The Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), originally named The Committee for the Promotion of New Music, was founded in January 1943 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

by the émigré composer

Francis Chagrin Francis Chagrin (born Alexander Paucker, 15 November 1905 – 10 November 1972), was a composer of film scores and popular orchestral music, as well as a conductor. He was also the "organizer and chief moving spirit" who founded the Society for ...

, to promote the creation and performance of new music in the UK by young and unestablished composers.Carner, Mosco
''The Committee for the Promotion of New Music''
in ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 86, No. 1232 (October, 1945), pp. 297-299 Since 1993 it has awarded the annual Francis Chagrin Award and the

Butterworth Prize for Composition The Butterworth Prize for Composition, named in honour of English composer George Butterworth (1885-1916), was awarded by the Society for the Promotion of New Music annually between 1993'News Section', in: ''Tempo'', No. 186 (Sep., 1993), p. 63 and ...

. In 2008, it merged with three other networks to form

Sound and Music Sound and Music is the UK's national agency for new music, established on 1 October 2008 from the merger of four existing bodies working in the contemporary music field: the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), the British Music Inform ...

History

The Committee for the Promotion of New Music was a membership organization which sought to find the best new composers and to help support their careers, especially in the UK.Payne, Anthony
'Society for the Promotion of New Music'
in ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press Francis Chagrin has been described as the Committee's "organizer and chief moving spirit". Fellow émigré composer Benjamin Frankel said that by establishing it he "gave many composers (not only the young ones) their first opportunity of a hearing: he had travelled abroad as our representative, had battled with publishers and spoken passionately on the question of performing rights. He had, in fact, become the first person to whom we turned when composer's problems arose".

Mátyás Seiber Mátyás György Seiber (; 4 May 190524 September 1960) was a Hungarian-born British composer who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1935 onwards. His work linked many diverse musical influences, from the Hungarian tradition of Bartó ...

and

Roy Douglas Richard Roy Douglas (12 December 1907 – 23 March 2015) was an English composer, pianist and arranger. He worked as musical assistant to Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, and Richard Addinsell, made well-known orchestrations of works su ...

were also among the founding members of the Committee.Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2012
/ref> Ralph Vaughan Williams agreed to become president with the proviso that it "avoid all cliques ndgive a welcome to all good work in whatever style or school".

Arthur Bliss Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he qu ...

was appointed as vice-president, and

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

and

Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten ...

served on the Committee. Its initial activities were subsidized by the wartime Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts and by private donations from Vaughan Williams and Bliss among others, and remained the basis for much of its subsequent work: "recommended lists" of works were drawn up, which resulted in increased broadcasting by the BBC and in several recordings, issued in the 1940s on 78rpm discs by

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

. By October 1951, a draft amended Constitution had been prepared, and on 27 May 1952 the ''Society'' for the Promotion of New Music met for its inaugural meeting. On 5 February 1973 the Society celebrated its 30th anniversary with a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. It had commissioned a new piece from Francis Chagrin to mark the event but he was ill and unable to complete the work. Chagrin died on 10 November 1972. At his request, his ''Lamento appassionato'' for string orchestra was played instead. This was one of the few times his own work was ever performed at an SPNM event. The Francis Chagrin Fund for Young Composers was established in his memory in 1973 and continues today.Francis Chagrin Award
/ref> From 1993 onward SPNM awarded the annual

.'News Section', in: ''Tempo'', No. 186 (Sep., 1993), p. 63 In its first 50 years, some 9,000 scores were submitted to the SPNM, resulting in 850 composers being represented in its concerts. On 1 October 2008, the SPNM merged with the British Music Information Centre (BMIC), the Contemporary Music Network and the

Sonic Arts Network Sonic Arts Network was a UK-based organisation, established in 1979, that aimed to enable both audiences and practitioners to engage with the art of sound through a programme of festivals, events, commissions and education projects. Its honorary ...

, forming a new organisation to promote contemporary music in the UK called

References

{{Reflist Music organisations based in the United Kingdom Contemporary music organizations 1943 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1943