Organ Composition Competition

http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/4932/intrada-piccola-for-organ-no-pedals/

António, you managed to persuade me. ;)

Sorry, I forgot to upload the score yesterday; anyway I have done some changes.

Here is the latest version:

Score: https://www.box.com/s/om3zdntfn5sh3ags1y5w

Audio demo: https://www.box.com/s/ywzrahpa5ybwlljvoehg

It is a straightforward yet stylish chacona upon a standard chacona bass. I did not put almost any thought, and after listening to Sojar entry I considered to withdraw myself from competition ;)

Here's my submission, thanks for the competition António! it was a lot of fun :)

http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/4943/fugue-in-c-minor-for-organ/

I completely forgot about the range limits of the organ your playing António :facepalm: , I transposed the fugue into the suitable key of f minor and posted it along with the c minor fugue. 

It was for me a great honour have all your participations in this competition!

I have to confess that was also very difficult for me to find a winner, but after some reflexion I found one! It was for me very hard to be the judge! Although in the next concert which will give, I will only perform the winner piece (because I don’t have much time), I probably will record some of other pieces, because they real pleased me! (It is a pity that I didn’t remember before to do this competition, because if I had remembered I would play more new pieces).

I decided to make a podium with the three best pieces. I will start by the ones which aren’t in the podium:

Luderart:
Thank you for your participation I am really glad with the great enthusiasm you revealed in this competition.
For me, your best piece is your Solioquy number two, it has melodic potential and its character with many chords and some what medieval harmonies goes well with the organ, however this piece lacks development, it is more a sample, almost a sketch than a work with structure, beginning and end, then it wasn’t awarded.
The Solioquy number 3 it is not so inspired as the second, and it would be a little strange to perform in a Church, it is a little bit weird and I simply do not understand its meaning.
As for your forth Solioquy it is clearly better than your third one, this is also more developed than your second one, although this is not so inspired as the second. Your harmonic language is yet too much simple, I advise you to study Bach’s Chorales!
But again I thank you your enthusiasm in joining this competition.

Austenite:
It was indeed an honour for me have your name in this competition, although I must say that this Toccata it is fair for being one of your best works, mainly because it clearly (as many people said before) shows your inexperience leading with the organ.
I loved the entrance, which made me remember the beginning of Bach’s 1st Orchestral Suite, which is one of my favourite works from the Great master! (and it is funny because they are in the same key), the middle section was also interesting, although the entrance was clearly what impression me most.
It is hard for me to not have this piece in the podium, but the other three are also quite good, then I used the organ technique excuse to not choose this one! But I don’t deny the possibility of record this piece in this summer.
I think that it has really very good material, a revision in the technique and in some other details, will certainly be a great improvement to this delightful and smart piece. (which I consider more a Prelude than a Toccata  )

Now the podium,

In the third place:
Sarastro and its Chacona.
A piece which could perfectly have won this competition. And why then it didn’t win?  Only because in my opinion the other two did better! Very interesting, it has many many style, I’m a lover of modalism, and you are a master of modalism! Thank you a lot for this piece which mixes perfectly the past with the present! Perhaps a factor that helped to lead you no to the first or the second place is that this piece, although it is clearly for organ it is not completely “churchly”.
But I must thank you for your participation and kind contribute with this genial work!

In the Second Place:
Sojar’s Intrada Picola
It is very hard for me to not consider this piece the winner one, because in this explanation it is also almost impossible for me to criticize a work, which is an incredible work, which I with any problem assume that this is a work greater than me. And how may I criticize a work which is greater than me? I feel that I’m judging a work from Handel, or Bach, have I this power? Have I this capacity? No I haven’t. But I only must say, that I have commit myself to choose a winner piece, and I here confess that this was for me the most difficult decision, the best two pieces are very very close, I almost consider this second and the first place, as two first places!
Then to forecast, why this is not the winner one, in the justification of the next piece perhaps you could understand me decision.
This piece is simply perfect. The harmonies certainly will fulfil an entire cathedral. It is full of dissonances, but its give to this piece so much light! Yes, this piece is light, pure light in sound state! That F major in 17, uauhh! And the final coda with is indeed glorious! So much glorious.
The only detail which I disagree totally with you it is the name, ok I know that you called it piccolo because the duration is very brief, although its name should be not Intrada Picola, but Grande Intrata, ou Lumine Intrata!
Fantastic! Thank you, thank you very much for this marvellous piece.

The winner:
Sonata form – fugue!
As I previous said it was for me very hard to find a winner, but after a very difficult consideration I found one – you and your fugue.
In the presentation of this competition I said that “I love counterpoint, mainly good counterpoint”. And this piece indeed it is full of good, or better, great counterpoint.
It is ironic that, in my opinion the transposition to F minor give to this fugue even a better colour.
It is so chromatic, and in F minor, it made me remember Mozart last organ fugue in k 608! Which I simple kill only in order to listen it.
Like I said to Sojar, your fugue is a work, to which I dare only to look from downside to upwards, it is greater than me.
It is real fantastic, it is real a masterpiece, the theme is very dark and perfect, the harmonies are chromatic, dissonant but don’t bother the ear, by the opposite it almost tighten the soul, the counterpoint is impeccable and simply ingenious! And this piece fits perfectly in a Church concert.
What a power! What an honour to premiere such incredible masterpiece!

Thank you all, congrats to all, mainly congratulations to Sonata Form!
 

