Invitation for entries to the
2015 Gustav Mahler Composition Prize
of the City of Klagenfurt
The international Gustav Mahler Composition Prize 2015 continues the tradition of inspiring
female and male composers to engage in unusual themes. This year the theme for the
Musikforum Viktring is “NEW WORLDS: Latin America meets Europe”. In Brazil alone, there
are around 900.000 indigenous persons from about 240 peoples. A musical poem is to be
composed in appreciation of the endangered indigenous peoples of the world, based on the
following text:
De infinitas melodías
un arco iris de olores y colores
acaricia la tierra.
Gvencen sonríe
Y los pájaros werkenes
Cantan
una nueva melodía libertaria.
With infinite melodies
a rainbow of scents and colours
caresses the earth.
Gvencen* smiles
and the birds as messengers
sing
a new melody of liberty.
Rayen Kvyehi
*Gvencen = Ngenechen, the highest god of the Mapuche, to whom the creation of the world is
contributed.
About 5000 indigenous cultures and in the meantime 300 to 500 million members of
indigeneous people currently live in at least 70 countries on this planet. They are
distinguished by their own language, their own spiritual imagination and their territories and
almost all of them are endangered in their existence by “civilising“ intrusions.
The Mapuche iiElicura Chihuailaf, General Secretary of the group of indigenous
writers of Chile and one of the most important indigenous poets, says in his work “Of Blue
Dreams and Anti-dreams”: “We are confronted with a system which drives all humankind to
self-destruction. It leads to the destruction of life, animals and plants.”
Conditions of Entry
Female and male composers of any nationality without limitation of age are invited to submit
to the 18th Gustav Mahler Composition Prize of the City of Klagenfurt. The compositions
submitted must have neither been published nor first performed prior to the laureate concert
(18th July 2015). The authors will provide the score (directing score and voices) free of charge
and in good time. Only one work can be submitted per participant.
The works chosen will be premiered by the MAX BRAND ENSEMBLE, the Lower Austrian
Ensemble for New Music, under their conductor Christoph Cech
Ensemble
Guitar solo - Jonathan Bolívar
4 violins, 3 violas, 2 celli, double bass
Marimbaphone
Electronics - Johannes Kretz
The form of the piece for submission
The treatment of the given instrumental ensemble does not need closer illustration, except to
say that the guitar, the central instrument of Latin America, should be given a special solo
part. The inclusion of electronics in the canon is a specialty of the MAX BRAND ENSEMBLE,
and should be designed for the composition according to the following criteria of Johann
Kretz, who will realize this part. Four loudspeakers will be provided on stage (no
quadrophony, no octophony, no additional monitor-loudspeakers); an analogue mixing
console will be available (16 input channels, 4 output channels).
Feeds from a laptop (stereo or 4-channel) are possible; please make the audio files available
in the formats WAF or AIFF, one file each per audio channel. The electronic material enclosed
with the compositions ( on CD,CD-ROM,DVD-ROM, USB-stick or via download) must not
exceed a total amount of data of 1GByte per composition.
Live-electronics are also possible, within the following constraints:
 Maximum of 6 microphones (capacitor) from stage to laptop.
 Use of common live electronics effects: harmonizer, frequency shifter, ring modulator,
delays, hall, freezing, live recording/playback, distortion).
 If more complex electronics are to be used, a matching MaxMSP-patch has to be
attached, which can be executed on the following hardware/software:
- MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Intel core i7,8GB Ram
- sound card: MOTU UltraLight mk3 Hybrid with a maximum of 6 input and 4 output
channels
 The use of video projection is not scheduled.
Length of the composition : minimum 8 and maximum 15 minutes.
Use of part of the ensemble is not permitted.
Compositions from the developing field of improvised music, jazz and New Music are
welcome. The MAX BRAND ENSEMBLE is looking forward to receiving clear, precise scores,
which do not comply with any notation conventions, but serve 100% the intention of the
composition’s design.
Provisions of the invitation
No age limit.
Final date of submission is 29th May 2015.
Jury
Chair: Dieter Kaufmann
Members: Christoph Cech, Dieter Glawischnig, Manuela Kerer, Wolfgang Mitterer,
Antun Tomislav Šaban
The jury will reach its decision on Saturday, 13th of June 2015.
Prizes
The following prizes will be awarded by the City of Klagenfurt and the Federal State of
Carinthia:
1st prize
€ 4.000,-
2nd prize
€ 3.000,-
3rd prize
€ 2.500,-
Mode of submission
The compositions are to be submitted in the form of four copies of the score by post and a
pdf file by e-mail to office@musikforum.at .The full first and family name of the composer
must be given within the text of the e-mail. The pdf files are forwarded to the jurors by the
Musikforum anonymously, with a number added. Together with the composition, the
application form, filled in and signed, must be placed in a sealed envelope with only the title
of the composition written on it. The original score (bound, pages numbered, the composer’s
name must nowhere be visible, the cover page must have the title of the piece) has to be
submitted by the 29th May (dated postmark) to the address of the Musikforum.
MUSIKFORUM VIKTRING-KLAGENFURT
Kennwort “Gustav Mahler Kompositinspreis 2015”
Stift-Viktring-Straße 25
9073 Viktring
Austria
First performances
The three works chosen by the jurors will be rehearsed at the Musikforum Viktring from 15th
to 18th July with the composers present and presented to the public on 18th July 2015.
The concert will be recorded by the ORF Kärnten and broadcast on Ö1.
iRayen Kvyeh writes poems and plays and fights for the rights of the indigenous people of Chile.
“During the dictatorship people disappeared, were imprisoned and killed; today more modern
methods are used to make the Mapuche disappear” says Rayen, which means something like “flower
of the moon”. By that she means business projects opening up the land, often to the detriment of the
Mapuche territories and favoring foreign corporations: dams, eucalyptus plantations, salmon breeding.
Rayen was born in the south of Chile and grew up in the comunidades indigenas (reserves). Therefore
she knows from her own experience the misery and oppression of these indigenous people of Chile
and Argentina. Since her youth has she been engaged as an activist and researcher in the Mapuche
movement. During the military dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990) she was imprisoned three times and
tortured in prison. From 1982 to 1984 she lived in Freiburg i.B., following that she spent several years
with the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua. She illegally returned to Chile where she, forced underground,
wrote numerous plays, in which she denounced the military dictatorship. Rayen Kvyeh belongs to the
few Mapuche writers who write both in Spanish and in Mapudungun, the Mapuche language.
Her poems have by now been translated into several languages, and have been published in several
countries, among them Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Cuba, and Mexico. In 1995 she was awarded the
Jose-Maria-Heredia-medal in Santiago de Cuba, for her lyric oevre. In 2006 she received the BrunoCarli-Prize in Italy, and in 2007 the Nósside international lyric prize, also in Italy. Rayen lives and works
in Temuco, Southern Chile.
The Mapuche - in former times called Araukans, together with other peoples of the area - are an
indigenous people of South America. Their ancestral land stretches across the states of Chile and
Argentina. The Mapuche divide up into various regional identities, such as, for example, the Picunche
(people of the north), the Huilliche, the Lafkenche (people of the sea), the Wenteche (people of the
valleys) and the Pehuenche, who form the biggest and best known group. Already in Pre-Colombian
times the Picunche, the people of the north, were conquered and enslaved by the Incas, whereby the
land structures, however, remained the same. The Huilliche, also called the people of the south, were
mostly farmers or fishermen by tradition. The Mapuche (more precisely: the Pehuenche and parts of
ii
the Hulliche) defied the Spanish colonisation with fierce and, in contrast to the majority of indigenous
peoples of America, frequently successful opposition.