How to become a Reviewer or Judge Young Composers Competitions

The staff here at Young Composers Forum thought that it was time to lay down some somewhat general guidelines about how members here might qualify to become reviewers and/or judge Young Composers competitions.  Here they are:

1. The most obvious thing you can do is to consistently on at least a weekly or bi-monthly basis, impartially and informatively review others works here on the forum!  Share your experience about what works musically, your personal musical tastes pertaining to others compositions and any technical features and helpful observations you have!
2. Be able to musically appreciate a diverse set of different musical styles.  This does not mean that you subscribe to any particular style in your own compositions, but that you are able to accept each composition on its own merits and according to the composers intent.  Being able to appreciate diverse musical styles does not mean that you can't have a certain specialty or niche in which you have gained bonus knowledge and experience.  We hope that you'll share those things with the rest of the judging panel as well as your fellow young composers on the forum!  That is also the reason why a bigger judging panel will benefit the competition entrants - because they will offer a more diverse set of sometimes convergent and sometimes divergent musical opinions on the submitted music.

Be ready to use the following judging criteria to make your reviews more objective:

The reason for guidelines 1 and 2 above should be obvious.  The staff and your fellow Young Composers need to know how you judge and review other members works and whether you can be relied upon to judge impartially.  The guidelines for becoming a reviewer transfer also to becoming a judge for the competitions.  Competition judges need to have staff privileges in order to be able to view the (hidden until the competition deadline passes) musical entries to each competition.  As Young Composers Forum builds a bigger active staff, some reviewers might not need to judge every competition if they don't have time to review or if they'd rather participate in the competition themselves.

(Edit) P.S.:  The reviewers and staff are also expected to keep a clear line of communication with each other and daily check their messages both on Young Composers Forum as well as the dedicated staff discord server.  Without the ability to communicate promptly with the reviewers of the competition, the staffs confidence that the respective reviewer will properly fulfill their obligations towards the competition is diminished.

Young Composers Forum Staff

Judge Dredd here. (which I had to abandon as a member-ID in case others thought I had a musical Lawgiver behind my back - well, there is one, usually pointed at my back!). But I do have a problem: I believe that each composer's efforts are a step on the road to ultimate success no matter how that's defined. Who am I to criticise? It's dead easy to criticise the work of others. Easy to praise, Easy to be harsh - but to be just? Impartial? That can be difficult, partly depending on awareness of the experience and level of the one judged.

What's important is to help creators to become self-critical; persuade them to stand back and ask 'is this what I really wanted?' But also to encourage.

It's fine for someone to turn up posting a tune to ask 'has this potential?' But often, works are posted prematurely: 'I just wrote this, this afternoon. What do you think?' without giving their embryo time to gestate a bit, so to speak.

I'll continue to review works if I have time, tending to be selective in ways but always with an attempt at equanimity. If it's based on the scale of 12 notes, some kind of score draws me in rather than absence of same. But it's best if I don't apply for a formal reviewer post just now. I hope that's ok?

I'm just a street judge and I'm very late for work! 

Q

20 minutes ago, Quinn said:

What's important is to help creators to become self-critical; persuade them to stand back and ask 'is this what I really wanted?' But also to encourage.

I think this is the crucial thing! Basically we should be appreciative to all the posts here. But by reviewing I hope I can bring some reflections to the conposer whether the level of the reply is high or low. I would like to quote a Chinese proverb: Better to teach someone to fish than to give him a fish. Of course it would be great to have a self-reflective member here, but I hope that I can give my fellow members something to think of, like different approaches, angles etc. If I totally love a work I can vow out my love as well as I say what do I find great in this piece. 

26 minutes ago, Quinn said:

That can be difficult, partly depending on awareness of the experience and level of the one judged.

I think that's the responsibility of the judged, but as the judging person we can try our best to review first. Whether the judged agree, disagree, reflect or not, that's his or her concern. Even parents cannot control what their children think, and art is really about taste, so it can be difficult. Art, as Kant noted, is subjective but human beings want to claim objective. We all have our unique taste and I think to speak out with your own unique voice and review under your own unqiue approach can benefit the composer and the forum as well. After all more different types of approaches, even if they are contradicting with each other, will be much better than none.

33 minutes ago, Quinn said:

It's fine for someone to turn up posting a tune to ask 'has this potential?' But often, works are posted prematurely: 'I just wrote this, this afternoon. What do you think?' without giving their embryo time to gestate a bit, so to speak.

It's their own job to utilize this great forum. If thet cannot use this forum well it will be their loss. For me everytime I review I learn something from othrers and stimulate my thinking.

36 minutes ago, Quinn said:

I'll continue to review works if I have time, tending to be selective in ways but always with an attempt at equanimity. If it's based on the scale of 12 notes, some kind of score draws me in rather than absence of same. But it's best if I don't apply for a formal reviewer post just now. I hope that's ok?

I always love your reviews, since yours are always reasonable, honest and supportive. Every members like you will be treasured!

Henry

On 2/4/2023 at 10:46 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I always love your reviews, since yours are always reasonable, honest and supportive. Every members like you will be treasured!

Henry

You are too kind. But thank you!

: ) 

This is great and could be used (not mandatory) of course for regular comments on compositions.

Outside of the contests, it can even be evaluated qualitatively such as "what I like the most", "I like the least", etc...

I added a little addendum to the guidelines towards the bottom of the post (the postscript).