Seasonal Competitions Suggestions

It's somewhat funny that a few members actually feel the need to scratch a few words out of their posts, most likely out of presumed political incorrectness.

Maybe it's time to restart the whole monthly (or w/e) competitions again

Oof... those things rarely did get off the ground. I'd be up for trying it again but I said that before and failed to participate. What kind of competitions would they be? We clearly can't keep trying the same thing over and over like they did before. The sheer number of requirements and specifications were too hard to keep up with. I think the reason we saw more success with the theme swap challenges was because of how informal and flexible they were. Maybe something closer to that kind of competition would succeed here again.

I would absolutely love to participate in something like this if it ever were to start up again

I would totally support this revival.

We'd need a few more experienced members willing to judge, though - the whole point of this is to get pieces thoroughly reviewed and getting suggestions for improvement, and that would be quite fitting if the judges for any given competition are up to the task. The bragging-rights awards are added value (I admit that I got a pretty good deal of self-assurance by either winning or finishing a 0.5-point-margin close second a couple times) - but the main thing is getting qualified feedback.

If you guys do get these going again, I'll try and participate in them. Honestly like I said before the thing that kept me from following through in the past was the fact that I never could push through to meet the specifications they made. Maybe I'd do better now with the benefit of a couple years' practice. We shall see.

I would love to have seasonal competitions again. Unfortunately, I won't be able to conduct the competitions as I used to do (even if it was for just a brief period of time). Could someone else take the lead? I'm passing the baton. I'd rather be a judge or even enter as a participant.

2 hours ago, ChristianPerrotta said:

I would love to have seasonal competitions again. Unfortunately, I won't be able to conduct the competitions as I used to do (even if it was for just a brief period of time). Could someone else take the lead? I'm passing the baton. I'd rather be a judge or even enter as a participant.

I'd be willing to take over. Does that mean I'm not allowed to judge and enter?!

44 minutes ago, danishali903 said:

Does that mean I'm not allowed to judge and enter?!

No. I'd think you can still judge and/or participate in any given contest, as long as you're not both an entrant and a judge in the same contest.

Ok so if Danish is running the competitions does that basically entail starting the thread and setting up the parameters of the competition? And does this mean that if I enter and lose to him that I can file a complaint citing bias and/or foul play?

I would envision it like this:

Danish takes over as general manager for the competitions forum. Not necessarily as an "umpire" for any particular competition, though he could still do that if he's willing to.

Someone else could suggest a particular competition with certain parameters, by sending a PM to Danish. If he gets more than one suggestion, it's his call whatever we do first. I would like the one making the suggestion to serve as a judge rather than a contestant, but I wouldn't say that should be a rule.

Once Danish picks the next competition, then he starts the thread, although he could delegate that on the member who suggested the parameters. Again, it's his call.

That's just my thoughts, but Danish himself could have a wholly different idea.

5 minutes ago, Austenite said:

I would envision it like this:

Danish takes over as general manager for the competitions forum. Not necessarily as an "umpire" for any particular competition, though he could still do that if he's willing to.

Someone else could suggest a particular competition with certain parameters, by sending a PM to Danish. If he gets more than one suggestion, it's his call whatever we do first. I would like the one making the suggestion to serve as a judge rather than a contestant, but I wouldn't say that should be a rule.

Once Danish picks the next competition, then he starts the thread, although he could delegate that on the member who suggested the parameters. Again, it's his call.

That's just my thoughts, but Danish himself could have a wholly different idea.

I very much like this idea (for now). 

Everyone is welcome to PM me ideas about future competitions and I'll consider those (I think I might have an idea for now). Should I wait until the beginning of June, or should I just go ahead and start the thread?

If it's seasonal competitions then a summer one would probably begin in June. Maybe since we're still getting into the swing of things and it's been a while we could start the thread now and give everyone half a month's extra time to figure out what's what.

Go on, we're already halfway through May. You can fire the first shot right now.

