As music moved from the church and court into the public sphere, competitions ? as loci of taste, judgements of one performer?s excellence over another, or as a way to improve the musical abilities of a nation ? became increasingly important throughout Europe. Such competitions had multivalent meanings: in some cases, they became a way to achieve public fame and have a lucrative career in an era when individual patronage was on the wane. In others, they encouraged new national schools of performance, attempted to resurrect a historical tradition, or placed an official imprimatur on an existing one. European Musical Competitions, 1700-1940: History, Contexts and Meanings is the first volume to investigate the rise and preponderance of such contests throughout the continent. The fourteen essays in this volume address competitions by individuals from Johann Sebastian Bach to Josefa Bustamante in locations across Europe from Dublin to St. Petersburg and Osijetk to Paris. It further illumines how government-sponsored institutions in such diverse places tried to both foster musical abilities and foment taste. TABLE OF CONTENTS Charles Edward McGuire, Preface Part I: Musicians and Competition Markus Rathey, Bach?s Contests against Marchand and Pan: Facts and Fiction in Johann Sebastian Bach?s Musical Competitions Helena Mart nez D az, Prestige and Promotion of Women in Music at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century in Spain: Josefa Bustamante and the Premio Barranco Martin Barr , Comparer pour mieux chanter: les motions suscit es par les rivalit s entre artistes lyriques en France au XIXe si cle Viktoria Grynenko, An Italian, Ukrainian, and Frenchman in Performance: Competing Colleagues in Eighteenth-Century St. Petersburg Joe Lockwood, Who Should Have Won the Prize Musick? Part II: Competitions in French Institutions Fr deric de la Grandville, Le concours des prix du Conservatoire de musique de Paris, 1795-1900 Anne Pustlauk, Competition in Jean-Louis Tulou?s Flute Class at the Paris Conservatoire, 1829-1859 Apolline Gouzi, Arthur Mac , Yanna l Pasquier, Travaillez jeunes gens : description du concours du Conservatoire de Paris, 1896-1920 Laure Schnapper, Les concours de musique l?Exposition universelle de 1867 Peter Asimov, Arbitrating ?Authenticity?: The Schola Cantorum?s Concours de Chants Populares (1903-1904) and ts Losers Part III: Competitions and Nation Building Jan Dewilde, Transporting Culture: The Train and the Origin of Choral Competitions in Flemish Belgium Vjera Katalini?, Musical Competitions in the Shade of Politics: Three Case Studies from Croatia in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century Helen Doyle, Will the Feis project ever come to anything ? and if so, to what? : Establishing the Operational and Choral Network of the Dublin Feis Ceoil Charles Edward McGuire, Musical Contests and Asserting Control: British Competition Festivals, 1880-1930 Abstracts and Biographies Index of Names