SCHUBERT CENTENARY

Evening Star, Issue 19794, 18 February 1928, Page 15

SCHUBERT CENTENARY

THE ‘ UNFINISHED SYMPHONY.’ A notice issued by the GeselJscbaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna to music composers in Austria, Czecho Slovakia, Hungary, and Rumania—“ the Austrian zone”—informs the general public that th© original international composers’ contest launched by the Columbia Graphophone Company for the Franz Schubert centenary year, by which that composer’s ‘ Unfinished Symphony ’ was to have been finished, has been abandoned. The scheme, it may be remembered, caused much adverse comment. The idea of_ an international composers’ contest is maintained. Its object, however, is no longer the supplementing of the composition named by two movements designed to complete the work. Indeed, music composers are required to produce original symphonic compositions of one or more movements, subject to certain conditions. The compositions, apart from faultless formal structure, must be marked by the predominance of a vigorous melodic content, and the number of instruments employed must not substantially exceed the measure established by the _ classical orchestras of Schubert’s time. The original plan for the competition has suffered no alteration. There is to be a principal and a second money award of £l5O and £SO respectively, and a certificate of' honor in each of the ten zones into which the musical, world has been mapped out for the purposes of this contest. Lastly, there is an award of £2,000 for the best of the thirty works submitted. The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna has retained the artistic trusteeship of the contest for the Austrian zone. The contest closes on March 31, 1928.