chopin

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 7.5 9 10 9 10 9 8 Avg: 9 What I like about this piece, is the diversity of emotions and techniques. And in my opinion, your ending is the strongest part of the piece. But there are many good techniques you use here, so let's go through some of them that I've observed. First is your ability to create anticipation by using certain themes with instruments. You don't rush through your music which is something I admit I even have a hard time with. For example, you understand the usage of rests to help build tension and clarity. This is really important in all types of writing, not just music. The body of your piece has a clear theme / melody, but leading to that melody is what is even more impressive to me. You have a non standard first 1/3, but clearly lead to a more structured body. And as a result, this makes your music creative, but also very easy to follow. And now to the strongest part which is your ending. You flip the harmony and mood completely here. What makes this section so memorable, is the fact that most of the piece is pretty tame. So your ending becomes so unexpected, but it also gives the listener quite the shock. Very well done.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 8.5 10 10 8.5 9 8.5 Avg: 9.1 The intro is awesome! I love how you start this out, as chaotic, but structured chaos. I observed some instances of the whole tone scale towards the beginning, which I feel adds to the mystery of the voyage. It's clear from the music that you intended this to be a chaotic voyage, with the instances of adventure and reprieve. Fun motive towards the first third / or middle section of the piece. Very swing-like here, and I definitely get a sense of exploration and adventure around this section. Then you change it up the last 3rd (beautiful usage of a rest, creating anticipation, or a scene change), followed up with instances of mystery, calm and some chaos. For some reason I get a bit of a Rachmaninoff vibe here. Very jazzy ending, and yes as I listen to the ending right now, I definitely hear a tiny bit of Rach influence...this is pretty awesome! There was a lot of musical content here, definitely one of the more complex pieces in this competition. Either way, complex or not, this is an extremely creative piece. Your intro was killer, your middle section introduced the fun swing-like motive, the last third was enjoyable and quite melodramatic. Awesome use of the whole tone scale; you didn't overdo it, but used it just enough to add some fun mystery to this voyage. Well done!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 8 10 8 10 10 9.5 9 Avg: 9 This is such a beautiful piece. Even though it's not your best work (your words), I feel like the simplicity of this style is what makes it so powerful. Yes, it may be simple, but I feel like the technique is not so simple. And the emotions you were able to invoke were very real. Honestly, isn't that the point of music? The harmony also has extreme focus and purpose. I love towards the end when you just flip the key completely; such a powerful key change moment. The ending is also very nice, with the imperfect cadence. The balance of your instruments are done very well, and not overwhelming at all. This is important, you clearly know how to use the instruments to the song's advantage. Your techniques are fun, the cello knows just the right moment to chime in, the violins have a purpose and the piano does its role in supporting the harmony.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 8.5 7 9 9 10 8.5 8 Avg: 8.6 Once the flute came in, things started to really pick up. I love your theme, and it was quite easy to spot about a minute in. I had to listen to this a few times to understand the structure, but I realized that this piece has a few motives here. But this is not clear until after a full minute into the piece. The things I love about this piece is your harmony, key changing, the flute, the use of the pentatonic scale.

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 10 10 10 8 10 8.5 Avg: 9.25 This piece definitely captures the anxious commuter during rush hour I think. You captured the forward momentum beautifully during the train ride sessions. The score presentation is a perfect 10 because of your annotations, which helps the listener understand your intentions much more clearly. Your usage of dissonant chords to designate the train's departure was excellent, and the trills to portray the nightingale was really creative. And on top of all of this, your theme was extremely coherent / catchy. Overall, between your director's cues (basically, your score) and the music itself, this was a coherent, creative and beautiful piece to listen to. And you weren't afraid to take chances, which I feel, paid off very well.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 9.5 10 10 6 8.5 9 Avg: 8.9 Your Melody, Theme, Motive is wonderful. Right away I could hear what you were doing in the bass. Extremely clear and intentional, and it's a beautiful entry. Also in the intro I like how you seem to interweave the theme while modulating upwards. I can see this representing a sunset in an old western movie perhaps. The biggest criticism here would be playability. Is it playable? Sure, but the way it's written, its for a larger ensemble. This most likely could be formatted for a proper quintent and not lose too much of its texture.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 6.5 9 7 10 10 7.5 7.5 Avg: 8.2 I think your scene is incredibly difficult to portray, but I hear the cultural influence of your piece. It brings me back to perhaps the 1500s. Definitely a solid melody, and fugue-like parts (perhaps more like a hybrid fugue - invention maybe?) Nevertheless, even though your harmony is simple, I do like that you changed keys halfway through.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8.5 5 10 8.5 10 10 10 8.5 Avg: 8.8 I think you nailed the challenge with this, the mood in my view really captures the image / scene. I know I marked you down for harmony, and normally for a mood piece like this it wouldn't be a big deal. However perhaps you could have implemented even just 1 transition (from early morning to mid morning), especially on a 5 minute piece. Other than that though, this is a very beautiful musical scene!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7.5 6 9 10 10 10? 9 8 Avg: 8.67 Really good job on portraying the scene, which is the whole point of this challenge. And executed with custom percussion sounds nonetheless! While the score is hard to follow, clearly you needed that setup to execute the musical output. I gave you a 10 anyway because you communicated your intent, and you clearly cared about the musical output, which is important to me as a listener. I have no idea if this is playable, but assuming yes, so you get a 10 with a question mark. This reminded me of a jungle scene which is close enough to your image! And I even hear what sounds like water in your music which I would imagine represents the reservoir. VERY well done!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 4 10 7 10 10 10 6.5 8 Avg: 8.2 This is gorgeous and very cinematic. A very well done mood piece. I feel a much greater sense of tension. There is a great deal of tension with this piece, and it makes me wary about being on or near this mountain! Or perhaps the area around this mountain has a deep secret. A perfect score for a mystery movie. Overall, I love the harmony and the mood.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 8.5 10 10 5 8 9 9 Avg: 8.4 Rough crowd with this one lol. I have a very different take. While I'm not sure this reminds me of rain, this DOES remind me of meditation with an Asian influence perhaps. I'm not sure if you were going for that, but that's how I feel. I love the mood you portray too, even though it's dark sounding, you were able to portray a sense of peace and contemplation in my opinion. Very nice work, and creative!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6.5 8 10 7 10 10 7 7 Avg: 8.2 This certainly reminds me of royalty and elegance. Overall a very enjoyable piece, pleasant traditional harmony and quite easy to follow the score. This reminds me more of being alongside a castle, but I suppose I can picture myself outside taking in the cool mountain breeze, looking over at a castle from a great distance too!

The output is fantastic, you did a great job with the production quality. But when you post in these forums though, please be mindful and respectful of other people's critiques or opinions. Unless you specifically tell us otherwise in your post, you are essentially inviting us to be critical. And @Kvothe 's observation about your sheet music is 100%. It's clear you sequenced this in some other program though, and it appears you are using MuseScore for the output of the sequenced output. This would explain the engraving issues. With that said, the music itself, is beautiful! It instantly brings me back to the 80s!

Thanks for checking, but everything looks normal on my end. If anyone else is experiencing issues with this forum though, let me know.

What file type are you uploading?