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This is my first attempt to write a piece in a minimalistic manner. My piano experience is only 10 simple pieces and I have not studied music theory or harmony before. Is this promising? I would be very happy to study and write some music more seriously but I don't know if I have the talent required (Writing isn't just about knowning the rules, right?)

@SergeOfArniVillage Nicely done, Zach! I particularly enjoyed the foreshadowing elements at the beginning that are later joyously transformed into their major counterparts. The transition at m21 is very effective. The constant movement in the second half of the piece spoke of the ruins' exciting former days, although I was a little disappointed that we didn't return to its "shell" state at the beginning. There are a few things that didn't sit 100% well with me. The chord progressions starting in m16 and ending at the key change were a little jarring to me, perhaps even a little random. I could be missing some motivic element, though. Another thing is the architecture of the piece, if you will. It's rather... prosaic. By this I mean that the right hand largely plays the melody and the left hand largely plays some exposition of the supporting chords underneath, as if this was originally written for an orchestra but reduced for the piano. As a pianist, I prefer works that give equal rank to both hands of the player. The left hand doesn't have to play as much melody as the right, but it does need to have some interesting rhythmic structures of its own. In a related vein, I would have personally preferred more counterpoint—but that's a stylistic difference, so no worries if that's not your bend. The score looks great! There are, however, a few measures where I'm not sure which hand plays what (m44, for example). You might also want to reduce the amount of articulations on a given note, like the accents and tenutos (tenuti?) in m48. To me that's a little over-the-top, but it's probably, again, a stylistic preference. And lastly, thanks to Sibelius' (I assume) amazing programming, there are a few measures toward the end that are littered with rests in unused voices (m50, for example). I truly don't understand why the program can't clean those up... it's an endless source of frustration for me. I felt like that was a lot of criticism and very little praise... my apologies. My overall impression is that you did a great job conveying the meanings you intended to convey, all while constructing a fine piece of music! I look forward to hearing the rest!

You're very welcome! Hope things go well finding a teacher.

It's a really nice style. Overall I like it. I think the orchestration could do with a bit of work. As I wind player, I enjoy writing for the section. Would YC benefit from a thread about wind writing?

Absolutely love this! Very clear melodies and some beautiful harmonic work. 5 stars!