At a Court Meeting on the 19th January 1904 a letter from The Reverend Henry Thomas Cart MA (a Member of the Company) was read out. In it, he offered the sum of £100 to be used as prizes in connection with the forthcoming 1904 Loan Exhibition. This offer was gratefully accepted and referred to the Exhibition Committee (which already included The Revd Cart). Adjudication of the awards was undertaken by Sir Frederick Bridge and Dr E. Markham Lee.
On 8th July 1904, in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the granting of James I Charter in 1604, the Master of the Company, Mr W. Cordy Herring generously entertained the whole of the Livery at a banquet at the Albion Hotel in Aldersgate Street. The Minutes of the Special Court Meeting which preceded this celebration are shown right. Guests at the banquet included the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Alverstone), the Prime Warden of the Fishmongers' Company (Mr H. J. Chinnery) and the Principals of the three Colleges of Music (RCM, RAM and GSM).
A press cutting from The Times on 9th July 1904 is shown left and refers to this event (click the image to expand). During that celebratory evening, five prizes in the name of The Revd Henry Cart were presented (click the award descriptions below). The Company still retains the Autograph Manuscript of Wareing's, Two Pieces for Violin and Piano*, the other winning entries are published scores. A handwritten score (by a professional copyist) is also held for the Organ Postlude and the Part Song and these are shown alongside the published score:
*
The Company also holds the Autograph Manuscript of a composition which is almost certainly an unsuccessful entrant to this competition. It has the required format for the £25 prize, ie "Seven Pieces for Pianoforte" and was submitted by Mr G. Coleman Young, under the non de plume, 'Clavicembalo'. Entries were submitted annonymously, with real names and addresses provided in sealed envelopes. For unknown reasons, this unsuccessful submission had not been claimed back once the competition was resolved. Click the button below for full details:
The image left shows a cutting from Musical News of Dec 16th 1905. It explains the competition categories and gives a favourable review of most of the winners, except the Part Song: Phoebe, which was not reviewed as it had not yet been published).
The reviewer observed that although the competition was open to all (and was anonymous) the eventual winners (perhaps unsurprisingly) included Doctors of Music from Oxford and Cambridge and an ex-pupil of the Royal Academy.
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