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The members have voted in this poll; Spring 2026 Competition Poll and have decided about the form and details of the next Young Composer's Composition Competition! As per the previous trend, this competition has no monetary rewards - only kudos and badges. Also in accordance with the results of the 2025 Halloween Satisfaction Survey, we are inviting the members/competitors to participate in the creation of the badge awards that will be dispersed at the end of the competition! So if you have any ideas for particular badges that would accord with the kind of music that will be submitted for this competition and the theme of this competition, let us know in the List of Manually-Awardable Badges thread and we will take your ideas into consideration! Please reply to this topic to declare your intent to participate in this competition! The winners will be determined by popular voting polls! Reviewing and Judging: The reviewing of the competition submissions will once again be spearheaded by our volunteer staff and those who wish to contribute their time and effort to reviewing the entries out of the goodness of their own hearts (and/or sense of fun!). You may use the Official Competition Reviewing Template, or jettison the template and review the submissions just like you would any other piece of music on the website! You could even make your own template! You will be rewarded for your efforts with "Ardent Reviewer" badges in three tiers: Featherweight Reviewer - for reviewing 33% of the entries Welterweight Reviewer - for reviewing 66% of the entries Heavyweight Reviewer - for reviewing 100% of the entries Thank you for whatever time and effort you're willing to give! Instrumentation: as per the poll, the members are free to compose for any kind of trio/quartet/quintet from a Pierrot ensemble to a kazoo trio to a quartet of Tibetan throat singers! Write for the serpent! You may use any combination of 3 - 5 monophonic or polyphonic instruments/voices. Pictures, Photos, Paintings: You may submit a picture, photo or a painting of the landscape you based your composition on. This is totally optional, but if you submit one, please do not use AI to generate your image. However, you may use a screenshot from a game. Or you can use a completely imaginary landscape. Duration: 3 - 7 minutes with a sweet spot of 5 minutes. Deadline: Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 Entrants thus far: @Fruit hunter @MK_Piano @UncleRed99 @MrBelegro @Luis Hernández @Musicman_3254 @TristanTheTristan @Wieland Handke @L.S Barros @Some Guy That writes Music @therealAJGS Here is the submissions thread for the competition where participants are encouraged to post links to their composition (rather than posting their piece directly into the pre-existing topic - make your own dedicated topic so the members at large can review your music there): We are instituting a policy of not allowing any AI generated works in the competition. Because of this you will be required to detail how you created your piece and submit a PDF score or midi file for the perusal of the staff and members at large. Original compositions only.

Here is my A level composition. I'm doing it roughly in the style of Chopin, but the overall style is just trying to be romantic. The structure is ABA, and the B theme is highly similar to the A theme. Things the exam board focus on are: 'Motivic development, form and structure, harmony, and texture. The time limit is 2 minutes 30, so I'll probably just play some parts quicker next time. Any feedback would be appreciated!Elegy in G#m.pdfWhatsApp Audio 2026-03-31 at 16.37.38.mp3

I will do the thing that is writing something or other for the thing mentioned above, and things. (I am declaring my intent to participate. for those who have to think a little bit too hard to figure that out) ☠️

Let this comment mark my intent of joining this competition. Good luck to anyone who may join and I am excited to see whom may take up arms in this fun little game of music creation!

[INFO DUMP - WARNING ] You play this very wonderfully. Without the score, it is very pleasing to just close your eyes and listen. Easily very romantic, and as you said, very Chopinistic sounding. As an observation, Chopin's Op.48 no.1 Nocturne in C-minor feels like the source for your compositional style in this work; especially with the triplet recapitulation. Now to my raw comments, I have a range of things from literal score engraving and my own interpretation of the score from the eyes of another pianist: First thing from the score is the meter changes. I personally do not think you need to change the meter at all. Since you are imitating romantic style, I think it best to truly adhere to those compositional trends before breaking them. More specifically, the 2/4 bar at measure 5. It turns your 4-bar phrase into a 4 1/2-bar phrase and it only happens once? It is very atypical for that style. To add, you do not restate your opening melodic idea except the very beginning and the A' recap. Seeing the score, it does not imply a strong sense of A-B-A', but instead, a through-composed improvisation session that was transcribed. Even with 2 minutes & 30 seconds for this, I think you can bring the opening theme back to end the first A section, however, by modulating to the Dominant (As you did originally). With the B section, it seems more often than not, the left hand is the only hand doing 12/8. The right hand is still in 4/4 (or 2/2) as evident by all your duples. Just keep the same meter, and add triplets in the left hand, keep the right hand in a simple meter, and just re-add your 6-tuplets or other spots as you originally have. It will make the whole piece look and feel more cohesive to an outside view. Nearing the end, your "Recap" is not as strong or decisive as you think. We hear the opening material/ motif come back, but what about the harmony? Your piece is in G#-minor, so doesn't it make sense to end either in G#-minor or Ab-major? Instead, you never resolved the work by ending on an Eb-major chord, which is the enharmonic dominant of G#-minor. For musical clarity, please find a way to get us back to G#-minor. It is very common to use the END of the B-section as a transition into the opening key. Reference the Op.48 Nocturne I mentioned for this point. Lastly, the meter: You mark Alle Breve with Largo. If your reference Chopin Op.28, no.4 Prelude in E-minor, we see the same technique. If you play this, you need to keep the half-note intact; thus, it should be played faster. Your triplets in the B-section were too slow for the meter you picked. Alright, time to end! A nice work and very refreshing to hear. May these comments serve you well and if you would like to see these comments annotated for visual aid, let me know! Good luck in your exam and keep up the good work!

