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I'm glad most people are favoring the fun part of the competition rather than monetary rewards. I think it's best to keep it that way for now, and your divisions would be good to use as the badge rewards instead of what we did. However, since we wanted it to be a poll instead of actual judging this time (it was thrown together pretty quickly), I like the categories we used as easy fun ways to vote. In hindsight, as I voted, I noticed there wasn't any "most fun" category, which yours clearly would have won to me. @PeterthePapercomPoser pointed it out in our discord, and we should've had that category. These are easy ways to improve managed by experience and feedback. With actual judging, your way is the way to move forward imo. More afterthoughts: I like the poll as an alternative to judging, I think both are equally valid. I'm not a fan of seeing who you vote for, but I know I'm in the minority with that. The framework for assigning numbers kind of got out of hand imo, but I'm glad people seemed to have fun with it. It wasn't necessary, but I'm glad it was an aide for people in determining which pieces they liked best. Being up front about WHAT we would be voting for would maybe be better for future poll based competitions.

Hello my dear composers. Here my 3rd movement of my Piano sonata no 2. A Menuetto with Trio . I hope you like it

First of all, I have to say that I really enjoyed this competition! It was an intense two weeks—on the one hand, to finish my own composition/arrangement, and on the other hand, to listen to such a diverse range of great musical works. I think all the participants invested a lot of time, effort, and passion to achieve such a result! I must admit that – puh – reviewing seems to be harder than composing! We have seen a lot of atonality and non-traditional musical structure (to mention some, but not to be exhaustive all "Dima’s National Dance" by @Dima, "From Above, Now Below" by @Thatguy v2.0, "Diptych for Piano Quartet" by @Cosmia, "Aos Si" by @HoYin Cheung, "American Cryptids" by @Micah, "Fumage" by @Justin Gruber, "Clowns" by @sebastian Pafundo, "Woodwind Quintet" by @Maxthemusicenthusiast, "The Mist" by @Kvothe, "A Hollow Theme for Halloween" by @therealAJGS) and – on the other hand – more „beautiful“ and „well-behaved“ pieces (for example, "Ghost Town Requiem" by @UncleRed99, "Bagatelle No. 6" by @Omicronrg9 and "Dance from the skeleton ball" by @MK_Piano), which I very enjoyed, too. As „balanced“ between this two poles I would consider "Daunting Steps" by @ferrum.wav, "Trio Variations" by @TristanTheTristan and – lol - my own piece. Therefore, the decision was very hard and due to the subject of the competition, Halloween, the more outlandish pieces were in the better position. The dedications of the badges „spookiest/scariest piece“, „strangest/weirdest/most outlandish piece“ and „biggest thriller“ were – in my opinion – not so easy to distinguish, so that we have one glorious winner in nearly all categories, "From Above, Now Below" by @Thatguy v2.0, my best congratulations. Special thanks to @PeterthePapercomPoser for organizing that funny contest! What did you think of the official competition reviewing template? For me, the competition reviewing template was very useful, giving the focus what to review a clear structure. Even if I did not give a textual review according to the eight categories but only a general one, scoring according to the definitions (i.e. between 0 and 10 points) and calculating an average was useful and helped to determine the winner(s) for the different badges. I could also imagine that in future competitions, the template and the numbers will be used in an official sheet to determine the overall winner. In such a case, however, it would be necessary to formulate more precisely how we should award the points in order to achieve a fair result that can be used for such a calculation. I noticed that some of the reviewers often awarded 10 points to pieces/categories they liked, while I was a bit stingy with this top score (apologies to all participants). I would like to say that such differences in the use of scores between different reviewers, although consistent in their own assessment, could lead to a kind of injustice. What would you like to see in future competitions? I think, the most revenue of the competition is getting a lot of review in a short period of time. Therefore, I would like to keep the competition „just for fun“ without monetary awards. An interesting variant could be to keep the competitors and judges anonymous. Such a rule could be combined with the mandatory use of the template and its usage for the calculation of the winner, as mentioned above. In such a case it would be necessary to require that all participants review all the other entries to achieve comparability and fairness. However, such a strict set of rules could imply that some members would hesitate to participate, thus we could try out that for one competition, but should not apply it to all future ones.

thank you so much!

