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Among all the other previously published canons of its type, this one might as well have turned out to be the most demanding to perform, in no small part due to the choir's conventional maximum ranges being reached in at least three voices, including both soprano (C6) and bass (E2), making it no small feat to sing. The main lyrics would roughly translate from Latin to English as follows: "In the direst of circumstances the true heart of men shall sing with great hope of leaving behind a memorable life. Even death can conquer those whose memory lies in the glory of their good deeds." The coda, as per usual, reinforces the core message in a variety of ways. YouTube video link:

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 6.5 9 8.5 6.5 6 10 8.5 I love this! Your theme is fantastic, fun, memorable, and lighthearted. You pulled off the Halloween vibe very well without using over the top dissonance, which in my opinion, is not easy to do. Is this playable? Probably, but it seems exhausting especially with the lack of tempo changing (one constant fast tempo) and all of those block chords. But this can be fixable if you ever wanted a live performance. The intro was also a fun way to take the listener into your variations. Melody: I'm giving you a 10 because you not only have a clear motif / melody, but its also fun and memorable. For example, this is something I can hum to. Harmony: Standard functional harmony, perhaps a bit thin at times, but because your melody is strong, I'm ok with that. Form and originality: Great form, highly structured, and a pretty original work in my opinion. Score Presentation and Playability: This is where there could be issues. Two pianos are fun, but expensive if you wanted to get a performance. And a lot of unison between the pianos can probably create some strange sounds, and potentially thin harmony. I'm not sure this would have been a Bach approved piece because of that, but we can look the other way here because we are in 2025, not the 1700s. Execution of Challenge and Taste: I gave you high scores here because I feel like you nailed the most important part of the challenge...to create a Halloween piece. When you don't even have to describe the piece, and you just feel the holiday vibe, you know you delivered.

submission time

this is a submission for the 2025 halloween competition. i was just really going for a spooky halloweeny vibe but not like "terror and dread and killer" vibes. it's definitely lighter than the other submitted pieces. also, contrabassoon! very spooky sounding instrument, and i've tried my best to harness that specific quality of it. enjoy!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7.5 8.5 8.5 7 8 10 9.5 8.5 The intro is fantastic! I can definitely see this as a sinister happy go lucky ice cream truck, traveling through the night. It just needs some bells. This also has a twilight zone vibe in my opinion. The harmony and dissonance is spot on for a piece like this. And about 3 minutes in, I am hearing some form develop. So we go from a somewhat free-form unstructured intro into a structured bit (the bossa nova-esque section) which I think fits very well here. Melody: My favorite part was your intro, leading into the development of the piece. Middle section is fun too though. At first I wasn't sure about your ending, but listening to it again, I think it works. The ending in fact leads to some interesting, unresolved suspense. Harmony: Lots of dissonance here but it gets the job done well. Harmony is important when it comes to mood, which influences the execution of challenge metric. Form: Free form intro, followed by bossa nova like structure, yields a form I could follow. This seems like an ABA form. Originality: I think this is pretty original. I get twilight zone vibes, but, that's ok, you put your own twist on this. Score Presentation & Playability: Nice layout, easy to follow, and the note density for a woodwind quintet seemed more than reasonable. I don't see any issues with playability. Exeuction of challenge & Taste: Love the vibe, and you know what, it definitely makes me think of a Halloween Ice cream truck. You just need the bells now and we got ourselves an ice cream truck slasher film!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6.5 4 7 8 8 10 7.5 4.5 Hey, so you have a pretty distinct motif and theme, and your overall mood does portray something spooky. I'm not sure I would have realized this was about killer clowns, but the general vibe is there. And you have some nice instances of dissonance to help amplify the mood! Fun use of articulations and pizzicato as well! Melody, Themes and Motives: You do have a clear theme / motive which is fun to pick out. Harmony: You had some instances of dissonance, but aside from that, I couldn't pick out any obvious key changes, modulations, and the harmony seemed quite static. There may have been some key changing now that I am listening again, but they are brief. Also, sometimes weaker harmony is fine, but only if the melody or theme is strong. Form: I had no problem following the structure, and your clear themes and simple harmony actually work in favor here! Originality & Playability: I think this is pretty original, and it should be quite playable. Execution: I do get Halloween vibes, but like I said in my summary, I'm not sure I would have gotten the Killer Clown vibes. Taste: I love darker music like this, but either the melody or harmony has to be a little stronger in my opinion.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 5.5 8 8 9.5 10 7 5 7.25 What an adventurous trio! And your key changing is really fun, especially around the 3:25 and 3:40 mark. I had mixed feelings about whether this felt like a Halloween piece though. But there are certainly sections that represent structured chaos and friction. As for your time signatures, very abnormal (when was the last time I saw 3/16?) but hey, you made it work! Melodies & Form: I think you had some fun motifs, especially in the Bassoon. I do think this piece is pretty structured, but the melody / themes are sometimes is hard to piece together. Harmony: This modern sounding trio creates some gorgeous harmonies, especially towards the end! Creativity & Score Presentation: Beautiful score presentation, and original! Playability: Not sure, but the note density seems pretty high for a woodwind trio. Also, there are a lot of time signature changes that could be hard to follow. Execution: As I stated in my summary, it doesn't quite sound like a Halloween piece to me. But if you were to put this in a cartoon, I think that's where the piece would shine! Taste: I listened to this a few times to make out the structure so I could give a somewhat coherent review. I have to say, the style grew on me. Originally I gave this a 6.5 from my first listen, but I could bump that up to an 8. So I just averaged them out, and that's why I put a 7.25 in case your wondering!

