Dear Composers:

You have been asked to write a piece for competition in the
Interplanetary Imaginary Music Festival & Barbeque (IIMF&B).

The piece is to be written for one of the four small groups in residence at the festival:

1. The Epsilon Wind Quintet (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn in F)
2. The Zeta Brass Quintet (2 Trumpets (Bb or C), Horn in F, Trombone, and Tuba).
3. The Xi String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola, and Cello)
4. The Tau Woodwind Octet (1^st Flute {doubling on Piccolo}, 2^nd Flute {doubling on Alto Flute}, 1^st Oboe, 2^nd Oboe {doubling on English horn}, 1^st Bb Clarinet {doubling on Eb Clarinet}, 2^nd Clarinet {doubling on Bb Bass Clarinet}, 1^st & 2^nd Bassoons {no doublings}, all doublings are optional, and the clarinets only have Bb instruments.)

5. To any of the above groups up to two percussion players maybe optionally added. The percussion players only have un-pitched percussion available to them.

The new music can be of any length and any number of movements, but the organizers recommend that the total duration should fall in the five to ten minute range. As there is just one month of composition time, organizers and voters will understand if the pieces are short, but sweet.

The theme is in reference to the fact that the planet Mars is making its closest approach to Earth, which last occurred some 59, 620 years ago. “Aldo Vitagliano, of the University of Naples in Italy, calculated that Mars hasn't had as close a brush with Earth since September 12, 57,617 B.C., when Neanderthals ruled but modern man had begun to make inroads.” (CNN.COM).

Pieces will be accepted up to Midnight PDT, Friday, October 3^rd, 2003. Pieces arriving after the cut off date will be accept solely at the discretion of the organizers. Entries for this competition will be ANONYMOUS, and should be submitted by email to co-organizer and web site owner, Hunter L. Brown at the IIMF&B headquarters address:
marsattacks@hunterleebrown.com

Entries can be submitted in one of two ways. Either send the .sib file alone for the organizers to create the HTML file to be posted on this site, or save the composition file as HTML in Sibelius and send both the HTML and the .sib file. There will be NO running count of how many entries are received, but organizers will post reminders of the contest bi-weekly to the sibeliusmusic.com chat page.

Title entries as: "59,620 YEARS" and as this is an anonymous competition, do not enter composer or copyright information that would reveal identity.

Pieces will be on display at http://www.hunterleebrown.com/sibcomp starting Saturday, October 4th, 2003.

Each entry must be a new composition, not one already in existence that has been revamped, and shall not have been posted to SibeliusMusic.com or previously published elsewhere.

Performance notes, or other pertinent information should be included with the entries and will be posted with the scores. Please provide instructions on how to display any notes.

Voting will begin on Sunday October 5th, 2003 and will continue through Saturday October 11th, 2003.

Votes must be cast by email to two people, Ed Sharpe and Hunter L. Brown. Their respective email addresses are: grovers_mill@earthlink.net and hunter@hunterleebrown.com.

Note: Ed above is using a special email address to receive votes. All other question and concerns for him should be sent to this address: edosbear@earthlink.net

Voters must vote for three pieces i.e., vote for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Votes will be counted as three points for first place, two points for second place, and one point for third place.

Entrants may vote, but not for their own entries. The organizers may not vote, since they will know who submitted what.

Voting will be open to anyone. If any suspicious circumstances arise, e.g. attempted ballot rigging, voting will be limited to known contributors to the SibeliusMusic chat page.

Entries must have a reasonable standard of musical and text layout.
Again, this will be the voters call, and not grounds for score rejection.

(The IIMF&B ensemble principals, however have asked that care be used in Mixer Channel and MIDI assignments for Sibelius file preparation. A good playback can better help them understand a piece and interpret it. They also are more inclined to want to play a good looking, logical score too.)

Entries will be checked by the organizers for compliance with the rules (mainly instrumentation and deadlines). If there is any non-compliance the entrants will be notified, and the entries may re-submit if they wish. However, the revision must be submitted before the deadline. Unresolved non-compliances will be documented when the entries are made available, and the voters can make the final judgment.

The organizers may enter. In this case, the other organizer shall check their work for competition compliance.

The Interplanetary Imaginary Music Festival & Barbeque, The Epsilon Wind Quintet, The Zeta Brass Quintet, The Xi String Quartet, and The Tau Woodwind Octet are all imaginary (made up, non-existent) groups created solely for the entertainment of the participants and the organizers of this friendly SibeliusMusic Chat page composition contest.