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I'll merge my reply later, sorry, I just read your reply! Not sure what may be the cause of this specific piece sounding to me like I told you. Don't know if it's too dissonant or not too catchy, maybe for some it's like this but were you aiming at making a catchy fragment? In any case, it's not the most dissonant thing I have listened to neither (by far) the least catchy. It doesn't feel disconnected exactly, it's not like you get an A theme, then a wall, then a B theme, and no transition between. There are transitions, some of them do really well, and again I got the feeling that in some way everything feels connected through the main motif of the piece. But I'm listening to it again now and it just may be that. I see that the motif it's so strongly permeating the whole piece that it sort of "eats" the independence of a grand part of the material you have written here. I also have the impression that while you give some spaces (4:50~) to let the theme breathe, there may be a shortage of them which may contribute to give that feeling of "medley" (many themes, but originated apparently with some root in common; all played in succession with almost no pause so the public does not have enough time to applaud 😁) and to its weight, despite it being light compared with others' works (add that up to the very strong and tense passages before the end). Kind regards!

pretty cool, you should comment on others' music!

pretty cool, you should comment on others' music!

Wow, what a wild ride this gave! Can't get over how great it is, I listened a few times, with and without the score. I think it's better to just listen to this one at first, the score is so detailed and busy that it's hard to keep up for me haha. Really? Out of everyone, I think yours is the one that has it all. Maybe not the most killer, or the most spooky, etc., but your piece captures all the halloweens to me. Your sound samples are phenomenal btw, what do you use? I'm assuming a mix? I've probably asked you before, sorry lol. I'm curious what's out there nowadays (for ease, I stick with Noteperformer/Sibelius just because they're so integrated with each other, but I use a DAW for guitar stuff). I really liked some of the string techniques, the tremolos were hott. I think your themes were stated really well, and your harmonic intent seemed clear. Your style is wild, like you tell a story with your writing but the book is Kafkaesque or like Fear and Loathing... you take us on a ride and we're just supposed to buckle up lol. I love it, yours is my favorite! It was really cool to see the different directions everyone took, I'm curious to see what people favor in the votes.

Worked like a charm, thanks!

There are dynamics and bowings and expression marks in the manuscript of the original song, but I don't mess with all that in Noteflight. It is sheer hell entering just the bare notes!😉

Hey there Wieland Cool music, it definitely fits the theme of the competition! You're a very solid composer, as your music seems deeply rooted in a heavy contrapuntal style. That style usually isn't for me personally, but I had no problem staying engaged throughout your whole piece. I'm not offering too much in terms of critique for these halloween pieces, moreso just admiration and appreciation. Thanks for sharing this, and I hope it was fun and worthwhile learning how to orchestrate one of your own works. 🙂 Cast your votes in the polls too!

Thanks for your feedback. It's probably true that this isn't really in the spirit of the holiday since everyone's writing about it. In our country, it's not celebrated at all, so I have a hard time with it.

Thanks for your comments, the piano was damaged, but I was not held responsible, so don't worry)

Thanks for your comments. Yes, some chords with black and white clusters can't be played 100 percent accurately, and that's not necessary. It would just be much more difficult to write out what would work out exactly given the tempo. I wanted the widest possible range of clusters.

Thanks for your comments! Yes, it wasn't written for this considering, my English is very bad and didn't understand requirements, I think the finished composition should be suitable