Let's begin immediately! I'm quite excited for this!!!!

Here are some raw "ideas" for the competitions. As the previous ones have not been that successful (because, well, people didn't finish their works), I thought of some simpler guidelines for the next ones.

1) A small fugue on a "famous" subject (something commercial, or from a movie, or a game, or a dead composer...);

2) Solo melodic instrument work;

3) A 1-movement concertino alla Vivaldi, but with some "updates" that differs this one from the baroque one;

4) A suite of dances, not the ones from the past (minuet, sarabande, allemande...), but things from the XXI century (or even invented dances);

5) A capella choir work on a certain text (maybe something not religious);

6) A stage music for a scene or dance (we can chose a "musicless" video from youtube or something like that);

7) Variations on a theme (what do you think of Seikilos epitaph?)

8) A second movement for Austenite's "Northanger Sonata" =D;

9) We simply chose a genre (nocturne, ballade, fugue, sonata, arabesque, villancico, tombeau, passacaglia) and people compose.

Numbers 1 and 3 scare me.

Numbers 2, 7, and 9 strike me as the easiest and most appealing.

Numbers 4, 5, and 6 sound challenging but fun.

And Number 8 seems downright sacrilegious.

Of course those are my own perceptions and I'm sure the company I'm in on this forum wouldn't balk at any of these in future competitions!

32 minutes ago, ChristianPerrotta said:

8) A second movement for Austenite's "Northanger Sonata" =D;

8 minutes ago, KJthesleepdeprived said:

And Number 8 seems downright sacrilegious.

You two just made my career.

On 5/16/2016 at 9:34 PM, ChristianPerrotta said:

4) A suite of dances, not the ones from the past (minuet, sarabande, allemande...), but things from the XXI century (or even invented dances);

Like a suite of dance music forms which are not based on dances. Talk about abstract…

By the way, this is pretty interesting, it's dance music played mostly by a chamber ensemble:

Hi

I would like to make a suggestion...

I know that many people dislike atonality/dodecaphony... But, why not to try to expand our minds and ears? The suggestion isn't that of atonality. Instead, why not writing someting using an alternative scale?

There are thousands of possible scales, besides major/minor and the medival modal ones. There are from unitonic scales to twelve-tone scales. Many of them are part of particular traditions. For example, along the Mediterranean, we have many scales with b2 (phrygian-like). But the possibilities are endless.

To get a genuine sound for a scale-mode, the main requirement is to use ONLY the notes of the scale for both melody and harmony.

A scale can be pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, octatonic, etc... Depending on the scale, the approach can be different. The most part should be treated like modal scales, that is to say, the challenge is that the chord (I) sound like the tonic chord, avoiding the progressions recalling V-I movements or similar.

If the main chord is not stable, that is to say I(b5), Iaug... The mode is harder to sound stable (but it is possible).

But many other scales-modes deal with more stable chords.

What I would do is to choose an affordable scale-mode, with a stable tonic (major or minor triad), and give some clues or suggestions to use it.

There are many well-known traditional scales: phrygian-dominant, gypsies, hungarians, jewish, hindu, egyptian, etc.....

Other ones are artificial: Verdi's enigmatic scale, the whole-tone hexatonic scale of Debussy, etc....

In summary, this option, without going outside of tonality-modality, is a challenge to make a different material sound good.

5 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

Hi

I would like to make a suggestion...

I know that atonality/dodecaphony dislikes to many people... But, why not to try to expand our minds and ears? The suggestion isn't that of atonality. Instead, why not writing someting using an alternative scale?

There are thousands of possible scales, besides major/minor and the medival modal ones. There are from unitonic scales to twelve-tone scales. Many of them are part of particular traditions. For example, along the Mediterranean, we have many scales with b2 (phrygian-like). But the possibilities are endless.

To get a genuine sound for a scale-mode, the main requirement is to use ONLY the notes of the scale for both melody and harmony.

