Leaderboard

Dear readers, This is my submission for the Halloween (Fall 2025) competition. I realize it’s quite a last-minute entry, but after discovering the event a few days ago, I decided to give it a try for fun. I’m genuinely excited that we can all share and experience each other’s music. It’s wonderful to meet you all and hear your work. About this submission: Diptych for piano quartet - I haven’t settled on a title yet, so it will remain Diptych for now - a two-part musical piece, hinged yet paired to form a unified whole. It leans toward the contemporary classical genre, shaped by elements of both expressionism and impressionism. If I had more time (and I hope there will be more competitions like this), I might have written something more whimsical or festival-inspired for the occasion. Still, to me, contemporary harmonies and expressions possess their own kind of "terrifying" beauty that is celebrated on Halloween. My inspirations for this piece include artworks such as Francis Bacon’s Painting 1946 and Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son. Kind regards, Cosmia

Hi, I'm new so not sure if I'm supposed to comment here, but I wanted to say I'm amazed by this work. Really impressed with the natural dramaturgy of music flow as well as usage of contemporary harmony, rhythm, melodies. Glad to hear something new and exciting like this, keep it up ^^

Here is my submission. The whole string quintet is 5 movements, but I've just given the first 3 to fit the time slot. It's a link to the Google Drive folder with the WAV files and score. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MD4VU4YyL0m1n5gULbGStdbZU396P_oN?usp=sharing I hope I put this in the right place- I'm quite obtuse when it comes to this website.

Entry: Daunting Steps - Quintet for Piano, Flute, Contrabassoon, Violin and Cello - 2025 Halloween Submission by @ferrum.wav Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 Average Score: 10.00 Review: You’re right - your description of this piece being much more lighthearted is an accurate one. It is a playful kind of spooky fun! And the piece coheres well and has very recognizable themes that are well developed and repeated to create a very lucid listening experience. It is sort of dance like too - very much akin to a Siciliana with its dotted 8th note, 16th note, 8th note rhythms. It also seems like a kind of variations fantasy which you’re very well known for composing. There is a great balance of both unity and variety because of this and the piece cements its themes very well into this listeners mind. The ending is quite succinct but effective! It’s actually kind of capricious! Very cute. Another entry that I simply enjoyed listening to over and over. The score is well engraved although I would have displayed some things a bit differently to, in my opinion, “beautify” it. Such as for example some places where you use 16th notes followed by 16th note rests - I would have simply used an 8th note with staccato. But I won’t count you down for such a tiny nitpick. As already mentioned it also fits the Halloween theme quite well. It is perhaps similar in style to Saint-Seans’ “Danse Macabre”. You also used the instrumentation to your full advantage making great use of the contrabassoon. Really can’t say enough good things about this piece! Congratulations!

Entry: Daunting Steps Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9 9.5 10 9 7 10 10 Average Score:9.3 Very good Review: Execution: 10 The entry met the two requirements for this competition: an ensemble for solo instruments with the time frame of 3-7 minutes (with a sweet spot of 5 minutes). Instrumentation : Triple tonging in the woods usually marked with Flz. (flutter tongue). That way, the flutist knows how to tongue the notes. As for String writing: there are some techincal issues to be addressed. First, Sul G marked only one measure. That seems bit confusing. The measure tremolos with double stops...that might be cause playabity issues. the port. to natural harmonics. Also, i am not sure if Arco with tremolo can be achieved then a port. That is rather demanding. In this area, the entry will be score 7. Score presentation: After a careful readful of the score, there notation and engraving errors. There was hair pin that was not algin with the staff. There are rest that 8ths rest that should be quarter rests. The 16h note triplets in compound meter might be misleading. Ergo, the score will 9 Taste: What I like about this entry is that is experiments with idioms that general audience might not be accustom to. There is high sense of chromatism that leads you wonder if this atonal or not. Ferium knows how push beyond traditional harmony and open the door into modern harmony. For that, I will give a 10 Form Development Structure Time There is a clear sense form and structure in this entry. Although it does not use classical structure, which one may be used, you have to know how modern composers use form and structure in new ways. Unlike the traditional sonata forms, this piece is more like Rapsody or similar to scherzo. Both are free forms. I am going to Scherzo in this case, since the meter matches here. (However, I am not sure...if that composer wrote that way). A Scherzo is built like minuet but in 6 or 3. And in this 6/8 with two meterical stress. And that was achieved well. 9.5. Harmony, Textures: The interplay between parts created moody polyphonic and chordal textures. 9 Melodic material The melodic material through this was well devopled. 10 Overall this orginal and creative: 10

Hey dude Apparently some aren't aware you aren't using notation software. Don't worry about your score, your program isn't designed for that. You're writing music and that's all that counts, and we have ears so we can hear what you're doing. I used to use Cubase to write music, and I submitted a piece for a competition here some years ago and all people did was whine and cry about the score, asking me if it's playable. I tried explaining that I wrote it to be playable, but it was impossible to make the score it creates legible. I didn't win, and I knew I wouldn't, but who cares. I wrote something cool, and I still like it to this day. If you ever want to try musescore or something similar, it's free, and I'm sure if it's not already optimized for mobile, something exists that does or it's soon to be in the future. Those are designed with score creation at the forefront, and if you ever get the hang of it, you might learn about areas in music you otherwise wouldn't. If you decide against it or like what you use now, that's fine too. Most people in the world DON'T use notation software for writing music. This site mainly has people who write with notation software because they're writing for performers, but your music is just as welcome. This had all the Halloween elements, and instrument choice was great! I'm not giving out any scores, but you get one of these: 🎃 I like the chord change at 2:15 or so, it broke up the static harmony really well. Sounds like your in minor, know all the chords you can go to? Try other ones out if you're ever stuck on ideas, might give you new options for your harmony. Your ideas worked really well together, nice job on this! Be sure to vote 😄

