We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 4th annual (2012-2013) UnTwelve International Composition Competition!

1st prize ($500): Jason Yerger (USA) Known Unknowns
2nd prize ($250): Alex Wand and Brendan Byrnes(USA) The plain of jars
3rd prize ($150): Osnat Youssin (Israel) The morning of the birds
With an Honorable Mention (no cash prize): Nicholas Cline (USA), Homage to La Monte Young

Here are the rest of the entries:

Sean Archibald (UK) Neon Tetra Elemental
Lewis Krauthamer (USA) Go Down That Hill (Piedmont Rag No. 1)
Nicholas Shaheed (USA) 17edo piano duet
Prent Rodgers (USA) Honestly
Matthieu Jacquot (France) Your reflection in the mirror will never see you
Curtis Macdonald (Canada/USA) Prelude and Improvisation for Lo Shu
Ben Richter (USA) Destabilization
Vincento Barrientos-Yepez (Mexico) Ave Maria
Claudi Meneghin (Switerland/Lombardy) Fantasia Catalana
Joshua Musikantow (USA) Small Feets
John Coutts (Australia) Zongoozie
Andrew Milne (UK) Rocket Socks
James Ross (USA) Apophenia
Donald Craig (USA) In The Gallery
Xo Xinh (USA) Duodecim
Ian Jickling (USA) Then Spring
Vincenzo Sicurella (USA) Marblemuss Meets Armodamo
Todd Harrop (Germany) Easter Island
Peter Kosmorsky (USA) A Sham

If you are interested, check out the composer's interesting program notes and bios! We also have interviews with Jason Yerger , Alex Wand/Brendan Byrnes, Osnat Youssin, and Nicholas Cline up now.

Below is the original announcement for the competition:

UnTwelve announces 2012-2013 Microtonal Composition Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 2012-11-17

Chicago, IL - UnTwelve is pleased to offer our fourth annual competition for composers in the budding field of new tunings, temperaments, and microtonality. The competition welcomes new works of recorded music which reflect the potential of using tunings systems and temperaments other than 12-tone equal temperament.

First prize is $500.00 (USD); we will also recognize 2nd prize ($250) and 3rd prize ($150) finalists. For those interested in creating works for live players, we invite you to compose works this year for 1 to 2 solo retuned digital pianos, with or w/o electronic accompaniment which would be premiered on an UnTwelve concert series in 2013. If you go the route of preparing a piece for live performance, even if it doesn't win 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place, it may still receive a public performance.

Eligibility Rules

• The contest is international and open to persons of all ages, except board members or direct affiliates to UnTwelve.
• There is no required fee for submission.
• Only one work per applicant will be considered.
• Works are suggested to be between 4 and 10 minutes in length. You may submit shorter or longer works; however, all else being equal, your chances of being considered diminish proportionally to your difference from this suggested range.
• Works submitted must be composed specifically for this competition.
• Works must be in a tuning or temperament significantly different from 12-tone equal temperament. Such alternative systems include: extended just intonation; any non-12 equal division of the octave; non-octave scales e.g. Bohlen-Pierce; recurrent sequence scales; found or empirically-derived tunings; or any tunings invented by the composer based on mathematical principles or formulae, etc. See the Scala scale archive or the Xenharmonic Wiki for more ideas.
• In order to eliminate entries which are not truly microtonal, as we have had in years past, we have a new requirement: you must cut and paste a SCALA file description of the tuning used into the entry form. The submission engine will not accept any entry where this information is not present, and sorry, it will not accept .TUN format either.
• Following the competition, UnTwelve reserves the right to have the audio of your entry piece linked to from our website. 1st through 3rd place winners must allow public access to their work in this way; and for non-finalists, only in the event of you writing in to request removing audio links will your audio be removed. Please note that this procedure is the opposite of previous years! By entering your submission, you implicitly agree to these terms.

Additional requirements and details for live piano works.

• Only un-premiered works for up to 2 pianists playing retuned, remapped digital pianos, with optional pre-recorded electronics, may be submitted.
• In addition to the required FLAC recording of the work, you must submit a performance score in PDF. This score must be notated in scordatura, such that the written notes indicate the keys to be played, not the sounding pitches.
• The tuning/mapping scheme must be specified in the score. Non-linear mappings that would be impossible on an acoustic piano are encouraged! Any tuning changes mid-piece must occur during a rest of appropriate duration.
• Although you may choose any tuning which would work on a standard keyboard for 1 or 2 live players, we encourage you to add to the growing body of works for 2 pianos in 17edo and 19edo.

Submission and Judging

• Works will judged on the basis of their recorded form, to be submitted in FLAC audio format. Scores will only be used to accompany works composed for live piano(s) but the judging will still be based on an audio mock-up of such works.
• Submissions must be uploaded via webform on the UnTwelve website.
• Submissions will close at midnight (CST) on March 25th, 2013. See the link to register at the bottom of the page.
• Judging will occur by a panel of judges: Neil Haverstick, Andy Hasenpflug, Robert Voisey, and Soressa Gardner.
• Submissions will be judged anonymously, on the basis of originality, form, beauty, sensitivity, and coherence. There is no limitation on style. Things to consider that the judges will be looking for: mastery of form; mastery of material; mastery of originality and signature sound and personality; mastery of technical means, sonic wizardry, and attention to all the details; mastery of counterpoint and harmonic dazzle where stylistically appropriate; mastery of surprise, tension, grabbing one's attention and keeping it; mastery of creating a piece that is expressive and that moves the emotions, not only the intellect!
• Monetary prizes are: 1st place, $500; 2nd place, $250; 3rd place, $150. A maximum of one monetary prize per person will be awarded. The top three entrants will be interviewed and featured on the UnTwelve website.
• The judges reserve the right to grant no prize if no work is determined to be of sufficient quality.

The REGISTRATION PAGE will be open on Nov. 25th, 2012 and close midnight CST on March 25th, 2013. UPDATE: there will be an extension until midnight of April 20th, 2013.

We look forward to hearing your work! Good luck!