Hello there! Before, I had the project in mind of writing 12 piano preludes, and that was just dandy. I don't know how consecutively I'll write more, but a few ideas have lingered lately so I figured I would dabble at it again. Here's a very short one in C, hope you enjoy!

Hey @Tunndy! Although I don't think that this orchestration is entirely in good taste (with some parts still sounding quite mechanical and robotic such as especially the triplet 16th note runs) I think it's a huge improvement over your other orchestrations of famous piano pieces! You didn't include the piano in the orchestration as a crutch, and you use the instruments mostly idiomatically, making good solo instrument choices and giving the different instruments a chance to imitate each other creating changes in timbre that were original and most definitely not intended in the original. I like how you let the solo flute lead with the main melody, using the strings at first only to outline the harmony. Later you include some variations on the main melody to extend it. Then you include harp arpeggios in a way that sounds appropriate to a harp rather than a piano. You also create lots of variation and contrasts between restatements of the melody that in the original were the same. I like your use of dynamics and thickening up of the texture and creation of dramatic moments with the timpani. All in all, I think this was a very successful orchestration! (despite some things I would have excluded) Great job and thanks for sharing!

Please fill out the survey to help us organize better competitions in the future! The survey is anonymous so we won't be able to see who voted for what. The poll closes on Monday, November 10th, 2025 at 11:59 pm PST. Thanks for voicing your opinion!

Hi @Vasilis Michael! It's as good as your usual style with fleeting harmonic progression like the one go to Ab major at the start of B section of the Minuet in b.8. The Trio is really dreamy and definitely with Schubertian influence there, especially that turn to minor in b.56. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hi @gaspard! Nice performance. I always get fascinated by early instrument performance with lots of ornaments. The Virginal is a beauty both for its acoustic and its look. English music was much more colorful than the Ars Perfecta back then. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hey VInce, I like the simplistic style here and the smooth voice leading. I will make sure to try this on piano and record it. Henry

@PeterthePapercomPoser I acted as if I was real judge in official competition. Entries have to meet the core requirements before passing onto the next round. So that is what I did first. I check to see if they meet the core requirements of the competition. If they failed, at least, I could look over the score help them. But it would go further than. If entries pass the first round, then, I come back and do score check and playability. Once that is done, I look at different textures, harmonies, and such. I notice the entries used a modern harmony: clusters, chords built on seconds, atonality, ect. I loved it. In the 20th century, traditional forms, we all used to, is throw out the window. So we have to be more creative with time, form, and structure. I have a feeling with next one: entries will be tonal. Hahaha

I think this question comes from the wrong place philosophically. When one asks the question "How do I compose faster?" one is really treating themselves like a machine, the assumption being that the more trial and error, the more one learns. Take this anecdote: While this anecdote addresses the concept of craft, it doesn't really get at inspiration. I believe that the question any artist or composer should really be asking themselves is "How do I enjoy music more?" or "How do I enjoy writing/creating more?". Without addressing this question one is quickly going to crash into a wall called "burnout". The pattern behind one's creative output is likely to become something akin to this: 1) Overexertion 2) Exhaustion 3) Creative stagnation 4) Increased self-doubt 5) Repetition. Asking the question "How can I enjoy music more?" will lead the composer towards music that they want to emulate, setting up a pattern of: 1) Discovery 2) Epiphany 3) New utility 4) Integration (or Refinement) 5) Sharing 6) Repetition (I won't lie, I partially used Google Gemini to help me come up with more healthy creative habit steps)

I think it's a pretty good piece of music, so I'm satisfied with the result... 😄 It seems that blatantly copying someone's style is not my real superpower at all... Thanks again!

But I invented the baromantic style. There's nothing wrong with that! I'm an innovator...

