Composition competitions

[giles.enders]

I often read, in liner notes for instance, that a composer came first in a competition and I wonder who the other entrants were?  Prix de Rome is the best example.  Last night I read that Raff's 1st symphony obtained first prize among 32 entries at the competition organised by The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.  Now the question is, who came second and third and who were the other entrants and what became of them and their music.  They can't have all been duds.  Any thoughts, any answers

[Delicious Manager]

This is the sort of thing I love to research (sad, isn't it?). For starters, I have found out other well-known composers who have won the Prix de Rome: Louis Hérold (1812); Halévy (one of the first Jews to make it as a composer)(1819); Berlioz (1830); Ambroise Thomas (1832); Gounod (1839); Bizet (1857); Massenet (1863); Pierné ('2nd Prize')(1882); Debussy (1884); Gustave Charpentier (1887); Florent Schmitt (1900); André Caplet (1901)(Ravel got 3rd Prize!); Roger-Ducasse ('2nd Prize')(1902); Nadia Boulanger ('2nd Prize')(1908); Lili Boulanger (1913); Dupré (1914); Ibert (1919); Leleu (1923); Bozza (1934); Dutilleux (1938); Sancan (1943); Chaynes (1951); Dubois (1955); Petitgirard (1962).

The Prix de Rome came to an end in 1968. Now to try to find those 'runners-up'!

It would seem that the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (better known as the Musikverein) was more of a 'club' which one was invited into. I haven't yet found a complete list of former members, but have found that poor old Schubert was rejected for membership in 1818.

[Mark Thomas]

The second prize in the 1861/2 Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Vienna competition was won by Albert Becker (1834-1899) for his Symphony in G minor, which had the motto Trotz allem Freundeswort. This was apparently Becker's Second Symphony, written in 1858, a year after his First. Although he later wrote a Third in D, which was modestly successful, his main focus was choral and vocal music. The Symphony seems to have been played a few times after its Vienna première, but failed to get a publisher and now seems to be lost. I have a recording of a Konzertstuck for violin and orchestra and an orchestral Scherzo by him. Neither sets the pulses racing.

The late Alan Krueck spent some time researching this competition in the course of his researches into Raff who, of course, won it with his First Symphony. He was able to establish very little, much to his frustration. The judges were Ferdinand Hiller, Ignaz Lacher (an inappropriate substitute for Franz Liszt), Carl Reinecke, Robert Volkmann and the Gesellschaft's own Dr Amos. They judged the anonymous entries by correspondence (a letter from Volkmann about some of the competition entries is still extant) and had to review 32 symphonies, all of which had to have a "motto". The prize was simply the kudos of winning (which certainly boosted Raff's career enormously) and a performance in Vienna of the winning work and the runner up.

Alan was unable to identify any other entrants, despite some tantalising clues in Volkmann's letter. Volkmann mentions seven of the symphonies, of which one is clearly Becker's and the other, whose length he felt should disqualify it, is clearly Raff's. Of the remaining five, none is a work which can easily be recognised today, although Alan was convinced (on what evidence I know not) that one was Franz Lachner's then-unperformed Eighth of 1856. One had a motto in French, but doesn't correspond to any symphony by either Saint-Saëns or Gouvy. And so it goes on. I can give more details if anybody is interested....

[Kriton]

I often read, in liner notes for instance, that a composer came first in a competition and I wonder who the other entrants were?  Prix de Rome is the best example.

My favourite example would be Cobbett's chamber music competition, to which virtually every minor and major British composer from the turn of the century contributed. The only rule: the works had to be "fantasies" (read: one movement compositions).

I recently saw a CD set with Debussy's works for the Prix de Rome, and own a CD called "Prix de Rome Cantatas" myself. Elsewhere on the forum I was saying something about the Lugano Chamber Music Festival CD series - and it made me realise we are really missing a Cobbett Chamber Music Competition CD series, that would map out British one-movement chamber music pieces. Sounds like something for Hyperion...

There already exists, in any case:

http://cobbettassociation.org/

To quote a line: "The Chamber Music Journal is published by The Cobbett Association and is the only periodical devoted exclusively to non-standard, rare or unknown chamber music of merit." But alas, no CD series!

[eschiss1]

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, semi-finalists (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 forget if Weingartner's memorial 6th symphony (with its 2nd movement completing the scherzo from the unfinished, actually satisfying the original terms of the Competition, which were later expanded greatly) was entered in the competition- it may have been written too late, again I don't know. (I don't yet have the cpo recording, whose notes may well clarify all- even a good review might, I must seek one out - just in my case a much-enjoyed radio tape of an older performance.)

Of course agree about the enduring value of the Cobbett Competition as shown by its fruits, so to speak, in a good number of fantasy- or phantasie- trio/quartet/quintets (etc.) of at least interest and sometimes considerable value from that period...
Eric

[chill319]

Another intriguing example of a composition competition would be the Olympics, up through 1948 or so.

[John H White]

Franz Lachner's massive 5th symphony won the 1835 competition when there were there were, I think, 57 entries, with Otto Nicolai's one and only symphony as runner up, Ferdinand Ries's 7th symphony, that had been entered by a publisher without his knowledge, coming "nowhere"! 

[Hovite]

who came second and third

I'm usually more puzzled by who came first. For example, Dvořák's Symphony No. 1 got lost because it was submitted to a competition and not returned. But who won?

