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Hello people! Late last year I helped organize and host "The Tortoise and the Hare" Young Composers Instrumental Music Composition Competition and now I've finally had the time to write a piece in that theme as well! I've picked Bassoon for representing the Tortoise, Piccolo for the Hare and Solo Violin for the Fox. I didn't intend for this to be a fully exhaustive set of variations on each theme - only to allow me to characterize each personality in the fable to the best of my ability. I've also tried to follow the fable in the form of my piece which goes as follows: 0:23 - A - Enter Tortoise 0:46 - B - Enter Hare 1:04 - C - Hare mocks Tortoise 1:20 - D - Enter Fox 1:36 - E - Tortoise & Hare agree to Race 1:58 - F - The Race Ensues ! 2:09 - G - Hare tires & falls asleep 2:17 - H - Tortoise hurries 2:34 - I - Tortoise passes Hare 2:51 - J - Tortoise tires 3:02 - K - Fox spots Tortoise 3:13 - L - Hare awakes and hurries 3:30 - M - Tortoise wins! Let me know what you think! I welcome your critiques, suggestions and observations!

I misspoke after glancing at the score too quickly. Nonetheless, my point stands. After that long cadential sequence, just ending cold on a tonic chord sounds way too abrupt for me.

I know this isn't my usual style but it was pretty interesting to try composing something with a more Brahmsian vibe. 🙂 The piece was dedicate to my friend @Ferran Carrasquer. I'm not sure if the piece qualifies to be called a scherzo. What traits would you associate with that form? Also how would you expand my piece? I feel like I rushed it a bit and the final result is extremely short, but I'm not sure if I could add much more to section A for example, or how to add variety in the recap. I hope you enjoy it!

Glad to hear so, I was insecure about this piece being too basic to be called anything haha. That's interesting, I had no idea that had a name, thank you for letting me know. I will recycle that rhythm for sure, and I picked it from Scriabin's 5th piano sonata, the theme A. I will keep it in mind for future compositions, The trio/scherzo part of a sonata or symphony is what I have trained the least so all information is welcome. You're welcome! (I took some time to reply because I had a surgery.) For sure, it is more grounded than my ethereal style. I actually love this strong romantic style and would like to experiment a bit more with it. Wow, I see you have worked a lot with the form already. The modifications done to a recap are an interesting topic, but it's quite difficult sometimes, I still need to make some experiments with it. I love that quintet, I wanted to play it this year but it wasn't possible in the end. You are welcome Henry! (I took some time to reply because I had a surgery.) Thank you. What was the part that felt dreamy? Maybe the end of the first section? (I took some time to reply because I had a surgery.) Glad to hear you think it is for the better. I still want to try composing longer works though, but I love condensing stuff and making pieces where each note matters.

I enjoyed this. The only thing that didn't sound quite right to me is that it seems to end somewhat abruptly. We have three measures on the dominant at m. 30, then a cadence in mm. 33-34 that just stops on the tonic chord. I was expecting at least to get a measure of the arpeggio pattern on the tonic at the end, and it felt a little "off" when that didn't happen.

A curious piece. Generally, in my opinion, you have to be a genius for a prelude or a study based on repeated patterns to be of great musical interest, apart from being didactic. In this case, the passivity of the left hand leaves all the weight to the other part, which is based on scales and arpeggios. The most interesting thing is that there is something similar to what happens in minimalism, as subtractions of notes.

I'm glad you enjoyed my work! And yes, it is inspired by Kapustin in some ways. His style is always one of the inspirations of my own work.

Could you merge my account into nostalgia, since this is the one I made previously? Thanks for your help!

Nice job! You made good use of the harmonic minor scale in your melody (and also the classical melodic minor scale). There is also some interesting canonic imitation between the left and right hand. The contrasting B theme also uses a 6/16 hemiola that brings rhythmic variety. There's a lot of stuff packed into this really short piece! Next you could try and find ways to extend your pieces to make them longer. You could use your little a b a scheme you have in this piece as a big A that would then be contrasted by a big B in maybe a slower tempo or a different key. Thanks for sharing!

Hello @Albayrak, The overall texture immediately reminds me the Yumeji's theme in "In the Mood for Love" (a great Hong Kong film!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!): The piece is quite expressive and introspective that can certainly work well as a movie soundtrack like that of the Yumeji's theme. What I hope more here is more variety in texture, materials and keys if you wanna develop the piece, but if not it still works well as a stylish soundtrack. Thx for sharing! Henry

A haunting and moody work, filled with a sense of regret. I especially enjoyed the tonal quality of the cello. The ostinato in the pizzicato strings is quite relentless, and perhaps could do with more variation; but overall I liked it.

Entry I - "Lucidity" by @SorooshMHS (for Electric Guitar and Flute/Voice) I've finished my song for the Dreamscapes competition. Admittedly, I knew very little about dreams so I did some research, and the idea of lucid dreaming peaked my interest. According to German psychologist, Paul Tholey, a lucid dream has the following 7 characteristics: Awareness of the dream state (orientation) Awareness of the capacity to make decisions Awareness of memory functions Awareness of self Awareness of the dream environment Awareness of the meaning of the dream Awareness of concentration and focus (the subjective clarity of that state) My song is aptly titled Lucidity. It consists of a guitar as the polyphonic instrument, and a flute as the monophonic instrument. I wrote and recorded the guitar parts first, and I was aiming for an ambient and dreamy vibe. I achieved that with long drawn out chords, minor key and a relatively slow tempo. Other than the outro (where it alternates between the key of C and G), the song mostly stays in A minor, with a few diminished 7 chords for added tension, and a Cm chord in some spots, which is used as a chromatic mediant to the tonic chord. To be able to tell the story better, I wrote lyrics to go along with the flute melody. So the flute is essentially acting as a placeholder for a lead vocal. I'm just not a singer and out of the virtual instruments I had, this flute sounded the best. Voice is also a monophonic instrument so I felt like the flute is a good substitute Here is a brief summary of the lyrics (full lyrics are included in the score): It starts with the protagonist falling asleep. He feels free, but very confused and unsure about where he is. He sees and hears absolutely nothing, making it very difficult to navigate the dream. However he suddenly realizes that he is in fact dreaming. Colors return to his consciousness, and he can finally see everything clearly. He feels powerful, and realizes he can now do anything in the dream. This is also reflected in the music by going to the relative major key. The piece suddenly ends without resolution, which represents him waking up Please see attached for the PDF score and MP3 audio file Thank you for this opportunity! PS: I compose music in my DAW using MIDI, and this was the very first time I transcribed my music on staff notation. It was pretty difficult but I think it turned out alright 🙂