Entry: Piano quintet in G sharp minor Review: The metrical stress of the composition switches between pattern 2, 3, and 5. The meter in the composition are 4/8. 3/4, 6/8, and 5/4/. These meters have different stress pattern and feel different. It would wise to either stay the 8th is division: 4/8, 6/8, and 5/8 or switch to 2/4. 3/4, and 5/4. Furthermore, it is hard to know where half point of each measure is. In some measures, there are two 8th notes rests that can easily be a quarter rest, or two 16th rest that should be 8th rest. That would make easier to read in the piano part. In rehearsal H: you are implying both 2/4 and 4/8. It is hard to know what meter you are using. I could not follow that section... Overall, in both score presentation and playability this will be score 6 for the reasons explained. The overall landscape of the piece was polyphonic, and it used atonal methods: possibly set class and others(?). This will be score be 9 The execution of a sonata form Exposition-Dev-Recap was well done. 10 There were well crafted themes, motives, and melodic materials 10 (also for creativity). This entry meet requirements of competition 10. It was done well 10 Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9 10 10 6 6 10 10 Average score: 8.8 Above Average/Good

Hi Tristan. I'll try to be brief: your material is decent. I'm not puttin' grades in this informal competition but some variations here are not of my taste and would not pass. Others, maybe. I am not sure myself, for 4 hands at least. Passages like these seem very difficult to get right for one hand only: , had it been a B natural I would see it more feasible but with the speed demanded and the time you are required to sustain it, well I agree with MK's point: performers would ask you to change stuff right away or pass it off. If this is what you truly like though, don't hesitate to follow your path but be aware of the shortcomings when it comes to publish. Where is variation 12? Is the one that began at M248 perhaps? The score seems to go from 11 to 13 "Alla de Var. 12" but I don't see the Var. 12 marked. If it's that one, it's among my favourites along Var. 8. Regarding the engraving, the score is pretty much unrevised as likely 90% of scores submitted to musescore so no biggie, just another day in the job. Standard. Since it's not very heavy on content off-staff there are not overlaps (or I didn't detect any in a superficial analysis) and that's definitely a good thing. With this piece, in summary, I did like some things, disliked some others... So it ended up being about even, except for the final. Thank you for your submission, Tristan. Keep composing! Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

Hi, HoYin Cheung! Bear with me for a small while this time. Couldn't resist to quote this, I think it's a very good way to define the difficulty of some parts of this score. It doesn't seem to be an easy feat for neither the strings nor the pianist (perhaps the pianist has less trouble than the violin though!). I am in partial agreement with @MK_Piano here. I do appreciate the atmosphere you created in some parts (the piano solo w/pedal part for example), but after a couple of listenings, and while being true that "I wouldn't mind listening to it again" (and so I did, many times already), there is essentially nothing that makes or would make me gravitate towards this piece enough to listen to it much longer. At this point, I may have heard hundreds of these pieces, part here at YC or other forums such as free-scores, part LIVE, and while I honestly think you did a good job with the score and you probably took a while to write all of this... Truth is, that after the less and less likely initial surprise/shock it went directly to the same far away place in my mind that I am no longer curious to explore or remember. It just melt, liquid; fused with an immeasurable and diffuse blob of notes, clusters and dissonances that are all different yet they feel the very same and which time has taught me to withstand but never to enjoy. Truth is, I very rarely enjoy "contemporary" pieces of this kind, more of a mesh of dissonances stained with interesting material than anything else. They almost always simply "go through", and this one was sadly no exception. However, I would say the ending of this piece was ok, which is five to ten orders of magnitude better than what I usually think of ending sections/passages/bars of pieces that more weakly or strongly (I guess that's again subjective) resemble your piece. And as a rule of thumb with all pieces that come with a description first, I tend to have a listen or two before I read it. Now it would be impossible to me to tell you if reading it beforehand would have influenced me enough to be in agreement with what you claim to portray with your piece, but by having done the opposite process I can guarantee you that from my humble and maybe very wrong opinion (not only because I am not familiarised with Gaelic culture but because I am familiarised with the particular sound of this particular style of contemporary music) this piece did not evoke anything related with the story, not any more than other pieces or parts in pieces like...Dunno: • String Quartet No.1 - Javier Torres Maldonado • Ligeti: String quartet No.2 - Arditti quartet. Just in case, I am not sure if these are composers of reference (they ain't very famous but they ain't precisely unknown either) or that they do mimic your work, this is not what I tried to convey here. Finally and despite my not very benvolent words I would still judge your piece at least one or two orders of magnitude above any section of these two examples I have provided had they been brought to this informal cozy contest, so they may not do justice to the work of yours. All in all, thank you for your submission! Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

