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This is the 3rd movement of my Clarinet Quintet in C minor, which is completed 4 years ago and I'm revising it. Thx to my friend Vince @Thatguy v2.0 for making the audio! Here is the pdf, audio, video of the movement. I have also made a structural graph since this movement is a fugal one and I want to show the structure more clearly. https://youtu.be/QMQyFbriSmM (For YT)Clarinet Quintet in C minor 3rd mov Final Version 20260906.pdfClarinet Quintet in C minor 3rd mov Final.mp3Clarinet Quintet 3rd Mov Structural Plan.pdf To me this is core movement in the piece and my favourite. After 2nd movement's anxious power I finally calm down to reflect subjectively and (more)objectively, which are represented by Lament and Fugue respectively with the following structure: 0:00 1st Lament, using the despair [0134] motive again, then incorporate the (future) fugue subject in the clarinet while strings keep lamenting, and ends with one more question of despair. Real lament after what is suffered in the first 30 minutes of the work. 1:10 1st Fugue. Appearance of prime form of the subject. I always go for F minor in any secondary themes or answer in my C minor works because G minor is always too weak for C minor. Only F minor is dark enough for it. First stretto in 3:05. Ends in F minor with angry despair. 4:03 2nd Lament. A complete new part for this movement added only in this final version, sounds more dissonant than anything else in the movement, further intensifies the pain. 5:00 2nd Fugue. Using the retrograde form of the subject as main subject, denoting the backward reflection of me on despair. The flow here is also more fluid. [BACH] in viola in 6:56. Prime subject joins again in 7:16 to have stretto with the retrograde subject. Ends in F minor again with augmented subject in 8:07. 8:25 3rd Lament. My favourite of the movement, the sheer pain especially in 8:41-9:00 always aches my heart. But human beings only change after pain and I am no exception, so after this painful passage some hope is finally invited to the party to modulate to E flat major for next part. 9:40 3rd Fugue. Using the inverted form of the subject as main subject, denoting the complete upside down of thought from despair to hope. Later the retrograde inversion form of the subject enters in 11:08 to represent even further distance from despair. The climax in 11:48 is the most hopeful passage in what's happened in the entire Quintet up to this point. But after it doubts continue to enter. Despair starts invading in 12:42, and in 13:18 the prime form in tonic c minor enters in a subconscious Viola entry plus an augmented 2nd violin entry. I think a lot on whether to extend the transition or not, but finally I just decided to keep it this way since an early defeat of hope can represent the cruelty of despair and the weakness of hope more. I love the sheer pain here, and the return of prime subject on cello in 13:40 means the struggle of hope is futile. An E flat major prime entry on Clarinet try to struggle once more but falls to despair again, a final prime subject on cello in 14:11 announces the defeat of hope. The section ends on a German Sixth chord to leave the music suspended. 14:36 Final Lament and coda. Solo by Clarinet, wants to escape by quoting the dream motive in G flat major like in 1st movement but has to accept despair. In 15:19 the opening returns to remind unsettled affair. In 15:36 all four forms of subject appear for a final conclusion and lament and acceptance of despair and tragedy. Only by acceptance you may recover from it. The biggest change I made in this revision is the addition of 2nd Lament and repetition of 1st Lament. This is my original plan but with the bad sound sample I deleted them in my final draft. But now with Vince's great rendition I think it's better to retain them and extend the Laments to match the overall narrative structure. I also change the entrance order of the instrument, some counterpoint and details here and there etc. In terms of fugal treatment I make use of all four forms (prime, retrograde, inversion and retrograde inversion) of the same subject to denote the ups and downs, thinking backward and forward of me, so they are not merely fugal devices but also have narrative function. Hopefully you enjoy the movement, feel free to criticize it and leave comments here. It's a long movement and a long description, and I gratefully thank you if you listen and read till the end! P.S Here are YC posts of previous movements: 1st Mov: 2nd Mov: Henry

