Rock the (New Music) Vote: Masterprize 2003
If you need a warm up before the Democratic primary, you still have a few days left to vote for your favorite of the six compositions that have made it to the final round of the 2003 Masterprize competition. For those who find themselves frequently disagreeing with the new music cognoscenti who program concerts and write reviews, this is your chance to speak out (well, sort of—of the some 1,000 compositions entered, two star-studded juries have already narrowed it down to six for you).
An audio stream of each work in its entirety is posted on the Masterprize Web site and an electronic ballot is available there. A CD of the pieces also appears on the front cover of both Gramophone (November issue) and Classic FM Magazine (October issue).
Of those six finalists, two are American—Christopher Theofanidis was selected for Rainbow Body and Robert Henderson for his Einstein’s Violin. Both works are scored for full orchestra and run less than 15 minutes.
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On October 30, 2003, the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding will perform them all at a gala event at Barbican Center, the finale of a 16-month process. At the end of the concert on Thursday the public vote that was cast prior to the concert (you can vote online here) will be combined with that of the audience in the hall (5% of the total), a celebrity jury also present in the hall (40% of the total), and players from the LSO (10% of the total).
The winner will receive a cash prize of £25,000.
Former British diplomat John McLaren, concerned about the health of new music and its relationship with its audience, launched the competition in 1996 with a clear personal mission to attempt to both end the myth that “no composer can expect to be appreciated in his lifetime” and “to send a signal to composers that it is possible to write for a broad international audience, without dumbing down or in any way compromising artistically. To try to persuade them that it’s good to have an audience and that the audience reaction is a valid one.”
An audience vote in what was previously a more private affair is perhaps less shocking in an age of reality TV shows, but the competition continues to take flack from those who don’t feel the public has a role in this artistic process. McLaren counters that “we’ve never said music should be tonal or harmonic or melodic or anything. We’ve never once said x is good and y is bad. All we’ve said is that eventually the measure of it has to be: does anybody like it.”
As for the composers themselves, they are just pleasantly surprised to be part of the process. Henderson told Dina Mishev of the Jackson Hole News and Guide that he hadn’t even planned to enter the competition. He thought Einstein’s Violin “wasn’t avant-garde enough,” and described it as one of his most conservative works. His wife, Sara, pushed for the entry and even filled out the forms.
Theofanidis, for his part, finds the whole thing “kind of a neat idea, an experiment to see how they can better bridge the gap between the public and performer/composer types.” With so many different competitions of a more secret and acedemic nature to choose from, perhaps Masterprize is just a new way to approach the daunting task of judging new music.
And win or lose, every finalist’s work does get numerous radio broadcasts, media attention, and an LSO performance at the Barbican. “It’s kind of like Oscar night,” admits Theofanidis with a laugh. “It’s just nice to be nominated.”