Hi again man, it's me, the long reply guy again! But this time I'm having a look at your quartet :). How important structure is. If there's anything I love listening to that would be 100 of 100 times how apparently simple stuff gets way stronger than what one can anticipate making intelligent use of structure. What first felt like a nice but not specially remarkable rhythm and material, later came back strengthened. It's something that our grand masters of the past knew very well and I personally never get tired of it. This is a very solid and aesthetically beautiful (in my humble opinion) quartet which although it doesn't stand out for doing anything revolutionary, it definitely doesn't need to! It handles very well the essential elements that make it up, and if this weren't an informal competition and I were to evaluate it seriously, it would be among the best pieces submitted these days. We have different tastes when it comes to engraving (I am not into rehearsal marks with bar numbers or big tempo indications, but I very much understand their usefulness). That aside, your score is very well engraved, again in my opinion. Congratulations and thank you for your great submission. Best of luck and...Hope you stay around! Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

What a wonderful piece of music. Musically speaking, I greatly appreciate your abilty to develop the motif over the course of the work. It was entrancing and even went it felt dissonant, I was listening with intent. I do have specific critiques on the engraving/ format of the score: I think it would be a better decision to increase the margins of the entire score. All printers have a margin where they will not put any ink on the outside of the paper (This is called the bleeds). If you were to view your PDF and hit the print button, it will automatically update the margins. (I have attached two screenshots to show this). I also think you can space out the measures more in certain spots (mm.31-58) even when instruments are playing. A pianist would read a part with all 3 instruments on there to help with coordination and having it spaced out may be a nice convenience. Lastly, I recommend adding system dividers to separate the score and to add rehearsal marks so one day, a trio can actually rehearse and use specific places in the score to practice. Lovely video to accompany this as well! 🙂

@TristanTheTristan As I am still getting accustomed to the site, I have taken it upon myself to get familiar with some of the other forums and type of music people have put on YCF. I have been interested to explore what people have to offer, and from my curiosity, I decided to also start giving feedback on scores submitted by people for this Halloween Competition. This said, to whomever I comment on, I will be treating them like a professional and write based on the expectation that they know, at minimum, intermediate music theory. For now, I will avoid making a table of my rating, however, please find the following to be my review of your submission. As a final note, I like to be straightforward with colleagues, and by no means am I coming from a place of bad faith. I want to push my peers to new heights, and I will be honest with them so they know the truth and can evolve from there. __________ While fitting the criteria of the competition, I do not see this piece as a practical work made for performance. I have noticed multiple errors where a professional concert pianist would have a high level of difficulty playing this work; specifically "Variation 4" where you employ single note tremelos. However, they are not uncommon to use as Liszt, and Debussy used them in their music. Liszt in the Friska from "Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2" and Debussy from the Prelude "...Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest". In comparison, your usage of them is more difficult due to the amount of note shifts a pianist will have to do, versus the raw technique. In a similar mindset, I do not believe the first section from measures 1-40 to be realistically playable on the piano. Continuing on, the engraving for the score concerns me heavily. The measures seem to be too small or placed too closely together throughout and in spots, like measure 128, you have two different spellings for the same note (G# and Ab). Musically, is it rather interesting and I did enjoy the theme you created. I love to write in D-minor when given the chance, and I was vibing with the "sinister" nature the key provides in your theme. If you would like to talk more or explore these comments, I would not mind doing so. Thank you for taking the time to read this 🙂

this is a submission for the 2025 halloween competition. i was just really going for a spooky halloweeny vibe but not like "terror and dread and killer" vibes. it's definitely lighter than the other submitted pieces. also, contrabassoon! very spooky sounding instrument, and i've tried my best to harness that specific quality of it. enjoy! update: -updated score from @Kvothe's feedback

Here's my submission to the Halloween competition, written for piano quartet. I thought a lot about demons and possession, abandoned houses, what's down the cellar, all that 😄 It was a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy!

I wrote a ballet a few years back! Notes aren't too hard since it would've had to been prepared pretty quickly, but I've always been more about screwing around with rhythm and meter, anyway. Forgive the recording quality: I had to make to scratch tracks and I only play cello, so I had to record all the parts except the bass and piano (except the plucking) 😅 Maybe I'll upload the other movements later, but this one is pretty interesting on its own, I think.

This is just a reminder post for those wishing to receive an "Ardent Reviewer" badge that by Monday 11:59 pm PST you might still need to review some works! @Omicronrg9, @Wieland Handke, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, @chopin, and myself @PeterthePapercomPoser have reviewed all the entries (minus their own) and will receive the "Ardent Reviewer" badge! @TristanTheTristan - you still need to review Thatguy's piece and the last five pieces in the list. @HoYin Cheung - you've only reviewed two pieces. Do you still intend to review the rest? @UncleRed99 - you still need to review Omicronrg9's piece and the last six pieces in the list. @Kvothe - you still need to review Maxthemusicenthusiast's piece and UncleRed99's piece. @MK_Piano - you still need to review sebastian Pafundo's, Maxthemusicenthusiast's, Kvothe's, Thatguy v2.0's, and the last five pieces. @Thatguy v2.0 - you still need to review Micah's and Dima's pieces. @therealAJGS - you still need to review Maxthemusicenthusiast's, TristanTheTristan's, and the last two pieces. @Cosmia - you've only reviewed three pieces. Do you still intend to review the rest? Of course, we're all grateful for your time and your willingness to review however much you want to! Thank you for making this competition fun and instructional for everyone!

