Choir & Organ Composition Competition 2012
Choir & Organ is pleased to announce the Composition Competition 2012 in association with Salisbury Cathedral.
The composer of the winning entry will be interviewed in the November/December 2012 issue of Choir & Organ and the score will be published on the Choir & Organ website as part of its New Music series.
The premiere will be given by the Choir of Salisbury Cathedral during Advent 2012.
Eligibility
The competition is open to composers of any nationality who are under the age of 30 on 30 April 2012.
Entry requirements
- Entrants are invited to submit a setting of Blessed be that Maid Marie (in English) for unaccompanied SATB choir (optional divisi) (see below for full text). This must be an original work and must last not longer than 4 minutes (based on the composer’s metronome or tempo mark).
- The work must be of a suitable standard for the Choir of Salisbury Cathedral.
- Scores must be typeset to a professional standard on A4-size pages.
Applications and closing date
Five copies of the score must be sent, one copy of which should have the composer’s name, address, telephone number and email written on the back of each page; the remaining four copies should have no identification markings on them.
Scores must be sent to:
Composition Competition 2012, Choir & Organ,
Rhinegold Publishing Ltd, 241 Shaftesbury Avenue,
London WC2H 8TF, UK
Closing date: 30 April 2012
Terms and conditions
- The composition must be an unpublished original work written after 1 November 2011.
- The work must not have had a public performance, a recording that is publicly available (whether commercial or not), or a broadcast of any sort.
- The competition will be judged during June 2012 by a jury comprising the directors of music at the Cathedrals of Salisbury, Winchester and Chichester, composer Bob Chilcott, and the editor of Choir & Organ.
- The jury reserves the right to withhold the first prize.
- The winner will be notified by 31 July 2012.
- Choir & Organ will publish an interview with the winner in the November/December 2012 issue.
- The composer will retain the copyright of the work, but will grant the right to Choir & Organ to publish the score on the Choir & Organ website from the on-sale date of the November/December 2012 issue and to keep it on the website as a free download for six months.
- The Choir of Salisbury Cathedral reserves the premiere recording rights until 31 January 2014.
- Scores are sent at entrants’ own risk. We cannot acknowledge receipt of scores, nor return any material submitted.
- In all matters relating to the competition the decision of the jury is final and correspondence will not be entered into. Submitting an entry for the competition indicates the entrant’s unqualified acceptance of these terms.
Photo by Ash Mills
David Halls, director of music at Salisbury Cathedral, comments:
'Salisbury Cathedral is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so music referring to her comes around frequently throughout the Church year. In the Advent and Christmas period, there is an obvious focus on her, and many other cathedrals and churches do likewise. It seems appropriate therefore for me to ask for this lovely, traditional text to be given a new interpretation by a young composer.'
salisburycathedral.org.uk/music.php
Further information
The Choir of Salisbury Cathedral can be heard on numerous recordings and at these links:
Alcock: Sanctus (Boys and Men)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeRpq4D1M5A
Harris: Behold the tabernacle of God (Girls and Men)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHDO_6n2ih4
Blessed be that Maid Marie
Blessed be that Maid Marie;
Born He was of her body;
Very God ere time began,
Born in time the Son of Man.
Refrain:
Eya! Ihesus hodie
Natus est de Virgine.
In a manger of an ass
Jesu lay and lullèd was;
Born to die upon the Tree
Pro peccante homine.
Refrain
Sweet and blissful was the song
Chanted of the Angel throng,
'Peace on earth, alleluya!
In excelsis Gloria.'
Refrain
Fare three kings from far-off land,
Incense, gold, and myrrh in hand;
In Bethlem the Babe they see,
Stelle ducti lumine.
Refrain
Make we merry on this fest,
In quo Christus natus est;
On this Child I pray you call,
To assoil and save us all.
Refrain
