"Dreamscapes" Chamber Music Composition Competition

The competition is now closed to further entries!

Starting Sunday June 18th, 2023 and running until Sunday, August 13th , 2023 Young Composers Forum invites you to participate in yet another new and unique music composition competition hosted by @Thatguy v2.0, @PeterthePapercomPoser, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, @Omicronrg9, and @chopin, all of whom will also judge the competition.

Dreams pervade our lives in a myriad of ways.  Symbolic dreams, prophetic dreams, anxiety dreams, and lucid dreams are just some among our repertoire of night-time excursions.  In this competition, the oneironauts (dream explorers) are tasked with writing a piece (or song) for one monophonic instrument (or voice) and one polyphonic instrument, based around the idea of dreaming, a specific type of dream, a particular dream that the oneironaut wants to share in their music, or depicting a famous dream story or poem such as Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream".  The way in which each oneironaut chooses to do this is totally up to their particular taste and interpretation, the only strict guideline being the instrumentation.  The monophonic instruments (or voice) which are allowed include even string instruments which can play multiple notes at once, but do not customarily do so all the time (such as the Violin, Viola, Cello or Contrabass).  And possible polyphonic instruments include but are not limited to:  Piano, Harp, Guitar, Accordion, Organ, Harpsichord, and etc.  Edit:  Midi keyboard synthesizers are allowed as long as the part can be performed by a human being.  Delay effects are also allowed, although looping pedals are not as they would defeat the purpose of writing for one instrument.

The submissions will be judged on a scale of 0 - 10 in the following 8 categories:

The scoring categories are pretty self-explanatory.  The Taste category is for the judges to score how much they personally enjoyed any given composition, while the other categories are expected to be scored more objectively.

The oneironauts names will not be revealed to the judges until the judging is complete.  The prizes will consist of $100 1st prize, $50 2nd prize and $25 3rd prize regardless of the number of participants.  Also, if there will be any popular voting polls they will not include 1st, 2nd and 3rd place picks as the judges have determined that this portion of the competition may have been a bit redundant in the past.

In order to compete:

• Your composition must not exceed 15 minutes of music and must be at least 3 minutes long
• If you are a new member, please submit an unrelated original piece of music to the forum to qualify (create a new topic)
• Your composition must be somehow based on dreams
• Instrumentation must be for only 1 monophonic instrument (or voice) and only 1 polyphonic instrument
• No age limit
• One submission per participant
• Mp3 submission and score/sheet music pdf required including a description
• $100 1st prize, $50 2nd prize, $25 3rd prize
• Deadline:  Sunday, August 13th, 2023

Submissions are to be sent to @PeterthePapercomPoser through direct message with the title of the composition as the subject line.  He will post the submissions anonymously in a special contest thread for everyone to listen to and consider.  Besides attaching a pdf score (without your name in it) and mp3 rendition of your music you must also include a description of your piece for the judges, fellow competitors and young composers at large to better understand your music.  How did you incorporate the idea of dreaming into your music?  Feel free to include the description of the dream, dream story or dream poem that you used.

To view the submissions thread go here:

To view the results and winners thread go here:

To take the "Dreamscapes" Satisfaction Survey go here:

To vote in the popular voting polls go here:

Current Entrants:  (reply to this thread in order to enter)

@expert21

@Bacon Danger

@ComposaBoi

@Left Unexplained

@IanBoins

@veps

@Samuel1

@AlexeySavelyev

@PCC

@GreenGiantCanOfCorn

@Michalis

@44W74l4

@SorooshMHS

@jojojo

@popsinn

@Beethoven is God

@Jordan Jinosko

@Camfrtt

@AngelCityOutlaw

@MusicianXX12

@bkho

@ComposedBySam

@Samuel_vangogh

@NicholasG

@Minerscale

@José de Azevedo Souza

@Composer from Europe

@spike473

@Paweł Siek

@Sergio Moreno

@Irene Huang

@MTK

I'm in.

I'm in

I’m in

Im in

I'm in

I'm in

I'm in

May I ask if there are nationality restrictions?

6 minutes ago, José de Azevedo Souza said:

May I ask if there are nationality restrictions?

No

I guess I'll try

On 6/15/2023 at 2:28 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Starting Sunday June 18th, 2023 and running until Sunday, August 13th , 2023 Young Composers Forum invites you to participate in yet another new and unique music composition competition hosted by @Thatguy v2.0, @PeterthePapercomPoser, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, @Omicronrg9, and @chopin, all of whom will also judge the competition.

Dreams pervade our lives in a myriad of ways.  Symbolic dreams, prophetic dreams, anxiety dreams, and lucid dreams are just some among our repertoire of night-time excursions.  In this competition, the oneironauts (dream explorers) are tasked with writing a piece (or song) for one monophonic instrument (or voice) and one polyphonic instrument, based around the idea of dreaming, a specific type of dream, a particular dream that the oneironaut wants to share in their music, or depicting a famous dream story or poem such as Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream".  The way in which each oneironaut chooses to do this is totally up to their particular taste and interpretation, the only strict guideline being the instrumentation.  The monophonic instruments (or voice) which are allowed include even string instruments which can play multiple notes at once, but do not customarily do so all the time (such as the Violin, Viola, Cello or Contrabass).  And possible polyphonic instruments include but are not limited to:  Piano, Harp, Guitar, Accordion, Organ, Harpsichord, and etc.