Hi again @olivercomposer! I think with the way you're using the ornaments and little trills here and there, to me it sounds more Baroque now! LoL

Hey @MK_Piano! Great ideas so far! I think what I find confusing about the beginning of your main theme (after the short 4 measure introduction), is that at first it seems like you start the piece on an accompanimental one measure vamp in the strings. So the phrase actually seems to start on measure 6 in the Bassoons. That serves as the antecedent phrase of a musical period. It lasts for 4 measures from bar 6 - 10. That's just fine and dandy, but then the consequent phrase doesn't come in until measure 11 in the Bassoons once again. So it seems like you might be including that one measure vamp again as part of the phrase, in which case it becomes an acephalic five measure phrase. I know Haydn and even sometimes Mozart were known for writing five measure phrases. I am not sure if it is working here. If you are happy with it - definitely keep it! But to me it would sound better if you concatenated the phrasing so that the consequent phrase would start at bar 10. This confusion about the phrase lengths continues into the 2nd iteration of the phrase at measure 18. The phrase starts right on beat one, so this time its not acephalic. But then it continues for five measures from measures 18 - 23 with a slight 3/4 hemiola that's then concatenated to terminate on beat one of measure 23. To me this definitely starts to sound awkward and confusing in the phrasing. When I first listened to the piece without looking at the score, it sounded like you changed meter to 3/4 and then abruptly back to 4/4. I felt lost as a listener, not knowing where the phrase was going rhythmically. So although kinda awesome, the piece does have many structural flaws that confuse (at least this) listener. When the piano comes in on the theme later on in the piece (solo), you do concatenate the phrases to 4 measure phrases and I think that does kinda work better. But I think as far as the big form and macro-tonal plan is concerned, the piece seems to repeat too much. I think if you had included the contrasting 2nd theme in the exposition before doing a 2nd exposition with the piano that would have made more sense. But I have personally never written a piano concerto in sonata form before - I've just written two theme and variations pieces for piano and orchestra. So all my experience is in concertante type piano concerto writing. Thanks for sharing and I hope some of what I had to say was helpful/useful!

Overall speaking, I quite enjoy the format and atmosphere of this competition. I think the judging mechanism of this competition is good as, 1) Variety of awards/ scoring criteria - It gives recognition to the composers for certain aspects of his music, and allows (specifically growing composers) much specific target/ direction to enhance. Moreover, appreciation to "good" music in some cases where the music is not fitting to the given theme, but is still pleasant to listen to. 2) Qualitative - Please keep the scoring template optional. IMO the scoring template is a benchmark to distinguish the relative performance of each entrants - while the scoring scale may be inconsistent between different judges (i.e. non-linear and subjective), at least that serves as a tool to establish consensus between different judges the rank of each entrants.

Hello everyone! My thoughts about the Halloween competition: 1. The scoring sheet help to me to scored each entries as I review them impartially. 2. I think it will be those who are new to grow. 3. There are so many entries, including me, that wrote in different styles. I think if we had a competition that highlight these styles it push members to write new styles. 4. Maybe we can one in the future that monetary reward. But now? 5. For now, let us keep for fun until members mature enough to do official ones. (Even on here)

Nostalgic vibe there. Do you think of the harmony first or melody?

Thoughts on my current rough-drafted ideas / progress on a new symphony orchestral score I'm working on? This is a very rough draft. lol. The form isn't quite proper right this minute. Better transitions and more complex sections will be added in time. Thanks in advance 😉New(2).pdf New(2).mp3

In all the years past, the Christmas Event was just an event - not a competition. It was a completely free event with no limitations on ensemble nor duration and no judges, or scoring. The intent was just to channel the spirit of Christmas (or the holidays or winter) in the music in any way the participants saw fit. And there were only two types of badges - participant badges for everyone who submits music and community organizer for whoever bolstered the event through an announcement post and submissions thread. There was never any popular voting or anything like that either. Sure, that's a great idea! Let me know what you think of the Category Definitions in the Competition Reviewing Template that I just added! Thanks for your input!

Duh it's good enough lol. Your teacher is awesome, you're awesome... I hope you win!

