International Musicological Society

The History of the IMS (1927-2017)

The International Musicological Society (IMS) is the oldest international association of musicologists active during 90 years since its foundation in Basel in 1927.

The simplistic definition of historical musicology as the study of the written tradition of Western art music has shaped, for many observers, a distorted image of the IMS as a “European” society. This was not the vision of the founders. And it is not the present situation of IMS.

The exciting story told in this book compiled by 21 collaborators reconstructs the role of the protagonists of the IMS to the present days.