Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

Intermezzo (iii).

A term used since the early 19th century for movements or sections, generally within larger works; also for independent pieces, often for piano solo and predominantly lyrical in character. Burney was among the first to use the term to describe instrumental music. In a brief summary of Haydn’s style he wrote: ‘He has likewise movements which are sportive, folatres, and even grotesque, for the sake of variety; but they are only the entre-mets, or rather intermezzi, between the serious business of his other movements’ (BurneyH, ii, 959–60). Mendelssohn gave the title ‘Intermezzo’ to the third movement of his Second Piano Quartet (1823), where it replaces the usual scherzo, and Brahms followed this precedent in his G minor Piano Quartet (op.25) of 1863. Schumann used the term frequently in his early piano music. The middle section of the scherzo in the Sonata op.11 is so called: its burlesque character (‘alla burla ma pomposo’) with the exaggerated rhetoric of its recitative passage perhaps suggests that Schumann, his mind at that time never far from the world of Harlequin and Columbine, may have conceived it in terms of the earlier tradition of the comic intermezzo. In the second number of Kreisleriana op.16, intermezzos form two sections comparable to the two trios which Schumann, like Beethoven and others, sometimes provided in his scherzos; a similar structure is found in the third of the Romanzen op.28. Here Schumann seems to have thought of the term as almost synonymous with ‘trio’, but the intermezzos of op.4, which he described to his friend Töphen as ‘larger Papillons’, are independent pieces which themselves have middle sections marked ‘alternativo’. The intermezzo of Brahms’s Piano Sonata op.5 forms an integral part of the work, leading into the finale, as does that in Balakirev’s Piano Sonata. Brahms also composed numerous independent intermezzos (e.g. as in op.76), and his last works include 14 pieces so called (in opp.116–19).

In the 20th century the term was used a good deal in light music, but less in symphonic works. The ‘Intermezzo interrotto’ of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra provides, apart from its satirical reference to Shostakovich in the ‘interruption’, a point of lyrical repose in the score. In Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations, the tenth (‘Dorabella’) is an intermezzo whose feathery delicacy is calculated to give precisely the right contrast between ‘Nimrod’ and ‘GRS’.

The intermezzo as an instrumental interlude between acts was often used in operatic scores and theatre music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Delius’s Fennimore and Gerda and Wolf-Ferrari’s I gioielli della Madonna contain familiar examples that are virtually equivalent to entr’actes. They may function simply as points of relaxation in a score with which they have no musical or dramatic connection. The intermezzo in Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, on the other hand, is carefully related to dramatic events at the close of the second act and the beginning of the third.

MAURICE J.E. BROWN

International Alliance for Women in Music [IAWM].

International organization created in 1995 through the merging of the International Congress on Women in Music (ICWM), American Women Composers (AWC) and the International League of Women Composers (ILWC). The International Alliance for Women in Music aims to build on the work of the three original organizations in celebrating and encouraging the activities of women in music.

The League of Women Composers was founded by composer Nancy Van de Vate in 1975 and renamed the International League of Women Composers in 1979. In the words of its founder, the ILWC aimed ‘to create change and to provide a larger number of women musicians their first real opportunity to enter the professional mainstream’. At the time of the merger it was a networking organization operating in over 36 countries, with a well-established journal. The ILWC supervised various projects, including the publication of a directory of music by women, several radio series, an association with Arsis Press (which specializes in the publication of music by women) and a competition for student composers.

American Women Composers was founded by composer Tommie E. Carl in 1976. The organization aimed to promote the work of American women composers by establishing a library of scores (housed at George Washington University), publishing the biannual AWC NewsForum, mounting concerts and producing recordings of music by American women.

The International Congress on Women in Music, initially organized by Jeannie Pool, held its first event in 1980, and thereafter held regular congresses in the United States and Europe consisting of concerts, workshops and academic papers all aimed at an international exchange of information about music by women. In 1990 the organization merged with the ILWC.

The IAWM publishes the IAWM Journal three times a year and, since 1997, a scholarly journal Women and Music: a Journal of Gender and Culture. It also holds regular IAWM congresses (in the tradition of the ICWM) and maintains an extensive website which includes links to bibliographies, discographies and course syllabuses on women, gender and music; women in music organizations worldwide; music publishers, archives and libraries, and many other resources.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

B. Beath: ‘The International League of Women Composers’, ILWC Journal (1991), July, 1–2

S. Fry: ‘The ICWM Legacy: a Chronicle and Review of the International Congress on Women in Music’, IAWM Journal, i/1 (1995), 4–8

J. Shatin: ‘American Women Composers, Inc.’, ibid., 3–4

G. Straughn: ‘The International League of Women Composers’, ibid., 8–10

SOPHIE FULLER

International Association of Music Information Centres (IAMIC).