@PeterthePapercomPoser @Thatguy v2.0 Thank you for the replies! By no means did I mean to dissuade the structure you implemented. You cannot conform to everybody and no competition is going to be "fair" for every entry. You will have to find a system that is both fair, and not overly strict. I believe my logos was not as clear as I intended in my previous reply. Two things can be true at once and it is refreshing to see many different musicians advocate for a low-pressure means to simply write music; or share existing creations they feel have merit. At the same time, I do not want to take away from the people who are less experienced trying to throw in their works with professional composers. I do not see it fair if they do. As you hinted for the next possible event to be a Christmas one, with no limit on ensemble size, would it make sense to lump and judge a symphonic orchestra work to a solo sonata with piano accompaniment? Or a digital work to a sacred-vocal work detailing a hymn? This was the basis of my thinking in my OG reply. I simply wonder if there is a mesh between formal and informal. Here was an alternate take on my idea(s): Keep the judging by poll, and limit the votes to categories; as you did. With using a table for review, I wanted to suggest another addition to all the info you provided. You added a table showcasing the scoring system (7-7.9 = Average / Standard ). I meant to suggest adding a diagram that defines the words being used: Taste, Originality, Textures, Score Presentation, etc. Taste - Your personal score from 1-10 Score Presentation - How the score is organized / How easy it is to understand the score from 1-10 Originality - How unique does this score sound from 1-10 Creativity - How well the submitant made and used a theme from 1-10 etc. I thought it to be a good way to avoid confusion of the terms by defining the language you want to use. I do not believe that add-on to take away the fun aspect of this. Thanks again!

piano orchs.mp3 um (1).pdf

Hey @Mooravioli! No doubt your piano prelude is good. And congrats on having your teacher playing it for you! It's a pleasure and honor for you! I had actually listened to this piece before your teacher played it haha. I remember I said that I wanted the trio section to be longer, and I think you do extend it in this version! I think the flow is better now! The harmony and texture is very interesting throughout, they certainly reflect a sense of escape from the time of anxiety now. I really like the b.37 section, even though it's light-hearted, it's easy to ignore the beautiful counterpoint there. I also like the reappearance of the first theme where you instead use the texture of from b.37 first, before recapitulating the lucid texture in b.108. Really enjoyable piece, thx for sharing!! Henry

Oh no! I liked all the pieces very much. Your „Trio Variations” are neither „terrifying“ nor too „well-behaved”; I find them „good balanced.” That's why I placed them in the third category, right next to my own. (Hahaha, you voted for yourself ...)

Hello dear people. I have composed a new compostion and i would appreciate it very much if I could get some critique on the composition, anything you notice is vaild and some points I would like critique on it this: The cohesiveness of the piece, how well the piece creates tension for example, if it feels like the piece have "bumps" where it feel like it goes off. How well I exsecute the harmonic progressions and cinematic feel. The composition is influenced by Thomas Bergersen whom I listen to a lot these days. Like pretty much on a daily basis. Thanks so much in advance

Hello, I enjoy this piece a lot. I appreciate the key changes and the harmonic context given. The rhythmic content is also really good. The only things I have to say, though is that the left-hand could be a little bit louder in the introduction in the first few measures first 30 most likely. Also, this is just a playability issue but make sure that some of the left-hand stuff if it goes above the staff to put in treble if need be. I think you’re already doing it but there’s some parts where there’s like six ledger lines on the left hand. But I enjoy the moment given off from this piece. Good job.

Hi Bjarke, Think it's a good piece; but the ending feels rather abrupt to me. If it were my work, I would end with a pattern of descending arpeggios from high to low register, followed by the chords you already have. Might also be worth experimenting with ebbs and flows in the tempo to create some rubato. Not sure it would work; but may be worth a try.

Thanks for your vote and for voicing your opinions @MK_Piano! We have had this idea at the end of the last formal competition - "Dreamscapes" - which had monetary prizes and an official set of judges. As can be seen at the end of the "Dreamscapes" Satisfaction Survey linked below 5 out of 10 voters in the survey liked the idea of having tiered divisions for entrants of different skill levels. I think one of the problems with this idea is that we can never know if we'll even have enough participants joining the competition to justify having even just two different tiers. And would this also imply that the prize money will be split evenly between the different winners from the different tiers? Or would the more advanced tier get the lion's share of the prize money? But either way, I think from looking at the results (so far) of this 2025 Halloween Satisfaction Survey, the emergent fashion seems to be that people prefer to keep the competitions as casual as possible or just for fun and without monetary prizes. The formatting was optional. All the reviewers were free to use the reviewing template or dump it and make their own. Or just write comments and forget any kinds of categories or numerical scales. In the past when we had official competitions with monetary prizes, the official judges talked to each other about the entries (the composers of which were kept anonymous by me) on a set of competition dedicated discord channels on the Young Composers Spot discord server. We were a team and presented a concerted effort to review all the entries as consistently as possible. And as mentioned above in my response to @Wieland Handke's post, the only thing that needs to be consistent from one judge to another is the differences between the different entries. So that even if each judge rates the entries in a different range of the numerical scale, as long as the differences between the different scores are consistent across the whole set of entries, the scores all get averaged between the judges and produce a fair result. Thanks for your response and sharing your thoughts!

