Composition Competition
I am delighted to be a judge for this prestigious composition competition especially at this very difficult time for musicians. Please find below a press release I have taken from the Royal Celtic Society website with all info/terms and conditions at the bottom.
Very best of luck to all composers and musicians alike.
Competition for a new Musical Composition Announced
Three of Scotland’s most significant sporting and cultural bodies are coming together to offer a major set of prizes for an original musical composition marking the absence of shinty from this summer’s sporting calendar and looking forward to the return of play.
Led by the Royal Celtic Society, which is this year celebrating its 200th anniversary, and in partnership with the Glasgow Celtic Society and the Camanachd Association, supported by Tulloch Homes, the competition is offering three prizes totalling £1500 for an individual to compose an original composition.
The Royal Celtic Society had originally intended that the winnter of the competition could have been performed at this year’s Camanachd Cup Final at the post-match Final Fling. That game has been postponed until next year, but the intention now is to have a musical shoot-out on that very date in September 2020, between the three best entrants, who will then share the prizes. The winner will get £750, the second place £500 and third place £250.
Speaking on behalf of the Royal Celtic Society, Chairman Alan Hay said: “We are all very keen to find a way of answering the challenge of the postponement of this year’s show-piece shinty event and the society did not want to ose the opportunit of marking our 200th year as we would have wished. We have come up with a unique collaboration when we will offer the country’s leading musicians a significant challenge with a major prize and using all the technology at our disposal, we believe we have come up with a format which will appeal to everyone and have a dramatic conclusion.”
Individual musicians are being asked to submit their composition, by recording them on their phones or camera, to a selection panel led by award winning musician Gary Innes of Manran, the BBC Scotland Take the Floor presenter, and former shinty captain of Scotland (pictured right). Gary said: “This competition, with such substantial prizes, comes at a hugely important time for musicians. Most are effectively redundant with public events having been cancelled for the foreseeable future. They will be very interested in entering a prestigious competition which ahs originality and a final performance at its core. We want the entrants to mark the fact that there will be no shinty season this year, but that, as it has done in the past, shinty will rise to the challenge and be at the front of our minds in the not too distant future.”
Gary will be joined on the panel by representatives of the Royal Celtic Society, the Glasgow Celtic Society and the Camanachd Association, who will be represented byClaire Delaney of Lochaber Camanachd.
Glasgow Celtic Society (whose cup is pictured right) President Donald Fletcher waid: “The Glasgow Celtic Society is delighted to play a part in such a prestigious and important competition in celebration of our culture. While the society in modern timeshas concentrated on the promotion of the game f shinty, its origins lie in the preservation and promotion of the language, literature, music, poetry, antiquities and athletic games of the Highlanders. It is fitting in this year when we cannot host what would be the 116th Scottish Sea Farms Challenge Cup Final, we are able to support this instead.
The Camanachd Association, which has re-scheduled the Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Final for Kingussie in 2021, has also welcomed this competition. President Keith Loades said: “The tree bodies involved in thishave been cumulatively supporting cultural and sporting events throughout Scotland for nine years less than 500. Music and sport and the Gaelic language have been intertwined in our work over all these years and we are sure this will bereflected in the quality of entry we will see and hear. We may not be getting the Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Final we wanted on September 19, but we will at least now have a musical final to look forward to and we wish all the entrants all the best in their endeavours.”
Guidance and rules for entrants
1. The competition will be for a solo artist to compose an original piece of music which marks the current situation of no shinty being played for this season; the fact that this has only happened twice before, during WW1 and WW2; and reflects a sense of optimism for renewal of the game in the coming year(s).
2. Your composition can be of any length and entrants should offer a description of the piece in no more than 100 words.
3. Entrants will have eight weeks to compose the tune and submit a phone recording on vide to the Royal Celtic Society for assessment.
4. The three best tunes will be chosen by the judging panel, and the composer invited to a live play-off (online unless circumstances change) to decide on the winner and the runners up.
5. The selection of finalists would be made by a panel comprising a Royal Celtic Society representative, Gary Innes (Chair), Claire Delaney, Lochaber Camanachd Club and a representative of the Glasgow Celtic Society.
6. The winner will undertake to perform the piece live in the future at an event in circumstances to be agreed with the Royal Celtic Society, such as a shinty related dance/event or some other traditional music event.
Timetable
Wednesday 10 June: competition launched
Wednesday 5 August: all entries submitted to hughdan1@hotmail.co.uk
Wednesday 26 August: selection of entries completed by the judges
Friday 28 August: Finalists announced
Saturday 29 September: Final shoot-out (arrangements to be confirmed) and prizes awarded