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I had NO Idea what to name this piece. 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 😉 YCF Halloween Composition 2025.mp3

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

I've been writting a string quintet inspired by different cryptids. I'd love to submit it - not sure if it has to be written specifically for this challenge.

Hello everyone. Here is my official entry of this contest. It is for string quartet (2 violions, viola, a cello, and double bass). The idea behind it was: how can i use the following atonality, bitonality, and sprinkle of halloween fun.

.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!

Welp, we have a clear front-runner here. Man, this piece is almost flawless. The only thing that comes to mind I could point out would be that the Segno could be better marked. It's not that the way most software and people usually do it is bad, but I myself found it's quite good (performer-wise, reader-wise and lastly it's a matter of tastes) to mark it with segno bars &/or a rectangle surrounding the segno symbol. Example here: . Just a suggestion. The piece itself as I was sayin' was very enjoyable to me. It's fluid, its structure works, you know how to connect the dots very neatly. The instrument choice is very good as well. I like how you don't need to deviate from tonality to get the spooky feeling you. It reminds me of PvZ OST at times, and at other times, you remind me of another composer whose work I have listened to a lot, Paul F. Page. The instrument entries are very balanced, you're stepping into solid ground! What I liked the most though, the return to the segno al fine. It's seamless. The score is alright, perfectly readable... Little I have found to be worth mentioning (I'm very sleepy though so my writing capabilities are diminished). Some overlaps here and there, misplaced dynamics due to software being stupid by default, but nothing else. Congratulations, UncleRed. My kudos. A long day awaits, may you sleep as well as this piece was enjoyed by my brain. Kind regards!

Hi Kvothe! This is nice material. Solid at the beginning, but I kind of lost trace towards the final moments of the piece. Sound-wise it does its job very well. The very end felt uncalled for. It was everything but conclusive to me, which can be good at some places but I'm not sure if this is one of them. There are also some unexpected transitions and effects that struck me like "let's experiment with this". Nothing wrong with that either, this is a relaxed and informal competition afer all but... Dunno, I'm quite sure that if you let this material mature it would become way more interesting than what we already have here. Like, from 1:05 to the col legno sections, damn, epic transition. I also like how the col legno blends with the upper string voices, but to put a contrasting example I don't like how the first very strong phrase that sounds again on ~0:30 gets dissolved and transitions to some sort of uncanny fanfare that if extended it could prove to be a worthy piece on its own. Another thing I would like to point out at least superficially: dynamics. There is always room for them, and while abusing them can be a pain for performers, underusing them is not very good either. I think this piece suffers a bit from the latter, but not so much anyway! I notice marcatos, accents, and other articulations, but say, for example: do you want the same strength/volume in the stacatto-pizz. hits in the intro and just after the beginning of the A section? And yeah, let me be honest: I get that sheets are not usually overlooked much but since I myself try to take care I cannot avoid commenting you there are a lot of details that this score needs improvement on. Some examples right here: overlapping rubato, tempo marking —intentionally?— microscopic, and a very minor one that could legitimately be brought up by some nit-picky performer: where does the rubato at the first bar begin? First note? Third? Second? You also have 2 rehearsal marks with "B" at M40 & M45, plus a "C" elsewhere near the end. Finally, let me be that guy and tell you: your piece has not reached 3 minutes, and according to the rules: Not that in this case anybody's gonna take that very seriously, but since it's still 23/10... Maybe this is enough of an excuse to revisit this piece and give it another go? And if it doesn't work, you already got a solid submission posted! Just as a suggestion 🙂 At the end of the day, if what you got is completely of your liking, to the sky with it! May any of my points prove useful to you 🗿 Kind regards, Daniel. P.S: I subscribed to your channel, maybe you could post the video here too!

Hi @sebastian Pafundo! Thx for joining the competition! Gonna agree on both of them. I like the dark mood in it, even though I think the music can move forward a bit more in around 2:00. The motive of the piece is quite noticable with the hiccups of rests. I also agree with @Thatguy v2.0 on the ending, it definitely sounds inconclusive which could possibly be developed more. But, given the length of the piece I think the development of material is quite OK to fit into the mood! Henry

Here is my submission for the competition:-

I declare my intent to participate in the competition.

