Choral Competition - Judges Discussion Thread

I like that idea, Sapphire. But which '7' criteria are you referring to?

Also, my piece has just now (as of the last hour and a half or so) become the most dissonant thing I've written to date. It's intelligent dissonance, as I like to call it, being all harmonies are based on a motivic chord, comprising a major chord and the minor chord a minor third above it (E major and g minor for example), and not at all random dissonance for the sake of dissonance. But I'm still hesitant to enter it into the competition. I want to submit the piece for the choral reading here at my school, and the deadline is Nov 30th, so I have more time for the piece in that regards. Who knows - I may or may not submit it here. I may not know until very late. But, obviously, if I do submit my piece in the end, I would not be able to break any ties!

Anywho, let's hear more suggestions!

Originally Posted by Nickthoven

I like that idea, Sapphire. But which '7' criteria are you referring to?

-Audience Appeal (and how much we as a judge enjoyed the piece overall)
-Originality and/or uniqueness
-Idiomatically effective writing
-Differing textures that appropriately highlight the selected text - this includes things like key changes, tempo changes, dynamics, articulation, and even changes in the accompaniment. It also includes effective settings of text - examples: where to use a melody in unison or octaves - or where to switch from two-part writing to four-part.
-Effective use of form (and in some cases, having a form you keep to)
-Compositional continuity - to include elements like style and idiomatic stability - both harmonically and melodically.
-Balanced and realistic use of the ensemble (write for a oboe/trumpet/cello/timpani/soprano, not something they cannot or cannot easily sing; challenging is fine, impossible or intentionally awkward for no reason is not)

All credit goes to leightwing

A note to Nickthoven:

Some of my favorite choral pieces are fairly dissonant. See what you can do with it and submit it.

A suggestion to Mike and Nickthoven:

I think we are approaching the point where there are too many people wanting to be judges. It's likely to get to a point where there will be more judges than competitors. It's kind of annoyed me to see so many people joining in as judges because they were too late for the deadline to compete. If I had it my way, I would have denied anyone to be a judge who did not express his wish to do so by the same deadline the competitors had to join in. As it stands, I think we should lock the judges as they are. If you decide to drop out, drop out, but don't continue to add on.

A suggestion to Sapphire:

I think those principles work out pretty well, but I think they can be revised some. For instance, a very important part of Choral writing is voice leading. Singability should be an important criterium for this competition. Also, text setting is also important. Please note that if you have decided not to set a piece to text, this does not exclude you from text settings. Neutral vowel sounds like [u] [o] [a] and humming are all considered text settings. You cannot simply write notes and not tell your chorus what vowels or words to sing.

All these by-laws need to be charted down by the judges and voted on until we reach a standard of requirements for the competition. Until we reach this conclusion NO pieces may be listened to or judged, so as not to give an unfair advantage.

A suggestion to other judges:

I think pieces should be submitted anonymously for fairness. This would require one of the judges to act as the middle man between competitors and judges. All competitors will send him their pieces. He will then label them a-z or 1-90 or however it works best. That way we have no idea who's pieces are whose except the competitors and the middle man (who has no vote with the judges). Competitors should be encouraged to remove their names from the pieces to remain anonymous.

These are merely suggestions, but I think they should prove as a stable foundation for our judging criteria.

I like your seven ideas, Sapphire, except I feel that perhaps "audience appeal" should hold less weight given its objective nature, as opposed to things like voice leading/singability, which is something that at least to a point is subjective.

They're leightwing's ideas, not mine

And as there are plenty of judges, we will have a very diverse opinion!

I'm gonna go ahead and not submit my piece for the competition. There's no way I'm going to finish it before Nov 1st, because I have pretty high hopes for it and I'm definitely not going to want to rush it for this, when I have a recording session planned for January.

So since I started the competition and all, I'll be the middle man person and oversee things as I've been doing, but not be a judge, You brought up a good point, Nightengale.

Although I did not enter the competition, I was wondering if
after the judging is complete and the winner announced will there be an audio link for the the YC community to hear the winning composition?

I think it would be a nice idea for the forum members to hear the winner and runner-ups or honorable mention pieces. That way the composer of the work can get even more recognition.

Yes, your Majesty (), that is usually how it works. Don't worry, we'll all be able to bask in the gloriful music that comes out of this competition!

Originally Posted by Nickthoven

Yes, your Majesty (), that is usually how it works. Don't worry, we'll all be able to bask in the gloriful music that comes out of this competition!

I see you got the little psychological humor from my screen name

It's a good think I don't take screen names like mine seriously at all .

Anyway, I pretty much figured you guys would post the the audio links of the winning pieces. I just thought I'd ask anyway, considering my great affection for choral/vocal music.

Since there is no definitive answer from all the judges on the judging criteria, the judges should, when scoring the pieces, score however they please, as long as the outcome is in a percentile out of 100. Either you can make a point system that equals 100 or 10 or something, or just use crunch the numbers into a percentile, this is how we will compare the different pieces.

For right now, as the composing is winding down to the deadline, I need all the judge's e-mail addresses, so I can send them to the competitors and so I can put them up in the Submissions thread. Please PM me your e-mails within the next two days!