I hear he is writing music for a new film...

Hi Justin. Welcome to the forums! I'll try to be brief here and I will possibly fail terribly. First of all, nice scoring, very standard and professional looking. "The winds enrapture a surreal version with significant variance in color and timbre, demonstrating the depth and nuance that the smoke and candle cannot on their own." (A surreal version of what? Fumages?) "This piece takes that imagery into sound, with wisps of timbre, sudden bursts, and eerie colorations from the woodwinds. It mirrors candlelight, smoke, and the blurred line between reality and apparition—an atmosphere that fits the surreal and haunting spirit of Halloween." This is an informal competition. I am aware that kind of "selling" your piece with words like these is the everyday basis, the norm, specially in more "serious" ($$$) music composition competitions, calls for scores, etc. and in some other places within this vast realm. Let me just state that there's no need to here, and frankly after listening to your work for the fourth time (1st time before reading the speech in the PDF, 2nd-4th after having read both small texts) I still can't see how what you say your piece depicts matches in any way or form with halloween, or even spookish fumages, of course, other than by you yourself fixing these concepts and thus tying them to your music by means of the words that you have put before the very score begins. This is not to say Fumages themselves are not spooky or suggest Halloween-like sensations. To me, they very much are (some): So there are two possibilities, either you composed this piece in 2024 with "an atmosphere that fits the surreal and haunting spirit of Halloween" in mind or you submitted it elsewhere, with another speech more adequate to that moment, and then reused it here. If it's the former, weird that no reference to Halloween is found in your introductory text. If it's the latter, I do not buy it and there is no need to do that here 😉. Let's finally continue to the piece itself. Not sure if the audio is incorrect at the beginning or it's just on my end but I hear M9 like this instead of how it's written. Other measures with this rhytmic fragment happen to sound like that sound-wise. Just a detail. Second, I do think I have listened to this piece before. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Third: I more or less agree with the commentary of @UncleRed99. I myself have pieces with X/16 tempi indications and just for reference I don't feel it Halloweenish but I did enjoy some parts of it. I'm dropping an example just for future reference: These are the first bars of Beethoven's Sonata No. 32, 2nd movement. Why? Sure there must be lots of discussion for why the F did our Ludwig choose 9/16 instead 9/8 and possibly many members here have their own ideas! But I digress. Summarising a lot, and Halloweenish considerations aside, you got in my humble opinion a VERY solid introductory section! The way instruments meet while entering the score feels very natural to me and they begin blending so well, creating a nice texture, but then they get a bit lost into some hmmm... not chaotic but vague and definitely not convincing —to me obviously— passages where the music feels like it wants to go to many places at the same time. This is most likely where the atmospheric approach should overcome the typical melody+harmony approach but it doesn't seem to stick to any particular one for long. It's all moments of calm vs moments of half-intricated lines intertwining each other. The former I liked, the latter not so much. My favourite parts of the score are probably the already mentioned beginning and undoubtedly letters M to O, specially the transition from O to P, very well done. You clearly know your craft Justin. Hats off for that great O->P. All in all, a piece that is more or less enjoyable to me, with its ups and downs sure, and imo a brilliant transition. After many listenings, it ended up almost convincing me, specially towards the end of it. Many thanks for submitting your work here, Justin! Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

Walking home in the moonlight with some sci-fi vibes.

We would be more than happy if more members can review more frequently!! (So that I can be lazy and eat and sleep lol)

That makes sense.

Well this template is only for judging a competition, for a daily review it's not mandatory to review all of the aspects in the template! Henry

I feel this is great a way to review works in the forum; however, it will need to adjust to other genres: sound tracks and incidental music; electronic music; Pop music... For these will not have score but can be scored in other ways. Can we adjust the template to genre?

Thank you for the review for minuet. Thank you!

