Leaderboard

Hello, I chose the Clarinet for the Hare and the Bassoon for the Tortoise with orchestral accompaniment. My reason for choosing the Clarinet as the Hare is because of the Clarinet's agility and capability to hop around very easily. The Clarinet also possesses an ability to make a laughing sound effect that I attempted to emulate (https://youtu.be/PMjAAH86cIk?t=30). My reason for choosing the Bassoon as the Tortoise is because I imagined the Tortoise as a bass instrument. While most instruments are able to produce sonorous sounds in their lower registers, I believe the Bassoon was the best choice. I decided to stick with the original Aesop story as my inspiration: The music starts with the Tortoise's motif and the Hare making fun of the Tortoise for being too slow. I use a common childish tune with pizzicato strings to represent the child-like nature of the Hare while it dances around the Tortoise's motif using polytonality to represent how different the two are. The Hare asks the Tortoise a question, "Do you ever get anywhere?" The Tortoise then responds with proving that it can beat the Hare in a race. I imagined the Tortoise talking very slowly and labored, so I slow the tempo down to give the Bassoon time to talk. I like to think that there would be a moment of anticipation as the Fox readies the runners. The Fox is represented by the Oboe. I also put a spot in where the Fox would say, "Get ready, on your marks, get set, go!" As the race begins, the Hare immediately jumps ahead of the Tortoise. It eventually sees that it is so far ahead that it begins to lighten its' pace and slow down a bit. The Hare will eventually mock the Tortoise's words from earlier. As everything quiets down and the Hare is far beyond the Tortoise, it will take a nap. I write in a part for the Solo Clarinet where the performer will snore. The Brahms Lullaby is played with quiet, pizzicato strings to imply the Hare is sleeping. The Tortoise's motif then enters quietly building up to a forte and back to piano. I wanted to emulate the Tortoise passing by. The waking of the Hare is signaled by the Clarinet quote from the opening of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue - I always imagined that line as being a waking of something. With the Tortoise being nowhere in sight, the Hare begins to question itself before realizing the Tortoise must have passed it while it was sleeping. This realization is signaled by this sound effect (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6rq_8EQkOI). The Hare then sprints as fast as it possibly can in an attempt to catch up to the Tortoise. However, it's too late. The ending is a repeat of what the Tortoise said earlier with all orchestra instruments involved. I imagined that all of the other animals are rejoicing with and congratulating the Tortoise. The Tortoise then walks off with a final laugh at the very end. I included the judge's notes. The .pdf has minor changes that are not present in the .mp3.

Haha! Thanks Angel and Omicron. Congratulations to all the winners. The competition was extremely fun! I look forward to the next.

This summer I went to New York and in my room there was a piano, so I started teaching the Canon to my trip-mate Giulia and the last day we played a very great duo. This song is dedicated to her and of course it contains the magical chord progression of the Pachelbel's Canon, I also used the bassline as counterpoint for certain parts and I experimented with the key changes to the relative major and minor. I hope u'll like it, pls give me some advise so I can improve.

Competition entry for the opening intro sequence from "Die by the Blade" video game.

This was my entry for the Tortoise and the Hare The piece starts off with the hare making fun of the tortoise's speed, so I introduce the hare's theme in the Eb Clarinet. The acciaccatura figure represents laughing. Then the tortoise theme, which is in minor since he isn't particularly enjoying being made fun of. I just repeat those with minor variation. Then the music builds to the hare laughing again, which signals the tortoise to challenge him to a race (A), signified by the rocking fourth figure. The hare laughs at that too, but the tortoise interrupts and repeats his challenge. The hare accepts the race. The fox begins the race (B), signified by the horn fanfare, and the race begins (C). The race is a fugue on the hare's theme with fragments of the tortoise's theme. The fugue ends with the hare's theme on top, so he slows down to take a nap (D). The tortoise meanwhile is coming closer to the finish line (E), crosses which means he wins the race. So, the piece ends triumphantly with the hare accepting his defeat. I enjoyed this competition very much and would love to participate in more competitions like it. Thank you for any and all feedback

@Omicronrg9, thanks for using headphones! Anyways, glad to know that you found the first 40s interesting, because I myself wanted to create a feel-good ambience for the first 40s. However, after the first 40s, I wanted to create that walker-vibe because, I was inspired by his style, when I was making this beat. So, this music was just me getting introduced to the basic style of the Electronic Dance Music - or EDM. I thought, after I tried something like this, I can go on to experiment with other ways of making this more interesting, and not trying to make the main portion a bit generic - like you said.

The first 30 secs could work as an introduction to something bigger, exotic, with bongos or something like that (I kinda like using bongos in compositions). The other alto flute section that starts around 1:40 could also fit in the same piece as a second theme, not sure. Last secs of percussion sound like caves but that's only because of the echo I guess. Not much but my two cents mate. Good luck!

@WowBroYouReallyDominated Again, I didn't get around to getting my entry done in time. Too much IRL nonsense. But I stand by this is the best composing contest I've ever seen; these things usually suck. Much better when it's just a small thing, with an actual interesting challenge, worthwhile prizes and not 7 million entries.