Dissolution of the IFM Association (2004)

So is it a “complete mission” or is it a failure of a heroic idea for a Big Science in Music to terminate now the existence of the IFM association? We are proud of the many relations, connections, synergies and also careers which have been realized in the last ten years. But it must also be admitted that music science is still a difficult job when its fundamental role in our society is pursued on a serious level of exact argumentation and conceptualization and not merely on the feuilletonistic thread of a ornamental descriptive narration.

What is the next thing to follow this turning point? First of all, one has to let the germs develop globally, on all continents, and also in the many different facets of knowledge science, of spiritualization of science towards the synthesis which Hermann Hesse coined “Glasperlenspiel” in one of his famous novels. And then, we need citizens which are willing and capable to think and act beyond stupid economic dimensions, because the brute survival will never create symphonies, will never need lullabies, will never need free jazz, but only gun and rocket sounds and execution rhythm. Perhaps we really need to understand and to make others understand that life is all about music, that time is infinitely more important than money, because it is not an extension, not a simple quantity. Its life, and music is about life. But this is a hard thing to sell.

Acknowledgements

We should express our gratitude to strong supporters of our initivative, especially to Prof. Dr. Peter Stucki. Furthermore we thank the Zürcher Kantonalbank for having supported the two IFM events in 2001 and 2002. Let me finally thank all the IFM members for their strong commitment. They belong to those individuals which Marquis de Posa in Friedrich Schiller’s “Don Carlos” evoked as “citizen of ages yet to come”.

Zürich, February 2004

Guerino Mazzola