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Merged "The Tortoise and the Hare" Submissions Thread

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This thread is a merged collection of Entries A through K submitted to "The Tortoise and the Hare" - A Study in Contrasts Music Composition Competition held in the fall of 2022.

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PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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A Hare (clarinet), with his pacer (flute) quickly starts the race, confident of victory. The sluggish Tortoise (bassoon), plods after. During the second half, the Tortoise passes the Hare and wins.

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry B - 'Fabula' by @rsn

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PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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In these "Three Sententiae for Piccolo and Tuba, Op. 344", I depict the hare with the piccolo and the tortoise with the tuba. The three sententiae do not strive to particularly depict events in the fable of the "Tortoise and the Hare", opting rather to leave interpretation to the imagination of the audience. However, I have sought to highlight the hare's carelessness by the piccolo's rather carefree part and the tortoise's methodicalness by the regularity of the tuba's part. Also, in the final sententia, I have sought to highlight the dramatic ending.

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry C - 'Three Sententiae for Piccolo & Tuba' by @luderart

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  • PeterthePapercomPoser changed the title to Entry C - "The Tortoise and the Hare" Competition - 'Three Sententiae for Piccolo & Tuba Op. 344'
PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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Chrysanthemum explores extended techniques and unique musical gestures, to try reimagining the ways in which we can tell and appreciate stories. In this piece, I view the marimba as the tortoise, and the bass clarinet as the hare. In the beginning, the bass clarinet is clearly dominant in the piece, with extremely fast runs and loud techniques, but as the piece moves on, the marimba clearly takes the baton and runs with it. The piece concludes with the bass clarinet exhausted, as illustrated by the low, flutter tongue, all while the marimba is reimagined with mallets wrapped in sheets of paper. This change in timbre signifies the rejuvenation of the tortoise crossing the finish line, strong and steady.

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry D - 'Chrysanthemum' by @BAllen

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PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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Two competing forces. One relies on their speed, the other on their steadfastness - both riddled with hubris. They are not as dissimilar as one would believe.

Piece for vibraphone duet: Both have 5 lines of 4 bars each. One player repeats each line of their music 5 times before advancing to the next (Tortoise), the other repeats the whole page 5 times (Hare). Much like the hands of a clock, the piece is a rotation of two speeds through very much similar material. There are points where they align, there are points where they clash. Are they truly at odds? They cover the same distance but have different ways of going about it - is the conflict unnecessary?

NB: The two parts comprise the score - to unfold it would be less efficient and would not highlight the form or structure. Vib2 (Tortoise) plays the 'A' section 5 times as a counter-melody/accompaniment to Vib1 (Hare), who plays the whole page only once, then once again while Vib2 plays the next line 5 times (and so on and so forth...)

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry E - 'Not Always to the Swift' by @Studio_H

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PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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Time: about 9 min 15 s
Tortoise: pedal harp
Hare: C-clarinet (Bb clarinet needs transposition)

Peaceful tortoise (pedal harp) meets hare (C-clarinet), who has too eager life philosophy. What tortoise tells to him. They have a discussion about that. Their discussion does not have written words.

Tortoise suggest that she tells a short fairy tale to hare and hare agrees with that. Before that tortoise has still
few words to say to hare about his eagerness. 

The story is touching. Hare wants to tell his own story. 

After that tortoise desides to play one of her musical work. Hare answers to that by
playing his own one. 

Then their discussion changes when tortoise plays a musical instant of
moment. Hare says that he can catch it up and plays a short accompanient for it. Then hare gives his own
instant. Tortoise says that she can catch it up also and she plays an accompanient for it. 

After that tortoise plays a short ending. Hare plays something that suites together with that ending.

Their discussion continues but the story does not tell about that. 

---
Pdf file is created with musescore 3. It is combined together with small pdf merge (https://smallpdf.com/merge-pdf) online tool. It contains score and parts.
Mp3 file uses "Musescore general" soundfont and is generated with musescore 3.

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry F - 'When Tortoise and Hare meet, tell tales, and play tunes' by @semotivo

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PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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Tortoise: Bari Sax

Hare: Drum Set

Tortoise sets off on a slow but deliberate march, every downbeat representing another step towards his goal. Nothing will change his pace or determination, not even the brash and erratic Hare, who blazes in behind him not long after. Hare is quick and his pace ever-changing. For every step Tortoise makes, Hare makes eight more. At one point he even stops to let Tortoise catch up a bit, only to mock his much slower speed.

The Race continues, and Hare has nearly reached the finish line, when he turns and sees, once again, how far behind Tortoise is. Hare decides he has enough time to rest a bit before crossing the finish line, and he winds up falling asleep. Tortoise's determined march finally pays off, as he passes the sleeping Hare and crosses the finish line, winning the Race!

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry G by @Tedd

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PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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Hello,

I chose the Clarinet for the Hare and the Bassoon for the Tortoise with orchestral accompaniment. 

My reason for choosing the Clarinet as the Hare is because of the Clarinet's agility and capability to hop around very easily. The Clarinet also possesses an ability to make a laughing sound effect that I attempted to emulate (https://youtu.be/PMjAAH86cIk?t=30).
My reason for choosing the Bassoon as the Tortoise is because I imagined the Tortoise as a bass instrument. While most instruments are able to produce sonorous sounds in their lower registers, I believe the Bassoon was the best choice.