Hello @Fruit hunter, another of your percussion pieces, now for a „more traditional“ percussion ensemble and not for „bottles“, „leaves“ and „wooden sticks“! Melodies Themes Motives and Harmony Chords Textures: The use of various pitched and unpitched percussion instruments allows you to introduce, on the one hand, a range of melodic motifs and even chords, and, on the other hand, rhythmic patterns that enrich the piece with a vast array of motivic material. Form Development Structure Time: Even though I’ve listened to the piece a few times now, I have to admit that the impression of a “kaleidoscope” of sounds and motifs prevents me from recognizing a specific traditional form development, so that the length of the piece increases the risk of a certain “randomness” or monotony. Originality Creativity: Given its instrumentation, the piece is undoubtedly one of the most original and unique entries in this competition. Score Presentation: There have been pointed out a number of engraving issues already by @MK_Piano, which I don’t want to repeat here. Beside that, I generally like your score since it has a good readable font size, spacing etc. However, I can see that you’ve struggled with the arrangement of the staves and systems on the pages. I know this, and it’s not always easy to find a satisfactory balance between readability (i.e., the font shouldn’t be too small and the staves shouldn’t be too close together) and the effective use of space on the pages. This always seems to be the case with pieces that require seven staves, so that sometimes there is room for two systems on a single page, while in other cases only one system can fit on a single page. For aesthetic reasons, I would prefer a more even distribution across the pages, but that is not always possible. In some cases (for example, in measure 40 and measure 137), the tempo markings or other annotations extend beyond the page margin or the page size. Instrumentation Orchestration Playability: I think, you have thoroughly worked on the instrumentation, the choice of the mallets, the situation when to change to another percussion instrument etc., which shows that you are familiar with that family of instruments. The only question – the playability of the fast changes between mallets or even instruments, as already stated by other reviewers – still remains for me, and I can’t answer it. Perhaps, you had have been a bit more „conservative“, introducing rests before that changes, which would be possible, especially if only one player changes the instrument/mallet while playing unison with another one (for example in mm. 108 or 116). Execution of Given Challenge: As for the question of to what extent this piece sounds “French” or conveys the atmosphere of a summer day, I have to admit that my first impression was, that the piece could be performed on the street at the „Fête de la Musique“ - which is a massive, nationwide free music celebration held annually on June 21, the day of the summer solstice, in France. And for that reason, I can see a real connection between your piece and the challenge of the contest. Taste: It's a piece that is interesting, surprising, and fascinating. On the other hand, it gets a little “monotonous” after a few minutes, so at the “Fête de la Musique”, I might have already moved on to the next musicians. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7.5 8 6.5 10 6.5 8.5 9 8 Average Score: 8.0

Score PDF and Audio Download About the Piece: This piece is written for 4 soprano saxophones. It has three movements: “La soie,” “Le ciel,” and “Le soir.” Each movement is based on a stanza from the original poem by Paul Verlaine, “Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été.” ______________________________________________________________________________ I - La soie (The silk) ______________________________________________________________________________ II - Le ciel (The sky) ______________________________________________________________________________ III - Le soir (The evening) ______________________________________________________________________________

I finally finished! I thought we were supposed to adapt the poem to be sung, so that's what I composed. For voice and piano trio! Attached is the link to the youtube video, as well as the pdf of the score and the mp3 audio. So on a bright summer day.mp3 So on a bright summer day.pdf

Entry: Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 7 10 8 9.5 10 10 10 Average Score:9.3 Review: Overall, I did not notice any engraving issues on the score presentation. The only thing I would recommend would be to use expression sim. when there is the same type of articulation. That way, you do not have to write out the articulation for each note. The execution of the piece of this piece has meets the challenge. Each part is easy to read and playability. The creative and originality reflect the German lieder in tone and character. Hence while it unique to this contest, it original in the sense that melody and harmony and creative in the instrumentation and such. Homophony is the primary texture throughout this piece and sounds like chorale.

Since the submission deadline will be soon, and I expect that there will arrive some pieces today or even tomorrow, I would like to ask whether we have some more days time for our reviews (perhaps at least over the weekend). I would appreciate it, if the deadline for the reviews could be clarified (not just for me, but also for the benefit of other reviewers, since we haven’t received that many reviews yet).

Hello everyone! I decided to wrap up and record at the piano a short waltz theme that I posted in the "incomplete works" forum recently. I found the theme quite complete by itself so I ended up adding only a coda (relatively long, so it works also as a second theme in some way). I also modified some harmonies, inner notes, and decreased the tempo quite a lot (from 120 to around 90) since I think the theme sounds better like that (and the coda would not work at a fast tempo). The sections are: m.1~16: A theme (antecedent) ending in HC m.17~32: A theme (consequent) ending in PC m.33~49: Coda (based in initial quarter note motive) I tried to record it in one go (instead of doing several takes and mixing them together) so I also share the video I took. I was planning to practice it for longer, but the trill is quite hard and I realized that if I want to play it perfectly, I probably need to go back to it in the future after several months. Also, I played it quite okay every time... until the camera was on, then random mistakes started happening hahaha. As a result there are some mistakes, particularly in the dynamics, trills, and in the coda, where I rushed too much (on top of that, I accidentally played a wrong note too). The audio for both the score and live videos are the same. Thank you and any feedback is more than welcome!

