Background to the original MUSIC NOW

Music Now was a concert society founded in 1968. It presented leading artists from Britain and abroad and was committed to introducing new developments in music to British audiences.

Between 68-72 it organised sixty four concerts including those of AMM, John Tilbury, the Scratch Orchestra, Music Improvisation Company, The Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Amalgam, Gavin Bryars, Christopher Hobbs. The Music Now Ensembles of up to seventy members directed by Cornelius Cardew, Eddie Prevost, John White and others were a precursor to the formation of the Scratch Orchestra.

Artists from abroad such as Christian Wolff (USA), Musica Elettronica Viva (Italy), the Sonic Arts Union (USA), Sun Ra and the Intergalactic Research Arkestra (USA), and the Taj Mahal Travellers (Japan) gave their first British performances under its auspicious.

One of the last concerts was Music of Resistance with Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew at St Pancras Assembly Rooms in 1976.

It was an organisation entirely devoted to new music with a continuous campaign of publicity which fulfilled a unique function. Its director and the main driving force, was Victor Schonfield and the committee included Charles Fox, Dan Gillon, Quintin Hoare, Michael White and Peter Wollen.
It was described by the New Statesman as "absolutely indispensable" to musical life in Britain.