The initiative aims to promote contemporary sacred music, inviting composers to express their deep spiritual experience or the transcendence they possess as human beings. This language is the manifestation of man’s intimate relationship with the Supreme Being, as the Founder of the Prize, Fernando Rielo, tells us:
“Sacred music is the mystical feeling of the human spirit, which expresses its filial communication with God, invoked in the most qualified harmony that the communicative technique of musical language can produce.
Good taste, the synthesis of truth, goodness, and beauty, leads the artist to confess, through musical talent or practice, his mystical union with God. The sacred character of music is only possible by the constitutive mystical condition of the human being.
The quality of sacred music, not reduced exclusively to the cult or liturgical, consists of the greatest charismatic evocation that, with cultivated technique, offers our sensitivity to the highest spiritual values of man.
BASES:
1. The Fernando Rielo Foundation announces the 11th edition of the Fernando Rielo International Sacred Music Composition Award, whose decision will take place in a public event to be held in Madrid in the month of November 2025, in which the works will be performed finalists.
2. The Contest is open to composers from any country without age limit.
3. The works submitted for the award must be written for mixed choir and chamber orchestra, with a minimum string orchestra staff (5 violins I, 4 violins II, 3 violas, 2 cellos and 1 double bass). To the aforementioned orchestra can be freely added: 1 flute, 1 oboe, 1 clarinet, 1 bassoon, 1 horn, 1 trumpet and 1 trombone.
4. The text to be set to music will be inspired by the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 4-8: “Love is patient, it is benign; love does not envy, does not boast, does not conceit; it is not unseemly or selfish; does not get irritated; he does not keep accounts of evil; he does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices in the truth. He excuses everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. Love never passes away” (1Cor,13, 4-8) in Latin or in its corresponding translation in the language chosen by the composer.
5. The submitted score, lasting between 10 and 15 minutes, must be: original, unpublished, not performed in public, not submitted to another competition, clearly legible and on paper. Contestants must send 5 copies of it.
6. In order to ensure the complete anonymity of the contestant, the motto will appear clearly legible at the head of the score. It will be accompanied by a closed envelope, externally identified with the same motto, which will contain the participant’s data: name, date of birth, nationality, postal address, contact telephone number, email, resume and current photograph. Any indication external to the aforementioned envelope that reveals the identity of the composer will lead to the disqualification of the work.
7. Participation in the Prize is free. The cost of shipping the score must be borne by the participant.
8. The deadline for admission of works ends on April 30, 2025. The works must be sent to the Contest Headquarters, at the following address:
Fernando Rielo C/ Hermosilla, International Prize for Sacred Music Composition
5, 3º. 28001 Madrid – Spain
9. The Award Jury will be made up of musicians of recognized prestige at the national and international level. The decisions of the Jury, taken by absolute majority, are sovereign and unappealable. The submission of originals to this Award implies full acceptance of its Rules.
10. The Jury may choose up to four finalist works. Once selected, the tenders will be opened with the personal data of their authors, who will be notified immediately. These will undertake to send, within a maximum period of three weeks, the choir score with the piano reduction of the orchestra and the parts, with the rehearsal numbers in perfect coincidence with those of the score, given that said works will be performed in public—after rehearsals—in the event of the ruling and proclamation of the award-winning work.
11. The Prize, offered by the Fernando Rielo Foundation, has a prize of €5,000. The Jury may attribute special mentions to the other finalist works, or declare it void. The result of the Award will be published in the media and on the Foundation’s website.
12. The public performance of the finalist works on the day of the decision may be recorded live. Which entails the implicit authorization of the finalists for promotional dissemination through digital media. In all written references to the finalist compositions, the award obtained in the XI Fernando Rielo International Sacred Music Composition Prize must be stated.
13. The scores of the non-awarded works will be destroyed 30 days after the ruling.
14. Once the winning composition is proclaimed, the data of the contestants will become part of the Foundation’s file, in order to keep them informed of the next editions of the prize and other cultural activities specific to it. You can unsubscribe at any time by writing to the following email: [email protected]
15. Participation in the Contest implies full acceptance of these rules. In case of controversy, the Court of Madrid will be competent, and only the text in Spanish will be considered official. For what is not explicitly provided for in these bases, reference is made to the provisions of the Spanish Civil Code, and to the Spanish laws that regulate the specific matter.
For more information: [email protected] – www.rielo.org
