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Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 8.5 10 10 8.5 9 8.5 Avg: 9.1 The intro is awesome! I love how you start this out, as chaotic, but structured chaos. I observed some instances of the whole tone scale towards the beginning, which I feel adds to the mystery of the voyage. It's clear from the music that you intended this to be a chaotic voyage, with the instances of adventure and reprieve. Fun motive towards the first third / or middle section of the piece. Very swing-like here, and I definitely get a sense of exploration and adventure around this section. Then you change it up the last 3rd (beautiful usage of a rest, creating anticipation, or a scene change), followed up with instances of mystery, calm and some chaos. For some reason I get a bit of a Rachmaninoff vibe here. Very jazzy ending, and yes as I listen to the ending right now, I definitely hear a tiny bit of Rach influence...this is pretty awesome! There was a lot of musical content here, definitely one of the more complex pieces in this competition. Either way, complex or not, this is an extremely creative piece. Your intro was killer, your middle section introduced the fun swing-like motive, the last third was enjoyable and quite melodramatic. Awesome use of the whole tone scale; you didn't overdo it, but used it just enough to add some fun mystery to this voyage. Well done!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 8 10 8 10 10 9.5 9 Avg: 9 This is such a beautiful piece. Even though it's not your best work (your words), I feel like the simplicity of this style is what makes it so powerful. Yes, it may be simple, but I feel like the technique is not so simple. And the emotions you were able to invoke were very real. Honestly, isn't that the point of music? The harmony also has extreme focus and purpose. I love towards the end when you just flip the key completely; such a powerful key change moment. The ending is also very nice, with the imperfect cadence. The balance of your instruments are done very well, and not overwhelming at all. This is important, you clearly know how to use the instruments to the song's advantage. Your techniques are fun, the cello knows just the right moment to chime in, the violins have a purpose and the piano does its role in supporting the harmony.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 8.5 7 9 9 10 8.5 8 Avg: 8.6 Once the flute came in, things started to really pick up. I love your theme, and it was quite easy to spot about a minute in. I had to listen to this a few times to understand the structure, but I realized that this piece has a few motives here. But this is not clear until after a full minute into the piece. The things I love about this piece is your harmony, key changing, the flute, the use of the pentatonic scale.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 7 5 6 8 10 9 8 Average 7.5 Overall a well written piece. The main issue was the structure felt meandering and didn't have much direction to me. The string chords and arco/pizz changes are completely fine, so I gave you a ten there to counter-balance those who said it wasn't good instrument writing lol. Overall, good job!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9.5 8 7.5 9.5 9 10 9 Average Score: 8.9 Review: Melodies/Themes/Motives - The work is rich in motifs and themes, some of which are readily apparent, whilst others are deeply woven into the fabric of the piece. Harmony/Chords/Textures - The texture is dense, but the individual parts are clearly defined. Form/Development/Structure/Time - I sense a progressive structure, but it’s by no means boring. Originality/Creativity - It is a standard, effective combination. Score Presentation - The score is correct and easy to read. Instrumentation/Orchestration/Playability Reading the comments clears up any doubts about double or multiple stops. Execution of Given Challenge - I think the author has succeeded in achieving his aim.

Thank you for your comment, @Kvothe. In actual practice, a string player will still hold the bow and use the index finger (for violin/viola) to perform pizzicato. That way, they have enough time to switch back to arco. quickly without disrupting the performance, at least from my experience as a violinist. The quadruple stops are also taken care of when I write this piece and should not bring too much of difficulty playing. Most of them are designed and indicated to be played as broken chords for better playability and for intentionally lighter textures. Moreover, open strings are used to make the chord more resonant for better projection. The choice of pizz and arco. depends on the texture - Do I want a richer sound to accompany the main melody? I often consider the sound quality before the playability issue. Nevertheless, the 16th notes are projected better in arco. For the double stops in m.58, they are playable using both A and D strings, with the last note played using the 4th finger to press both strings.