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Wow, thanks, Noah! I appreciate the thoughtful comments. As far as this piece being a front-runner... maybe if the competition was a freestyle. I grossly misinterpreted the rules and thought the only development of the shared material had to occur at the beginning of each movement, and never recur. Listening to everyone else's thematic development of the opening theme—all I can do is facepalm myself. 🤦‍♂️Oh, well. The main thing is it got me to be inventive and use scales I probably never would have on my own. I do know the piano. I don't know the cello. I play viola and violin. My friend, the dedicatee for this piece, is a stellar cellist. However, for some reason he decided to go have a career and do other adult things, so he moved away before I could have him "test drive" this. As it stands, the cello part was written based on my holding a viola between my legs and working out bowings and double stops and stuff. (Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures, am I right?) Ah, yes, the "stuck" mood. My first excuse is I've never used these scales before. I'm sure that will hold up in a court of law. My second excuse—at least in my limited experience—is that not all these scales lend themselves well to warm, upbeat chords. (The warm passages you're referring to were largely produced by going back to the diatonic scales we all know and love.) For modes 4 and 6, the only major/minor triads one can create from a given scale are complements: for example, A major and Eb major. Modes 1 and 5 contain no major/minor triads. Mode 2 (octatonics) has a little more flexibility in that it has two pairs of complement triads, so one can generate a little more warmth. Mode 3 is super flexible—each scale has 6 major/minor triads and no complements—which is why the 2nd movement sounds more upbeat than the others. This means the last 3 movements, being based on scales with harsh intervals, sounded similar in mood. I should have fiddled with the scales ahead of time rather than just composing with them in numerical order. Hindsight. Thanks again for taking the time to listen! Cheers!

Congratulations on a very serious and dramatic work @Tónskáld. I think it's a definite front-runner in this competition! I love the dark atmosphere you've created, and the interplay between the cello and piano is very well done. You clearly know your stuff! One minor criticism -- While there were plenty of awesome compositional techniques used, I would've liked to have heard more variation in the mood of the piece between movements. There were hints of warmth in the first and last movements that I found to be quite lovely juxtapositioned against the darker canvas of the piece at large. This is minor, though, and I want the main takeaway from this review to be -- bravo! Really well done.

Favorite was Mazurka - Vivace!

Noah! I’m excited to hear your music, I haven’t heard your work in a while J I’m listening for the first time and doing my comments now while I have a few minutes, but I’ll come back and give it a listen again later for sure – so what you’re getting is my first impressions. Not sure when I’ll have time to come back and listen again, so figured I’d comment early rather than super late…….! Here goes! I. I love the stylistic turn you take after the initial statement! If possible, turn down your piano in playback, or find a way to make the block chords not so prominent. A live performer would have no problem playing it appropriately, computers though… Technology! There are ways to adjust note velocity in most music notation software without too much trouble. I just recently learned about that. Anyway, a good movement. II. Wow! Quite longing and emotional. Reminds me of day dreaming about a place or person you miss dearly. Would feel right at home in a love song on stage. III. Ah, Espana! Good interplay between piano and soloist. Effective! IV. Good chord at 0:14, 0:20-2:35. Interesting harmonic choices, it works really well for the supporting harmonies. A few odd intervals for the melody, but nothing obtrusive. A strong movement for sure, deserves a second listen right now and more comments. What would I change? Hm. What if the piano took over the melody more? Think like trading fours in a jazz band, one player goes then hands it off to another player and so on? Also nice transition at 1:00, I missed that in the first listen! V. Feels final. I like how you’re mixing not only the styles but the harmonic exploration, juxtaposing them together. That’s creative, I don’t think I’d have thought of that (I know I didn’t in my own piece!). A very appropriate ending. Couldn’t ask for anything better! Overall I love it! I’m out of time here, gotta go, but I hope you’re pleased with it because there’s some really good writing in here. J See you later! Gustav Johnson