@JorgeDavid Well done, that was excellent! The second half is particularly moving. I felt like it really built up the drama and peaked in a very satisfying way. You’ve got a really nice touch, both in the composition and performance. Here’s my only recommendation: break up the accompaniment rhythm here and there. It will give the piece more character if the accompaniment is just a touch more rhythmically interesting. I’m only talking about rhythm, not the notes themselves. Even a small rhythmic change can have a big impact. For example: Instead of boom chuck chuck, boom chuck chuck, boom chuck chuck, boom chuck chuck… You might try boom chuck chuck, chuck boom chuck, chuck chuck chuck, boom chuck boom (rhythm repeats). The boom is the bass note and the chuck is the chord. You could keep all your same luxurious bass notes, but just alternate slightly where those bass notes hit. You may even find a configuration that sounds so delightful, you can use it throughout the piece as a motif. Anyways that’s just a thought. Even if you keep it as is, it’s already lovely! Nice job.

Hi! New here, just trying this out. This is a composition on piano I made like a year ago just as a sort of writing practice thing to see what I could do without using the tonic A Minor chord. Hope you enjoy! (Also prob not gonna share the sheet music here since i didn't have the playability in mind and the notation is god awful and this is one of the first times I used a DAW to produce the music lmfao) Azalea.mp3

It’s been forever since I done this sort of method of judging with sort of a transcript of a judge tape, but I’m going to try it for this piece or what basically happens is that I listen and I speak my notes in here. This allows me to pull things up immediately that I have noticed rather than using my memory. I appreciate the little dissonances and passing tones in the first Movement and the model interchange as well (2nd movement) This sounds very medieval like a quartet of crumhornes I kinda like the stylistic blending of the baroque, and also the medieval sound and sort of that renaissance, sort of idea in good attention to dynamics the trio given in the middle of the second movement does a good job to give the listener sort of a pallet cleanser and to redirect the energy and attention I appreciate how you use the full instrument of the Sopranos saxophone although that there it would be much nicer for a full sax Quartet (satb) I still give major respect to the versatility you present with only one instrument that is held by four different players The third movement has a good range of dynamics, and I love the low end of the dynamic spectrum given in the opening statement. I also like the harmony being used as well giving a Coventry Carol feel This also should represent the sunset as well in the idea of a sunset. Lovely ending with a pickerdty third. i’ll now give my scoring and explain any faults that may have happened MelodiesThemes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8.5 9.15 9.7 8.4 9.6 7.88 9.5 8.56 your average is 8.91. excellent quality on your composition. Also, did you perform the whole entire thing if this was a live recording then kudos to you anyways, I had explained your orchestration score. If only you used more members of the sax family you may be able to get a much more wider sound however though your purpose kinda does justify though if you want to keep it just to one instrument. just like I had said to other entries, I had tanked the creativity score however, though I kind of brought a little bit up to you due to the creative melody and the creative harmony, and feel that your piece gives off it kinda does fit that cookie cutter idea of that aesthetic that everybody else is convergently going for so there’s not really much uniqueness in that purpose purpose there. other than that excellent job

I thought that was lovely! This captures a pop/rock vibe that gives the piano a lot of drive and motion. The mysterious chords at the start do an excellent job of setting up the dramatic section (starting at 37 secs). You nailed it with that powerful section, and the music really gave me nostalgia for the video game Donkey Kong Country 2, which contains some of the best music ever composed for a Nintendo game (composer: David Wise), so in my book you’re doing great! I think this music could shine even brighter with the layering in of other instruments, especially bass and percussion. A simple beat with bass layered over this could take the whole thing to another level, and it may even open you up to adding more layers. As an example, check out this song from Donkey Kong Country 2, and notice the difference between the beginning (which has no percussion) and the section where percussion comes in (1:09). Both sections are great, but the introduction of the percussion really juices up the vibe. And your music reminds me of this song, a song I’ve always cherished. Would love to hear more from you. Cheers!

I honestly had to take some time away from reading this post to fully absorb what it was that you were trying to say LoL. So the first thing is (and what I also told Fruit hunter) is that these kinds of awards cannot be created because every member of the website would want an award created for their name "The Fruit hunter Award of Excellence", "The TristantheTristan Award", "The PeterthePapercomPoser Award", "The Chopin Award", "The Henry Ng Tsz Kiu Award" etc. etc. etc. These kinds of awards would be meaningless and wouldn't bestow any kind of honor or significance to those they would be given to. The other problem is that awards are still bestowed by the staff so there would be a logistical challenge since you'd always have to ask a staff member to bestow the award to someone for you. Finally - you do have a good idea hidden in your post - the idea of having an award for a good Theme and Variations. Now you'd just need a good concept for such an award and what kind of graphic might fit such a concept. Thanks for the idea!

@Kvothe Please don't spread misinformation like this about the contest entries. The piece is 6 and a half minutes long and therefore meets the duration requirements of being between 3 - 7 minutes long. The piece is also written for a quartet of saxophones which is an acceptable instrumentation as the competition is for 3 - 5 individual instruments.