Thanks for the competition and detailed comments on the entries. I enjoyed the four non-luderart entries, and I'm a bit sorry that this competition did not attract more attention and participation, and that due to time constraints and perhaps a lack of real motivation the contestants resorted to perfunctory, tried and tested formulas, without taking great risks (well, to be fair, your guidelines did not seem to encourage wildly avantgarde stuff, but still, compare what Sojar Voglar can achieve - the piece that got disqualified because it had pedals - with the formulaic piece he submitted. Or Sonataform, who explored modes of limited transposition in a fugue context, yet submitted a rather conventional fugue. I'm not saying that those pieces are bad, just that the composers did not want or dare to work at their full potential, which is kind of disappointing.

Also, I'm sorry that due to the tight deadline Austenite did not have a chance to polish his entry; idiomatic issues aside, and even though the music does not live up to Austenite's potential, it is still a pleasant, audience-friendly piece, lighthearted and humorous yet still well-behaved enough for church. I hope he does revise it so that it could be usable in the future. Regarding my chacona, your opinion that is not fit for the church is the best compliment, and the very reason you should have selected it regardless its actual worth  :evil: .

Whatever, it is most generous of you to program pieces by other composers when you could just perform your own music, and it is also very commendable that you are willing to take risks premiering new music. Best of lucks with the recital, and I hope this will not be your last call for scores!

Congratulations to Sonataform!

:longface:  :w00t: Thank you Antonio! I'm so happy you chose my work! When composing the piece I had you in mind, specifically your toccata in d minor. You wanted something with counterpoint so of course I chose to compose a fugue. The piece is now dedicated to you and I have added the dedication to the score. Let me know if you have any questions, see an error or would like to change something. To think that my music will be performed half way around the world is such an honor. Thank you again, you'll need to tell me how the concert goes, I'd love to know  :)

Congrats to the podium, especially for the winner :) ! Sonataform does deserve his music to be premiered, not only on strictly musical merits, but also due to his openness towards other people's works (that also applies to both Sojar and Sarastro, although I can bet they have actually better chances of getting their stuff performed).

As for my own work - well, if it was useful for anything, it might have been to provide further relevance to this competition and to attract some of the best YC members into it, even if not with their most daring stuff. I'm glad that my work was at least "well-behaved enough for church" :thumbsup:, to quote Sarastro. I will most certainly revise the work and look into the unidiomatic issues, as well as an extra effort to make it sound somewhat closer to whatever expectations people have about my compositions :dunno: .

Thanks for the competition, and good luck with the performance!

Congrats to the podium, especially for the winner :) ! Sonataform does deserve his music to be premiered, not only on strictly musical merits, but also due to his openness towards other people's works (that also applies to both Sojar and Sarastro, although I can bet they have actually better chances of getting their stuff performed).

Thanks for your kind words Robert, as always. You may be right about something, besides performing my own music it's not easy for me to get my music played by others. There are many reasons for it which I don't want to get into here. But it does make the premier of this piece a very special first for me and I thank António again for his competition.   :cool:

It was for me a great honour have all your participations in this competition!

I have to confess that was also very difficult for me to find a winner, but after some reflexion I found one! It was for me very hard to be the judge! Although in the next concert which will give, I will only perform the winner piece (because I don’t have much time), I probably will record some of other pieces, because they real pleased me! (It is a pity that I didn’t remember before to do this competition, because if I had remembered I would play more new pieces).

I decided to make a podium with the three best pieces. I will start by the ones which aren’t in the podium:

 

Luderart:

Thank you for your participation I am really glad with the great enthusiasm you revealed in this competition.

For me, your best piece is your Solioquy number two, it has melodic potential and its character with many chords and some what medieval harmonies goes well with the organ, however this piece lacks development, it is more a sample, almost a sketch than a work with structure, beginning and end, then it wasn’t awarded.

The Solioquy number 3 it is not so inspired as the second, and it would be a little strange to perform in a Church, it is a little bit weird and I simply do not understand its meaning.

As for your forth Solioquy it is clearly better than your third one, this is also more developed than your second one, although this is not so inspired as the second. Your harmonic language is yet too much simple, I advise you to study Bach’s Chorales!

But again I thank you your enthusiasm in joining this competition.

Thanks Antonio for the frank feedback and suggestions regarding my pieces. I hope to make use of them in future organ pieces. Regarding your suggestion to study "Bach's Chorales", I would like to know where I can find them. I had heard that advice before, but am not really clear which pieces they mean. Are they organ pieces? I have a CD of Bach's "Organ Chorales from the Leipzig Manuscript". Are these the ones you mean? 

I hope that you will be able to include either my 2nd or 4th soliloquy in the "some of other pieces" that you say you will probably record too, as a recorded performance would mean a lot to me and would be a great experience to cherish and learn from.

Congratulations to all the winning pieces.

Sarastro:

I thank first! 

Sonataform:

Tomorrow I will go to Alcacer, although because I still do not feel completely prepared I will play probably your fugue in Friday's concerto! And this summer I will also play organ in Viseu, and I will take advantage (and if you permit me) to  perform there your fugue.

Austenite:

I will give attention to your revision!

Luderart:

Bach Chorales, are mainly for Choir, but its are for four voices, and from there you can learn not organ technique, but harmonic technique, which will be helpful to all the pieces that you will compose!

Thank you all.