September Competition - Poll for a theme.

As of now I won't be accepting additional suggestions. I may have combined one or two previous suggestions. If anybody is irked by this, feel free to complain. With that said... YC, vote for your preferred theme for the September competition. It'd be nice to see lots of participation here. One thing we have NOT decided on yet, is how long the competition will be. One month, or two. If you voted for a theme and would like it to be a one month or two month round, please specify your preference in a post here. I'm not deciding. We all are.

Also, Juji still hasn't done anything about these monthly competitions. I suppose I might as well run this until he comes back and has anything to say. I will NOT be judging. I would like to enter this myself if I can. I will however be collecting and tallying the scores at the end provided Juji is still missing in action. If anybody is uncomfortable with this, or would like to do it instead, do speak up.

I will let this poll run for one week. After that I will post a Sign-Up Thread where people may enter and judges may volunteer. In the event of a tie by the time this poll closes, I will create an additional poll with the tied options and it will run for 3 days.

The poll options are as follows and may be altered slightly if suggestions are made:

1. A piece based on a specified mood or emotion for an ensemble of 2 to 10 instruments. - Suggested by Mark

I think it would be best if we asked the competitors to choose their own mood or emotion and ensemble. This would be good for a 1 month competition.

2. An arrangement of any choice national anthem. - Suggested by Mitchell

Ensemble has yet to be determined for this. It could be string quartet, piano solo, or anything. If you choose this option please indicate your preferred ensemble. I'd rather make a few people happy than pull something out of my arse at random.

3. A non-thematic piano piece without barlines. - Suggested by pianistboy

I'm 100% not sure what this really means, so I'm open to further explanations.

4. A four-movement work for any chamber ensemble based on the Seasons - Suggested by Muzic

This could go either way - 1 month, or 2 month duration.

5. Score for a short movie. - Suggested by Ferkungamabooboo

This could also go for either 1 or 2 months. Rather than have a bunch of people choose different films, we'd have to choose one - which could or couldn't be like pulling teeth to decide on.

6. NES Chip music. - Suggested by SSC.

Likely a 1 month deal here. As far as I am concerned this means contestants will be limited to using 3-voice polyphony plus a SFX or drum track.

7. A work featuring a solo triangle. - Sarcastically suggested by Gardener

Could be one month or two, depending on the scale. It could be for a large ensemble (2 months) or a chamber ensemble (1 month.)

About the piano piece, it has been suggested before, and I asked about it too and thought it sounded intriguing.

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/official-voting-thread-2008-may-june-competition-14300.html

And I would prefer a 2 month round.

That alternative has been sticking around for aeons, haha.

Score a movie! Actually I finished my score of the short film "Hedghog in The Fog" a few days ago.

When will this start do you think :D

I've not been terribly active here, and I guess it'd be something to do.

Plus other competition threads are hard to keep up with because of the mass amount of posts and my annoyance of reading it all.

Movie gets my vote, with solo triangle for second.

Honestly, one month is probably enough - I'd assume the video would be less than 5 minutes. The solo triangle could be mad interesting, though, and 2 months would be ebtter for that (working on rhythmic stuff is mad tedious)

Ew.. this is a horrible poll.

I think I'm taking over competitions. They are never administrated properly.

I can't see how you could say that since the options from the poll were taken directly from member suggestions.

And how do you think these competitions should be administrated? What should be done differently? If you can do it better, go ahead by all means. I don't care who does it at this point, as long as it gets done.

Corbin speaks wise words. Take heed to his words of wisdom :closedyes:.

It's easier to just give a score than to write a review, and the dates should be stringent, to encourage the composers to write for a deadline (and not to write at whatever pace and have some half finished piece to submit :angry:. Oh wait...).

I agree with you Corbin, but the things you mentioned were present in the past - just not upheld. Deadlines... Mori and Juji always defined one, it's just that they didn't have any problems with people running over. Judging.... I don't like the idea of only one or two people doing judging. I'd be happy with three. We've always had people sign up for judging... but granted, we've gone with poor or unreliable judges in the past. We just need to be more picky. I think we should choose just a few, and keep them. And make sure they're good ones that will do their job. I like having a good variety in judges, not just one single person who might dislike something that another judge might actually see as good. You also mentioned scoring and reviews. I don't see any difference here, we've always had the judges submit scores to someone who tallies and announces the results. In the process, the judges write reviews - simple commentaries that are for the contestants' benefit - an explanation of why the scores were given as such. I liked Juji's in-depth scoring and reviewing, but I'm not sure all judges will always have the time or energy to do things like that for so many people every month.

Corbin, if you are taking over this round, go ahead. I'll have you know I'll be waiting for a sign up thread sometime tomorrow. :P I had in plan for the deadline for submission (this round) to be around the 5th of October (since we're starting about 5 - 6 days late this month) and have the thread for suggestions for the October round posted about the 20th of Sept. with the poll for the theme around the 25th or so so the October round would start in time. If you want to go with that or inform us of an alternate plan, feel free.

A quick reasoning is helpful, but an in-depth review just may not be feasible. I'm sure, though, that the judge(s) could explain more through PMs, right?

I think 3 judges is perfect since it is manageable, but allows for difference of opinion and a lack of possibility of deadlock. But if there aren't 3 active people willing to judge, then so be it.

6. NES Chip music. - Suggested by SSC.

Likely a 1 month deal here. As far as I am concerned this means contestants will be limited to using 3-voice polyphony plus a SFX or drum track.

I'm sorry to barge in off-topic and so late, but I'm not only interested in a future competition of the kind, I would like to know if anyone knows where to find instrument patches for typical oldschool NES sounds.

SSC, perhaps?