthy European composers and depict their influence on the European musical landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries. With a help of highly curated archival materials of all formats, MiM showcases Europe’s musical community, how it is shaped by the accomplishments of different free and autonomous composers with various backgrounds and can easily be described as “unity in diversity”. MiM aims to cater for the musically educated user while also meeting the needs of broader audiences who have an interest in culture.

With the support from the Dutch Mondriaan Fund, this 9-month pilot project (finalised in June 2017) delivers and tests an innovative presentation form, grounded in the collections and in-depth research from the cultural heritage partners. This will be key to showcase the added value of using innovative approaches for telling the pan-European narrative of contemporary classical music. The pilot is led by four prominent institutes in the domain of preservation and exploitation of cultural heritage (the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, the National Audiovisual Institute, Poland, the French Audiovisual Institute and the Arvo Pärt Centre, Estonia).

In this presentation we will present the outcomes of the pilot, focusing on the online presentation form, the research and choices we have made for the narrative and innovative solutions. In future, the project aims to expand to more European countries, linking to other European composers and extending the story of Europe's musical landscape.