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To be honest, I had to quickly look up the Bible to make sure which verse John 14:6 is—yes, that's right. You have a mission and used a rock-song to spread the gospel – possibly reaching people who are not familiar with classical music. For me – considering me being a religious person, too – I prefer the quieter approach, meaning that an oratorio like Haendel’s Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio touches me more than every sermon. Thus the YCF 2025 Christmas event is the perfect place to share pieces reminding to the birth of Christ, as many submissions with their carols, pastorals, motettes etc. are. Concerning the piece, I don’t want to reiterate the discussion about using AI. Yes, I must admit that I’m impressed of the result one can achieve by the usage of, for example, Suno. It sounds „perfect“ and will appeal to those whose tastes it suits. Just one quote: Since I’m relatively new on the Young Composers Forum, too, I have learned (I think this is correct) that the purpose of the forum is not only to share submissions, but to review them and give feedback, which is what each of us composers wants and needs. Thus, reaching a rank of or beyond an „Elite Composer“ is not necessarily depending on posting numerous outstanding works, but also on consistently and patiently listening to the submitted works and providing insightful and polite feedback. I can assure you that everyone can trust that shortly after a publication, there will be feedback from the “hosts” or “moderators”, especially @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu and @PeterthePapercomPoser, even if no one else bothers to review the piece. And stating that the „service by clicking a button“ is a bit poor in comparison with those spending dozens of hours in composing, arranging, engraving etc. should not be considered as „blasphemy“, but is due to the heated debate surrounding the use of AI.

Hello @Musicman_3254, thank you for sharing your contribution. As far as I remember, your piece is dedicated to the fallen soldiers in WWI who decided to stop fighting for a few days at Christmas 1914 and gather to play soccer. I think I read such a description, but I can't find it anymore. Although the mood doesn’t really remind on the peacefulness of Christmas, I think it is a serious choice to present it here and remembering on that what happened 111 years ago, taking into account that the same terrifying things happen again in Europe in the 21st century. Using a special orchestra with all conceivable wind instruments and percussions forecasts somewhat the sound of big bands but is on the other hand an onomatopoeic description of the short period of silence between the fire trenches. In bar 49 I guessed to listen the referee’s whistle. As I mentioned in a post to @TristanTheTristan, I would appreciate if you would also share it as MP3 audio file, too (for the next time). This would make it easier to listen to it several times, which would be absolutely necessary to thoroughly review a piece of this length.

Hello @TristanTheTristan, in contrast to other participants sharing „miniatures“ (starting with a 9 seconds long piece), you submitted a large multi-movement opus, which, to be honestly, overwhelmed me a bit with its variety of themes and textures. I just have listened it for one time completely and try to give some imaginations „from memory“. Its a Concerto for Solo Piano and I like that you have added some marks concerning the instrumentation (such as „Flauto“ or „Tutti“) which helps to imagine a possible orchestration. The opening theme of the first movement has somewhat Christmas mood – thus connecting it with the event, however that mood is lost more and more with the upcoming variations of the thematic material and texture. The second movement - as being more slowly - was easier to perceive for me. I especially enjoyed the surprising resolutions or chord progressions in the arpeggios in bars 14, 31ff! Starting with a march, the third movement also bears a melodic section and a lot of material where I did not find out how they are related together. All in all a long piece with much effort and much potential. I would appreciate if you would share it as MP3 audio, too (for the next time). This would make it easier to listen to it multiple times, which would be absolutely necessary to review a piece of that amount thoroughly. Finally, I would like to say—and this is not necessarily a criticism of your composition or the piece itself—that I find the quality of the pieces presented on the Musescore website disappointing. At first glance, one might think that the scrollable score is very useful. However, this is negated by the poor articulation and dynamics, which make trills and tremolos sound very unrealistic, for example, and lead to rhythmic disruptions when introducing triplets, etc. Played by a human (or with more realistic articulation, dynamics, and agogics), this piece should therefore be very exciting.

Even if you call it an orchestral miniature (and it is short, indeed), it is a wonderful, well structured and perfectly orchestrated piece that I could listen multiple times in a loop! It brings up a number of imaginations in my mind, closely related with the Christmas time: • It could be serve perfectly as a soundtrack of a fairy tale movie that the entire family could watch together, • I imagine it being played at a Christmas market with an ice rink in the middle (the trio section, mm. 17-32), • it also cites the imagination of the „one-horse open sleigh dashing thru the snow“ (mm. 33-48), • and, of course, the snowflakes (main theme, mm. 1-7). One of my absolute favorites in this 2025 Christmas event!

It’s just a fun fact that I grew up in a little German town called Pulsnitz being famous (at least in parts of Germany) of its centuries-old tradition of gingerbread making. But honestly, I just know how they taste like, I never cared about what they might „sound“ like. Now listening to it, it reminds me of a musical box which is a typical handcrafted Christmas accessory. So it really puts me in the Christmas spirit by combining its cheerful sound, despite its repetitions, with the smell of mulled wine, grilled sausages, and even gingerbread at a Christmas market.

I would have so much fun with this tool. But you wrote a fun song with bold key changing and fun harmony. I like how the violin creates friction, but only through your modulations. You then normalize the harmony once SATB comes in. You are right, the lyrics are sometimes a bit garbled, but I would say it's about 90% accurate. It doesn't matter though, most people will get the idea. The lyrics may be less accurate than Suno in terms of vocals, but the trade-off is that you get 100% compositional freedom.

Fun depiction of such an ancient carol. Love how the soprano has a mind of its own though; we can basically call this the disruptor. It blends nicely, but also ads some friction to this well harmonized tune.

can't meet deadline sorry

Beautiful, sad, very Tchaikovsky. Music like this makes you feel which is not easy to do. Cool technique too.