Hi Ferrum. When I open the PDF window to check it turns out I just cannot. Something's wrong, but not sure if it's in your side or it's the forums, or... Either way I am very curious about the score, duh. This seems to me like a small medley (well maybe not small actually) that contains a wide range of stuff going on but that seems to be permeated by this motif that you don't cease to state and use to transition to all sorts of places. It's like a spring, moving slightly upward and returning, giving birth to new passages endlessly. I must say though that the general feeling this piece gave me was not as concrete as other clear front-runners as you (front-runners to me, obv.). It was enjoyable, anyways! Maybe my shortest review today, but I cannot really find anything to point out about the piece that be worthy of a line or two more, plus I cannot access the score 😞. In summary, I did like some sections more than others, and I didn't feel it very light to be honest! Maybe when put in comparison, you're right. Many thanks for your submission, Ferrum! Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

Hi @Cosmia! Welcome to the forum and thx for joining the competition! I am the same, especially at the ending of it. It just dies away. I agree with @Omicronrg9 and @PeterthePapercomPoser. This one plays more on timbre and mood so it doesn't necessary use melodies or motives to push the music forward. The use of quintal and quartal harmonies are very apparent in this case. I would say this piece, even though it captures the horror side of Halloween, is less fitting to the competition, since it's a bit contemplative and serious to the festival in my opinion. The writing is however first rate, with great use of extended techniques like glissandos, harmonics, knock on instrument etc with great effect. Thx very much for submitting this high quality work to the competition! I really like them! Henry

Dear @ferrum.wav, Heads off to this piece you wrote. Full command of motives, varieties in terms of style, mature chamber writing all are present in your work here! I love the beginning and how you introduce the chromatic motive, as it's accompanied by the tone cluster of piano, as well as the 2nd motive of the dancing motive in b.5. And very nice use of that tremolo too, if adding a sul ponticello would be even better! I simply love how you go from the more atonal beginning to a firming G minor dominant preparation in b.45 with chordal texture, nice combinatio of both tonality and texture for an intro! Nice imitations throughout the main section, and the glissandos throughout are great. I love you bring the opening in b.92 with a quicker tempo. The modulation to D minor in b.122 is very fluent and I like the 2 against 3 rhythmic figure introduce there too. The climax in b.151 is very prepared with consistent imitations, as well as the cool down. I really love J sections with that augurs of dancing motive by Flute, and that nice disturbance with the recurring tremolo in b.206! And the figure in b.212 is naughty! The brillante in b.238 is really brilliant, I would it would be longer! I just go straight to the end. CLearly the end to a Bb minor closure is very CLever. Beware of the tremolo markings though, the 32th note tremolo should be just written with double stroke if it's already a quaver itself. Clearly this one and Vince's piece are both in the very top level. If I'm to judge this whole competition, I will put Vince's piece slightly over yours. In terms of technique you too are great, but Vince's is more heavy in tone which I always like, given how I write heavier music lol! Once again, congrats for writing such a piece! Henry

The instrumentation choice, the mixed quintet, was very clever given you the chance of having so many different combinations and colors with the instruments, so that the excessive occurence of the themes never gets boring or repetitive. I must admit that I have discovered the existence of two clear defined (melodic) subjects only upon second listening (and after reading your form description). Maybe I've listened too many atonal music the last few days. With this in mind I would consider it as a polyphonic piece – not a classical fugue – but a combination of counterpuntual theme development, variations and free or homophonic intermezzos which creates a rich and interesting texture that lets the long (more than 7 min) piece pass flowlessly. One of my top favorites. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 9 9 9 9 7 8 Average Score: 8.625

.animated-text { font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: linear-gradient( to right, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet ); background-size: 400% 100%; -webkit-background-clip: text; color: transparent; animation: colorMove 5s linear infinite, bounce 1.5s ease-in-out infinite; } @keyframes colorMove { 0% { background-position: 0% 50%; } 100% { background-position: 100% 50%; } } @keyframes bounce { 0%, 100% { transform: translateY(0); } 50% { transform: translateY(-20px); } } Hi again! Here, as promised, I submit this small piece for the Halloween... Competition! Is it Halloween-ish? Dunno, probably not so much... But this is for you to judge. Do NOT expect anything bombastic though. It's a trio for flute, piano and violin so it's 3 instruments. ✔️ It's more than 3 mins, lesss than seven! ✔️ It's somewhat submitted before the deadline! ✔️ And it should definitely be entirely playable. Since here everyone has its own preferences, I am submitting the complete pdf (attached in this very post)+ the mp3 + a YouTube video with the typical (or not that typical maybe) way of showing sheet music. Now, back to more composing. I heard that the competition is strong between the contestants. MP3 Right here (or at the end of the post, one never knows). Bagatela Nº6.mp3 YouTube video HERE. And if you haven't done it yet, what are you waiting for? The deadline for this competition is still a week or two ahead! Look at the rules and drop your piece!!! Kind regards! Ø Thanks to @Kvothe & @MK_Piano for his reviews in the engraving, layout, and instrument-specific feedback. I have attached here the second edition of this piece, released today 28th of October 2025 (first edition was released on 25th of October 2025) . It comes with a Piano+ score that has reduced parts & system separators. Now all parts have rehearsal marks on top the usual measure numbering I commonly use in all pieces. Maybe a bit redundant, but better to be safe than sorry. 101 - Bagatela Nº6 [Completo, 2Ed].pdf Thank y'all for your kind reviews. We'll read each other in the forums!

