‘Problematized’ Music. Notes on the Reception of ‘Avant-garde’ Symphonic Music during the Franco Years (1952-1969) * Belén Pérez Castillo (Madrid) I n recent years, studies about music during the Franco years have increased and the works dating from this period have been analysed from a critical point of view, principally in regard to their contextualization in certain cultural and legislative policies 1 . In particular, special emphasis has been placed on the turnaround in composition from the 1950s onwards due to a cultural policy favouring Spain’s integration in international cultural trends, in order to give the Francoist state an apparently modern appearance 2 . Notwithstanding, reviews of the circumstances surrounding the music of this period have yet to focus on aspects relating to the reception of contemporary music. In this regard, the most pertinent studies are Ángel Medina’s ‘Apuntes sobre la recepción de la música abierta en España’ 3 (Notes on the Reception of Experimental Music in Spain) and, particularly, ‘Crítica, público y problemas de recepción en la nueva música española’ (Criticism, Audiences and Problems with the Reception of New Spanish Music), in which he declared that, effectively, «there is hardly any research concerning the audience and its specific relationship to new music» 4 . * . This article forms part of the Research Project coordinated by the Universidad de Oviedo ‘Música y cultura en España en el siglo xx: discursos sonoros y diálogos con Hispanoamérica’, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Ref.: HAR2012-33414. 1 . In this regard, of special note are the studies published in Dos décadas de cultura artística en el Franquismo (1936-1956). Actas del Congreso Nacional celebrado en Granada del 21 al 24 de febrero de 2000, edited by Ignacio Henares Cuéllar, María Isabel Cabrera García, Gemma Pérez Zalduondo and José Castillo Ruiz, Granada, Universidad de Granada, 2001. 2 . See Sacau Ferreira, Enrique. Performing a Political Shift: Avant-Garde Music in Cold War Spain, Ph.D. Diss., Oxford, University of Oxford, 2011. 3 . Medina, Ángel. ‘Apuntes sobre la recepción de la música abierta en España’, in: Anuario Musical, no. 51 (1996), pp. 217-232. 4 . Id. ‘Crítica, público y problemas de recepción en la nueva música española’, in: Resonancias, no. 3 (November 1998), pp. 28-35. 26. Perez Castillo.indd 1 18/02/14 16:31