Blackburn Cathedral Advent Composition Competition

Kindly sponsored by Charles and Camilla Hadcock

Blackburn Cathedral is pleased to announce its third composition competition. The aim of this series of competitions is to provide new, accessible organ music of a high quality relating to important occasions in the church year. This third competition will contain one category for those aged 25 and under on 1st October 2024. There will be a first prize of £1000.

The organ voluntary should be considered as part of the service; a great deal of thought goes into repertoire choices by many organists. Once engaged, members of the congregation can find this a powerful liturgical tool, but in many churches a certain level of education is necessary to culture an interest in the music being played rather than being dismissed as being something played in the background to be talked over.

In this third competition:

Composers are invited to submit a composition of around three minutes in length which will be suitable for use as the processional piece at the start of the Cathedral’s Advent Carol Service, listened to in silence as the clergy and choir process in.

The work must be based on either the chorale “Wachet auf” or the “Veni Emmanuel” plainsong. The mood should be triumphant and expectant, but shouldn’t overshadow the pending arrival of Christmas.

•  All scores must be submitted by 1st October 2024 to [email protected]

•  All scores must be typeset by a standard music notation programme – ideally Sibelius

•  The level of difficulty should be no greater than Grade 8 ABRSM standard

•  All scores must be unperformed and unpublished

The competition will be judged by Paul Mealor (Royal Composer and Artistic Director of the North Wales International Music Festival), Colin Walsh (Organist Emeritus of Lincoln Cathedral) and John Hosking (Organist in Residence, Blackburn Cathedral).

It is hoped that future competitions will yield a quality of compositions worthy to be published by the Blackburn Cathedral Music Press in a collection of organ music for the liturgical year. All submissions are made on the understanding that publication may follow to support the work of Blackburn Cathedral.

Both the winner and selected runners up will be invited to the Cathedral for the day on Advent Sunday to hear their works performed and take part in a composition workshop with complimentary lunches provided.