Yes - thank you for pointing that out!

Yo, Since some people have asked about what I'm up to for film scoring I figured now would be a good time to make a thread. Firstly, I am scoring a very cool action/horror film that begins shooting next month, but they are looking to raise some additional funds. Check out this spoiler-free (mostly), behind-the-scenes video (which I also scored). The film stars stuntwoman and actress Alleya Bourne, whose work you may have seen on "The Last of Us" and the film's effects, including the animatronic creature itself are all practical and provided by an Emmy-winning team who have also lent their talents in prosthetics, makeup and puppeteering to Hollywood films like "Sonic The Hedgehog" and "Child's Play". The entire cast and crew would greatly appreciate any support you might able to offer, which you can do so at this link: The Customer - Film and Storytelling | Seed&Spark Oh and you can check out the teaser trailer (which features a heavily-reverbed version of a vocal track I wrote for it) for another film I composed for, a dark supernatural drama called "Crossroads" starring Dave Greason (MGM+'s Billy The Kid) Both will be doing the festival tours in North America later this year so you can catch them in a number of major cities! Thank you for checking it out and all the support the Young Composers community has given me over the years!

I hope you don't mean that you're composing a solo piano type of thing for this competition... Since we're only doing trios, quartets, and quintets. Also.. are you intending to enter this competition or not? You haven't made that clear from your previous posts..

Hello, Since the duration of the pieces has been set at around 5 minutes—which I think is very manageable—and I think the evaluation template is great, I’d like to participate, to the best of my ability and based on my knowledge, as a reviewer... Please let me know if that’s okay. Best regards.

I would like to participate in this competition, please

I declare my intent to join into this competition

Hello again! After a few days of chaos in my life, I was sidetracked from getting these comments done. Attached on this reply is a pdf containing my annotations to your Score as well as two pages of comments at the end for simplicity. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer! PDF: A. Karatzikis - Land of Gods (ANNOTATED).Pdf

me me me. I intend!

Hello, About six years ago, I orchestrated Schönberg’s Six Little Pieces for Piano. I only uploaded one of them to the “Writer’s Block and Suggestions…” section, since I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. Now I know a little more about orchestration and how to approach different styles. So I’d like to share the orchestrated version of all six pieces. Thank you. Best regards. Schoenberg.mp3 Schoenberg.pdf

Regarding the Criteria for the Contest I presume the rules include " ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS ONLY" , Renditions & Covers Rejected ?

Unfortunately, I will be busy this time of year. I am hoping that everything becomes less busy for me during the summer. Good luck to everyone.

THIS IS OBVIOUSLY NOT AN ENTRY FOR THE SPRING COMPETION, LANDSCAPES. https://musescore.com/user/96214813/scores/33034298 This is my second nocturne, dedicated to a fellow student from Year 7. He is an extremely talented beginner thus able to play harder stuff. Moderato-Adagio, Db Major, 3 minutes 22 seconds, and 60 bars. Very short, for me. 5 pages of A4, March 23rd 2026-April 2nd 2026. It is in rondo form, with a cantabile theme. As always, my music is NOT AI Generated. The piece starts with the Submediant, a bombastic octave, here, going to un-resolve in to the V of the V. Then, it decides, to go on a weird cadence of that chord progression I have no idea how to describe because I was just chilling and I was like yes! That feel and what. So yeah. And then the dominant with the minor third thing. This rondo form is more like a ABACA type of thing, so yeah that is it bye.

