"You can choose to spin or you can choose to choose. If you choose to spin, you can land on spin, or choice, or lose a spin, or lose a choice, or..."
The more eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that I've drastically updated my list of potential contests (and added in my most recent submission). The problem with adding more contests to the list, however, is that without quitting my full-time job (which, yes Andrew, I do have) I cannot enter all four that end approximately a month from now. In fact, with Kim's parents coming toward the end of the month and with my new part-time job, I'll be lucky to pull off two of the four. So. Help me choose:
a) Dr. J. Howland Auchincloss Prize. 10-to-12-minute chamber piece that uses the fortepiano (not to be confused with our modern pianos). $1500 first price; no other prices. Pros: How many entrants can there be in a contest that's writing music for a fortepiano? Cons: 10-12 minutes might very well take up all my composing time of the month.
b) Young Film Composers Competition. 1-minute score of one of the four silent film clips on Turner Classic Movies' site. $10,000 first price; five finalists all receive free trip to Los Angeles and some musical gear. Pros: Big money! Five of us get to go to L.A.! Only one minute of composing! Cons: There's almost certainly many, many people submitting music to this.
c) Elisabeth Schneider Prize 2005. Score of whatever length I'd like in some combination of 3-10 instruments. About $17,000 (depending on the strength of the Euro) split among three people. Pros: Big money! For three of us! Given the vagueness of the guidelines, I might be able to fashion one of my already-in-progress pieces into an appropriate work for the contest. Cons: This is probably like the Pulitzer Prize of European composing (pure conjecture, but given the prize money...), and they are going to laugh at my piece when they receive it.
d) Meistersingers Choral Composition Competition. 4-8 minute choral piece. $1000 first price; no other prices. Pros: First time they've held it; could keep number of entrants low. Choral pieces are somewhat easier for me to write. Cons: Prize money comparably low. All or nothing for the prizes.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