I decided to stick with the original Aesop story as my inspiration:
The music starts with the Tortoise's motif and the Hare making fun of the Tortoise for being too slow. I use a common childish tune with pizzicato strings to represent the child-like nature of the Hare while it dances around the Tortoise's motif using polytonality to represent how different the two are. 
The Hare asks the Tortoise a question, "Do you ever get anywhere?" The Tortoise then responds with proving that it can beat the Hare in a race. I imagined the Tortoise talking very slowly and labored, so I slow the tempo down to give the Bassoon time to talk. 
I like to think that there would be a moment of anticipation as the Fox readies the runners. The Fox is represented by the Oboe. I also put a spot in where the Fox would say, "Get ready, on your marks, get set, go!"
As the race begins, the Hare immediately jumps ahead of the Tortoise. It eventually sees that it is so far ahead that it begins to lighten its' pace and slow down a bit. The Hare will eventually mock the Tortoise's words from earlier.
As everything quiets down and the Hare is far beyond the Tortoise, it will take a nap. I write in a part for the Solo Clarinet where the performer will snore. The Brahms Lullaby is played with quiet, pizzicato strings to imply the Hare is sleeping. The Tortoise's motif then enters quietly building up to a forte and back to piano. I wanted to emulate the Tortoise passing by.  
The waking of the Hare is signaled by the Clarinet quote from the opening of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue - I always imagined that line as being a waking of something. With the Tortoise being nowhere in sight, the Hare begins to question itself before realizing the Tortoise must have passed it while it was sleeping. This realization is signaled by this sound effect (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6rq_8EQkOI).
The Hare then sprints as fast as it possibly can in an attempt to catch up to the Tortoise. However, it's too late.
The ending is a repeat of what the Tortoise said earlier with all orchestra instruments involved. I imagined that all of the other animals are rejoicing with and congratulating the Tortoise.
The Tortoise then walks off with a final laugh at the very end.

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry H by @WowBroThatWasReallyEdgy

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PeterthePapercomPoser

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The Tortoise and the Hare is scored here for chamber orchestra by ____. The hare is represented by the solo violin and the tortoise by the bassoon. At the beginning, the fox announces the start of the race which is signaled by a brass fanfare (played by the trumpet, horn, and trombone). The hare begins the race and the tortoise, being slow to start, finally gets himself going. As the tortoise is the clear underdog, a spectator from the crowd (represented by the oboe) urges the tortoise on. At this point, the hare, confident of victory, decides to take a nap (played as a quiet, string harmonic on the solo violin). More spectators from the crowd (represented by the flute, oboe, and clarinet) urge the tortoise to keep going. As the tortoise nears the finish line, the hare awakens and, realizing he is about to lose the race, makes a mad dash for the finish line. Unfortunately, he slept too long as the tortoise crosses the finish line just ahead of the hare. The tortoise is then asked by the fox to come forward and is declared the winner, receiving a medal for his victory. Another brass fanfare now concludes the work with all instruments joining in (with the exception of the solo violin) to celebrate the tortoise’s incredible victory!

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry I by @Mark Dal Porto

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tizizicoblack Rookie

tizizicoblack

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Written about Entry F:

I believe that a piece of art explains itself, so I prefere to listen, then read the explaination of what the artist means. I really like you strong melody lines, they are clear and they really fits the characters. However it seems like it's a piece that has to match to some sort of video, form one side it is really image evocative, on the other hand it seems not complete or not well connected in its different musical sentences, also because I can't find any recurring patterns or at least they are not underlined. Above all i respect the really hard choice to tell a story about two animals, I think it's really difficult but u did a great job!

PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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The description for this piece is in the corresponding pdf file.

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry J by @Noah Brode

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PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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As you can hear, the clarinet has now-fragmented, now-legato line. The bass, a constant one.  I would think as the clarinet being the hare, which gives an ironic glimpse back to the tortoise, each time its melodic lines has a breathe. And a mockery walk on the legato's ones.  The tortoise of course is the bass, where each eight-note triplet (the dead/ghost notes ones) could represent its throwback after a stumble, as well as the descending lines as wrong paths.

For all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry A by @Ricardo A J Ferrari

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PeterthePapercomPoser Elite Composer

PeterthePapercomPoser

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The piece starts off with the hare making fun of the tortoise's speed, so I introduce the hare's theme in the Eb Clarinet. The acciaccatura figure represents laughing. Then the tortoise theme (Tuba), which is in minor since he isn't particularly enjoying being made fun of. I just repeat those with minor variation. Then the music builds to the hare laughing again, which signals the tortoise to challenge him to a race (A), signified by the rocking fourth figure. The hare laughs at that too, but the tortoise interrupts and repeats his challenge. The hare accepts the race. The fox begins the race (B), signified by the horn fanfare, and the race begins (C). The race is a fugue on the hare's theme with fragments of the tortoise's theme. The fugue ends with the hare's theme on top, so he slows down to take a nap (D). The tortoise meanwhile is coming closer to the finish line (E), crosses which means he wins the race. So, the piece ends triumphantly with the hare accepting his defeat.

To see all the reviews for this entry go here:  Entry K by @ComposaBoi

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