Uh. Yes 🤣🤣 thank you for your feedback! And I’d have to disagree on the first section, respectfully. I noticed a theme with my compositions, and this one isn’t particularly different from my approach to the rest, when I step back and look at it; I tend to start out with a slow, melodic introduction, that then graduates to a more robust/intense motif, concluding to the originally introduced feel. I was aiming for a suspenseful, and drawn out start to the short story that I was writing here. also thank you for adding in the corrections. I must have missed those on that last pass I made over it to correct accidentals for voice leading accuracy. Thanks Henry!

Hello, everyone! How are you? I haven't posted anything here in a long time, so I'll make up for it now. Unfortunately, with school starting, I don't have as much time for composing, but I try to set aside some time for my hobby between my studies. My latest composition is my first piano sonata. The composition is again interwoven with my specific style and I find it quite demanding to listen to. If you have a moment, I'd be happy if you listened to it. Thank you very much, I'm glad to be here with you! https://youtu.be/druaasJ6ebs?si=2BloE5frY6pu4EI9

Hey Kyle @UncleRed99! I am going to agree what @Omicronrg9 said wholeheartedly, as I enjoy this one very much. This one sounds very seamless in creating the spooky dancing mood of a Halloween in the fast sections. And this one has some sadness in it too. If an accordion (the main instrument of @Omicronrg9) is added in the score it can be a totally beautiful Spanish dance. I really like the opening Andante section for its emotions. However, for a Halloween piece I think it's a bit too beautiful and tragic to be here! I may just cut the entire section out and have it developed as an individual piece, and start this piece right at rehearsal mark B! Or I will at least make the A section a bit more spooky to fit into the festival! The B section is a wonderful mix of sadness, spookiness and a bit of fun with the dance rhythm. B.36 with the polyrhythm even weirdly reminds me of the first movement of Mahler's 2nd!! I absolutely love your usage of Bassoon and bass clarinet. They really enhance the grotesque mood of the piece. Beware of the Cb in b.40, they should be B natural. The C# in b.66 should be Db. Thx very much for sharing this wonderful piece to us Kyle! P.S. I am sure you brain flows into my own Sextet right? Say Yes!!!!! Henry

Hi @Petr Kopuletý! The 1st mov sounds very funny with the offbeat rhythms as well as fleeting harmonies. I would hope to the music invite some moments when the rhythm and harmony become more static. In the 2nd movement the interesting rhythm remains though the mood is somewhat a bit less fleeting and volatile. It sounds like a dance to me. I don't think the tempo fits "Lento" marking; it's more Andante to me given how the "con moto" feeling appears here. The 3rd movement reminds me of some Japanese Anime music and somewhat the style of @ferrum.wav's music, with a somewhat more light-hearted style comparing the prior two movements. It even gives me some improvisatory feeling, sometimes with abrupt shifts of mood and rhythm between different sections. The ending sounds inconclusive to me though. Is the music in any musical form? I personally don't find it too demanding to listen to but will welcome your self analysis of your own music haha. I think of your style a less dissonant Prokofiev. Will be great if you can provide a score as well! Great job as an 18-year old! For sure you write better than when I was 18 haha. Thx for sharing your music! Henry

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I don’t feel there’s any need for my input… Lol Though I will add a bit of my own $0.02 to build upon this reply; pivoting off of his use of the word “Uncanny” I think I would also use the same word to describe how my experience with this piece felt. And I very much so agree; If this piece were allowed to mature for some more time, the ideas presented on your score could be spot-lit easily. The potential is there, in black and white! i think you might also benefit from reviewing your understanding of chords, leading tones, harmony, and form. Some of the score feels as if you were unsure of what to do, and just played the “fake it til’ you make it” game until you made it to a stopping point where you could then introduce the next idea that you had in mind. that being said, my advice would be to revisit areas in the score where you felt a sort of “writers block” at, and instead of allowing yourself to “wing it” through, slow down and really analyze what it is that you could effectively achieve. Lastly, yeah… This score wouldn’t be considered “complete” being under the 3 minute minimum, and if this were a true competition, would be immediately disqualified for judgement 😕