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8.5 ??? maybe 7? 8 10 9 10 4.5 7 This is intense! Very nice melody, which is represented throughout the piece in various methods. The up/down beats, for example on bar 22, very cool technique. Very complex work, and looks like you've gotten a performance of this, which is impressive. So playability will automatically have to be a 10, but had I not known this, I might give it a 6 or 7, because you'd need professional performers here. Melodies and harmony: Melody is pronounced, and very good. I'm not sure how to rate harmony here, this is not that type of piece. Form: I definitely had to listen a few times but the form seems pretty well defined. Following your melody and musical ideas are not hard at all once you learn the format. Originality and Score Presentation: Highly original work and your score clearly outlines your ideas. Playability: If you got a performance, this has to be a 10, right? But this is a very difficult piece of music to perform, I may have given this a 6 or 7 otherwise. Execution of Challenge and taste: Excellent piece, but this just does not remind me of Halloween. It's definitely intense, but for Halloween I expect either horror, or whimsical march-like music (for both adults and kids). This is clearly an art piece.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6 + 9 + 10 9 + 8 + 8 10 10 10 9 5.5 + 7.5 + 10 7.5 + 9 + 10 Mothman has an avante-garde feeling, which helps portray a specified mood. In my opinion, the mood does not represent horror or panic, but more of an awakening, with some friction. Perhaps this could represent certain aspects of Halloween, so, that's why I gave this movement 5.5 out of 10 for execution of challenge. The Letiche is an awesome movement, and has the best rhythm out of the three. Highly articulated and lyrical, extremely fun to listen to! Makes you want to dance, possibly with spirits in the room! More Halloween-esque. And finally, my favorite of your movements was El Chupacabra. I feel like this one represents Halloween the most. And the melody, hands down, exceptional. Everything leading up to the melody is perfect, because you do a great job building up that tension. The rhythm here is actually really good too, maybe even on par with Letiche, it's just less pronounced (this is not a criticism). Letiche is more deliberate with its rhythmic changes, this piece, is VERY smooth! * For certain metrics, my scores will be in order from Mothman, Letiche, and Chupacabra (a + b + c). Otherwise I will give one score for metrics such as score presentation, playability, etc. Melodies and Harmony: Honestly, overall you have excellent melodies and supporting harmony. Mothman had the weakest, but that was clearly by design (that's why I separated the scores) Form creativity and score presentation: Beautiful score, ultra clear form broken up by movements, and very creative! Playability: Although challenging with the articulations, and other techniques used, seems playable to me. Execuation of challenge: Mothman just feels like it's meant for a completely different type of listening experience. The Letiche is more in line with Halloween I think, given the mood and fun rhythmic patterns, and I feel like Chupacabra is spot on with the Halloween vibe. Taste: I love them all. Even my least favorite of the 3 is awesome. You show discipline in writing for a specific mood, and it seems like you have a lot of experience with music composition.

Dear friends, hello! I'm Zhang Wenhao, a singer-songwriter from China. It's been a while! This time, I'd like to share with you a folk song that describes the comfort, ease and relaxation of rural life. It's called "Travel Notes of Mountains and Waters". This song tells the story of traveling and enjoying the mountains and waters. I think many people nowadays are under too much pressure from work and life, and they need an outlet to vent and relax. So I'm presenting this "Travel Notes of Mountains and Waters" to you all. I hope that after hearing it, you can temporarily forget your physical and mental fatigue and find solace. 亲爱的朋友们，你们好，我是来自中国的创作歌手张文灏，好久不见！这次来跟大家分享的是一首描写乡村田园生活的舒适、惬意、放松的民谣作品，名字叫《山水游记》。 这首歌讲的是旅行中游山玩水的故事。我觉得现在很多人的工作、生活压力都太大了，需要一个出口来宣泄、放松，所以把这首《山水游记》送给大家，愿你们听到以后，可以暂时忘记身心的疲惫，得到慰藉。 张文灏-山水游记.mp3 歌词如下/The lyrics are as follows： 《山水游记》/《Landscape Travel Notes》 作曲/Composed by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 作词/Lyrics by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 山腰上吹拂过一枕清风 听山脚蜿蜒过一泓水流 采茶女背着箩筐桥上走 茶歌悠悠飘到山的那头 硕果香把整座山园甜透 小朋友伸着鼻子贪婪嗅 穿过孩群我们到池塘口 有自在蝌蚪和鱼来回游 这山与水 我梦里来过 水畔有个你 山上有个我 你在山水中 笑着对我说 钟爱这秀美 如画的景色 这山与水 我梦里来过 水畔有个你 山上有个我 你在山水中 笑着对我说 钟爱这高雅 如诗的生活 怡人的稻花香随风飞舞 抚摸着脸颊像柔和丝绸 石径旁清泉自顾自清澈 像这处世外桃源的清幽 日头下落世界披上霞红 不远处袅袅炊烟升得稠 回到村庄我们举酒欢歌 饮尽山的包容水的温柔 这山与水 我梦里来过 水畔有个你 山上有个我 你在山水中 笑着对我说 钟爱这秀美 如画的景色 这山与水 我梦里来过 水畔有个你 山上有个我 你在山水中 笑着对我说 钟爱这高雅 如诗的生活

Thank you all so much for these wonderful comments and suggestions, I'm really appreciative of them! Absolutely agreed on the sheet music suggestions, I created it in a bit of a hurry but its generally nice to know what else can be done on top of it. With this I only didn't because of category difference between them, still I understand it would look much better if aligned. About form, it's definitely music with free form, maybe there could be a ternary song form (ABA usually) drawn from it because I do have some material that comes back later or is developed from. But generally I don't do very well with musical forms when composing especially that of classical era (sonatas, rondos etc.)

