Bismarck Cantata competition

[Mark Thomas]

I've read recently that Raff judged a competition in the 1870s for the best Cantata setting of some bombastically patriotic verses. The competition is described as being for a "Bismarck Cantata" as the verses celebrated the Iron Chancellor's creation of the Second Reich following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.

I'm not at home right now, but before I left I could find no reference to the competition in my books or online and the only Bismarck-Kantate mentioned in Hofmeister was one by Cyrill Kistler (1848-1907). It was published in 1891, some nine years after Raff's death and from what I can find out about Kistler, he was a musical late developer and so maybe wouldn't have been entering prize competitions in his 20s. Of course, there's no reason why the winning work should automatically have been published, never mind be called Bismarck-Kantate.

Does anybody know of this competition or can give me a lead to find out who organised it, who entered it, who won it and when it was? I'm stumped.

Thanks.

[eschiss1]

HMB does mention such a work in vocal score or piano reduction by Kistler - though as you say, published way in 1891 (and having seen Kistler's name before - when I uploaded his setting of the first part of Faust to IMSLP - it rang a bell when I saw that a few days back or so while hunting through HMB for other things, as I do. Interesting if odd Wikipedia article which needs salt and work... Will see what I can do as to the rest of course...) (Sorry about that - by the time I wrote that, my mind had gone off and I forgot even to reread what you had written- odd and silly and unwise mistake )