QcCowboy

warning: the following will be read as quite harsh

To start with, without any formal training, forget about "international competitions". You might think you are writing great music, but the judges aren't blind. THey WILL see that you don't have any formal training.

I've listened to some winning pieces from competitions and was blown away by how beautiful they were: lyrical, original, vibrant. So I don't see anything wrong with the way most competitions are going. Competitions are SPECIFICALLY geared to finding "original new voices" in composition. They're not looking for well-written traditionalism.

Honestly, if your ear-training and knowledge of the repertoire don't allow you to hear the lyricism in non-traditional,non-tonal music, then you should seriously forget about composition competitions.

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That being said...

There IS a certain bias in the world of competitions, towards more avant-garde music. And this is a normal thing. As I said, competitions aren't there to find good craftsmen. They are there to find unique voices that stand out in the crowd.

This doesn't mean that more avant-garde composers aren't good craftsmen.

Nor does it mean that a more traditional composer can't have a unique voice, although honestly, it IS much more difficult.

Regarding this "bias", there are still people out there (we have one notorious member on our own forum) who reject ANY music that is built on ANY tonal principle. Sadly, these tone-deaf, narrow-minded, idiots still can hold court over the judging of SOME competitions.

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advice:
go back to school, learn harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, analysis.
get a diploma of some sort (the paper isn't the important part.. it's the work that LEAD to that paper that matters).

THEN, and only then, consider submitting your work to competitions.


I know I'm going to get flamed for being an academic, but don't worry, I have on my flame-retardant undies. Besides, most of the people who flame are the ones who don't actually READ a post all the way through. They just latch onto one single phrase while skimming and then launch into a tirade.