I finished my piece! Saxophone Quartet no. 2 - Un clair jour d'été It's written for 4 soprano saxophones. Each movement is based on a stanza from the poem.

@CrystalCanon, @Grant Weep, thanks for sharing music! Both of your suggestions are great! As for the pronunciation of "Lithl", it's similar to lith-el. It goes like how Google Translate pronounces it. However, don't take that seriously, because it is more important to be recognized by you rather than whether the pronunciation is right or not, so please pronounce as you like! By the way, this time, I will suggest this piece by Vasks - String Quartet No. 5: II. So distant... yet near. Also, Rautavaara's Concerto for Birds and Orchestra. I’m looking forward to seeing what suggestion will appear next :)

Great thread Lithl. Lots of good stuff here. By the way...how do you pronounce your name? Is it...lith-el? Like "little" but with a lisp? At least that's how I say in my head when I see your name pop up. Please correct me if I am wrong! I will share one guy....this guy is incredible. I drew inspiration from him in writing my own music.

Haha... well I've listened to Mahler's second symphony while working out at the gym, so there! The prelude for guitar is lovely, by the way! It reminds me a bit of Scarlatti, though maybe it's because of my lack of exposure to this particular style.

@Luis Hernández and @Seni-G it's neat that Charles Ives came out in the discussion, because I was definitely reminded of his work when listening to the sonata, though I forgot to mention it. A lot of pieces of the aesthetic puzzle fit together with Ives' influence in mind!

Thanks @Lithl & @CrystalCanon Do not disparage your contribution to discussion on this forum, Lithl. Your feedback is as important to us as anyone else here. The second movement is indeed different. To some extent it is more stylictsticaly reminiscent of earlier galant chamber music, particularly in my use of the initial bass pattern that contains semiquaver passing notes. This is quite common in, for example, the chamber music of Carl Abel (a close associate of JC Bach) of late 1750s & early 1760s: But structurally it is quite different and in my view more akin to a fantasy - more liberal with greater meandering in the development and license in the recapitulation. I leave it to other's to determine whether it is a good fit or not... after all it was composed initially as a standalone piece that I thought would complement this suite. Listen carefully to some of the bass motifs at cadential in Abel's flute concerto in the below video (first piece) to see what I mean:

Exactly! Some of the best chorus' of Bach's festive cantatas, with the splendor of the full baroque orchestra, are in 3/8. I personally recommend that of Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten, BWV 207, for which he reused the first movement from his Brandenburg Concerto no 1. Such clever stuff! I listen to it while working out in the gym... I must be the only one in the world doing that 🤣

@Lithl Thank you kindly for the review! The kids are doing great, thanks for asking. That was a picture of my oldest some when he was a newborn, and now he’s a tween. Time flies. I’ve never heard of Kapustin but I’ll definitely check him out! @Luis Hernández Good call about dropping the repeat in the first movement. I left it in because I wanted to keep that classical sonata form, but maybe it should be an optional repeat. And thank you for the Ives comparison. I have always felt a certain kinship with Ives. He achieved so beautifully what I long to achieve: a prolific quantity of ear-stretching music that never breaks away entirely from classical harmony and form. I appreciate the comparison!!

on pastel skies was “commissioned” (more in this case called for) by the young composers 2026 summer competition fit this team after a poem about the serene atmosphere of the Midsummer afternoon So, on a bright summer day it shall be: The great sun, my partner in joy, Shall make, amid the satin and the silk, Your dear beauty lovelier still; The sky, all blue, like a tall canopy, Shall quiver sumptuously in the long folds Above our two happy brows, grown pale With pleasure and expectancy; And when evening comes, the breeze shall be soft And play caressingly about your veils, And the peaceful stars looking down Shall smile benevolently on man and wife. The gestation of this piece (initial thought, even before the entry of the first note) was an image of a dreamy Florida sunset over the Gulf of Mexico with this image the piece will transport you to another dimension of into the pastel pink, orange, and red opalescent skies instrumentation xylophone (doubling on glockenspiel and crotales, /w large zill bell attachment vibraphone I /w sus and Z.bell and dull metallic object (something like a Burma bell) vibraphone II /w sus and Z.bell and dull metallic object (something like a Burma bell) Marimba I /w sus and temple blocks Marimba II /w Chimes, sus and temple blocks and large, vibrating drum ( tom or surdo ect.) Very important note ^please use the official scoring system if you feel like it and if you’re able to with this piece, it helps a lot with my learning and also feedback and scoring of the music also is very important for my statistical research^ On Pastel Skies.mp3 On Pastel Skies.pdf

Yes, thank you for asking and sorry about this being unclear/unmentioned. You will have till October 1st (a week after the contest closes) to review all the entries and vote for the winners.

