Last year, one member (Mark Knjezevic, I think) mentioned the former
Yugoslavia as one area almost totally ignored from the musical world.  The
fact is that many countries are absent from our usual landscape, without
any real good reason.  Sometimes it might be suggested that they lack a
composer of true genius, but even if we acknowledge this often questionable
assertion, most countries can boast at least a few very talented composers
who deserve to be known as much as many rather familiar ones, even more.
I shall try to post sometimes about the ones I have come to discover, but
for want of time, I shall only mention some useful addresses for today.

Of course, I have no commercial interest of any kind in any of the
following, but I have found the information most useful in my own search
and hope that it will be used by many fellow musicians, and also
music-lovers.

(I know that categorizing by country is arbitrary, but most classifications
are, and this one is obvious enough to be relatively benign for lucid
people.  besides, much information is available through National Music
Information Centres.)

A list of most national MIC's can be found at the web site of the IAMIC:

   http://www.iamic.ie/members.html

The following countries are represented:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary,
Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine,
United States, Wales, Yugoslavia.

Some others are not members of this International Association as yet, and
deserve to be known.  Two other messages will be devoted to five Central
and Balkanic countries, and to Lithuanian music.  Although those comments
will be very schematic, they sum up to long messages, so maybe I shall post
them only tomorrow.

Among the members of the IAMIC, I would like to point out a few whom I am
indebted to for much invaluable information.

Australia:  they have few recordings, but very comprehensive and
user-friendly databases for all kinds of instrumental formations.

Austria:  apart from recordings (most of Austrian music after 1945 is
completely unknown abroad), they have released a beautiful Lexicon,
dictionary of Austrian composers born after 1914.

Brazil:  to go beyond Villa-Lobos...  A very good resource is Fundacao
Biblioteca Nacional - Brasil Divisao de Musica e Arquivo Sonoro URL:
http://www.info.lncc.br/dimas/

Canada:  they sell and also lend a huge number of scores, leaving no
excuse to ignore Canadian music, terribly underrated aborad.

Czech Republic:  apart from their very informative web site, with
comprehensive biographies and articles, they are very helpful to locate
rare recordings.

Denmark, Finland:  as all Nordic MICs, they are remarkably organized.
(Sweden's MIC is particularly efficient and competent.) Even if most
records are published by private companies, all the information is there,
as well as large collections of scores.

France:  well, I'll be visiting the CDMC very soon:-) Please be patient
until I bring fresher news.

Hungary:  a small MIC, but they can search for any information in
Hungrarian libraries.

Iceland:  their CDs are visually superb and outstanding in content, worthy
of what probably is one of the most musical countries in the world.  The
level of Icelandic performers is often first-class.  Scores can be ordered
from the Centre as well (and even in English...)

Netherlands:  incredibly ignored in France, Donemus is one of the most
impressive musical organizations I know.  Virtually any score of Dutch
music seems to be available through them, they have plenty of catalogues,
tens of CDs (try the Vermeulen integral series), not to mention their
archive collections in Amsterdam.

Norway, Sweden:  see above.  In the case of Norway, most CDs can be ordered
through the MIC.  Both provide all kinds of catalogues for sheet music.
Swedish music is unexplicably neglected these days and I shall certainly
post more about it in separate messages.

Yugoslavia:  some might object for my mentioning this Centre, but whereas
I certainly do not intend to suggest political support of any kind, it
seems to me that most *classical* musicians are among the most open-minded
part of Yugoslav society nowadays.  Until now, closing our doors at them
seems to have made nothing but strengthening the radical and intolerant
trends in this country.  However, I don't wish to launch a controversy and
my purpose is solely musical here.  Quite a few scores are available
through this MIC, records of 20th century music (including music by
Slavenski, who spent many years in Belgrade), an a very informative
bulletin with accessible musical comments, music history, musicology and
news.  Among the important Serbian composers are Stevan Mokranjac (best
known for his vocal collections), Milojevic, Ljubica Maric (a strong
personality who escaped official styles by returning to the spirit of
ancient Byzantine music), Josif, Bruci (now living in Zagreb, Croatia),
Radic, Eric...

Well, I seem to be uniformly full of praise, but these Centres are
real treasure boxes, and almost each one has a very specific identity.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le
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