Let's go @PeterthePapercomPoser

Hi Petr It was demanding at first, but after a few minutes I got used to your language. I listened not so intently, and it was quite beautiful and never uninteresting once I got used to your color palette. Although not the type of music I generally prefer listening to, your particular brand of it was very enjoyable. I also checked out your string quartet, I loved it! It's very heavenly 🙂

I couldn't pass up another chance to do another Muzoracle casting for a friend. (Muzoracle is a storytelling/divination tool similar to the Tarot card deck, but with cards with musical concepts and 12-sided Musician's dice and Solfege dice.) This time, Kat asked the Muzoracle if she will be financially stable. My interpretation of the cards and dice are displayed below. The instrumentation of the piece was guided by the suits of the cards drawn. Since the triad on the left is in the suit of strings, I chose Harp. The triad in the middle is in the suit of brass, so I chose Trumpet and French Horn. And finally, the Conductor card on the right is in the suit of voices, so I chose a 4-part women's choir. If you'd like to find out more about Muzoracle and how castings are interpreted go here: https://muzoracle.net/ This short musical representation of Kat's casting is about 2 and half minutes long. The piece is in Bb, since the black 12-sided musicians die landed on Bb. I then made harmonic/melodic underdrawings that I used in the composition of the music. Since the first solfege die landed on FA and the card drawn was a triad of strings. I start off with Eb major triads in the harp. Then I included an Agitato brass passage based around RA (the RE in the image below should be a RA - it's a mistake). Then I switched to a triad based on MI, before moving the music to G minor through a D7 b5 kind of harmony. Then, in order to end up back in Bb major at the end I transposed the whole pattern up a 5th and retraced my steps in a retrograde, back to the beginning chord. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading! And I hope you enjoy listening to this short chamber work I wrote to represent Kat's casting. Comments, suggestions, or critiques are of course, always welcome. Thanks for listening.

What a cool ensemble, having the bass clarinet and bassoon. I think you really hit the mark with instrument choices, I imagined a black cat walking a wooden fence with the full moon out. Very much a picturesque halloween piece, and you write so fast too! The balance of quirky parts (my favorite was the clarinet rhythm section at like 2:50) and lush UncleRed-type chordal figures with piano worked really well. Score looks good, some enharmonics issues (watch the leading tone) but definitely clean and neat. You're pretty good about your score editing, so nothing new there. 😄 Quintet? 😛

Here is my submission for the competition! I look forward to the feedback, and thank all others for their submissions as well. I haven't finished going through the other submissions that I have not commented on, yet. But will do so ASAP! Enjoy 🙂

Hi Tunndy, I agree you whipped the donkey of the AI! (Edit: The system won't let me use the other word for donkey; but I'm sure you can guess what I meant to write!) Not sure artificial intelligence will ever be able to understand what music really is. (Hope I'm right, otherwise we could all be out of a job soon!)

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

Greetings! Haven't stopped by in a while, thought I'd take the occasion of winning the 20 Year Membership badge (!) to drop in and share a big something I finished recently. This is one of those pieces I have worked with, off and on, for many years - I began composing it in 2001 and just finished it this summer. I cannot account for exactly why it took me so long to bring this to completion, except that for much of that time I didn't feel worthy of the material I had sketched, and couldn't readily come up with ideas to match it in quality. This piece is in my usual Classical style, unusual mainly in that I have employed an exceptionally large orchestra, including three trombones. Ostensibly, it is written for instruments of the period, roughly 1800 to 1810, though I have it on good authority that the flute part is in places nearly unplayable on a flute of that time - not impossible, but extremely difficult in such places as the frightful two-octave ascending chromatic scale in the first movement, and the mortifying cadenza in the third. Ordinarily I would have edited the piece on such advice, but there comes a time when artistic vision must prevail, and this was one of those times. The opening movement is a standard Sonata-Allegro as typically modified for concerti in the Classical period. The second movement (Andante) is broad and expressive. The third movement is a Polonaise (Vivace alla Polacca) in the form of a Rondo. I hope you enjoy the piece, and as always I look forward to any comments you may have. Thanks!

