Reconstructing a Forgotten network: The darmstadt – Bulgaria relationship through the archives of the internationales musikinstitut darmstadt (imd) (1950 – 1990)
Reconstructing a Forgotten network: The darmstadt – Bulgaria relationship through the archives of the internationales musikinstitut darmstadt (imd) (1950 – 1990)

Summary/Abstract: This article investigates the institutional and aesthetic relations between the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD) and the musical culture of Bulgaria from the early Cold War to the postsocialist period. Based on unpublished correspondence, registration files, concert materials, and documentary records preserved in the IMD-Archiv, the study reconstructs a transnational channel through which the IMD engaged the Library of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Union of Bulgarian Composers, and key figures such as Konstantin Iliev, Ivan Spassov, Vassil Kazandjiev, and Bojidar Spassov, alongside Nikolai Badinski, whose exceptional visibility in the IMD-Archiv reflects his particularly intensive and sustained engagement with the Darmstadt network. It argues that these exchanges – ranging from bibliographical cooperation to invitations, premieres, and pedagogical encounters – embodied the shifting logics of Cold War cultural diplomacy, artistic mobility, and the gradual reconfiguration of Bulgaria’s position within the field of Neue Musik. By juxtaposing archival traces with personal testimonies, the article demonstrates how Bulgarian composers negotiated modernist identity and institutional integration through their interactions with the IMD, reframing Darmstadt as a transnational node of intercultural modernity rather than a purely Western avant-garde enclave.

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