hmmm...congrats to James for winning (I heard your piece, it was indeed well written)
To the complaints on my piece, though: I thought I'd just say that I thought that the piece was supposed to be our feelings at the New Year, not a "New Year's theme" and for me that meant the piece was supposed to be suspenseful, and apprehensive. I thought I pulled this off on some level
.
and my piece was not atonal at all
. A lot of chromatic notes, sure, and I don't necessarily establish the tonal center right away (I start on a suspension, after all, and hold/repeat it for a while), but it
is in F-minor
(with an section in F major, of course). I was indeed experimenting with some more dissonant harmonies, more so than I would normally, perhaps, but I thought with a score it would've been obvious as to what's happening.