A scale can be pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, octatonic, etc... Depending on the scale, the approach can be different. The most part should be treated like modal scales, that is to say, the challenge is that the chord (I) sound like the tonic chord, avoiding the progressions recalling V-I movements or similar.

If the main chord is not stable, that is to say I(b5), Iaug... The mode is harder to sound stable (but it is possible).

But many other scales-modes deal with more stable chords.

What I would do is to choose an affordable scale-mode, with a stable tonic (major or minor triad), and give some clues or suggestions to use it.

There are many well-known traditional scales: phrygian-dominant, gypsies, hungarians, jewish, hindu, egyptian, etc.....

Other ones are artificial: Verdi's enigmatic scale, the whole-tone hexatonic scale of Debussy, etc....

 

In summary, this option, without going outside of tonality-modality, is a challenge to make a different material sound good.

 

I like your suggestion. Let's make it!

There are a lot of good suggestions here. Here's mine, and I've given it some thought because in addition to writing to conform to particular styles, I like to write to film and images. In this there is the freedom of instrumentation that people want, as well as form.

It would work like this. Film makers would upload their short films, giving up their exclusive reservations of all copyrights (by signing an online form) in order to facilitate collaboration with Young Composers. The site would need to stream video. I know that this can be done because VirtualArtists.com does it.

A Democratic vote from YC will choose the film and then we score it. And by score I mean that t may be required or it may not be, according to the particular contest rules. in the case of electronic music or the kind of music that blurs the line between sound design and music, there is no need for a score unless real musicians are required. These are modern trends which need an avenue for experimentation, imo.

The end result is the fusion of film and video as uploaded by the composer back to YC. Since this is 2016 virtually all of our notation programs and digital audio workstations can do this. I, and I suspect others here, would be happy to help.

This would be a great learning experience and I think it would also draw more people to this very good website from the "film" angle. Chopin (Michael?) indicated to me that increasing website traffic was his goal. Well, here's one more way.

thanks

15 hours ago, Ken320 said:

There are a lot of good suggestions here. Here's mine, and I've given it some thought because in addition to writing to conform to particular styles, I like to write to film and images. In this there is the freedom of instrumentation that people want, as well as form.

It would work like this. Film makers would upload their short films, giving up their exclusive reservations of all copyrights (by signing an online form) in order to facilitate collaboration with Young Composers. The site would need to stream video. I know that this can be done because VirtualArtists.com does it.

 

I really like that idea. My only issue would be if (if it was a category much like this years) audio quality is a scored aspect, in which people forced to use MIDI would have a hard time perfectly matching the visuals it's accompanying. Other than that, it's a great idea.

Wouldn't it be difficult to get people who make films and want to put them in other's hands?

I also like writing for films, but I've always done it for old silent films (with no copyright, public domain). Synchronizing is difficult.

Hmmm...

Hi! It may be easier to organize the compositions in terms of ensemble size as well as ensemble type, for example:

• Large instrumental ensemble (i.e. concert band, orchestra, large electronic ensemble, etc.)
• Large non-instrumental ensemble (i.e. large choir, etc.)
• Mid-size instrumental ensemble (i.e. chamber instrumental ensembles, small electronic, rock/pop bands, etc.)
• Mid-size non-instrumental ensemble (i.e. chamber vocal ensembles, etc.)
• Small instrumental ensemble (i.e. solo instruments, etc.)
• Small non-instrumental ensemble (i.e. solo vocal, etc.)

You obviously have flexibility to decide how you'd categorize the different classes, but it's a start. This is similar to how musicians are classified in student performance contests/festivals around where I teach. The nice thing is that it allows for categorization without restricting composers to an instrumentation that they don't feel reflects their best work for the competition. You could then use these guidelines as a backbone, and then add unique limitations for each competition (style, form, topic, etc.).

Just some thoughts from a band teacher & closet composer!

Gustav Johnson