Thank you for the wonderful feedback! I believe I forgot to add dynamics at the end by mistake... :( Dynamics and bowings are up to interpretation I guess

Thank you so much listening and the feedback, @Grant Weep ! I have been listening to the sections you said attentively and I think I know what you mean. Regarding the Bnat, I personally like it there, and I like that harmonic/melodic movement, but thanks to your comment I realized that I did too much crescendo there. I should be played only a little louder, but I play that crescendo to the Cmajor chord even louder than the Half Cadence. I think that might affect negatively the first section of the piece. I will try practicing that crescendo softer to see if, for the next time, I manage to make that part sound smoother and less out of place. Regarding the power chords, I used those there for inner melodic reasons. You are right that they sound a little hollow, but I think I like the one in m.11, but in m.15 I might add the third to the right hand for next version. Thanks for pointing those out! Yeah, that was an accident, but since it did not sound too bad I let it stay. I also think it sounds kind of nice the more I hear it. I will consider whether leaving it and maybe reusing the same idea somewhere else or getting rid of it! Thanks for the comment!

Hello everyone, Thought I'd share my appreciation for this gorgeous work for double choir by Zelenka, performed by Ensemble Inegal under Adam Viktora's direction (released 2025). Zelenka worked for the court of Augustus the Strong of Dresden and was a contemporary of JS Bach (they allegedly knew of each other and maintained mutual respect but never met). Unlike Bach's sacred works, Zelenka wrote for the Catholic church. This was written specifically to be sung at one of various altars during a Corpus Christi procession at Prague's St. Salvator Church. This movement was written to be sung at the third altar. Until recently all but the first movement was believed to have been lost in the Dresden Bombing of WW2. Thankfully, researchers in 2023 found a complete 19th century copy for our pleasure. Prague's St. Salvator Church. For me, it doesn't get much better than this. Enjoy!

Some of the most devastating music i’ve heard still yet contain a mixture of the minor/major mode but commence and return to the minor. There are some outliers though in your spirit, such as Bach’s crucifixus (from mass in b minor). I believe that is entirely in the minor, but with an important caveat: The movement is approximately 3 minutes long, and is immediately followed by the jubilant ‘Et Resurrexit’. This is of course highly effective, and I can only imagine how the mood in a concert hall, reduced to the depths of despair at the depiction of Jesus dying on the cross, to then be elevated by the sudden and ecstatic news of the great revelation. The other example that comes to mind is Dido’s Lament by Purcell. Both share a the same structural basis: a repeated ground bass and as such the music remains within its harmonic frame. And both represent something both devastating and apparently defeating. So it’s not unprecedented in that measure, but what sets your work apart is in its length, and the indication that the other movements are also predominately in the minor. I would argue that the most effective narratives through music embody some form of cyclic structure that involves both the major and minor (not in equal measure but 70/30, depending on which mode the work commences) and if not within a single movement, then between movements. Bach’s crucifixus is an excellent example in this respect. That is my personal preference, of course, and wish not to detract from the technical and aesthetic feat you have achieved here. All the best Markus

Hello, What a wonderful waltz. I listened it to 4-5 times now, and each time at 0:23, or measure 11....the Bnat in your right hand, really clashes with the Bb in the left hand. In that same measure (11) and in measure 15, you do this thing where you have like a power chord going on....G in LH and G-D in right hand. Sort of feels out of keeping with the lovely sophisticated, I'm in a Cafe in Paris feeling smoking a cigarette reading Camus sort of feeling that you got going on otherwise. In measure 11, I personally "feel" a Gminor9 chord sort of voiced in a way where it's clustered together. But I realize that that may or may not work with what you have right after (going into the Cmaj). Perhaps, just nixing the Bnat and keeping it Bb. Anyways, that's how the piece sounds to me...just this one place that seems out of place. Really digging the chord/atmosphere at measure 37. At measure 40, you play a F# I think that's not in the score? Maybe it was an accident/improvisation, but I like it! Perhaps you could expand on the idea since I believe that this general idea has not come up in the music yet.