Very proud of you my guy, keep us all updated!

Oh reeeeeally... I can't wait to come up with some nonsense

I got "way-too-drunk ragtime" vibes haha, this is great! I think the constant accel and rit added to that flavor as well. Nice work there Peter

Hello @Fugax Contrapunctus ! I’m a bit surprised and even disappointed that your fugue hasn’t received a single review over the last two weeks, and so I’ll try to be the first one. Perhaps the reason is that most of the members hesitate to write a „I-have-very-enjoyed-your-playful-piece-Thanks-for-sharing“ reply because of your reputation. I’m thinking of your razor-sharp introductions, packed with background knowledge and specialist terms as well as that counterpoint – fugues and even perpetual canons – is considered to be very hard and not everybody is experienced enough to give profound comments. The choice of the subject for your fugue – I think I’ve already watched the video a year or so ago – from the G sharp minor fugue of the WTC1 has captivated me since that particular fugue is for me a distinctive one and one of my favorites (while there are many). The original key of G sharp minor has such a characteristic mystical and gloomy mood reminding me somewhat at Halloween – and interestingly your „Halloween-fugue“ which I have seen on YouTube, too, is consequently also in that key! And even your A minor version retains that pitch nearly exactly in the tuning (A=415) you’ve chosen! Even if you use the subject from Bach’s fugue, your fugue is a completely different one – showing which incredible possibilities counterpuntal composition offers – always having material with which to compose. While Bach’s one has a more walking character, your one has a continuous flow due to the complementary rhythm created by the semiquavers in the counterpoint and the episodes. That made it not as easy for me to discover the subject entries, so that I took the time to look in the score thoroughly and annotate them; I think I’ve detected the following ones: • Exposition: Bar 1 (bass, a minor), bar 3 (alto, e phrygian), bar 5 (soprano, a minor) • as sole subject entry in the 1st episode: Bar 13 (tenor, b minor) • 2nd Development: Bar 23 (alto, a minor), bar 27b (tenor, g minor), bar 29b (soprano, c minor) • 3rd Development: Bar 35 (bass, d minor), bar 39 (tenor, a minor), bar 41 (alto, e minor) • 4th Development: Bar 47 (bass, a minor), bar 49 (alto, e phrygian), bar 53 (soprano, a minor) Now I feel comfortable enough voicing a few points of criticism, which—intended as suggestions— could bring the experience of the listener and the reader of your score to another level: What prompted my “analysis” above was the fact that the subject entries are relatively difficult for the listener to perceive. You have – for example – omitted the staccatos on the last four notes of the subject in all recurring entries. Or to be more clearer, there are no articulation, phrasing, dynamics, pedaling and tempo marks (except the ritardando in the coda) at all. This might be completely intentional, since such annotations were unusual in the Baroque era, but - in my opinion – a human player would always apply that to express its interpretation, and I’m sure that was also the case during Bach’s time. And for a recording from a „software“ it is essential to apply these things to achieve a – more or less – realistic impression and to avoid that the recording sounds too mechanical as it is inherently the case due to the „exactness“ of the midi output generated from the „pure“ score. I have made the experience, that investing effort to articulation, phrasing, dynamics, pedaling and micro tempo changes brings a huge improvement of the realism of the recording and made a piece I nearly was going to throw away since I felt it boring worth to listen to. Since then, I always maintain two scores. One as the „printing“ score to be used for playing from, and one solely for the purpose of recording in the software. I do so with all of my pieces, and the „recording“ score is full of exaggerated articulations, dynamic marks and even micro tempo changes to achieve a satisfying, more realistic recording result wherein I can express my ideas about the interpretation. I must admit, that I have the temptation to take your fugue – if you don’t have anything against -, type it into my software (I use „lilypond“) and add the articulation, dynamics etc. according to my interpretation. I would be excited how it would sound like. (I can’t promise to do so, perhaps soon or in a year or never, regarding the time I find.) A last comment on your score: When I’m looking at it at the first glance, there are some intervals that seem to be unplayable or uncomfortable to be played. I’m sure, that all of them are playable, but you have (while done otherwise) omitted to take over the note in the other hand. This might be better for reading the score for analysis purposes (only). But when coming to playing and especially sight-reading and a note of an interval is written in the “wrong” staff, the recognition pattern that a sight-reader normally uses to identify that interval is inherently lost, forcing the player to identify a single note and add it to the chord/interval being played, which slows down the process. Consequently, such situations require practice and/or memorization, which contradicts the approach of sight-reading and playing the piece “without practice.” Therefore, I very appreciate scores where the chords/intervals are notated as a complete pattern in that staff where it is to be played by the respective hand. I must admit, that such a score looks sometimes a bit „cluttered“ because of the „kneed beams“ and sometimes cross-staff note stems (producing sometimes problems for the collision resolving with dynamics, slurs etc), but if the player finally makes the respective annotations by hand in its score, the readability is reduced, too.

