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Gert Triller Award for Music Culture - Announcement 2017

Aim of the Award

Notenspur Leipzig e.V. and Musikpavillon, Fa. E. Wiedenmann e.K., jointly offer the Gert Triller Award for Music Culture. With this award, the sponsors want to promote the research and development of Leipzig's musical culture and honour Gert Triller's commitment to the Leipzig Notenspur initiative.

The Dedicatee of the Award

Gert Triller, born in 1934, passed away in October 2015 at the age of 81 after a long illness. He named the non-profit Notenspur-Förderverein as a partial heir in his will, without the association's knowledge and without any direct contact with the Notenspur Association prior to his death.

Gert Triller worked almost all his life at the heavy machinery combine TAKRAF, where he was responsible for the transport of heavy-duty cranes and often worked as a crane driver himself.

He much preferred to be out in the countryside than in concert halls.

Gert Triller stands for the many citizens of Leipzig who are not and have never been in the limelight, and yet are committed to their city without being noticed. In the best Leipzig tradition, Gert Triller continues to advocate for Leipzig even after his death.

Content of the Application Entries

The first award of the Gert Triller Prize is offered for work on the research of "music in nature" in Leipzig in the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the 1st World War.

The 19th century saw the emergence of a movement fed by various sources such as the Enlightenment, natural philosophy and Romanticism, in which even the inhabitants of the cities once again saw themselves as part of nature and the experience of nature was desirable for all classes of the population. In the villages, meadows and parks around Leipzig, places were created for spending time in nature, which at the same time served the enjoyment of culture. Coffee gardens, restaurants and inns outside of the city and pavilions were often places of regular music practice. This topic has hardly been researched systematically so far, and a lot of musicological and cultural-historical exploratory work needs to be done.

The period to which the application contributions refer should be limited by the great social upheavals marked by the end of the Napoleonic Wars and World War I. The arc in this hitherto neglected subject area stretches from Kintschy's Schweizerhaus (a café) in the Rosental park – whose musical events were frequently attended by Lortzing, Schumann and Wagner – to the park concerts of the military bands and the inauguration of the music pavilion in 1912 in what was then King Albert Park.

The submitted works do not have to refer to the entire named period.

The following questions, among others, can be pursued:

Which places in the park with which musical repertoire were frequently visited by which sections of the population?

Which musicians played there?

What were the connections between these places?

What role did culture in the green play in urban development and urban politics?

Eligibility and Submission

In accordance with the wishes of the decendent, the competition is intended to appeal to a wide circle of potential participants. Individual works can be submitted, e.g. by persons with musicological or cultural-historical expertise, and group works, e.g. by school study groups of upper grades or work groups of the senior academy.

Applications must be submitted in digital form on a data carrier and also as a print version. Outline and formatting are not required.

The application papers are to be submitted free of charge to the addressee under the keyword "Gert-Triller-Preis für Musikkultur" at the following address:

Leipziger Notenspur Leipzig e.V.
c/o University of Leipzig

Grimmaische Street 12
04109 Leipzig

Deadline for Submission of Entries: 31.03.2017.

The date of submission is deemed to be the date stamp of the post office or courier service, which in case of doubt must be irrefutably proven by the submitter.

The application entries will not be returned after completion of the evaluation process but will become the property of the awarding authority.