We are going to have a classical composer world series or, I guess, world cup would be more appropriate given the popularity of futbol in most of the nations these composers will be representing.

Each country will only be able to send one composer to the world cup. Some countries such as Finland, Norway, Romania, and Poland will have automatic bids because their candidates are obviously Sibelius, Grieg, Enescu, and Chopin respectively.

Germany is playing the role of Brazil in this world cup. Traditionally Brazil could have fielded two or three top soccer teams based on the talent in their country.

For Germany there will be a tournament in which Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss will all battle for one bid.

In essence we’re going to explore the composers of several countries and determine which composes best represent each country in order to establish the field for the cup.

There will be tough choices. Who should represent Hungary, for instance, Bartok or Lizst?

There will be upsets. Could Donizetti knock Verdi or Puccini out of Italy’s spot--specially if Verdi has been worn down by Respighi and Puccini injured by Rossini?

Here are the automatic bids: Sibelius, Grieg, Enescu, Chopin, are already through along with Dvorak for the Czechs. Also receiving a free pass are Arvo Part of Estonia, Manuel de Falla of Spain, and Heitor Villa Lobos of Brazil.

Some of these composers are going to make some noise, so to speak, in the next round. I’m thinking Chopin is the obvious front runner among the automatic qualifiers.

If only we had a video budget...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW-g3y2NfFo