Concert Title: Tombeau de Claude Debussy à travers la Mer (Memorial to Claude Debussy across the Sea)
Performance: Sunday, March 25th, 2018, at 3:00 PM (100 years to the day)
Venue: Community Music Center, 3350 SE Francis St., Portland, OR, 97202
Submission Deadline: 11:59 PM PST, Monday, November 27th, 2017
Eligibility: All Cascadia members in good standing.
Concert theme: Works should be written specifically to memorialize Claude Debussy as one of the first, if not the first composer of the modern era. You are strongly encouraged to write a new work for the concert, but appropriate (as determined by curators) previously written works are also acceptable. You should express yourself in your own voice; pastiche is acceptable, but not expected. Curator will be Jeff Winslow.
Instrumentation: This is a “composers and friends” concert, which means composers pay for their own performers. Guidance will be available for lining up and paying musicians, especially for out of town members. Only certain ensembles are allowed, but there are many to choose from. They are intended to evoke and honor two sets of works, Debussy’s last chamber sonatas (planned as well as completed) and the works played at the Debussy memorial concert performed on January 24, 1921 in Paris, which featured works by Ravel, Satie, Bartók, de Falla, Dukas, Roussel, and Stravinsky.
The allowed forces are:
- Piano solo
- Any plucked instrument solo (for example: harp, guitar, harpsichord)
- Song with piano accompaniment (preferred, other accompaniments from the allowed ensembles at curator’s discretion)
- Piano + violin OR cello
- Violin + cello
- Piano + trumpet + clarinet + bassoon, OR any three of these
- Any plucked instrument + any two of flute, viola, oboe, (French) horn
- Wind quintet, optionally with added piano OR plucked instrument OR trumpet
Submission procedure: Anonymous submission isn’t required, but please do make sure the duration is displayed prominently on the score. Composers may submit up to two works, but at most one can be performed. (Curator privilege says he might get two.) Strong preference will be given to works under 8 minutes. It’s less than usual because we’re aiming to fit works by 10 composers on the program, just like in 1921, and the target total concert time is 90-105 minutes.
Submit the following through the submission form on the Cascadia website.
- Score in PDF format.
- Recording if available (MIDI is OK if none is) in MP3 format. A link may be submitted instead, but note that MP3’s up to 25MB can now be submitted.
- Text file in standard format (such as .txt, .doc, .rtf or .pdf), with the title, composer, program notes, bio, and any other information pertaining to the piece which may be of interest.
- Lyrics permission – If there are lyrics which are not in the public domain, include a text file in a standard format showing you have permission to use them.
Selections will be announced no later than December 2nd, 2017, and composers should plan to line up musicians (again, help is available if you need it) and get any needed parts to them in the following week, or two weeks at most.
This concert is part of a three-day festival commemorating the life, works, and influence of Claude Debussy. Please see the next page for more details.
Questions? Please contact Jeff Winslow at jeffw@rdrop.com.
Thank you and good luck!
Jeff Winslow for Cascadia Composers (chapter of NACUSA)
More information and context: The concert is part of March Music Moderne VI: Tombeau de Claude Debussy. Bob Priest, festival founder and director, is planning five concerts over three days including this one. The other four concerts are planned to include these works among others (by Debussy unless otherwise noted):
- The three late chamber sonatas
- Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune – Ravel arrangement for piano 4-hands
- Chansons de Bilitis
- Piano prelude: General Lavine, eccentric, arranged for string trio
- de Falla, Homenaje for guitar solo
- Stravinsky’s solo piano version of “Symphonies of Wind Instruments”
Feel free to be inspired by or make connections to any of these works when writing yours, or ignore them completely, just as you wish.