Hi @Markus Boyd ! Sorry for a long delay for replying! Actually not only this movement but the entire piece is predominantly in minor. My story to tell is about despair, the feeling of it and the struggle of it with hope. When you are struggling it's easy you lose all hope in the world, so I don't put balance of major/minor in this work. In fact the portion of Eb major is increasing during movements and the work will end in it instead of C minor to represent some hope! During this movement it will be me to be crazed by the despair completely till exhaustion, and after that you will start reflecting, which is the theme of the 3rd movement. In that emotional state I believe there won't be much drama from major/minor, rather it will be a deep dive into the despair in minor. Henry

Hi @Scriabinian ! Sorry for such a long delay! I would love to have it played in real life too, but that will be a bonus only. Thank you for your compliment! Henry

Hi @Luis Hernández ! Thx for your reply! I always want to reply but I'm too busy right now ao it causes a really long delay! Thank you Luis. I know how knoweledgeable you are with musix theory and to earn a compliment from you is an honor. I do think in terms of counterpoint and hopefully it's not too bad haha! Henry

I will now view your entry for so on a bright summer day and as of listening to it, it initially sounded nice however, though there’s one thing you should be careful on slurring those 16th note, triplets should be slurred and under one bow Also, you should be careful about using the sticcatisimo articulation it should only be used sparingly when you want a special effect of a very exaggerated staccato marking Nice meter change into the 6/8 in key change as well At times the music feels a little bit clustered. Also make sure you use dynamics more often especially around that later parts Anyways, I was a string player. I’m going to harp on the string parts more harshly because I feel like there could be more that could’ve been done with the strings along with different techniques to be used in different types of Bowing Anyways, it was a nice piece. The only two problems though is that the 6/8 section felt very clustered and kind of muddy and there were very little use of dynamics near that part as well but it’s a very solid work though I will now give scores and reasons for faults MelodiesThemes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 6.87 8.2 8.8 9.2 7.2 9.8 6.5 average: 8.19 The harmony was a little basic, however though I may give you props to that key change you should read up above about the orchestration problem, but I feel like the strings could do much more and feel free to experiment more for taste, I rated it so low just for the purpose that it was a good piece on its own. It wasn’t that much interesting though to my taste, I couldn’t really find anything that stands out. however, though this was a good quality production and I wish you luck and further competitions and your composing career

Haha thx Alex! When I composed I seldom stick to any plan. This structural graph is made only after I finish the piece and me acting as the analyst rather than the composer haha. When I write I'm probably the same as you to write with instinct and polish them later. Indeed, it takes longer than I thought. I am almost finish with the whole piece as the 4th movement is almost done! It would be a bonus but I'm not that eager to have the piece performed in real life. Henry

mad respect for that

Thanks for the feedback. I recorded each part separately with a click track, except for the third movement which was fully rubato. As for the instrumentation, I wanted it to have a choral feeling, with the instruments being equal in range and timbre. I also quite like the sound of close harmonies, especially harmonies found in barbershop quartets, which is what inspired the first movement.

We need justice lol

That badge was created by me as a joke for Christmas of 2023 so that @Thatguy v2.0 could bestow the badge to me for winning our "Christmas Duel" LoL. That's a good idea too! The only comparable existing award is the "Musical Explorer" badge, but a "Creative Composer" badge would also be good! Thanks.

Hi Henry, Well done on your revision of this major work: it must've taken such a long time to do! I'm very impressed with all the detail in your structural plan. (Don't think I could stick to something like that, as I tend to write organically by instinct alone.) Are you hoping to get a performance by real musicians? Alex

Straight away you get to the point with the very nice intro. It has a distinct theme and haunting harmony. The fugues are very beautiful, and the transitions are quite smooth. But I especially love the intro. The intro has a Tchaikovsky feel to it, very dark, emotional with lots of soul. The fugues are fun and I can tell you paid close attention to orchestration. It seems that your key changing is pretty tame in this movement, at least within sections. Your transition from the 8 minute mark to the 9:20 mark is particularly well done and I like how you split this movement into 2...where the first section is the darker side, and the second section is the happier side. It gives the piece a nice balance. The second section reminds me a little of Bach's inventions, before you remind us of the darkness of the entire piece by shifting focus back to the intro!

Hi @Grant Weep—a bit late to comment on these works. My impression is that these are wonderful, lovely, and truly nice pieces. The backstory behind the works is just fantastic. When it comes to a piece that holds such significance, there’s really nothing for me to add. I'm a total stranger to your kids, but tell them to enjoy childhood, and good luck! ☺️ I said so before, but again, I truly hope you have an amazing family life! Best, Lithl.

The only exception is, you know, "that guy." 😏 By the way, what about the "Creative Composer" badge? This badge is awarded to composers whose work feels creative or who demonstrate uniqueness—such as through the fusion of different genres. Best, Lithl.

