OFFICIAL JANUARY RESULTS THREAD!!!! (Woot... it's about time, right?)

IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to all who participated... I will now show the contestants each with their Judge Reviews and their final score. I will start from last place and go up till we have a winner.


VirtualShock

Juji's Review:
http://freewebs.com/jujehmufeh/janua...s_on_Theme.pdf

Morivou's Review:
1. Form (4)
-Did they use at least 4 variations?
Yes.
-Is the theme strong?
Yuppers, however I have to say that it would probably have helped if you sped the tempo up and used more than half notes and quaver beats.
2. Development (2)
-Does the piece flow?
No, not really. It is too slow and it is six minutes of BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT… over and over again. It was done correctly, but for the subjective side of the piece, it isn’t very appealing.
3. Notation (5)
-The score is laid out correctly.
You got it!
-The score is neat, and is effective and practical for real life usage.
Yep!
4. Compliance with the Rules (5)
-Everything required is turned in and filled out properly and is correct.
Got those points too.
5. Instrumentation (4)
-Ranges of Instruments is used correctly.
Hmmm… you would need tenor recorders, and you switch registers WAY too much! But, that is probably just the midi.
-General instrumentation rules are followed.
I don’t know how many rules there ARE for recorders. Haha.


TOTAL POINTS FROM MORIVOU:
20/25

General Comments:
Hmmm… interesting piece. Although, it isn’t a crowd pleaser, and I don’t think you wrote it to be. You did the rules, you tried out styles, and you deserve at least 20 out of 25 points. But, those extra 5 points come from putting effort and design in your music to make your piece sound good. Work on that: not just using the techniques presented to you, but trying to take ideas and make them into your own music. There IS a difference between writing and composing music.

xXCransworthXx's Review:
1. Form (3)
-Did they use at least 4 variations? Pretty much. I mean, they don't really seem like witty variations where the melody is the same put creatively changed around. It's just kinda there.
-Is the theme strong? Uh I guess it's kinda strong. It isn't really supported by anything... it's just kinda there.

2. Development (2)
-Does the piece flow? It doesn't have much of a transition. It just repeats and then goes into the next variation. The melody it just monotonous. It just seems like one song line of recorder with some dissonance thrown in for fun.

3. Notation (3)
-The score is laid out correctly.
-The score is neat, and is effective and practical for real life usage.
I have no clue who composed it or what instruments are playing. Also, you don't need this, but it is usually nice to have a playing style next the tempo (or at least put something like "adagio").

4. Compliance with the Rules (5)
-Everything required is turned in and filled out properly and is correct.
You could have labeled each type of variation on the score, but I think it's okay since you did it in your post.

5. Instrumentation (4.5)
-Ranges of Instruments is used correctly.
-General instrumentation rules are followed.
It sounds like an alto recorder, but I think the range would be too low...

Overall Score: 17.5/25

The first thing I notice is that there is no composer name or copyright on your score. All you have to do is enter your name in the composer area, and in the copyright section simply type “Copyright © (your name here)” And voila! It’s copyrighted. This will affect your score. Also, why is the bottom staff higher in pitch than the one above it? Normally, and since it is above the other one most of the time, you would put the higher voice on the top staff. This will also hurt your score. You also have all the staves way too close together, and it’s annoying to focus on one staff over the other- people would much rather have more pages to read then to squint to view one or the other. You also need measure numbers.

Now, onto the music!

You use two very obnoxious sounds to start. I looked at the score, expecting two Violins, but instead I got two very annoying recorder sounds. Also what instruments is the piece for anyway? You have no instrument names anywhere on the score. More points are going to be deducted from your score.

It is very dissonant for the first four measures. I think you could clean that up a lot.
It is also dissonant for most of the rest of the piece. I think you could do better than that INDEFINITELY.

I tune out your music after a very short amount of time. This is because it is relatively uninteresting, it has no easily identifiable melody and it has no sense of direction. I can hardly pick out a main theme. This comes back to the fact that you have the bottom staff higher than the top staff- when you want to go back below the top voice, you have to cross voices, and this makes the music very confusing and hard to listen to, and you quickly lose track of your melody. You could’ve also taken it at a faster tempo so that I don’t fall asleep to it.

Don’t use so many repeats- it already drags as it is. The last thing that you want is your audience to fall asleep on the third variation. 

Also, since I have trouble finding your main theme, I, as a listener, can’t hear your variations. What this means is that you haven’t established a clear main theme, and you don’t make it clear that you HAVE variations.

Good job in variation IV- Not only could I identify the original theme and how it was used, covered up the drab tempo by adding faster notes.

Part of your score is missing! What did you do with it? After variation V, you have what looked like and end bar, but the music in the MP3 goes on. You are losing a lot of points for that.

In variation V, don’t use a dotted half rest- it takes up too much time, and I just about want to smack my computer to make sure it is still playing.

Overall Comments
Your piece sounds like two second-graders playing two different pieces at the same time. It even looks like it. I think that you weren’t trying when you wrote this. I was expecting a little more.

Final Score
I will do my personal score out of fifty, and then divide by two to make a score out of twenty-five to that all four judges can put their scores together.