I just finished my little vote. I had a fun time, even if I didn't "win," I still feel I gained some experience. Heck, it gave me a passion to make new music and make more music of similar instrumentation. I was happy to see that I was not the only one who did a Piano Quartet with Strings to pair. It was refreshing to hear how different 3 people can make contrasting music with the same constraints. I will reference them in the future when it comes time to do more. 🙂 About the grading or reviewing aspect, I think a simple solution is to keep brackets or divisions for submissions. We saw a complete mix of tonal and post-tonal, amatuer and professionals. It can be hard to grade them all at an equal level when you have to conform yourself to a different standard for each person. I want to be the first to suggest this idea: I think before the next competition, you should categorize users by division based on an entry poll or application. Like most real festivals, forums or competitions, each user will have to file an application to enter with their work. Some places in the US are now asking for cover letters and resumes to pair. Since the point is to keep it fun and more informal, I suggest making a poll asking for people to help gauge their experience: "Have you seen your works performed?" "Have you taken music theory before?" "How many years have you been writing music? "Do you have the ability to write sheet music?" "Will you submit a post-tonal (Without key-center) or tonal (with key-center) work for this event?" Etc. Similar to existing competitions, we can categorize people before hand, create divisions and judge more accurately. Some divisions such as the following: Amatuer Professional Post-Tonal Tonal This was my only gripe with the formatting. It felt hard to review everyone to a level standard when the goal-post was never consistent. I do not want to feel like the bad guy for using language or concepts they are not aware of, or risk being redundant if it is clear they have experience. The table used for reviewing was a little vague as it felt more subjective. I do not mind that when rating music, however, it may be nice to specify what you mean by "Originality" or "Textures". Someone may have a different understanding of what those words mean and it will affect their reviews. Defining some of them beforehand will also standardize the ratings. Thoughts? 🤔

I think the real question here is "Can someone with aphantasia be an aesthete?" Possibly. I don't know that it's ever been studied, but I do suspect it is comparatively rare. I've always had hyper-phantasia and like most of that sort, was shocked to learn that this isn't the norm. I definitely believe it must be better to have this ability than not. My opinion on musical composition and art is that great works are the product of technical craftsmanship (which can be taught) meeting with an strong sense of aesthetic taste (which cannot be taught, but is understood fairly universally by those who experience it.) Since the latter is innate, I suspect there is a strong correlation with hyper-phantasia and aesthetes. So I would bet money that the greatest composers and artists had hyperphantasia. While it might not afflict ones ability to enjoy or recognize beauty, it probably does affect one's ability to reliably create it.

Have listened to all of this now. I noticed all but one of your movements follow the naming scheme of Mozart's Requiem. The suite feels mournful, with a flavour of Antiquity, and makes good use of percussion throughout. Sounds like Halloween music at times. The highlight for me was the mysterious last movement. Reminded me a little of the final movement of Holst's Planet Suite. This comes as a welcome relief, after the frantic dissonance of the preceding movements.

Very interesting harmonies, rhythms,and ,melodic lines ... Can you tell us something about your style and intent here? Jazz? I enjoyed your work. Mark

You're welcome! I enjoyed it! First, thank you for voicing your opinion! When we've done competitions with monetary awards and official judges in the past this was an issue that people have brought up. However, ultimately, when the different scores from the different judges were averaged together, as long as the judges tried to accurately reflect the differences between the various musical entries in their scores then once the scores were all averaged together, even if say, some of the judges scored the pieces in a different range of the scale than others, the scoring still worked to accurately reflect the differences in quality between the different entries. In the past when we had competitions with monetary awards, the entrants were kept anonymous by sending their entries by personal message to me. I would then add their entry to the submissions thread. I think in a free contest, this requirement might be too strict. And I personally don't like the idea of keeping the names of the judges anonymous because it discourages discussion and interaction between the judges and the members. Thanks for voicing your opinion!

