Composition competitions

[John H White]

I seem to remember "Master Prize" for a short orchestral work early on in the current decade, running for about 3 years until it apparently ran out of sponsors.

[M. Henriksen]

There was also the Columbia Competition of 1928. There was a doctoral dissertation devoted to that, I learned from a now retired professor friend of mine, listing and describing as many as could be found of the entrants, semifinalists (eg Schmidt's 3rd, etc. - apparently Brian's Gothic also, which I enjoy though not as much as I do his 4th) and of course the winning Atterberg "Dollar" 6th.

I wonder if that list is available somewhere? Surely a lot of unsung works to be found there.

Here's the wiki-article on the 1928 competition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_International_Columbia_Graphophone_Competition

Another interesting link with a presentation of one of the entrants, the American composer Charles Haubiel:

http://www.pristineclassical.com/LargeWorks/Orchestral/PASC127.php

This article mentions Paul Rapoport, Havergal Brian and his Symphony "The Gothic", Masters Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (University Microfilms International, 1972) as the source for a complete list (if that is possible) of the different entrants.
Does anyone know this book and if it contains the list?
Help!

Morten

[eschiss1]

well, Paul Rapoport is the professor who told me- but I'd been under the impression one of his students, or someone he knew about, wrote it. I think I misremembered the conversation (which was in 1991 after all. ...
could be. ...
Haubiel's name rings a bell too- but only because I've heard his ''Portraits'', which was recorded awhile back, I believe.
Eric
(edit:1999 I think, definitely not 1991, but still, some while back.)

[alberto]

I may belatedly add the competition for chamber music promoted in 1927 by the Musical Society Fund of Philadelphia .The first prize (6000 US dollars) was won ex aequo by Alfredo Casella (Serenata for five instruments, later orchestrated for small orchestra - you can hear on Naxos) and Bela Bartok (Third Quartet).
The couple Bartok-Casella may now seem odd, but I would say than in 1927 Casella had the same popularity of Bartok (or even more).
However the Bartok is a tough work; the Casella I would define light hearted (neo classical, but certainly not "cold" or dry).
I return to the 1928 International Columbia Gramophone Competition.
Several sources say that H.Brian submitted the Gothic Symphony. But how the incredible orchestral/choral/vocal forces asked for could cope with the rules of a competition?
According to the (unclear) booklet of the deleted (or rather disappeared) CD Koch 3-6429-2 ( Gary Brain, Philha. Orch.) of the fine Symphony op.28 by Czeslaw Marek, in the international phase "the judges seem to have argued over the merits of four works -Marek's Symphony, Havergal Brian's Gothic, Franz Shmidt Third and Atterberg Sixth. Glazunov (chairman) used his casting vote giving the prize to Atterberg, to break the deadlock".
According to several sources Atterberg was classed first, Schmidt Second and Marek Third.   

[eschiss1]

never mind, I see- you are referring to the Columbia competition. I think Brian had hopes- they may even have been realistic - that Columbia could, if they wanted to, have mounted a production (though perhaps not recording) of the Gothic.  (I don't know. I am a little surprised too, even though I knew about this also- it wasn't published, I think, until a few years after the competition (by August Cranz Verlag in 1932 - material relating to Brian's Gothic.)  I seem to recall - and wish I did more exactly- that someone's written a doctoral dissertation, or something, about the Columbia Competition with a good deal of material about it...