I won't want to have that lololol

Hello, If this is something you wrote a year ago, I'd be interested in hearing how your more recent compositions! The intro was pretty cool, the use of effects there was great. I tried to follow on my keyboard, since there was no sheet music. I think I got the main musical ideas. The cool thing about using the D major and occasional D minor chords is that it gives a bit of an epic feel to the piece. As you mentioned, not using the tonic always makes me feel like the music gets this short of push to it. Like, on the move. To me, it gives this sort of subjective quality like a journey. So that's pretty cool! From a structural point of view, I am hearing A/B/A/B/A. Kinda like verse/chorus/verse/chorus/verse. I mean your piece is pretty nice already. The type of structure that you have is great. Sometimes, experimenting with the structure can really make a piece of music sound special. Like any pop song, you could try adding an intro (which you kind of have, but you used effects so I have mentioned it). You could try adding a bridge. You could try adding an outro. Once again, these are all matters of subjective taste. Many great pieces written A/B/A/B/A structure, the length of your piece is also not too long, so it works. But yeah, I like how you are doing this little variations to make things interesting...alternating between the A - E - A -E, and then going E-A-E-A. I think while the overall musicality is fairly simple, you are doing some nice things with it. I find that music can be very dialectical, depending on how you look at it. Like, truly good music is slightly surprising and also comforting. You want to try to be innovative and find your own sound, but also not write something so innovative that nobody can understand. You'll want to take risk and be safe, but perhaps sometimes taking a risk is the safe thing to do, and perhaps keeping it safe is taking a risk? Anyways, just some ramblings from an old guy, welcome and hope to see you around more often.

@PeterthePapercomPoser I am sorry about that. 😕 I will reverse what I said. And rescore it.

A delightful work with rich harmonies and lush strings. The vocals are sometimes a little buried in the mix, and hard to make out. It sounds like you're using quite a strong reverb: so it might be an idea to reduce the wetness level. Good work though. I am interested to know what the graphic means? Looks like a rabbit being consumed by a plastic apple.

Hello @Fruit hunter ! I wish, I could press both buttons, „Thank you“ and „Ha, ha“, but since that is not possible, I did a simple „Like“. And even though the “fruit hunter award of excellence” will not really appear in my collection of badges, I’ll collect it in my mind! Thank you, very much. It’s nice to hear, that you don’t find the use of the muted trumpet as „too annoying“. And yes, this time, I tried to blend the instruments together (as it is done in a full orchestra) as far as possible and not only to simple distribute the four-part voice leading of the original piano work to the instruments. Unfortunately, I have no practical experience how fast a cellist can change from bowing to pizzicato. I hope that it is possible in the relatively slow tempo. I remember discussions on that topic on even faster tempo, where finally came around that nowadays string players would be able to do so, even in relative fast tempo. And, by the way – ha, ha – I remember that you’ve earned similar concerns with your mallet changes in your „On Pastel Skies“ submission ... Yes, always after finishing one of my piano pieces, I try out the fingering (and test the playability). Perhaps my fingering instructions are somewhat exaggerated, but it is not as easy even in passages one might find simple at the first glance, so that I often struggle which fingering marks are redundant and obvious. Another fun was for me to learn about the notation for the Accordion, applying registration hints and the notation for the bass.

@Luis Hernández I think this is lovely! Though it’s modern, it still sounds tonal and classical-influenced to my ear. That’s my favorite kind of sound, something that feels new and classic all at once. I like that the music has a distinct shape and direction, despite the modern sound. The orchestration is lush and beautiful. It feels like you’re having fun, which makes it fun for the listener. My only suggestion would be this: if you use the entire color palette on the front end, you don’t save very many arrows in your quiver for later. You might try limiting the number of colors used at the start, so that later on you can introduce more in order to keep it fresh and exciting. Sometimes many colors used one after another can start out interesting, but quickly becomes a bit flat since they lose their uniqueness, and the thrill of introducing a new color wears off too quickly when it’s surrounded by other interesting colors. In a way, it’s about restraint in how you deploy your instruments, so that each important color change has a chance to stand out and shine. I’m excited to hear more of your orchestral work!

Hi Markus! It’s a really nice quartet, definitely in the spirit of Mozart and Haydn. The portamento in the sound samples of the strings can be mildly distracting. Also for some reason, I was slightly unsettled by bar 17 for some reason, though maybe the effect was intentional, or maybe it was partly because of the portamento. Great piece though, and I’m excited to hear the final version!

