Contemporary music is a complex structure. It reaches from the traditionalists of the right wing to the experimentalists of the left. In the centre are those composers who take a stand from which, without forcing their material, they can achieve a free, personally stamped, stable form of expression. While thus “contemporary” is a mere dating, indicating the period of composition, “modern” implies a valuation of the style of the work. It would be an advantage if the I.S.C.M. would stress the modern and exclude works by composers who are only interested in the continuation of nineteenth century traditions, however skilled as craftsmen they may be. Every country has its clever traditionalists, and they are all very much alike, so that the real purpose of the I.S.C.M. Festivals should be to gather together in one place those works which, in the opinion of each individual country, are the most complete expression of what is new in the musical life of that country. The Copenhagen Festival fell short in this respect, yet even so, of the thirty works from sixteen different countries which were performed, I, for my part, took pleasure in listening to about one third, which after all is a high percentage.