Hello, I'm looking forward to the new contest and would therefore like to announce that I will be participating. Unfortunately, my favorite among the topics – „Mock-ups, Mash-ups and Medleys“ – did not win the poll, but „Landscapes – Soundscapes“ also sounds very interesting – while also very challenging. The duration of two month seems appropriate to me – not too short and not too long. I think depicting a landscape musically with no more than five instruments might not be easy (though still better than using a solo piano)—usually, painting “landscapes” requires the use of a full orchestra. But let’s see what happens ...

I want to join this competition

Hello I think this is a beautiful piece. The melodic phrases are truly lovely, and while it doesn’t aim for an overly virtuosic style, it does evoke the Romantic era. I agree with everything @MK_Piano says; I think he has a valuable mastery of the piano and this style. I’d highlight one thing he mentions, which is to really reinforce the overall structure of the piece. Give it a clearer ABA form. I think the modulations are fantastic, but I also think a return to the starting key would give it more impact. I also agree regarding that 2/4 time signature. Rather than finding it problematic—since I see it as justified by what’s happening there, the modulation and “precipitation” into another harmonic region—it’s the fact, as he also pointed out, that it isn’t repeated in the recapitulation. A wonderful piece of work.

Best imagery?

Thank you so much for your feedback! It is so greatly appreciated, and has brought to light so many obvious things that I just haven't paid attention to it seems! Everything you say makes complete sense, and will definitely help me a lot for the exam!!! Thank you so much, and I'll be working on all these points!

Reading the title of this thread I have a few seconds of terror that you're leaving the forum, thank God you don't! Congrats on your works being used in films! Henry

I wrote this song with the idea of going to basic mechanic movements in music. The idea was a piston engine that creates momentum. It works overall. Attached is the score I used along with the prompt. If you think it's that easy, you have to consider that this song went through a critical rasterization process before completion. Numerous renderings were created before this final version. I used my website to create the pitch pallete then composed from there to create mechanical alliteration. Piston_Vonias.mp3 Piston.pdf

All that hurts logic, Interlect. If you overthink it too much, then yes the computer composed it. If I overthing too much, I'm left vulnerable to where people can steal my music and do whatever they want with it, because thus they've proven that I don't own it. See where the problem is? I'll go with the ethics class I attended, as it's more rational by that point to provide ownership to the artist. I also stand by my work.

I’m trying to improve at improvising. I’d appreciate any feedback. Also im curious what kind of style of piano music this improvisation would fall into?

It’s been over a month and no one has to reply, so let me be the first! I am a professional pianist and Improvise all the time in my practice sessions. In my opinion, it helps to know certain structures or musical devices. If you know a chord progression, play the chords in the left hand on loop and practice a loose melody on top. From there, switch the roles and try to improvise the bass. Little by little, you can develop your technique as we do with all things, but to improvise well and fluently, you need to train your mind. You need to have knowledge and confidence in your music skill to execute complex passages. Start simple and get more complex over time. Attached is my little demo just doing C-F-G chords in the left hand and going for it with my right hand. YCF | Sample Improv.mp3

I absolutely created it. In my AI ethics course, any user that creates with AI is the sole author. I'm also liable and held accountable if anything goes wrong, you know? But, if you must know, SunoAI had a hand in it, too. But then, that would be very confusing to give it to the robot. Think of it as a complement to the music I created. Thank you, @interlect !

Hello It sounds really nice and pleasant. It’s also very straightforward. The harp takes the place of the left hand, and the bass provides reinforcement. The strings accompany the melody, and at times they reinforce it in homophony. I think orchestrating this kind of “flat” music, with few dynamic contrasts, is difficult. But there are many resources in the strings that can be used. I’m no expert at orchestrating either; I’m still learning.

I'm an "older youngser" too - started at 52, but with much less experience than you....