Hey, very cool intro at the beginning, foreshadowing the syncopated / swing-like main melody. Love the change-up at around 30 seconds in. A very elegant / diplomatic sounding tune!

Thanks guys. I just wanted the Shortest Christmas Piece award 😉! It probably took me longer to create the video than it did the actual composition haha. But hey, you guys get to see what Music Jotter is like in action. I'll be composing more once Music Jotter is ready for beta testing (soon).

Looking at the score, I was initially somewhat surprised that a lot of notes had lost their stems. Being sure that this was intentionally and reading a bit about „Tintinnabuli“, I now understand that device of minimalization, even in the notation. The piece itself exudes a kind of calmness and melancholy which emphasizes the silence and toughtfulness one would feel around Christmas time. Concerning the „Tintinnabuli“-technique, it is surprising for me how one can create such colorful melodies from mostly stepwise thirds and blend them together with only arpeggiated triads of the main tonic chord, without loss of harmonic functionality and without introducing dissonances (but, haha, I think I’ve discovered a G in bar 18). Thank you for sharing and a happy New Year 2026!

I greatly improved the program by integrating stricter voice leading logic. Here's some output:

I love that short carol with its memorable subject being repeated in different variations throughout the piece in a counterpuntual style as a five part choral. The usage of a „Posaunenchor“ perfectly matches the mood of Christmas; I can literally imagine the brass instrumentalists standing nearby the entry of the church where people are gathering on Christmas eve. For one who is not familar with what a „Posaunenchor“ is, I quote the - oh, what a hot iron – AI generated answer of „what is a posaunenchor“ which, in my opinion, exactly explains it: A Posaunenchor (German for "trombone choir" or "brass band") is a community-based, multi-generational amateur brass ensemble, strongly rooted in the German Protestant church, that plays sacred music (hymns, chorales) but also secular pieces (classical, jazz, pop) for church services, concerts, and community events, emphasizing fellowship and faith across ages and backgrounds. For my taste, it is played a bit faster than real „Posaunenchöre“ would do, perhaps it is very cold outside and the players want to get inside the church as soon as possible ...

I must admit, that I didn’t know the „Coventry Carol“ before, so I had to find out more about it first. Even though it is not a new or own composition, the performance as a „Posaunenchor“ is quite unique and exciting. The picardy thirds at the end of many phrases sound so heartwarmingly clear with the trumpets or trombones! I really enjoyed the meno/crescendo part at bar 41 after nearly falling asleep from the lullaby! And even though the trumpet was obviously obliged to hold back to piano soon, there's still a very jazzy feel to it right up to the end. All in all a very enjoying piece which perfectly captures the calm mood of Christmas, paired with humor and joy!

Yeah, that one would surely be awarded the „Shortest Christmas Piece“ badge (haha), thus it isn’t easy to come up with a long review on that. Even though it's certainly just for fun, such a mashup shows the potential of „simple melodies“ and how much one can do with an easy piece using counterpoint, harmonization, instrumentation, etc. Thanks for making this fun Christmas event possible, and a happy and successful New Year 2026.

Today I was up without end working on a new program I invented. I promise that this one doesn't sound horrific like the others I've done. In fact, it is frankly quite genius. All I do is enter a melody, and the program then generates counterpoint in up to 5 voices in a matter of less than a few seconds:

@raymond doerr has submitted a piece as well!

From 2023. computer with the original music score died from water damage unfortunately so there is no score. This was the most Christmas like song on my channel that I could find.

We still have until Thursday, January 1st, 2026 before the Christmas Event closes! So get your reviews in to receive the "2025 Christmas Reviewer" Award! - (you don't have to review AI generated works to receive this badge) And all the participants will be receiving the "2025 Christmas Participant" award! -

Thank you comment! I can see what you by cadence. I will get there: i promise.

I'm still unsure of where to go now, where it's currently left off at. I believe I would like to take it to another mood / scene, and have been toying with ideas based on my memories of the past with him. Thinking maybe to just follow the timeline chronologically, but at the same time, other emotions would like to be expressed as well. This has placed me at a stalemate within myself. 😅 And regarding the story; I am taking it day by day. I know it seems simple, just a little cat, making this grown man with a brawny stature and thick fuzzy beard all down in the dumps and grieving, but despite my tough outward appearance, I still cherish those little things in my life. I cherished his place as my companion for the last 5 years, most definitely. I am, despite this, doing better than I was when I wrote the post above. I've had him cremated, and he is in a personalized container, for now. I feel that he is at peace. And I will make my peace with it as well, soon enough 🙂

Hi @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu! Thank you for taking the time to listen to and respond to my piece, it always means a lot. Yes, the violinist here is the wonderful @Irene Huang, a classmate of mine at school. There is a second movement to this piece but not a fourth, the whole thing has a runtime of only about ten minutes. It’s funny to me that you mentioned Shostakovich, I wrote the third movement right after attending our school’s Shostakovich festival back in October. I began sketching it after a performance of the 1st, 7th and 8th string quartets and 2nd piano trio. The 7th quartet is one of my favorite pieces of chamber music and I think you can hear bits of it in the third movement here. If I can get a recording of the whole thing I would gladly share it, as the second movement forms an important structural (rhythmic and tonal) hinge between the outer movements.

Hi @Kvothe! This waltz is for sure a lovable little waltz in Classical style. One thing sounds slightly off to me: the modulation to D major in b.9 (b.8 in your score) sounds fine to me, but it sounds like it’s never resolved and it goes straight to G major, without having a perfect cadence itself. And for the dominant G major it is only given 2 bars’ space suddenly the music returns to tonic in the reprise. Maybe for me I would just modulate from D to G in b.10 in your score, and then in b.12 the b.8 melody returns in G major, then complete a PAC on G before going back to C. Henry