Thank you for your sharing! The articles really benefit me a lot. There is a URL link mistake: When I click Tintinnabuli (V): Adding M voices , I found Tintinnabuli (Ⅳ). I can find Ⅴ by searching on your blog, so maybe you can fix this mistake by replace the url. Please allow me to express my appreciation again!

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu no you're right, when i listened to his piece, it became my favorite out of the submissions. i also like the fact that the other submissions are so heavy and dark in terms of the atmosphere, and mine is like wow its halloween spoooky timeeeeeeeee the beginning chord is actually the same as the one at the end, a Bbm11(#7,#11) or Bb minor and A minor stacked on top of another love that you notice the details that i've put it in. thanks again for the review henryy you're the goat

@Omicronrg9 it is really fascinating how my pieces tend to sound like a medley of unconnected themes to people, purely done by vibes. i assure you, based on the form that i've given, and based on the replies above, that i do state the themes, multiple times, even. maybe it's the accompaniment that's too distracting or too colorful that you don't notice it, or maybe the variations is too distorting, or maybe it's not catchy, or prominent enough? i think i've said this before that i do in fact, sketch my themes wayy before constructing the main piece, and i've tried basically to follow the basic principle of melody or theme writing. here are the first ever sketches of these that I've written in a DAW. just one line melody and chords. A theme: B theme: and i also get the whole "what you see in score (daw too) could sound different when score is not present," you'd think you've composed a good melody based on the looks of it, but when you just listen to it without any visual guide, it doesn't catch on. this is why i tried to put many repetitions of figures within the themes itself (as you can see) yeah compared to other submissions, this one's light. glad you like some of the sections though!! still appreciate the comments nonetheless. score alt link in case you missed it https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Ae39i_u-gnFFMmMTUBYBKnKNEfVpesN/view?usp=drive_link

Hi Dima, welcome to the forums! Instead of google drive links, you can also simply drop the mp3 and pdf here and they will be inserted automatically in the post, just in case). It's indeed brutal as @Wieland Handke remarked. However, I disagree with him in the feelings it produced in me. At the very first minute it did feel like I was attending a human massacre in a slaughterhouse or something like that. Nor spookiness, neither scariness, no: pure +18 gore. But since you don't abandon that mood and just limit to test how much the piano can resist being hit with sledgehammers, it gets kind of boring after the 1:30 mark to me. Then, you finally destroy the piano and the fretted strings come to save the day until the Luthier finishes repairing it. I think it makes up to a Halloween story, a very musical one! Well, maybe I am making up this story along the listen but if I am truly making up this story shouldn't there be a disclaimer somewhere that read: "NO PIANOS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY DAMAGED WITHIN THE DURATION OF THIS PERFORMANCE" or "WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY OF THE DAMAGE CAUSED TO THE PERFORMER'S INSTRUMENT AFTER OR DURING THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS PIECE" Jokes aside, good engraving, but I don't quite get what's your norm with system dividers. They sometimes appear, sometimes not. All in all, a bit too repetitive, but I am not sure if that's bad or if you're even to blame provided that your base was a folk song, and at least where I am from, they are kind of repetitive by default. In any case, thank you for your submission! Hope you stay around 🙂. Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

well i was gonna write responses to the replies, as well as fix the errors, might as well :)))

Wow what a quick response and revision!

try this maybe?? https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Ae39i_u-gnFFMmMTUBYBKnKNEfVpesN/view?usp=drive_link also fixed the tremolo markings btw @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu

Well the score does show in my side:

Done with my poll!

Hi Ferrum. When I open the PDF window to check it turns out I just cannot. Something's wrong, but not sure if it's in your side or it's the forums, or... Either way I am very curious about the score, duh. This seems to me like a small medley (well maybe not small actually) that contains a wide range of stuff going on but that seems to be permeated by this motif that you don't cease to state and use to transition to all sorts of places. It's like a spring, moving slightly upward and returning, giving birth to new passages endlessly. I must say though that the general feeling this piece gave me was not as concrete as other clear front-runners as you (front-runners to me, obv.). It was enjoyable, anyways! Maybe my shortest review today, but I cannot really find anything to point out about the piece that be worthy of a line or two more, plus I cannot access the score 😞. In summary, I did like some sections more than others, and I didn't feel it very light to be honest! Maybe when put in comparison, you're right. Many thanks for your submission, Ferrum! Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.