Hello @Woofi_9, since you are (relatively) new at this forum, first my warm welcome! Whenever one posts an unfinished piece – what I think is here the case due to the title and the plenty bars at the end with rests only – there is a good chance to receive rich feedback with usually polite suggestions for improvement. So I very appreciate @MK_Pianos explanations on „Melody and Harmony“ which are not only intended and useful for you, but for all readers of the forum. I can’t compare myself to him because I don’t have an entire „tutorial“, but only a repost with some considerations about „Rhythm and Texture“ which, I think, supplements Mason’s explanations. I intentionally just did not listen to the piece and am focusing only on that I am seeing in the score, trying to formulate my concerns and suggestions – however the piece might sound fine. A string quartet consists of four individual instruments, usually playing a single voice (and, furthermore, of four individual humans). Thus, it perfectly fits for a four-part-voice leading where each voice is „independent“ and „equal“ to each other. Such kind of music is called „polyphonic“ or even „counterpuntal“ music – the opposite to a musical „style“ that consists of a (prominent) melody voice and (subordinate) accompaniment. I think, your piece is a kind of this approach. However, we do need a memorable melody and rhythm, often called a „theme“, which is played multiple times (sometimes unchanged like in a canon or fugue - or otherwise slightly altered) by all instruments throughout the piece. So the role, which instrument is most prominent and which are the accompanying ones changes, finally creating variety. And there I’m coming now to my concerns or „criticism“: I can’t recognize such a memorable „theme“ which I would usually expect at the beginning of the piece in the upper voice. Instead, the Violin 1 has a somewhat repetitive texture with repeated half notes for the first 6 bars. Although the piece has enough distinctive textural motifs (each one bar long), they are not distributed well enough between the voices resulting in that the same motif is repeated too often by the same instrument (for example, the Cello in bars 9-14). My suggestion is, to take the one-bar motifs and create a „theme“ from them. In the example below, I have taken two passages, snippet them out and glued them together to create such a „theme“ from then which I would consider to distinctive enough. (Note, that I didn’t take care of the melody, i.e. the pitches and didn’t bother how it would sound, it is a rhythmic or textural example only). I would start with that „theme“ in Violin 1 and would repeat it at least two times (or better three times to involve all four instruments) thereafter by other voices. The other instruments should than apply rhythmical motifs which are contrary to that bars of the theme, meaning where the theme has a slow motion, the other instruments should have the faster motion – and vice versa.

Hello everyone! The following post in my formal submission for the 2026 Summer Competition: From Nothing, to Something. Below includes a detailed and extensive explanation of the work, both in inspiration and construction. If you wish to skip, the score PDF and Audio will be found at the end. Thanks and talk to you all soon! [TAKEN FROM SCORE] Plus belle encor votre chère beauté  - Your dear beauty lovelier still Duration: c. 6:08 Written in 2026, Plus belle encor votre chère beauté is a work for piano quartet that evokes summer and the experience of love. It was composed for the “2026 Summer Competition” hosted by The Young Composers Music Forum and is inspired by Paul Verlaine’s poem “Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d’été,” whose opening line may be translated as: “So, on a bright summer day it shall be.” The poem is number nineteen in Verlaine’s collection La Bonne Chanson (The Good Song) Find the French text and translation to the poem here The title of this work is drawn directly from the French text and has similar inspiration as the Gabriel Fauré song from his op. 61 bearing the same name as the Verlaine poem. However, this work takes the title from the fourth line of text, and unlike Fauré, this work is late-romantic in style. The musical inspiration came from two places: Tchaikovsky and his Nutcracker ballet, and a spell of improvisation at the piano. This work was created in late July and early August 2026, and during that time, I was experimenting with modal improvisation, and felt drawn to G-lydian. Specifically, the ivø7 chord you can build and find in Tchaikovsky’s music. It was also around this time I was listening to parts of the Nutcracker, where I felt drawn to the idea of harp-writing, and thus, during a period of improvisation, the foundation of this work came to be. With structure, Plus belle encor votre chère beauté is in ternary (A-B-A’) form and includes an intro and coda. The B-section acts as our development while the outer A-sections are comprised of a smaller AABA form. The principal theme stated in the A-section occurs throughout the work, where it can be heard in the introduction, coda and within the development where the piano states the principal theme in inversion. Lastly, I composed this work following the end of a relationship. In short, this work evokes those unspoken emotions I harbored and the romance I long to have one day. A day where I too can say “Your dear beauty.” PERSONAL NOTE: For me, the connection to this text, and now to this piece of music, is very personal. By the time this post goes live, my last relationship, of more than a year, ended a month ago. I will leave my thoughts on the matter with this: while rare in occurrence, being in the throes of thought can make the weight of longing feel immeasurable. However, amidst the satin and silk, this piece came to life. To add some fun for the competition, and incase people worry the music is not playable, I can assure you everything on the page works and is practical. However, better to put money where my playing is. A few hours before posting, I decided to record myself playing the work and trying out things. I originally improvised it on piano and this was one of the few times I tried to mimic what is on the page. It is not 1-to-1 and I made certain liberties in performance, however, this was fun to do! (This YouTube video is not my official audio entry for this competition. MP3 for score can be found below. Also, my camera was not in focus during the take... grrr) Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy! (The art on the cover page is Claude Monet's "Woman with a Parasol." A wonderful piece of art!) AUDIO_YourDearBeauty.mp3 SCORE_YourDearBeauty.pdf