A worldwide network of national organizations promoting new music. It was established in 1958, originally as a meeting of ‘National Music Centre Representatives’; IAMIC was then formed in 1962 as a constituent branch of the International association of music libraries (IAML). This affiliation continued until 1991 when IAMIC became a fully independent association under the aegis of the International Music Council. In 1999 it had 40 members, most of which are autonomous organizations with national status, giving them access to funds from a range of sources including national, regional and local government, arts councils, major foundations and copyright organizations. Music information centres have as their chief purpose the documentation and promotion at home and abroad of their national music (with emphasis generally on contemporary art music), and collect scores, parts, recordings, books, articles, analyses of compositions, interviews and press cuttings; many also issue publications and recordings. The following is a list of such centres.

Australia: Australian Music Centre, PO Box N 690, Grosvenor Place, NSW 1200

Austria: Music Informations Zentrum Österreich (MICA), Stiftgasse 29, 1070 Wien

Belgium: Centre Belge de Documentation Musicale/Belgisch Centrum voor Muziekdocumentatie (CeBeDeM), rue d'Arlon 75–77, 1040 Bruxelles

Brazil: UNICAMP, CEP 6136, 13083–970 Campinas, São-Paulo

Canada: Canadian Music Centre, Chalmers House, 20 St Joseph Street, Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1J9

Colombia: Centro de Documentación Musical, C/24, No.5–60, 4 Piso, Santafé de Bogoté 1

Croatia: Music Information Centre, Zagreb Concert Management, Kneza Mislava 18, 10 000 Zagreb

Czech Republic: Hudební Informační Středisko, Besední 3, 118 00 Praha 1

Denmark: Dansk Musik Informations Center, Gråbrødre Torv 16, 1154 Københaven K

Estonia: Eesti Muusika Infokeskus, Lauteri 7, Tallinn 10145

Finland: Finnish Music Information Centre, Lauttasaarentie 1, 00200 Helsinki

France: Centre de Documentation de la Musique Contemporaine, Cité de la Musique, 16 Place de la Fontaine aux Lions, 75019 Paris

Georgia: Georgian Music Information Centre, David Agmashenebeli Avenue 123, 380064 Tbilisi

Germany: German Music Information Centre, Weberstrasse 59, 53113 Bonn

— Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Nieder-Ramstädter Strasse 190, 64285 Darmstadt

Great Britain: British Music Information Centre, 10 Stratford Place, London W1N 9AE

— Scottish Music Information Centre, 1 Bowmont Gardens, Glasgow G12 9LR

— Welsh Music Information Centre, c/o Cardiff University, 40–41 Park Place, Cardiff CF1 3BB

Hungary: Magyar Zenei Tanács Zenei Információs Központ/Hungarian Music Information Centre, Hungarian Music Council, Pf 47, 1364 Budapest

Iceland: Íslensk Tónverkamidstöd/Iceland Music Information Centre, Sídumúli 34, 108 Reykjavík

Ireland: Contemporary Music Centre, 95 Lower Baggot St, Dublin 2

Israel: Israel Music Institute, 144 Hayarkon Street, 63451 Tel-Aviv

Italy: Archivi della Musica Italiana Contemporanea (AMIC), Largo di Torre Argentina 11, 00186 Roma

Japan: Nippon Kindai Ongakukan/Documentation Centre of Modern Japanese Music, 18–14 Azabudai, 1-chôme, Minato-ku, 106 Tōkyō

Lithuania: Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre, Lithuanian Composers' Union, Mickeviciaus 29, 2600 Vilnius

Mexico: Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información Musical (CENIDIM), Centro Nacional de las Artes, Torre de Investigación 7° piso, Río Churubusco, Col. Country Club, 04220 México DF

Netherlands: Donemus, Paulus Potterstrasse 16, 1071 CZ Amsterdam

— Gaudeamus Foundation, Swammerdamstrasse 38, 1091 RV Amsterdam

— Stichting Repertoire Informatiecentrum Muziek (RIM), Drift 23, 3512 BR Utrecht

New Zealand: New Zealand Music Centre (SOUNZ), PO Box 10–042, Wellington

Norway: Norsk Musikkinformasjon, Tollbugata 28, 0157 Oslo

Poland: Library of the Polish Composers' Union, 27 Rynek Starego Miasta, 00 272 Warszawa

Portugal: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Carlos de Pontes Leca, av. de Berna 45, 1093 Lisboa

Slovakia: Hudobné Informačné Stredisko Hudobného Fondu/Music Information Centre of the Music Fund, Medená 29, 811 02 Bratislava

Spain: Centro de Documentación Musical, Torregalindo 10, 28016 Madrid

Sweden: Svensk Musik, Box 27327, 102 54 Stockholm

Switzerland: Fondation SUISA pour la Musique, rue de l'Hôpital 22, 2001 Neuchâtel

Ukraine: Music Information Centre of the Ukraine Composers Union, ul. Sofiuska 16/16, 252001 Kiev-1

USA: American Music Center, 30 West 26th St., Suite 1001, New York, NY 10010–2011

Yugoslavia: Yugoslav Music Information Centre (SOKOJ), Trg. Nikole Pasica 1/V, 11000 Beograd

〈www.iamic.ie〉