Dear all, Wow - that's an interesting topic for me - Halloween - never wrote a piece for an festival. To make this work more relavent to the work, I did some research to understand more about Halloween. Anyways, here is my thoughts writing this work: I have always known very little for the Halloween festival. To many, Halloween is a festival that focuses on pranking, customing and candies - but there is a long history with mysteries around Aos Sí, the Irish name for a supernatural race in Gaelic folklore, similar to elves. Here are some information from different sources: - Every year, Samhain is celebrated on 31 October – 1 November. During this liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned, Aos Sí could more easily come into this world and were particularly active. Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. From 16th century, there is a tradition in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales, where people going house-to-house in costume reciting verses or songs for food. Some impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf. Often, a man dressed as láir bhán, a white horse, and led the younf people for the activity. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune. "...In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin"." These history and myths formed the basis for the plot of this work. HoYin

updated. i thought i only needed to use the triple tremolos, or flz., or both. i've chosen to use both to make it clearer. updated to encapsulate the measures that should be played Sul G i'm not sure what this is referring to? if you meant the cello in b.37 where it plays measured tremolos with double stops, i'm pretty sure that's doable unless there's something else to it or i'm just outright referring to the wrong thing it is intended to indicate playing on open strings, not nat. harmonics, hence the "0" fingering. i've changed it to an actual open string symbol now. with the tremolo glissando, i think that's also doable? i've done some searches and have heard that specific playing in a piece i'm pretty sure. can't remember which piece though. fixed fixed changed the run from 16th note triplets to a 9 tuplet for form, it is true that I didn't really think of scherzo while composing form: Introduction: b.1 - b.50, includes both themes playing against each other A: b.51 - b.91 Transition I : b.92 - b.117, includes the intro B: b.118 - b.169 Transition II : b.170 - b.181 Intro*: b.182 - b.223, a variation of the intro A*: b.224 - b. 251, variation of A with change of accompaniment towards the start. Transition I*: b.252 - b.267, variation with added trills. B*: b.268 - b.319 Transition II*: b.320 - b.335 Coda: b.336 - b.359 thanks for the review!! the feedbacks and the comments are really appreciated!!

Entry: American Cryptids Average score: 9.5 (very good) Review: Each movement captures the character of Cryptiad! Execution: the competition was to write a 3-7 minute piece with a sweet spot of 5. This a multimovement work. However, it is scored solo strings. And it is quintet. The total running went over. I think it was close to 8 minutes. 8 Score/Playability: There were some minor details. But...maybe, submit each movement seperately. 9.5. Originality: Definitely original 10 Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 10 10 10 9.5 9.5 8 9

Hii, I had to say I really like this submission! It's so very fitting of the actual theme of halloween as a festival, reminds me a lot of dungeon synth genre and pixel art video game music. I love how the melodies intertwine and there is a constant flow that's being developed as well as the factural changes (from 1 instrument to many). I can definitely hear this going on in the background of a halloween party, keep it up! ^^

Welcome to the forums! You can comment anywhere you want as long as you follow the rules which are basically common sense (welp I didn't read them but they're probably not so strict)! Regards!

Entry: Bagatelle Nº6 @MK_Piano has mentioned wider margins around the score would give the score a polish look. Only a half point taken away, in score presentation for that. In the violin part, you want provide the player time from pizz to arco and vice versa. They will thank you for this! In the opening section, where the piano descends, it might sound to muggy with the sustain being held down that long. Also, it is probably wise to pedal down beat in 3/4. (just a thought). Thus, this will be score an 8. The execution of the challenge was meet it was within the time frame. It was scored for the correct ensemble. 10 The piece was original and creative. 10 The textures of the pieces were homophonic but yet there was polyphonic textures: everything came to together. 10 Overall the piece has melodic and motivic material and form that flows naturally and logically: 10 Average score: 9.6 very good Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 10 10 10 9.5 8 10 9.5

@Omicronrg9 That was a long reply, so I may just focus on one aspect versus all of it lol. In all of the accompaniment work and chamber playing I have done, I would say most, if not all, of the scores had smaller staves for non-piano parts. I will attach a collection of links from IMSLP showcasing Piano trios from Mozart and Beethoven. Both Henle-Verlag and Bärenreiter-Verlag use reduced staves. Since smaller works do not need a conductor, the pianist usually gets the full transposed score. Allows us to follow along and coordinate with the musicians more specifically. With the stave spacing, I feel I should clarify that it is fine to read as is. I have no issue following along with it of course. It was more of a taste comment versus a "better or worse" comment. In my personal style, I like to space the staves by three to six measures if able. I think seeing it a little bigger on the paper can be easier for the performers eyes. Myself and other peers read our music off a tablet and use a bluetooth pedal to turn the pages. So for me, page turns are not an issue if there are more pages. Lastly, with system dividers, again, it's a preference. You'll see on these IMSLP scores that even big-publishers will put some kind of measure indicator. On ASCAP and J.W. Pepper, composers will use rehearsal marks. On IMSLP, publishers will put system numbers or sometimes measure numbers every 10-measures. If they are doing it, why can't we? I recommend other composers to put some kind of measure marking as we have to remind ourselves that other people will be playing the music with no previous understanding of it. It's a small cosmetic change that doesn't affect the music, but will add a convenience to anyone who plays our work. If you were to compare to mine, I go so far to ensure that a new rehearsal mark goes at the beginning of a new system when I can. A little visual detail that coincides with any new idea or important spot in the score. At the end of the day, this is some food-for-thought! 🙂 IMSLP: Mozart | Trio in C-major K.548 Beethoven | Trio in Eb-major Op.1 no.1 Beethoven | Trio in Bb-major Op.11

