October 2012 Results (Congrats Austenite)

My Judging:

Kathreptis

Classical Form? 10/10

I thought it was all very well-formed.

Idiomatic use of Keyboard instrument? 25/25

Very much so!

Musical content? (is is based on a theme that could be considered halloweeny? Is the music developed well? Good arc?) 15/25

It just didn’t seem all that Halloweeny to me. But, it was very interesting to see you develop your themes!

Score!!! And, NEAT score!!! 10/15

Oy.. bass clef with 8va? Don’t do that. Other than that, looks great!

Paragraph doing a DETAILED analysis of your piece: 20/25

Could have been more detailed.

TOTAL: 80/100

Bachian

Classical Form? 10/10

Excellent work! :D

Idiomatic use of Keyboard instrument? 20/25

There was a part of your toccata that lost my interest. When the quarter notes came along and stopped the motion. Do something more idiomatic with your instrument than hymn chords.

Musical content? (is is based on a theme that could be considered halloweeny? Is the music developed well? Good arc?) 25/25

I loved the material! Very Halloweeny, for sure.

Score!!! And, NEAT score!!! 15/15

Beautiful!

Paragraph doing a DETAILED analysis of your piece: 20/25

Good. But, I could have used a walkthrough of at least PART of the fugue.

TOTAL: 90/100

Austenite:

I have nothing bad to say about this except: DUDE, work on your transitions. 3 dramatic pauses are enough in one piece. ;D

TOTAL: 95/100

Sojar’s Judging:

KATHREPTIS

Classical Form: 6/10 – At the beginning it might look interesting but it would have worked better as a typical baroque suite instead of two movements in different way.

Idiomatic use of Keyboard instrument: 15/25 – Not enough contrasts. Throughout most of the piece all three staves are played, rarely exposing just one or two voices, especially in the prelude.

Musical content: 10/25 – Fugue deserves most of these points overall as it follows the textbook formal approach. First, I don't hear »halloweeny« theme in this one, nothing »scary«. Prelude never really puts an increasing development – the eights are always stopped with a bar or two of crochets which lead nowhere. Also the harmony remains rather static in all movements, using d minor too frequently even if it wanted to sound baroque-like. Modulations are too rare – a baroque type of harmoy would modulate to close tonalities frequently – F major, a minor, C major, g minor, Bflat major…

Score: 5/15 – except for OK notation for organ there are no dynamic marks, nor register changes, nor articulation.

Paragraph: 20/25 – it's not 100% detailed, but in general the presentation is quite fine and easy to follow.

TOTAL: 56/100

BACHIAN

Classical Form: 10/10 – A typical baroque form. Nothing to add.

Idiomatic use of Keyboard instrument: 25/25 – Nothing really to say, it's OK as far is I undestand organ writing. However, do not perform this one on pneumatic organ.

Musical content: 10/25 – The beginning features good start but for example – the unisonos in bars 7 and 8 are completely useless. Drammatic chords would sound thousands of times better. Toccata runs out of steam after about 4' 30''. The slow section is very, very boring. The Fugue should be more exciting compared to Toccata, but it's slow, »low-powered« and too short and it's based on a five note walk instead of a »theme«. The usage of harmony deserves most of the points though – the progress is logical in very much baroque-like.

Score: 15/15 – Well, it's a baroque work which has no decisive articulation or dynamics so I can't really say anything against the presentation.

Paragraph: 25/25 – Presented fine. Still, I think this competitions gives too many points considering less important stuff rather than music itself. There is no way this composition deserves so many points but I have to respect the scoring though.

TOTAL: 85/100

AUSTENITE

Classical Form: 9/10 a well crafted sonata-form in Beethoven-like dimension. A slow, mysterious start, followed by a traditional allegro movement with some slower intermezzos. I take one point away for too frequent changes of mood which intend to break the concentration to follow the content.

Idiomatic use of Keyboard instrument: 23/25 Sometimes the piano part doesn't sound very convincing due to extreme differences of registers in both hands, otherwise it sounds piano-like. I am wondering if Austenite would play it live.

Musical content: 20/25 Certainly most convincing compared to the other submitted works. Too bad the harmony sometimes does not feature more exciting chromaticism – the bars from 62 onwards should contain more chromatic surprises instead of always returning to more »careful« tonal pitch. Austenite needs an extra push to liberate himself from traditional tonality since there are some moments which suggest a potential transition towards 20th century chord progression – some semi-bitonal chords and free chromaticism are definitely promising.

Score: 15/15 No complains here, properly scored.

Paragraph: 25/25 Although I don't really see a point why using a sonata form to present such storyline, it is OK.

TOTAL: 92/100

BUCKWHEAT

Classical Form: 5/10 Buckwheat admits to use no classical or baroque form so half is excused. But it was meant to be in some sort of tranditional form, not a free one though.

Idiomatic use of Keyboard instrument: 15/25 Not enough excitement to gain more points. The piano writing here is far too one-dimensional.

Musical content: 10/25 I don't believe anybody would consider this piece »creepy«. It's a Mendelssohn-like tinted soft romantic piece without any drammatic progression towards a climax or something similar. Didn't really felt like suitable for Halloween.

Score: 15/15 No complains here, properly scored, with all marks in it.

Paragraph: 0/25 No paragraph, no points to add.

TOTAL: 45

RESULTS:

1. AUSTENITE 92 points + 95 = 187

2. BACHIAN 85 points + 85 = 170

3. KATHREPTIS 56 points + 80 = 136

4. BUCKWHEAT DQ

With best regards

Crt Sojar Voglar

I knew it... Congratulations to Awesome Austenite!

Congrats, Austenite. Another good work. :thumbsup:

Yay!!! :blush: It seems we're in a roll now ;) !

I'm really grateful to both judges and fellow entrants :toothygrin: ... Nevertheless, I will most certainly give another look at this work (which is far from perfect, of course), as I have received very valuable feedback that, if executed correctly, would greatly improve it.

I am wondering if Austenite would play it live.

Easy answer: no, I wouldn't :unsure: . No matter how much would I like to, this piece goes far beyond my (non-existent) playing capabilites. I'm pretty sure, however, that there are several pianists among YC members who could handle this with relative ease (i.e. Xiangyik, JohnBucket, Ian, Sarastro, Morivou or DinaHeartX, to name but a few). Hopefully one of them might get interested :thumbsup: ...

Thanks everyone!

wow Austenite again haha. Congratulations!

Take a break from all the winning!

Just kidding. :)

Congratulations to the winner. I'm afraid my keyboard skills are too rusty to attempt the winning entry (but it is mostly within reach of what I was able to play many years ago), but hopefully some of the skilled pianists you mentioned, who are still active performers, will have a go at your piece and give you specific feedback and advice on playability and pianistic issues. Looking forward to the revised piece and the remaining movements.

Woot...Austentine. Your composition deserve that.