Hi @Musi Make! Welcome to the forum! Sorry for a late reply, the hype in the Hallloween competition has covered the site! I quite like this soundtrack, it definitely reminds me of RPG game BGM. Thx for sharing. Henry

Hi @Monarcheon! Thx for coming back to the forum! We all miss your valuable and detailed insights to our music. As for your music here, I really enjoy it. I absolutely agree with you: the rhythm is so unpredictably flowing with all your use of changing meters, which suggests itself really well as a ballet music. The usage of the rhythmic motive is very organized throughout the whole work. The harmony here actually reminds me of something oriental or Arabic. I really love moments in b.20-21 and b.27-28 when you introduce high register violin writing there, when the register in most of the piece is more in middle/low register, and I hope there's more of that! I also love the use of strings techniques in b.40 section; the sul ponticello tremolo is very effective for the strings, and contrast well with the static note B when there are furious C and A# neighbours. I love the pluck string piano sound in b.52 too, though I would feel bad for the piano if it's played live! A nice ending as well which dies away as it begins. Thx for sharing your music to us! Henry

Hi @Kvothe! Yeah it's nice to take a step back to simpler music! Just based on the structure of the piece, I guess you forget to add a D.C. al fine at the end? It's kind of unsatisfying to end on the dominant G major for me. For the counterpoint, it would be better to have C instead of E in the bass in b.3 and 7, since the double E sounds bare and unsure of which chord it's in. A parallel octave occurs in b.5. Also the second quaver for left hand should be G instead of C for the V chord. For b.10, LH would be better to have quaver F#-E instead of just a crotchet F#, to avoid the clash of F# and G. The C# in b.15 is kind of weird as it suggests D major but you never reach D major after it, so it would be better to have just a C natural in it. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hi @Dima! I quite enjoy this furious dance full of tone cluster. The energy here is very apparent to be sensed. Although I would say, this piece doesn't fit very much as a Halloween competition piece with the folk quality in it. I think this piece is for solo instruments? So, the div. in b.5 1st Violin and b.22 2nd violin and Viola, tutti sign in b.78 1st violin would not be applicable. Also, the division of voice within an instrument would not be applicable, and this will for sure deduct points for scoring/engraving. I would hope there will be more varieties in harmony, as this piece more or less grows on the tone cluster of the dissonant minor 2nds. I would hope to have more passage stepping away from that dissonance, so it will provide contrast! I love the contrast you bring in b.119 meno mosso section, and I hope that you will extend that section longer before returning to the furious dance! Also, how would the tone cluster in b.30 and 199 played for the pianist? I am eager to know! Thx for joining the competition! Henry

Hi @Micah! Personally I don't think this piece fits into the Halloween Competition at all with the mood the pieces create, but I have to say each of the three movements you submit has mature writing and effective technique used, and I love all 3 of them! All three features very good use of techniques for strings: Sul Ponticello/Tasto, Harmonics, col legno. You love to use contrast of pizz. vs arco plus p vs f together and it's effective! For the 1st piece Mothman I like the opening texture since it kind of reminds myself of the beginning of my very own String Sextet lol! I like the 5/4 dance as well, though I would love to see more varieties in the texture! The contrast here is well done nonetheless. I love the 2nd piece The Letiche, it's a nice bluesy C# minor dance in my favourite key! The glissando in b.33 for sure adds the sad but mesmerising mood. For the 3rd piece I really love the texture you have in b.35 with a high harmonics, pizz. and a rhythmic arco. It kind of reminds me of Bartok String Quartet texture. You math is wrong again I think lol!! The three pieces adds up with 2:50+2:38+2:31=7:59 lol!! And it's a Quintet, not Quartet! Thx for joining and sharing your music! Henry

Hi @Wieland Handke! I love the pointillistic touch of the whole piece, kind of like Klangfarbenmelodie. The piece doesn't sound tonal for me until the end when it ends in the G sharp minor, but it enhances the unsettling mood for it. Your use of motive is very tight and organized. I subjectively feel like the music somewhat lack drama for climax and passages less excited, and I feel like you can sometimes just reduce one or two instruments in certain passages for creating climax when all the instruments appear. The other thing is the horn, because in real performance the horn may easily overpower the other instruments especially in its forte/fortissimo passages so the balance need to be careful. The high register of flute and clarinet can also be established more frequently for the Halloween vibe! Thx for joining the competition and sharing! Henry

Hi @therealAJGS! I like the hook you use throughout the music, it kinds of reminds me Gamelan music with the percussion bell-like instrument. The organ definitely adds some ghostly mood to the music. I think acting as a sort of Halloween background music this one will definitely work. The solo music in 2:50 sounds nice to me. Harmonically except the modulation to Bb minor in 2:12 the music mostly stays in G sharp minor, so the music is more or less moved forward only by timbral contrast, not harmonic progression. i am sure in some spot there can be some modulations! Thx for sharing and joining the competition! Henry

Review: I like the melodies and the unsettling feel of them The chords feel very off, but that's probably just me being used to certain ones; but the texture is really good. The structures pretty good, but the time does feel a little bit off... this piece is pretty original but does use share some similarities with the other submissions. the score is presented like any other so I'd say its pretty good. seems very much like it could be played with some practice. you executed it well with an introduction, a video, a MP3 and a score. it does give halloweenish vibes and reminds me of background music for one of those old black and white cartoons where the characters don't talk, but a halloween special. Melodies Themes Motives 8 Harmony Chords Textures 8 Form Development Structure Time 7 Originality Creativity 7 Score Presentation 7 Instrumentation Orchestration Playability 8 Execution of Given Challenge 8 Taste 7 overall, 7.5

Next time I am creating an spreadsheet...