See my attached notes; sorry, I only marked the first version, not the second. I'd say if there's one thing to really focus on, it's making sure that your harmonies are very clear. Even if they're not yet completely functional (Baroque, sure), they do need to be very precise. I notice you use a lot of 4ths and 9ths or melodic configurations that result in fourths or ninths, and they're very hard to tell what the harmony is because the inversion is ambiguous. You'll see I marked a few things consistently: obviously try to fix parallel perfect consonances, but we also need to avoid parallel dissonances as well, especially in a two-voice texture. Speaking of parallel perfects, in a measure-for-measure harmony piece like this one, you need to make sure you're avoid parallel perfect consonances in first species; you can't just get away with it by adding some passing notes.

I must confess, that with enough time, it could be possible for myself or peers to sit down and play this. However, mainly because myself and my friends are high-in-skill concert pianist's capable of complex repertoire. My logos in thinking comes from the idea of the music being "theoretical" or "practical". In my opinion, practical music is a lot stronger than "theoretical" music. While on surface level/ on paper, this score seems possible in theory. This does not mean it is the most practical or effective way to write the music. You have to keep in mind the type of performer capable of playing this. Humans need time to move the hand, their fingers, turn the page, and more. A high schooler or middle school pianist will not be able to play this unless they have had extensive training. Even I hesitate to pick it up because simply be looking at the music, and comparing it to all the music I have played, I can tell it will be uncomfortable to play in certain spots. If I were to give this to my mentor, who is a student descendent of Chopin, he would never play 4 note tremelos, only 3 notes long and switch. On the trill variation (no.3) he, and myself, would only play the trills as mordends versus proper quarter note trills. This said, challenging music is okay to make, as you can't write music to conform to everyone. Two things can be true at once, and while it may be a challenge to play, it is also uncomfortable for the average pianist. To end, your ideas are good/ fine, and I don't mean to say this piece has no merit. Instead, if you were to ask 3 musicians to sit and play this, they would have a tough time and may ask you if changes in their part would be okay.

Hey Red! I've been making it goal to comment at least once on the halloween submissions and here I am! In our separate conversations, we have already spoken a lot on the piece, from how you created it, to how a new key/ scale can affect it, and how engraving can make or break a musicians understanding of the work. For those who have known your previous works over the last few months -> year, there is a clear sophistication in this work. I can see the clear sense of structure and harmonic language you presenting and I cannot state that enough. In the halloween sense, I am a big fan of the little dance after the A-section. It is very fun to listen to. Good work my friend! Let this only be a stepping stone to your greater works 🙂

In the modern landscape, this, to me, was refreshing to listen to. I have experienced listening to bad post-tonal works where my peer thought more noise and crazy writing benefited the music or hall being played. I appreciate the landscape you painted and would not mind listening to this again in the future. Of course, on an objective level, this piece is difficult. I think it would be effective when played live, however, I would be the one to pass off learning it and give it to the next musician due to the ensemble difficulty lol. When applying it to Halloween, I think you have succeeded. Maybe not in the terms of the 'trick or treat' or lighthearted celebration that happens each year, but in terms of capturing the eerie and scary images a haunted house or creepy film shows. Good work!

@therealAJGS: you can learn after this. Any one here, can help with theory, form, and etc. 🙂

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 8 8.5 9 7.5 7 9.5 9 Entry: Trio Variations in D Minor Hi @TristanTheTristan I am going to highlight areas the areas that believe could reworked. As a pianist, I think those 32nd notes could be replace by tremolos instead. They have a similar effect. The readable in the piano section is hard at times. I do not where the beats are. You have difficult rythmn patterns that make it hard to play. Also, those single note tremolos, are not idiomatic. You will see them more in strings. What you need to do is write them out. Trust me! That is why you scored 7 in playabity and in 7.5 score presentation. You score higher in the other areas for it was original, creative, and you knew how to create variations. You carried through this competition. And you melodic material was spot on. It just needs better notation and idiomatic writing. 7.4/10

@Thatguy v2.0 Entry: From Above, not below Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9.5 9 9 10 10 10 8 Average Score:9.4 Review: Melodies Themes Motives (10): I truly felt you have achieved the top tier of what atonal writing should be. Like the unsettling of high winds, the melodic materials take on whirlwind adventure. I have nothing else to say on this matter. Harmony, Chords, and Textures (9.5): The tonal clusters of this piece truly blew me away. Nice touch. Form(9): Free form is excellent choice. Organity and creativity(9): you truly were pushed creativity to the mast here! Score (10): The score was readable. However, the only might I suggest is: the pedaling in the piano. instrumation (10): As I meantion before, Pianist like to change the pedal every now and then. If you hold the pedal too long...the notes become blurry. Execution: perfect! Taste: I am giving this 8 because is not for everyone, but it is for some.

