William Glock and the British Broadcasting Corporation's Music Policy, 1959–73

Abstract

This article examines the British Broadcasting Corporation's broadcasting of contemporary art music during the 1960s and early 1970s. Particular reference is made to the ideas and activities of William Glock, controller of music at the BBC from 1959 to 1973, contemporary composers whose music the BBC either neglected or championed during this period because of the idiom in which they composed, and Glock's controversial legacy. Setting Glock's ideas and activities in a historical and philosophical context provokes reflection on aspects of music and broadcasting history, and provides a case study in two aesthetic assumptions which dominated the three decades after the Second World War: change is preferable to stability, and novelty guarantees value. Doing so also helps explain why the labels ‘contemporary’ and ‘avant-garde’ became indistinguishable during the 1960s, and the logic by which more traditional but still contemporary works were excluded from programmes devoted to twentieth century music.

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