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Here is my submission for the June 2008 competition. It is written for 2 violins I, 2 violins II, 2 violas, 1 cello and 1 contrabass and is based on the following text: "A day will come when there will be no battlefields, but markets opening to commerce and minds opening to ideas. A day will come when the bullets and bombs are replaced by votes, by universal suffrage, by the venerable arbitration of a great supreme senate which will be to Europe what Parliament is to England, the Diet to Germany, and the Legislative Assembly to France. A day will come when a cannon will be a museum-piece, as instruments of torture are today. And we will be amazed to think that these things once existed! A day will come when we shall see those two immense groups, the United States of America and the United States of Europe, facing one another, stretching out their hands across the sea, exchanging their products, their arts, their works of genius, clearing up the globe, making deserts fruitful, ameliorating creation under the eyes of the Creator, and joining together, to reap the well-being of all, these two infinite forces, the fraternity of men and the power of God." --Victor Hugo, Opening address, Peace Congress (1849-08-21) The three sections of the piece reflect the three paragraphs of this text: The opening shows an idea in the inner voices which is supposed to emerge above the others: the first instance in the second violins, the second one in the violas. Follows a passage which contains dissonances (bullets and bombs) and a varied version of the opening is presented, to dissolve that, in effect "replacing" the dissonant context by a more consonant one. The middle section highly contrasts with the opening. The melody consists mostly of harmonic tones whereas the other voices adopt a repetitive texture and the tonality is shifted to D minor (homonym tonality). The music then evolves to the Dorian mode (a thing of the past) before returning smoothly to a tonal construction. Isn't it amazing these things (modes) once existed? ;) The final section is a fugato on a subject derived from the opening one. We are back to D major but the subject and the answer will flow from one voice to another, mimicking the exchanges between the two states. The episodes are not contrapuntal however and so this is not a strict fugal development. Instead the first few bars of the American Anthem and of the European Anthem are used, to illustrate that the exchanges are made between America and Europe. The final stretto is the "joining together" leading to the pure harmonic conclusion of the piece. Innovation: this is the first time I introduce a modal component in my work (D dorian modulating to A dorian). Until now, I have written things that were exclusively tonal. I do not count the bar change from C to 3/4 as innovation because it is purely incidental to the use of the American Anthem here. For the American Anthem, I retained only the soprano and bass from the original, the inner voices are mine. Likewise for the European Anthem, the middle voice is mine and not Beethoven's. I hope the Master will forgive me. You can find the PDF, the MIDI and the MP3 realization here: Index of /music/competitions/june-2008 Keep in mind the free software I use (LilyPond) is not able to insert realization of ornamentation in the MIDI. Sorry.

OK, I'll sign-in for this set of rules.

Here is my entry for the march 2008 competition. It is a baroque-style piece based on the principle of invertible counterpoint. It has 2 themes that can be combined upside down. The first theme is developped through a passacaglia and appears as an ostinato. Seven variations on this theme are made, with the rythm increasing progressively. The second theme is developped through a fugue. Since we have only 2 voices, various ranges of the instruments are used to emulate 4 entries of the subject. The fugue is of course a 2-voice one. At the end of the fugue, to conclude the piece, the 2 themes join together for the final climax whilst the rythm is calmed down. You will note that there is no dynamics indication in the score, on purpose. In the traditional baroque style, it is up to the performers to choose whichever dynamics they feel appropriate. I have included a MIDI, a PDF and an MP3 realization of the piece. However, I use free software on Linux and therefore the MIDI does not contain the notes for the ornements (pralls, trills, etc...), as LilyPond (the notational software I use) does not generate them. You will find all the files here. Happy listening and judging.

I assume this excerpt from the rules means that April 1st is the final day for submisisons, correct? Or do you mean that April 1st is the first day after the deadline?

Of course they meant something. But when I wrote it up, I forgot it was in minor and I should have said "#" instead of "5" for dominant chords (D in the bass) in root position, for instance: when nothing is stated, the alteration applies to the 3rd of the chord. What I was trying to convey was the chord positions, so it was not a true Baroque figuration. And most often, chords in root position were not figured by "5" at all. When nothing was said, the player had to assume a root position chord.

So here's my own version. It makes a nice little piece I think. You'll find a PDF, a midi and MP3s here. This is by no means the only solution, as has been demonstrated previously. It would be fun to see more versions by others.

Now can you add two middle voices completing the harmony so as to make a 4-voice quatuor? I think you forgot to use a F# at the end to make a dominant chord before the final tonic chord.

Interesting, what are these instruments? Note that since someone dared to do my little exercice, I also thought it would be good to do it myself :). I have just completed it, but I don't know whether I should post my own version right now...

OK, but you've not offended me. You can use LilyPond (LilyPond, music notation for everyone) if you want a free score-producing software. That's what I use, and I'm sure it runs on Windows as well. Or you can produce a PDF from NoteWorthy if you want to use a WYSIWYG editor for your music...

Problem is, I'm on Linux and on that platform, I cannot hear what he composed (probably some ActiveX that cannot run on Linux). So even if I wanted to improve my ear training...

Thanks for carrying my typo over :whistling: Did you post a score for this exercise, in PDF format? I don't see anything but the bass I gave.

Could you please provide a PDF of the piece? I don't have Sibelius nor Finale (I'm on Linux). And not all the Baroque fans have left: I'm still there :) So if you care to post some of your Bach-like fugues, please I would enjoy that.

Music is an art that benefits from companionship. Haydn used to say that he listened to a lot of music and that it was what helped him achieve his master pieces. Improving the site to make sharing and peer reviews more efficient is what will benefit the most to the community, and hence to each of us.

I will enter this contest. Please add my name to the list. Thanks!

Mostly for the fun of doing it.