@Maxthemusicenthusiast has also submitted music!

ghost-town-requiem-kyle-hilton-2025-ycf-comp.custom_score.mp3 I had NO Idea what to name this piece. The score's name has been updated to "Ghost Town Requiem" 😉 But I've worked diligently on it, and I feel that it's as good as I'm able to make it. Really just shot for the Halloween/Spooky vibe with both the Instrumentation, key, and rhythmic inflections. Hope y'all enjoy my fun lil' sextet quintet (sorry my brain wasn't all there when I posted this) piece 😉 Score has been updated; @MK_Piano so kindly took it upon himself to download my score and edit the engraving to make it look purdy 😉 ... I have also had a change of heart on the timbre of the score being in C minor, and have transposed it to B minor, one half step lower for a slightly more rich tonality. I also took some advice from @Omicronrg9 regarding the visibility of the Dal Segno mark early on in the score. YCF Halloween Composition .pdf

God damn it's true I'm just listening to Barenboim's rendition of it🤣. I may try again with glisses and fluttering, on some other piece that is 🗿. Thank you for your feedback Henry :). "01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101" 🙂 I sadly see this in dark mode Thank you Tristan! Seems I passed the test this time! Hi MK_Piano! I tried doing that but the margins don't seem to be updated in any config. I myself have printed a lot of my own scores and ended up preferring two:10mm and 15mm. This time I went with 10mm. I attach this video, perhaps you see something I do not. I checked other printing options and found out one that would increase my margins, but wouldn't increasing margins make margins bigger anyways and then I would end up having a lot of extra margin (My margins + Bleed)? Thanks for the heads up, perhaps I'm still missing something. Video here (I can't upload mp4s). I also tried with other printers and that is when the extra margins came, but I had to activate them. I had some handmade notebook with margin = 15mm at hand. Is this something that only happens with margins less than 15mm? What do you think of a piano part with reduced staves of the other instruments? What would you prefer as a pianist? Full score with dividers, full score but reduced parts that ain't piano, or just piano? Would it be a 100% one option no matter what? Am I asking too many questions 😁? @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu as a pianist yourself, what's your take on it? I'm also interested! For example, in this case we have 0 blank bars in the piano part. I would have thought it's spaced out enough. E.g: It's 10-8-7, and all quarter notes in page 3. Would you make it 5-5-5-5-5 or 6-7-6-6? Doing it any less than 5 when no instruments are playing would be difficult for me (matter of tastes), I could do it on demand of course. 🥶 I'll think about it. I don't tend to in compositions. Just in waltzes! I always do it in arrangements. Why? Not sure. I guess I have not seen them much in anything else than modern music and others' arrangements, but it's a good practice. That or circling bar numbers, but I guess that's less aesthetic. Thank you man, it's always cool when someone comes and makes you ponder your choices and you get to learn a thing or two at the very least. Thanks for your feedback and your optimism 😁. Hoping to stay for a long while this time. Time is scarce but I'll try to catch up! I'll vote for you Kind regards!!

@MK_Piano Thank you for your kind reply. I hope my music is still pleasant to "post-tonal" ears. I treat it as a compliment when audience tell me they are willing to revisit - that means there are some places of work that is worth memorizing. While in the post-tonal context, while there are lots of idea I want to express in my work, I agree that there should only be "necessary" details in the writing - audience should be able to enjoy the work with their ears - instead of intelligently enjoying the tuplets or excessive dynamic markings by compulsively referring to the score.🫠 Gosh, I apologize for the double stops. I hope all violinists and pianist will forgive me for the effect.😆 While this work will be a part of my larger set of project "Festive", I do want to make it distinctive from other few works. So yes, I am writing this Halloween music with a storyline and realistically refering to the tradition - glad to hear from you I might have succeeded to convey the idea. Thank you!

It depends on your goal. Your intuition allowed you to make a piece of music that a normal person would say sounds fine/ cool. For a more refined level, you can take that intuition and apply things like chords or melody structure. All of which will allow you to replicate your work more consistently versus "doing so because music theory is essential for writing good music". If you want a free, collegiate-level, link to start learning music theory, consider checking out Music Theory for the 2st Century Classroom. This site is the one I used as a Freshman and Sophomore. It's pages of music fundamentals to complex theory; it is also paired with exercises and worksheets for when you want to practice these skills.

Here's my score: Average score: 9.7(very good) I do not think much to say on this piece. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9.5 9.5 10 10 9.5 10 9

[DO NOT REPLICATE - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED] The last calendar year has seen the most growth in my music writing. In June, 2024, I was given the opportunity to work with the Huntsville Youth Orchestra in Alabama, and their resident composer, Robert Bradshaw. I stayed with them for one week preparing my piece "Mountain Storms and Valley Peace" for performance. (You can listen to the world premiere of spotify!) I cannot express the amount of information I received during this experience. It changed me for the better as a composer and as a musician. So much so, it inspired me to write my first suite for Symphonic Orchestra: Chariot to the Moon, Apollo. Over the course of 5 months from August, 2024 - December, 2024, I composed this five movement-long suite detailing the achievements of man in the conquest of space; specifically, the Apollo Program. If you would like to know more information regarding the work, you can read my notes in the "About" section on page three. ___________ This suite takes about 24 minutes to listen to in its entirety. I have decided to share the entire score, with a watermark added, for your enjoyment and to help with following the piece as it plays. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! Thanks for taking the time to look and listen to my composition!