Hi @Bjarke! I like this Perpetuum mobile texture which really gives motion to the piece, as well as the imitations between the hands. The modulations are effective especially for a cinematic music. Of course, dynamic details would be crucial to propel the flow and drama of the music. Thx for sharing. Henry

My tribute to the current state of the world.

20247637.mp3 Sagai Go (Reprise).pdf I have reworked this piece since I last shared it, a few months ago. Sort of at a loss for what to do next, so I've been going over some older scores, correcting mistakes, improving harmonies and adding sections in places where it felt lacking. This score in particular, I had always felt was missing something; like the last section into the outro was rushed. So I added in a section between there to smooth out the transition into the outro, and have also changed the key of the score. I think it came out quite beautifully. I wasn't very scrutinizing to it for much else other than it's flow. If there are other mistakes that I missed, please feel free to call em' out 🙂

Haven't listened to the whole piece, but enough to know that you are a good composer, but this style is not my cup of tea! I should talk; I used to write like that 34 years or so ago. I have simplified my style. On the other hand, the music seems to reflect the state of the world, THIS world at least, and without going into detail, I would say the problem with the world (plus ca change, plus se la meme chose) is that the lunatics are in charge of the asylum! 🤪 I wrote a Requiem in Bb Major, posted here in choral music, string orchestra. It is different than yours. I went old-school and mainly just doubled the SATB parts in the strings, though there are preludes and postludes, interludes, SOME figurations. It is modeled on the Mozart-Süssmayr Requiem in D minor, but it doesn't sound like Mozart, except in the occasional turn of phrase.

Hey Kyle @UncleRed99! It clearly is captivating and promising "rough" draft! I like the majestic tone overall. I think after the climax in b.31, before going to a quieter section in b.34 you can have a transition instead of just a chord, but it's just a draft now so it's fine haha! I hope the contrasting section in b.34 longer and stay away from the F minor for a bit longer too. Also in the last adagio in b.51 I would add more movement and countermelodies to vary and contrast it with the Adagio beginning, like adding tremolos and some quaver movements between the chords like in b.53 and 58. Thx for sharing! Henry

MP3 Play / pause twinkle 0:00 0:00 volume > next menu twinkle > next PDF twinkle Rachmaninoff is crying...

Kotzwara. You can check yourself.

hello mark, thank you truly for your comment, there were many influences that went into this work: shostakovich’s jazz suites, a few latin american rhythms, and my own personal anxieties during that period. I think the trio was directly inspired by my efforts, in trying to find a sense of peace through writing. I believe the added extensions are default chords I usually navigate to, to bring color to the harmonies. This is a more personal work, but hope it maintains some individuality. elated that you enjoyed my work.

LoLoL!!

sorry, forgot to press submit!

Happy Halloween... 👻👻👻👻👻

Just relisten to it and I love the C minor version more 😁

Thanks Peter! I actually don't have a decent solo violin for MuseScore, but am hoping to pick one up in the Black Friday sales. Those included with MuseStrings sound hideous, so I refuse to use them! I do have a reasonably good patch from Cinesamples; but it has an annoying bug, where the dynamic is different on each pitch. It takes a lot of work to counteract this, by inserting a new dynamic mark on practically every note! That demisemiquaver (effectively a grace-note) on the flute in Bar 64 is audible on solo; but in the mix it's being somewhat drowned out. If I accent it, the note becomes too loud and squeaky: so there's not much I can do. I think it'll be ok with a real musician; though it's right at the top of the range: so could be challenging to reach. As for fermatas, my composition tutor doesn't like them: so he's instructed me to change time signatures instead. I often find myself drifting away from the opening time signature whilst I'm writing. It seems to be a natural trait of mine. It's just the way I hear/feel the music.

ooooo swag some other boomer had the same idea 😆

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