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The plusses, pitfalls and prospects of electro-acoustic music: last November Musica Nova, the international competition in electro-acoustic (EA) music took place in Prague. Already in its 16th year, the competition attracted 85 pieces by composers from 26 countries.

Article Excerpt
It has two categories: purely electro-acoustic music (Category A) and music combining electronics with a live instrument or voice (Category B). The winning pieces were presented together with their authors at a concert in the Czech Museum of Fine Arts in Prague on the 14th of December. In Category A the laurels went to the Scot James Wyness for devoiler, deplier ... (1st Place), the French Charles Eduard Platel for Sawlogy (2nd Place) and in Category B to the Portuguese Joao Pedro Oliveira for Leaccordeon du diable (1st Place) and the Korean living in the USA Kyong Mee Choi for Slight Uncertainty is Very Attractive (2nd Place). The concert also features Michal Rataj's Dreaming Life from the Czech round of the competition and pieces by the youngest composers to win an award in both categories, i.e. the Canadian Valerie Delaney (Category A, Different Shades of Blue) and the German Bernd Schumann (Category B, Heranreifende Unausbleiblichkeiten). As always, the concert and competition were organised by the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music, with support from the Ministry of Culture, the Prague City Authority and music foundations.

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The Prague competition was founded in 1969 and like other long-standing festivals with a clear focus and wide competitor base it is to some extent an evolving document of the changes in practice, taste and theory. The competition is not anonymous and it requires composers to offer...