Welcome to YC! Anyways, great piece, with clear inspirations from Beethoven and some from Chopin's Polonaises. My favourite so far. Average 9.375 Very Good. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9.5 8.5 9 10 8 10 10

Awesome music, and welcome! Dude, you're fantastic. I almost went this route, kinda the dancey macabre but fun way. Loved it Your music is very well thought out, score is clean and neat, you obviously know what you're doing. Lovely playback too, the rendering is really smooth and polished. We'd love to hear your feedback on some of the entrees, you sound like you have a lot of knowledge for a young age. Well done! 🙂

Very good! Sounds like something straight from a horror movie. I like how the intro keeps a certain harmony and then it sort of freestyles for the rest of the song. but, it feels a bit too little repetitive, because there's no "main" part of the song, but overall I give it an 8/10

Hey Damniel my boy @Omicronrg9! This one is goddamn grotesque my man. The beginning is a bit frightening as fitting to a Halloween themed music, nice repeated pizzicato motive used on the violin. But to me what stands out is after the first section in b.31 when an innocent Mozart k.331 like theme appears. Even it starts normal, I still don't believe its apparent naivety, and you mix that apparently naive theme so well with the Halloween grotesque mood with those dissonant but not overly dissonant harmonies, making the music somewhat dragging between naivety and evil like a darkened version of Alice in the Wonderland. This feeling is amazing to portrayed to be honest. I like starting from b.92 all these elements are put tighter together for an even more exciting and wonderful contest of moods. Maybe adding some glissandos in the violin and flutter tongue in flute will make the music even more evil. Thx very much for this weirdly wonderful piece! Henry

This is about the overall consensus of what I would've said had I been here earlier. lol However, I'd like to add, that this score is quite repetitive, and sort of irks the ear after hearing the same thing so many times over. I also am having a hard time pinpointing any specific key that you intended the music to be in. (Seems Atonal, or keyless. Perfectly OK choice, but I'm not so sure it makes a lot of sense, in my head. That's likely due to my way of seeing music. So that point is on the whole, irrelevant.) Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6 3 6 9 4 7 7 6.5 Overall Score Average: 5.25

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 4 7 4 10 10 5 5 5 Overall Score Average: 6.25 Melodies Themes and Motives: 4 My reasoning for a 4 is because the music, for me at least, seemed difficult to follow. I did lose my place a couple of times, and there really is no melody, not any one line that sticks out at any given moment. Although, I believe that this piece's intent is to be jarring, random, or playful in it's nature, if I'm assuming correctly. (I'm sorry, I couldn't take the time to read the introduction page. 😅 It kept cutting off for me. Possibly something to do with my browser) Harmony, Chords, Textures: 7 Overall, I think the harmonic complexity and textures presented here are very good! I don't have a lot of technical wording to use to describe it, as it's very unique, but nonetheless, well done! Form, Dev., Structure, Time: 4 (I'm assuming it's supposed to be this way) I wasn't really able to differentiate too much between your sections. The textures change, but not in a fluid manner, from what I observed. The Development of the piece is mostly unchanging throughout the piece. There are moments of more pronounced dynamics, then moments of lower dynamics with only 1 or 2 parts playing. Which does show some form of development, but this would be unclear to the average listener. I also have to say, I've never seen or even considered using a time signature with a denominator of 16. 😅 to be frank, I have no idea how I'd even begin to count that. I simply followed the notes on the page, as I heard them passing, to get through those measures. Personally, I feel there may have been a more sensible choice than 3/16. (Simply my opinion) Originality: 10 What else can I say? Never seen anything like this one, honestly. And I'm diggin' the uniqueness of it, despite any of my grievances with it. Score Presentation: 10 Very Professional - Very Demure 😎 Ins. Orch. Playability: 5 Overall, this is technically able to be performed... However, I feel that an excessive amount of time would go into rehearsing something like this, with 3 musicians, just looking at it practically. The syncopation is off the CHARTS my man... 😭 As well as some parts where I notice the pitch jumps over an octave from the previous note/measure, which can be very difficult, especially for wind players, to execute. Execution: 5 It would scare me if I had this music set in front of me as a musician. So I think that qualifies it as "spooky" but it's not very reminiscent of pieces I'd consider to be "Halloween-ey" or however you'd put that 😅 Taste: 5 I only put a 5 here because I'm not quite sure what sort of flavor you were shooting for. I feel that this score is more reminiscent of your own taste, adding to the Originality of the score. So, I'd wager that this is a totally unique score of your own design/genre, mostly. That's about all the input I have on that topic.

Pros: Keeps a certain mood throughout good instrument layering Cons: a bit repetitive Suggestions: make some parts more playful or intense. I'm agreeing with Tristan here, 7.875 standard

Cool man, I love the dark style of this. That quarter note bass line at the end sounded like it was building up to something faster, maybe movement 2 eh? 🙂 For some reason I got metal vibes hearing this, which is good, because metal owns. Love your music, but we gotta update your program... you deserve better sound samples! Thanks for sharing!