[Hovite]

Another intriguing example of a composition competition would be the Olympics, up through 1948 or so.

All Music:

1912
Gold: Riccardo Barthelemy (Italy): "Olympic Triumphal March"

1920
Gold: Georges Monier (Belgium): "Olympic"
Silver: Oreste Riva (Italy): "Olympic Triumphal March"

1932
Silver: Josef Suk (Czechoslavakia): "Into a New Life"

Instrumental:

1948
Silver: John Jacob Weinzweig (Canada): "Divertimenti for  soloflute and strings"
Bronze: Sergio Lauricella (Italy) "Toccata for piano"

Orchestral:

1928
Bronze: Rudolph Hermann Simonsen (Denmark): Symphony No. 2 "Hellas"

1936
Gold: Werner Egk  (Germany): "Festive Music for the Olympiad"
Silver: Lino Liviabella (Italy): "The Victor"
Bronze: Jaroslav Kricka (Czechoslavakia): "Mountain Melodies"

1948
Gold: Zbigniew Turski (Poland): "Olympic Symphony"
Silver: Kalervo Tuukkanen (Finland): "Bear Hunt"
Bronze: Erling Brene (Denmark): "Vigour"

Vocal:

1936
Gold: Paul Höffer (Germany): "Olympic Oath"
Silver: Kurt Thomas (Germany): "Cantata for the 1936 Olympiad"
Bronze: Harald Genzmer (Germany): "The Runner"
            
1948
Bronze: Gabriele Bianchi (Italy): "Olympic Hymn"

http://olympic-museum.de/art/artcompetition.htm

[Ilja]

Orchestral:

1928
Bronze: Rudolph Hermann Simonsen (Denmark): Symphony No. 2 "Hellas"

This one's available from Danacord in an older recording. Not that Greek, but lots of trumpets, like you might expect from such a work. It's in a moderately modernist language (I would call it 'Bartók-esque'), with parts alluding to Orestes (strange choice), the Temple of Zeus and Pallas Athene. The finale, by contrast, sounds more late romantic, which suggests that its origins lie in other pieces.

[chill319]

Last I looked the score to the Simonsen Symphony No. 2 "Hellas" was unblocked on IMSLP. Thanks for the detail, Hovite.

[eschiss1]

Last I looked the score to the Simonsen Symphony No. 2 "Hellas" was unblocked on IMSLP. Thanks for the detail, Hovite.

This is true for many IMSLP users outside the EU, but probably not in it (and the rule of the shorter term does not apply.)  Until 2018 or so, anyway.
Eric

[Hovite]

Orchestral:

1928
Bronze: Rudolph Hermann Simonsen (Denmark): Symphony No. 2 "Hellas"

This one's available from Danacord in an older recording. Not that Greek, but lots of trumpets, like you might expect from such a work. It's in a moderately modernist language (I would call it 'Bartók-esque'), with parts alluding to Orestes (strange choice), the Temple of Zeus and Pallas Athene. The finale, by contrast, sounds more late romantic, which suggests that its origins lie in other pieces.

That was originally a gate fold double LP, now a double CD. The recordings are ancient, and of the four works, the Louis Glass Symphony No. 5 is easily the most important. There is a modern recording of Simonsen's Symphonies 1 & 2 on CPO, which I have not yet heard, but presumably it is better quality than the 1954 recording.

I imagine that Suk's "Into a new life" is the march available under the name "Towards a new life", which has been aired by the BBC, and is very jolly, though perhaps a little too strident.

One of the conditions for entry was that the composer could not be a professional, and possibly the music had to be newly composed and directly inspired by the Games.

[eschiss1]

Orchestral:

1928
Bronze: Rudolph Hermann Simonsen (Denmark): Symphony No. 2 "Hellas"

This one's available from Danacord in an older recording. Not that Greek, but lots of trumpets, like you might expect from such a work. It's in a moderately modernist language (I would call it 'Bartók-esque'), with parts alluding to Orestes (strange choice), the Temple of Zeus and Pallas Athene. The finale, by contrast, sounds more late romantic, which suggests that its origins lie in other pieces.

That was originally a gate fold double LP, now a double CD. The recordings are ancient, and of the four works, the Louis Glass Symphony No. 5 is easily the most important. There is a modern recording of Simonsen's Symphonies 1 & 2 on CPO, which I have not yet heard, but presumably it is better quality than the 1954 recording.

I imagine that Suk's "Into a new life" is the march available under the name "Towards a new life", which has been aired by the BBC, and is very jolly, though perhaps a little too strident.

One of the conditions for entry was that the composer could not be a professional, and possibly the music had to be newly composed and directly inspired by the Games.

Towards a New Life was not a new work, though (it was composed 1919-20), so I wonder. (And Suk was certainly a professional, yet won a silver medal with the work, whatever it was after all. Interesting. Incidentally to all this, I am a fan of his music. I'm just now a bit curious about this of course...)
Eric

[Hovite]

The Prix de Rome came to an end in 1968.

I know of two prizes named after composers:

Arnold Schönberg Prize (won in 2008 by Helmut Oehring).

Emil-Berlanda-Preis (won in 2009 by Tyrolean composer Johannes Maria Staud).

Every member of this forum will be aware of Schönberg, but Berlanda is a mystery to me.