aMusicComposer

Thanks Vince, hope you had a great holiday too! I'll be back, same place same time next year ... but there could also be some more events during the year to go alongside the competitions!

@latebeethoven_addict Nice piece! Do you want to post this separately into the main piano music forum and then link it into this thread? Melodically and harmonically it works really well. I like the fantasia element of it, meaning I'm kept on my toes, but it would have been good to hear more development of each idea throughout the piece. Something to think about for next year? Definitely has a blizzard-like feel. The section at about 2:10 however, has a much warmer, by-the-fireside vibe - captures Christmas nicely. Thanks for entering the challenge, even with limited time!

CUTE! This is unironically really well written too, just like last year's. You have such a knack for writing unexpected Christmas songs! For the recording - I thought the vocals were a bit quiet in the first verse compared to the guitar. It's better later on in the song. 😍 Thanks for entering this year's event!

Cheery, festive, and effective! My favourite is the cadenza - I do think it could be a bit more complex in terms of piano writing but that's just my opinion. These would make great light performance or encore pieces for the festive season! Thanks so much for sharing them, and welcome to the forum!

Hope you all had a great Christmas! I'll review the last few pieces probably later today. Another massive thank you to you all for participating - it's been a good year for the event. Hopefully I'll be able to run it again next year, if not then someone else will. And @PeterthePapercomPoser, is it time for the ✨festive badges✨? Merry Christmas!

I like this one! The blend of dissonance and consonance adds a delicious dark touch. In terms of the harmony, I think the piece would benefit from a different balance of consonance and dissonance (completely my opinion!). There are a lot of fairly long fully consonant/functional passages, so that the unusual dissonances seem at times like an interruption of the line rather than being integrated into the atmosphere. Maybe this is what you're going for? I do like the basic idea of a voice and organ solo, it's not something we really see that often. The melody itself is lovely and the word-setting seems good to me. Cantamus obviously sounds great, but I'm not a fan of the organ - it sounds a bit like an accordion (maybe it's supposed to be, I can't tell from the score). The score is detailed and looks like you've put time into engraving - just make sure the dynamics are above the soprano stave so that the lyrics have all the space below. I think you've definitely achieved this! Thanks for entering the event.

Nice piece. It's lacking a bit in variety (I personally also like variations to be bold and virtuosic), but the music itself does flow well. I'd like to see some dynamics and articulation on the score; thinking about this will probably help you understand the "colours" of the music better. To sort out this viola part: I think half of the problem is the second violin becomes so low all the time that the viola has no space to harmonise without jumping around randomly. What if you transposed the whole thing up to say G major, then took the cello part down an octave where possible? This would suddenly give you a much larger range for the viola, both making it more interesting to play and more effective to listen to. Let me know what you think. Thanks for adding this into the Christmas music event!

This is a really nice listen - such satisfying harmonies! It does have its own Christmassy vibe, even if that's not what you intended! I didn't hear the original audio but I still think this new one is quite bright and harsh (maybe just my speaker). I'd also be interested to hear it on various electric pianos etc. You could experiment with how that changes the mood. As a piece of piano music, though, this works really well. Tidy up the score a bit and it will be a great piece! Thanks for adding this to the event!

EXCITEDA TO A HEARA THE FINISHEDA FUGUEA! WHAT

Love the fugues - what a blast from the past it was to here Vince's theme! Structure wise the fugues are great. You could probably do with some more counterpoint practice (I don't claim to be any better lol!) but it's a great festive piece. I know that you could have written better transitions between the fugues though! Something less clunky than broken chords into the second? I actually think you dig yourself into a hole by extending the 4-voice bells over eight bars. Four might have been enough and you could have got out of it with more grace. However, if you were looking for it to be a pause-and-cadenza type passage then maybe it could do to be a lot more virtuosic than just broken chords. Thanks so much for entering!

Great piece! Really nicely written, proportions of the sections are good, the score's clear. Love the way you vary the melody in the recap. One little comment: is there room for you to make more melodic use of the viola? The cello is also a little redundant, doubling the harpsichord all the time (but I understand this is a basso continuo style) - I think it could be nice to hear a little more counterpoint from the viola. Just something to think about - it's a really good piece as it is. Thanks for participating in the event!

Haha this is wonderful! It has enough depth to be really interesting, yet a very light touch for the precise textures. While I find the ending a little repetitive and cheesy, the rest is beautifully structured and orchestrated. I particularly like the harmonic language - it gives a really festive vibe! The sleigh bells are of course very Christmassy, but I think it would have been nice to introduce them again further from the end, just to cement the festive cheer. A wonderful piece - I can definitely imagine it accompanying a busy workshop scene!

Great, excited to hear it!

Looking forward to seeing your submissions!

What an impressive piece! (I can't believe you wrote 72 pages lol.) I'm not a huge fan of variation form because it becomes very boring very quickly. Mixing the standard variations up with the 'character' ones is a great way to keep the interest. The mixing in of Silent Night and Jingle Bells is very nicely pulled off! There's a good level of detail (wrt articulation, dynamics etc.) in the score overall, but I maybe would have liked a little more at times, especially in the lower strings. Maybe this would become obvious if I were to study the score at length though - you've obviously put a lot of thought into it. I thought the orchestration is fine, good, correct... but not as colourful and exciting as it could be? It would be nice for you to push the ranges more, experiment with different (unusual) combinations of instruments and even think about some (very subtle) less used techniques. (I'm not meaning anything crazy, but it could help elevate the colour and fun.) I'm also not entirely clear why your brass section only consists of horn and one bass trombone - at the very least a tastefully used tuba could help round out the sound in the louder sections. Overall though, an ambitious piece extremely well written! Thanks so much for entering the challenge!