I have this record too,but I knew nothing about its history,until now.
Roger
Don Tait <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 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:[log in to unmask]
Middletown, CT 06459 http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/srhome/srdir.htm
---------------------------------
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