[ARSCLIST] Fwd: [ARSCLIST] RCA symphonic work competition - 1929

[Don Tait <Dontaitchicago@xxxxxxx>]

  I have a copy of the 78 to which Steve Smolian referred, Victor 36000. The 
labels read

  36000-A -- TWO SYMPHONIC SKETCHES
                    (a) Nocturne (b) March 
                     (1st Prize Award)
                     (Thomas Griselle)

  36000-B -- SONG OF THE BAYOU
                    (2nd Prize Award)
                       (Rube Bloom)

  The Griselle is credited to the Victor Concert Orchestra, the Bloom to the 
Victor Salon Group (male voices). The conductor of both is Nathaniel Shilkret.

  It's interesting that the label doesn't say what contest these works won, 
but I gather from what Steve wrote that there was accompanying publicity (that 
would be typical of Victor) and perhaps the company assumed that purchasers 
would know.

  Don Tait
                     
Isn't this the composition for which Tom Griselle won a prize for his Two 
American Nocturnes? (Also on a Naxos CD, Symphonic Jazz.)

dl

Alec McLane wrote:

 There were actually only 4 composers because Robert Russell Bennett
 was awarded 2/5 of the prize. Here's from the liner notes to a Naxos
 recording of Bennett's _Abraham Lincoln_ (quoted at
 http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?
 
item_code=8.559004&catNum=559004&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English):

 __________________________
 In Paris and Berlin in 1927-28, on a Guggenheim Scholarship, he
 noticed an RCA Victor competition with a prize of 25,000 dollars for
 an outstanding orchestral composition, with a small prize for a
 lighter piece of music. He submitted the two works on this disc - the
 patriotic Abraham Lincoln and the abstract orchestral painting of
 Sights and Sounds. Both pieces were scored for an enormous band of
 musicians and are of large proportions.

 RCA Victor's jury consisted of Leopold Stokowski, Serge Koussevitzky,
 Frederick Stock, Rudolph Ganz and Olga Samaroff. They decided no work
 was better than any other to win outright and awarded five prizes to
 Aaron Copland's Dance Symphony, Louis Gruenberg's Symphony, Ernst
 Bloch's Helvetia and two 5,000 dollar awards to Bennett's pieces.

 Despite their huge orchestral forces, Bennett's prizewinners were
 then published. Abraham Lincoln was first performed by Stokowski and
 the Philadelphia Orchestra in October 1931, with a second performance
 given a fortnight later at the dedication of the Juilliard School's
 new auditorium. For this, Bennett wrote his own programme notes,
 drawn from below.
 ___________________________

 Alec

 At 11:19 AM 4/17/2006, Paul Charosh wrote:
 >
 >
 >In 1929, RCA Victor offered a prize of $25,000 for a new symphonic  work.
 >The
 >prize was divided among five composers.  Copland was  one; he received 
$5,000
 >for his submission.
 >
 >How to find out  who were the other four recipients?  Also, who at 
RCA/Victor
 >was in  charge of the competition?  Can one find out who were the judges?
 >Can
 >one find out who submitted works?
 >
 >Paul Charosh

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Alec McLane
 Scores & Recordings/
   World Music Archives       Phone: (860) 685-3899
 Olin Library                       Fax: (860) 685-2661
 Wesleyan University          mailto:amclane@xxxxxxxxxxxx
 Middletown, CT  06459       http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/srhome/srdir.htm