Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 1, No. 11 (1927-08)

The Phonograph Monthly Review 455 ■*a «— 11 In the rea^ of symphonic writing the Schubert B minor Symphony stands alone. What it might have been, if finished, we can only conjecture; as it is, one may surely be justified in saying that in no two movements of any completed symphony have been concentrated such wealth of limpid singing loveliness of melody, such altitude of poetical imagination, such dramatic earnestness, such fatalism and sadness and such completely affecting power of musical expression. The invitation to compete in the completion of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony is extended to composers, teachers, and students in twenty—six countries. The countries are divided into ten zones: United States; Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, Jugo-Slavia, and Roumania; Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; France, Belgium, and Swit- zerland ; Germany and Holland; Great Britain; Italy; Poland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland; Spain and Portugal; Russia and Uk- rania. In every zone, there will be three awards made: first, $750.; second, $250.; third, honorable men- tion. To the best composition of the thirty re- ceiving awards, the Grand Prize of $10,000. will be presented. Each zone will have a zone jury, consisting of five competent musicians, who will declare the awards to be made in their particular zones. An international jury, comprising one member from each zone jury, and an eleventh ■ member named in Vienna, will award the Grand Prize. The contest opens in September, 1927, and closes in July, 1928. The terms are to be published in twenty-six languages, early this autumn. To the Advisory Body of Beethoven Week, which will function in a similar manner for the Schubert Centennial, will be added international chapters. The radiogram to the Columbia Phonograph Company announces the formation of the Vienna organization, to be known as the Austrian Ad- visory Body. A glance at the list of the names, making up this organization, reveals the import- ance which Austria attaches to the Schubert com- memoration program. Albert Washburn, American Minister; Dr. Karl Kobald, Ministry Education; Karl Seitz, Mayor of Vienna; Prof. Franz Schalk, Conductor State Opera; Franz Schneider-San, Director-General State Theaters; Prof. Alexander Munderer, President Vienna Philharmonic; Ferdinand Soesel, President Schubert Society; Prince Alexander of Thurntaxis, President Society Friends of Music; Dr. Ernest Kraus, Vice-President Society Friends of Music; Dr. Heinrich Krucki, President Vienna Men’s Choir; Prof. Max Springer, Director State Academy of Music; Prof. Joseph Marx, Rector State School of Music; Dr. TheQdor Koechert, President Vienna Concert Association; Prof. Guido Adler, University of Vienna. The artistic direction of the contest to complete Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony will be under the supervision of the Society of the Friends of Music and the other organizations mentioned above. The Society of the Friends of Music was organized in 1812. Schubert, as has been every great composer, was a member of this society, and the Society has the original manuscript of his Unfinished Symphony. Thus the affiliation with the guardians of the Schubert tradition insures that every phase of this remarkable international ih zy contest will be on a plane befitting the memory of Schubert. It will be the greatest tribute ever paid a composer. Unless the work, to which is awarded the Grand Prize, is declared worthy of such honor, it will not be accepted as the adequate completion of the Unfinished Symphony, although the money will be paid to the winners of each event as announced. These winning works will be played at concerts, recorded on phonograph records, and broadcast over the radio. The public will be given every opportunity of hearing these compositions. In this connection, it is interesting to note that Schubert's Unfinished Symphony is already re- corded in album form on three 12-inch, double- disc records, by Sir Henry J. Wood and The New Queen's Hall Orchestra as Set No. 41 of the Columbia Fine Art Series of Musical Master- works. It is hoped that, in addition to the tribute which this international contest will pay the name of Schubert, it will arouse deeper interest in Schu- bert and the compositions of the other musical immortals, will unearth latent musical talent, perhaps, genius, and will mark the first organized international exchange of musical expression in the one language which makes all the world akin, And added to all this, is the color of the historical background, with the fascination of attempting to solve the riddle of finishing the unfinished. Among the prominent Americans who were members of the Advisory Body of the Beethoven Centennial and will act in a similar capacity for the Schubert Centennial are: George Eastman, Chairman; John G. Agar, Jules S. Bache, William D. Baldwin, Bernard M. Baruch, James M. Beck! Stillman H. Bingham, Cornelius N. Bliss, John G. Bowman, Arthur Brisbane, Edwin C. Broome, Rev. S. Parkes Cadman! Sapiuel Harden Church, Frederick R. Coudert, John W. Davis, Robert W. De Forest, William T. Dewart, John Dewey, Lady Duveen, T. S. Eliot, Robert Erskine Ely, Livingstone Farrand, Mrs. Samuel S. Fels, W. P. Few, John H. Finley, Harry Harkness Flagler, Daniel Frohman, Hamlin Garland, Miss Virginia C. Gildersleeve, August Heckscher, Hamilton Holt, Richard Hooker, Ernest M. Hopkins, Charles E. Hughes, Frederic A. Juilliard, Vernon Kellogg, Mrs. J.F.D. Lanier, Mrs. Howard Linn, Clarence C. Little, Henry N. MacCracken, Rt. Rev. William T. Manning, Max Mason, Harold McCormick, Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick, A. c! Miller, Robert A. Millikan, William Fellowes Morgan, E. W. Newton. Cardinal O’Connell, William J. O’Shea, Miss Ellen F. Pendleton, Josiah H. Penniman, Ralph Pulitzer, E. Lansing Ray, Samuel W. Rcyburn, Mrs. Arthur Sachs, Frederick T. Steinway, Henry W. Taft, Augustus Thomas, Paul M. War- burg, William Allen White, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Guido Adler, Leopold Auer, Georges Barrere, Adolfo Betti, John Alden Carpenter, Mrs. Elizabeth S. Coolidge, Frank Damrosch, Walter Damrosch. Carl Engel, Carl Flesch, Daniel Chester French, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Rudolph Ganz, Alfred Hertz, Josef Hofmann, Willem van Hoogstraten, Robert Underwood Johnson, Serge Koussevitsky, Josef Lhevinne, Daniel Gregory Mason, Mme. Elly Ney, Felix Salmond, Carlos Salzedo, Ernest Schelling, Vladimir Shavitch, Nikolai Sokoloff, Walter R. Spalding, Frederick A. Stock, Gustav Strube, and Thomas Whitney Surette. In the September Issue: fe6 Lest We Forget" By PETER HUGH REED