This one was intended as a kind of character piece. Honestly, I was watching the new season of Wednesday Addams and the music from the show inspired this. LoL There's dynamics in this that hopefully a Clavichord would be better able to perform. Thanks to @Alex Weidmann for his input about how to get the Violin to play classic phrasing rather than portamento! I would appreciate any kind of feedback, comment, critique, suggestion or observation that you may have. Thanks for listening and I hope that you enjoy!

Hey there Justin Wow, this is fantastic! There's so much color throughout, and I love how you really explore some of the possibilities the instruments are capable of. Long trills, variation in expressions, all wonderful. It was interesting to hear how you developed your melodic cells, since there was a purposeful lack of melody. I love your jaunty changes in rhythm, and your approach to sequence-style movement in your chords (sorry don't know how to properly say that). The A sections were so free and fleeting, kind of reminded me of Debussy or how jazz musicians move chords. Very cool stuff. I don't know how "halloween" sounding this is, but it's an outstanding work nonetheless, one that you should be very proud of. Feel free to offer advice or say hi to others, you sound like you have a lot of knowledge we'd be happy if you shared. Thanks for posting, and be sure to vote for me for your favorite halloween piece 😄

Hey Tristan Well, I think this piece is definitely a front runner for most unique ensemble, more so than mine at least haha. Cool choice to use two pianos and only one string player, I was curious to see how you'd pull it off. I like the variety of variations you have, it made it interesting all the way through. My favorite was probably 5, but I also really like the subtle build of the last variations leading into the coda. It's also smart to have ones like variation 10 to help break up the monotony. Cool music! I hope the competition gave some inspiration to music you would otherwise have never written. It did for me 🙂 Cheers buddy, good stuff. Keep writing and practicing!

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!

Hey Max This is great, I love woodwinds. This was my favorite part! I know midi doesn't do ANY music justice, but I think it's especially true with your piece. The eerie nature and sparse texture you were going for was really cool, and the winds can really bring it to life. But the midi makes it kind of drag, whereas I think a live performance would really highlight the silence between the notes and well as the shrill colors the instruments are capable of. Speaking of the bossa nova feel you were going for, I really hoped you developed that more. The slow part before it felt like a prelude, building to something faster. When it came, it was over so quickly, then back to the slower section. The ABA works, but I think it should be an "aBa" instead of an "AbA". Maybe there was a time issue, or maybe it's just hard to know how much of a chunk your piece is of a slow or fast section. It's fine as is, these would all be thoughts on future music, but that's the impression I got. Wonderful stuff here, you should share more when you write it! Don't be afraid to poke around the forum too, lots of great people around here; they'd love to hear thoughts from you. Be sure to vote too!

@sebastian Pafundo has already submitted his piece entitled "Clowns":

I am a simple guy. I see tarantella, I dance and give like. I've recently made one too but it has a harpsichord instead (not sure if you're using clavichord here or harpsichord actually, this does sound much like a harpsichord). In any case, I liked it a lot. You never fail to deliver man! My kudos.

This is great! The sound quality is really nice too, you've come a long way in your mixing/production. Well done, definitely captures a gothic feel. I'm not too familiar with the clavichord, but you got a really bassy low end out of your samples, it sounds really good. Thanks for sharing!

This is my Soliloquy for Organ No. 8. Like my Soliloquies for Organ No.s 2-7 and my two sets of sententiae for organ, it is composed for organ manuals only. Here is the link to my "Soliloquy for Organ No. 7": https://www.youngcomposers.com/t47956/soliloquy-for-organ-no-7/

Great! Also thanks for providing score, it's a practice that despite not feasible in some kinds of music, it is always appreciated because it allows (at least from my POV) to better get the pieces. Regards!