I began composing 16 years ago. I got started on the craft much later in life than most people who write music. That has left me with a lot of catching up to do, to say the least. It also means I'm not exactly a "young" composer, although I still choose to use this website from time to time.

"Jesus was Born this Day," is a hymnal song that includes, Euouae. Haven't heard the amen since the medieval times, thought I'd bring it back to present. The chords are adventurous and don't make much sense. However, this was the palette that I wanted for artificial intelligence to include. AI, did pick up the tune very well, except for the Euouae that was wanted for Descant. Anyone know how to do that in a prompt for AI? I'm out of ideas, I even used the braille's "In accord," to get AI to pick up the command. Other than that, the chorus was botched to good effect, read as the melody after a vowel chant. In effect, AI made a new chorus. Overall, the song is represented well, and I am happy with that. Enjoy! Jesus Was Born this Day_Harper.mid Jesus Was Born this Day_Harper.mid Jesus Was Born on this Day (David Harper) - MSMT.mid

Yep, go back to menu, and go to the fractal fugue generator. It will 'remember' the set you used, then click 'generate fugue' then 'play.'

Artificial Intelligence Symphonic Composition ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYMPHONIC COMPOSITION.mp3

No instructions, yet. I'd be happy to oblige to creating them. Here's a background of the style of music the website was born from: Atonal Music | Definition, Examples & Background - Lesson | Study.com

Thank you very much, MK Piano, for the lovely annotated document! Not only has this information been crucial to Philly but I was able to make meaningful changes to a piece I will have performed at Temple University for wind ensemble. Your mouth is very well rounded. Also, I greatly appreciate the harp demonstration video. Thank you for all your dedication and thought. I am always changing and hopefully improving.

Go to "Edit Profile Photo":

MK-Piano .... Thanks for the annotated review .... ! This is a lovely post-romantic work ..... e.g, Howard Hanson. Mark

the third piece of this set, "crazed capybara", performed by Pavle Cajic: https://youtu.be/jCbbFmt-lDg

Thanx Vonias...but for me....ai is a "secret serial Killer"

Thank you, Interlect! The same to you! Be sure to check out my website if you want to make some notes spiral out of control in music: www.atonalfugue.net

This would be cool under the bridge with the sound washing, laser lights and everything. Very cool.

Well, that is very nice! I just stumbled on it; I've been more in the keyboard forum since March 15, the ides of March, for some reason.

Thank you! I'm glad I was able to capture the intended mood of the overall work. Found the pattern while messing around on my MIDI keyboard the other day, playing with spitfire LABS VST3 piano sounds. Also, if you've seen any of my other works, you'll notice I tend to have a bit of favoritism for open-spelling chords & triplets / tuplets in general. 😅 I like the suggestions for the form, here. I sort of just allowed my ear to guide it up to the point seen in the post. If you have the time, I have an entirely different conceptualized structure written out in a separate score file, that was inspired by some creative liberty granted to @MK_Piano while in a discord call the other day. I will share this new info right here: Aurora-UpdatedVersion.pdf Aurora-UpdatedVersion.mp3

I very agree with your approach to create a new piece having a musical idea in mind, if not yet a melody or motif to be used as the main subject, but a rather „technically“ one – here your choice of the interval pattern you described. Even if you did not invent a new chord or a new scale, this is a unique, this interval pattern is a „unique selling point“ of the piece and creates the mood of the piece which is indeed „ethereal“. And with your realization and recording so far, you have really caught this melancholic feeling with the warm timbre of the cello and the soft piano. I especially liked the small details such as the grace notes, the arpeggiated two-note-“chords“ and the triplets. Now, to get the piece continued and finished, I think it’s time to think about the form. Since it is already lengthy and although it has just separate sections, the listener is somewhat lost not exactly recognizing the structure and find out where the climax is. And in that sense it becomes a bit repetitive because there is a lack of contrast to the overall calm and „airy“ mood. Therefore, I would suggest to consider to put the piece, for example, in Rondo form where you could use the existing material for the different A (or A’) sections and there were room to introduce sections with a contrasting mood (in the B and C sections). For such a contrast I could imagine passages with a more dramatic expression or a final, triumphant resolution. Another possibility would be to have a section with a more distinctive and memorable melody (e.g. a „real theme“).

Vonias Wonderful composition, so lovely and spiritual,and the vocal choir is Amazing, the sort of sound you hear in Big Films Iv never heard any thing like this ...thankyou ,and i wish you every success in life.