Variation interest- 2
Harmonic interest- 3
Progression- 2
Use of Instruments- 4
Score layout- 1

Final score- 12/50 -> 6/25 Not very good…

TOTAL: 55/100

Dev
Juji's Review:
http://freewebs.com/jujehmufeh/janua...con_Honey!.pdf

xXCransworthXx"s Review:
Theme and First Variation:
They are similar, so I decided to put them together.
Well, judging from where it feels the strong beats should be, I think you made a mistake. There really shouldn't be a pick-up. I think the melody should have just started on beat one. Either way, the melody is cool, and I like how you use the cymbal to get the audience's attention. Beethoven often opened his symphonies with short, loud chords to get the audience's attention. In measure 17 the two 16-note triplets should be a... uhhh....sixtiplet? I can' think of what you would call it. Instead of two threes you would just use one six. I like how you sped the melody up for a little. All of your transitions seem a little corny, but there's really nothing wrong with that. I hear it all the time.

Variation 2:
I really don't have too much to say about this one. I like the 6/8 variation. It was nice. I would hate to be that solo violinist, though.
Also, it is usually a wise decision to put the tempo of the quarter note before a 6/8 section (unless it is, like, 3 measures).

Variation 3: I like how you have the melody play and then come in with the S.D. You're pretty good at using your knowledge of percussion to good use. Also, the transition kinda just jumps out at you. It doesn't seem to really go with the rest of the variation.

Variation 4:
Well, I don't exactly agree with some of the chords and stuff, but I guess a lot of that is personal. The dissonance seems really unnecessary and that you just put it in to scare people. Also, putting dynamics in certain places, like marking a fairly loud cresc. in measure 52, it could have given it a more climactic effect. Other than that, it is a very nice expressive piece.


I like this way of scoring. It lets me go through the pieces and easily express what's good and bad. Now, time for the numbers....


1. Form (4.5)

2. Development (4)

3. Notation (4)

4. Compliance with the Rules (5)

5. Instrumentation (5)


Overall Score: 22.5/25

Alan's Review:
First thing’s first- Is this title some kind of joke? It’s not very funny… Actually, it is.

Nice minimalist intro. As for formatting, why do you have ties that drift into an empty measure? And why do you use ties to notes that are of different pitch? They should be slurs…

The Snare drum plays some crazy rhythms! While these sound good, the snare-drummer will stare at them for hours trying to figure out what the hell you wrote…

You have a lot of fifths in the Violins. What’s the problem? Fifths involve using the same finger on the next string, so in order to play one, you have to lift your finger and place it on the next string. What this means is that not only will the note leading into the fifth be shorter, but also fifths become harder and harder, and at some point impossible at faster tempos. Keep that in mind as you write your melody faster and faster.

OK, why do you use accents in the bass the measure after B? Accents imply that the note needs to stand out against others, and using a bunch in a row may as well be a dynamic change…

What is that figure at measure 23 in the solo Violin? Do you intend for those Ds to be slurred, as in with one bow? If so, you need to make that a dotted sixteenth.

What’s up with the 5/4 measure at the end? It also appears that there is a note in the playback that is not in your score… I may be imagining it, but I hear some kind of resolve that is not backed up by a note on the music…

Overall- this could’ve been longer and more interesting. I feel like it wasn’t long enough to call theme and variations. There wasn’t much contrast, and your chords were OK. I think you could’ve utilized more pizzicatos in the upper strings, and the bass instruments could use more melody. Your solo Violin also needs more times to play.

Score-
Variation interest- 7
Harmonic interest- 6
Progression- 6
Use of Instruments- 6
Score layout- 7

Final Score-

32/50

->

16/25

Morivou's Review:
1. Form (5)
-Did they use at least 4 variations?
Yes.
-Is the theme strong?
Yes, it is. I see nothing wrong with the Theme. It stands alone very well and you can hear it over a lot of the accompaniment. Thanks for that!
2. Development (5)
-Does the piece flow?
VERY well. So well, in fact that if I am not looking at the score, I couldn’t tell if you were in one variation or another, but I knew they were there. Excellent.
3. Notation (4.5)
-The score is laid out correctly.
You got it!
-The score is neat, and is effective and practical for real life usage.
Yep, except in the future, please see if you could clean the snare drum writing on the first page up, it is a little scrunched together and the rhythms are deadly to try and follow.
4. Compliance with the Rules (5)
-Everything required is turned in and filled out properly and is correct.
Yuppers.
5. Instrumentation (4)
-Ranges of Instruments is used correctly.
Ha! You did very well here too, I REALLY enjoyed your percussion writing, even the scary snare drum at the beginning.
-General instrumentation rules are followed.
Yes, everything I see is good. EXCEPT, make sure that you don’t overpower the strings with the percussion at any time.


TOTAL POINTS FROM MORIVOU:
23.5/25

General Comments:
Hmmm… interesting piece. I LIKE IT!!! You certainly know what you’re doing, and although it wasn’t entirely upbeat, it didn’t have to be. You kept me interested the entire piece long and I award you for that. So, yeah, I have no real criticism, I really enjoyed hearing this piece today and I hope that you enjoyed writing it!


TOTAL: 77.5/100

(Continued...)