The submissions will be judged on a scale of 0 - 10 in the following 8 categories:

The scoring categories are pretty self-explanatory.  The Taste category is for the judges to score how much they personally enjoyed any given composition, while the other categories are expected to be scored more objectively.

The oneironauts names will not be revealed to the judges until the judging is complete.  The prizes will consist of $100 1st prize, $50 2nd prize and $25 3rd prize regardless of the number of participants.  Also, if there will be any popular voting polls they will not include 1st, 2nd and 3rd place picks as the judges have determined that this portion of the competition may have been a bit redundant in the past.

In order to compete:

• Your composition must not exceed 15 minutes of music and must be at least 3 minutes long
• If you are a new member, please submit an unrelated original piece of music to the forum to qualify (create a new topic)
• Your composition must be somehow based on dreams
• Instrumentation must be for 1 monophonic instrument (or voice) and 1 polyphonic instrument
• No age limit
• One submission per participant
• Mp3 submission and score/sheet music pdf required including a description
• $100 1st prize, $50 2nd prize, $25 3rd prize
• Deadline:  Sunday, August 13th, 2023

Submissions are to be sent to @PeterthePapercomPoser through direct message with the title of the composition as the subject line.  He will post the submissions anonymously in a special contest thread for everyone to listen to and consider.  Besides attaching a pdf score (without your name in it) and mp3 rendition of your music you must also include a description of your piece for the judges, fellow competitors and young composers at large to better understand your music.  How did you incorporate the idea of dreaming into your music?  Feel free to include the description of the dream, dream story or dream poem that you used.

To view the submissions thread go here:

Current Entrants:  (reply to this thread in order to enter)

@expert21

@Bacon Danger

@ComposaBoi

@Left Unexplained

@IanBoins

@veps

@Samuel1

@AlexeySavelyev

@PCC

 

 

People, What I should do to send my Piece?

3 minutes ago, Andersen VIANA said:

People, What I should do to send my Piece?

I'm in.

4 minutes ago, Michalis said:

Here is an unrelated piece:

Please start a new topic in the Chamber Music section of the forums to allow other users to review your piece and give you feedback!

@IanBoins please post your unrelated original piece in the Orchestral/Large Ensemble section of the forums to allow other users to review your piece and give you feedback!

I'm in

I'm in.

I'm a new member so I went ahead and posted one of my pieces right here 

And I just have 2 questions.
1. When you say, 1 monophonic instrument and 1 polyphonic instrument, is layering allowed? For example, if I choose to write a guitar and violin piece, am I only allowed one layer of each? Or can I have, say, 3 guitar layers and 2 violin layers (for example)?
2. Are synths and other electronic instruments allowed? 

20 hours ago, SorooshMHS said:

1. When you say, 1 monophonic instrument and 1 polyphonic instrument, is layering allowed? For example, if I choose to write a guitar and violin piece, am I only allowed one layer of each? Or can I have, say, 3 guitar layers and 2 violin layers (for example)?
2. Are synths and other electronic instruments allowed?

1.  When you mean layering do you mean delay effects?  If so, then yes, that's allowed.  If you mean looping then no, that's not allowed as it defeats the purpose of writing for just one instrument.

2.  Midi keyboard synthesizers are allowed as long as they can be performed by a human being.

2 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

1.  When you mean layering do you mean delay effects?  If so, then yes, that's allowed.  If you mean looping then no, that's not allowed as it defeats the purpose of writing for just one instrument.

2.  Midi keyboard synthesizers are allowed as long as they can be performed by a human being.

 

I see. I'm not talking about FX. I mean actually layering. like 3 different guitar parts, say, and 2 different violin parts for example. I guess that's not allowed. Makes sense, like you said, that would defeat the purpose of the challenge. Just wanted to make sure that's all

I'm in

I'm in

I'll give it a shot.

I have a couple questions:

You say that keyboards are allowed: Most workstation keyboards and related synths allow the user to have split instrumentation, so that one range of the keyboard is X instrument and another range is Y. Is this allowed?

Also, would a bass guitar be counted as a polyphonic or monophonic instrument for the purpose of this challenge? Like the traditional string section, it technically can play polyphonically, but is almost always used monophonically.

Last question in relation to the previous: Is a monophonic synth allowed? Like, I had two synth keyboards, one set to play polyphonically and another that was monophonic for the bass line, is that acceptable or no?

On 7/5/2023 at 5:12 PM, AngelCityOutlaw said:

You say that keyboards are allowed: Most workstation keyboards and related synths allow the user to have split instrumentation, so that one range of the keyboard is X instrument and another range is Y. Is this allowed?

As long as your score shows the listener everything that is being played and there are no accompaniment pattern presets being triggered by just hitting a chord in the left hand then that's fine.  Everything that's played must be notated explicitly though.

On 7/5/2023 at 5:12 PM, AngelCityOutlaw said:

Also, would a bass guitar be counted as a polyphonic or monophonic instrument for the purpose of this challenge? Like the traditional string section, it technically can play polyphonically, but is almost always used monophonically.

Yes, even though it can play more than one note at a time, it is still considered a monophonic instrument like the instruments in the traditional string orchestra.

On 7/5/2023 at 5:12 PM, AngelCityOutlaw said:

Last question in relation to the previous: Is a monophonic synth allowed? Like, I had two synth keyboards, one set to play polyphonically and another that was monophonic for the bass line, is that acceptable or no?

Yes that's allowed.