Thanks for your review Daniel. Regarding the previous soliloquies for organ, I had posted them all but they were from before 2016 (actually 2013 and earlier) and so they belong to the list of posted compositions that got deleted once the new version of the website was introduced sometime in late April - early May 2016. To be sure I had reposted some of my 181 posted pieces with the tag "Old Pieces". So I might repost some of my soliloquies for organ No. 1- 6, hopefully soon.

Hi Luder. I liked this one more than the seventh but I feel some imbalance that does not convince me. The piece doesn't seem to end right to me despite of its little development (and thus little need to work much on the ending). Plus, I would say it's the 5-bar phrase and its inner structure somewhat sets me off, not because there's anything wrong per se in 5-bar phrases but as I say because of the (2+2+1)+(2+2+1) inner structure that doesn't work for me in this case. Can you link the other Soliloquies for organ here? Thank you in advance. Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

Thanks for pointing it out. I changed it in the score and uploaded the revised score.

Wow...this is awesome!! Very fitting for the competition, and so much color and technique. The Bach quote was clever 😄 Great job man, wonderfully written!

Cool music you got here, do you only have access you mobile? On a PC or tablet, there's way better programs for free you could be using 🙂 Thanks for sharing, and welcome!

your piece is in F minor, you should use flats

I'm not done yet, but you can check my progress here, edit: for some dumb reason it only goes up to 2 1/2 minutes so I'll be splitting it into two parts. here's the first one. https://onlinesequencer.net/4928420##t0

Thak 😃

Also, you might be surprised at the end because of the picardy third. That is because I put a have put a quote in there. Read it, (maybe).

Very nice! Becomes very impressive knowing you haven't studied any instruments Reminds me a bit of a Bach fugue I would highly suggest you study some basic theory, it's not as boring or hard as it seems And I think you could get some very good pieces if you do Good job :3

Why Herro my brudda

I share the black cat, a work inspired by the story by Edgar Allan Poe. In The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe constructs a deeply disturbing tale of moral degradation, crime, and the weight of guilt. The story is narrated in the first person by a man who, from the beginning, warns the reader that he is about to tell a disturbing and unbelievable story. This choice of narrator is key to understanding the story: everything we know is filtered through the protagonist's mind, creating a sense of uncertainty and unease from the outset. The reader is confronted not only by the narrated events but also by the internal struggle of a man who has lost control of himself. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ePnpv39D7JGpKSfpBJl4u_exPrjCPx2D/view?usp=sharing

I like the dynamics added. Sadly the rhythm didn't make total sense at the start to me. Especially not the triplets. Than there it is transposition did with an incredibly good use of dissonance. Sounds like how you describe it. Congratulations! The problem is that 'Turmoil' means uncalm, but this was medium-calm to me.

Hello @J. Lee Graham and welcome back to the forum! Wow! What a wonderfully accomplished work! I am glad that despite feeling "unworthy of the material" that you managed to finish it after more than 20 years!!! I also have had such an experience. I started my Variations on "Deck the Halls" for Piano and Orchestra back in the 2000's as well, over a decade before when I ended up finishing it. And it was only thanks to the fact that I learned to write music on paper that I managed to have the discipline to finish it. I totally understand the sentiment! It is hard to limit yourself when writing for period instruments when you know that superior versions of the instruments would in fact have capabilities that would very much facilitate the music in question for the composer. I think I would also leave the piece as-is knowing that there do in fact exist versions of the instruments with the capability to actually perform the piece live, which is ultimately all that I would care about. I have to say that my favorite movement is the Polonaise! What a delight to hear someone include this stately Polish dance in a concerto! I am Polish myself and have danced the Polonaise as a youth in a Polish Folk Dance Ensemble. The dance has all the pomp and nobility of the spirit of Poland! I think it was also you who remarked that your favorite National Anthem is the Mazurek Dabrowskiego in an old thread I read somewhere. I actually have always dreamed of creating a mash-up of the Mazurek with the American National Anthem to create a kind of "Polish-American Heritage Anthem". We'll see if that ever comes to fruition! Thanks for sharing this wonderfully bright piece! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

A lively interesting work ... in a classic classical style. Quite enjoyable ..... with a very clean/precise orchestration. 🙂 Mark

I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I hear early John Adams.