Arrangement competition for the “German-Jewish Songbook of 1912”

The German Choral Association (DCV), in cooperation with the German-Israeli research project “Project 2025 – Arche Musica” and Schott Music, is organizing an arrangement competition on the German-Jewish Songbook of 1912. The aim of the competition is to stimulate an active choral culture of remembrance and engagement with Jewish musical culture.

The songbook is unique in its type and conception worldwide. The author Abraham Zwi Idelsohn (1882-1938) created it as a collection of the most popular Hebrew and German songs and conceived it as a fundamental music education work for music lessons in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in Eastern Europe, Palestine, Germany and the diaspora. Published by the Berlin “Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden”, it was largely financed by the Berlin patron James Simon, the founder and chairman of the association. It is an outstanding example of the equal use of Hebrew and German music at the beginning of the 20th century.

The bilingual layout of the songbook is exceptional, with the musical notation in the Hebrew part of the song collection being notated from right to left in the same way as the Hebrew script. It is the first work of this kind to be documented. The original, preserved in the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, formed the basis of the new edition published by Schott Music in 2022. Under the academic direction of Dr. Gila Flam, Director of the Music Archive of the National Library of Israel in Tel Aviv, the scholarly editing of the 149 titles was carried out, i.e. in particular the transliteration of the Hebrew texts and the transcription of the musical material of the approximately 100 Jewish songs.

The complete material is digitally accessible at: 
https://www.arche-musica.org/work/sefer-ha-shirim-das-buch-der-lieder/

Conditions of participation:

• Composers who have Israeli or German citizenship or are resident in Israel or Germany are eligible to participate. Only one entry per person may be submitted to the competition.
• In addition to the score (PDF without attribution), an application form, a concept letter, a short biography and a photo must be submitted. The competition will be conducted anonymously; personalized information will be separated from the material that is passed on to the jury.
• Deadline for submissions is 31 December 2024.
• Submit the files to: projektbuero@deutscher-chorverband.de
• Submission format: works should be submitted in digital form, preferably as an xml music file and as a PDF and – if possible – also as a midi file.
• If possible, please submit the arrangement in a file created with a widely used music notation software such as Dorico, Finale or Sibelius. 

Criteria:

• The composers should engage with the theme of musical remembrance culture and create two new arrangements of one title, each from the Hebrew and German-language sections of the songbook. It is also possible to combine two originals in one arrangement.
• The total length of both compositions must not exceed 6-10 minutes and must be a cappella or accompanied by piano or guitar and unamplified. Vocal or body percussion elements may be incorporated. Other non-vocal elements are not permitted.
• The vocal distribution may be in two to four voices. The target group (children's, youth, adult choir, etc.) and the instrumentation (equal or mixed voices) can be freely chosen.
• The submitted arrangements may not have been performed, published or entered into another competition.
• A jury of choral music experts will evaluate the compositions according to their innovative value, vocal approach, depth of effect of the compositional ideas and compositional concept with regard to the chosen template and the idea of the musical culture of remembrance. 
  Ideas that enrich choral music with a new or changed element are considered innovative – these can be extended vocal and sound techniques as well as ideas for performance practice (e.g. of a dramaturgical nature). 
  Another important criterion for the jury is the practical feasibility of the compositions for amateur choirs.
• The publishing prize is awarded by Schott Music to three composers.

Prizes:

• Jury prizes:
  The prize money of up to €20,000 can be divided into two categories by the jury: 1. arrangements for mixed voices and 2. arrangements for equal voices. The jury is free to decide on the exact distribution and awarding of prize money based on the quality and number of works submitted.
• Publishing prize: 
  The prize-winning compositions will be published by Schott Music.
• All finalists will receive a free participation ticket for the Chorfest 2025. Travel and accommodation costs for the finalists in Germany will be subsidized up to an amount of €500 per person.

Jury:

The jury is chaired by Danny Donner (conductor, composer and head of the music department of the Tel Aviv School of Arts) and Stephan Doormann (choral conductor, music teacher and artistic director of chor.com). The jury will be composed of an equal number of jury members from Israel and Germany.

Legal framework:

• The copyright remains with the arrangers.
• The competition participants declare their consent to radio and television recordings and recordings by the organizer of the Chorfest 2025 and chor.com 2026 as well as recordings on sound and image carriers (including their reproduction and exploitation) in connection with the competition, the Chorfest and chor.com. The musical works of the participants reproduced on these image and/or sound recordings may be reproduced, distributed, performed, combined with other types of works, broadcast and/or made available to the public without restriction in terms of subject matter, time and place, as long as these image and/or sound recordings are used for non-commercial purpose or in press coverage.
• Legal recourse is excluded in all aspects of the competition.

Click here for the arrangement competition details as PDF:
Arrangementwettbewerb (English)