All Activity

Hi Wieland. Nice video to begin with. The sounds are also very nice. Now, the score itself has even smaller margins than my own, so I'd be careful depending on the format whenever it comes to printing. You also suffer from classic overlaps caused by the notation software default configs such as: That aside, some pianists would argue that they prefer their own fingerings so they may ask you an un-fingered part. Some other will be grateful though 😀. Now, regarding the piece itself, while I do catch some G# minor sections, I would argue that most of it seems detached from that key. I noticed lots of G naturals but few F double sharps, and I would say I heard more E minor and B-flat minor passages than G# minor throughout the piece. Maybe I’m mistaken, but as Henry said, this isn’t really a problem. I can also see how the piece weaves together fragments introduced mostly at the beginning, and in theory it does what you describe in your technical explanation. However, while I appreciate their inherent potential to create a structure, I don’t really think they fully succeed in building one. After a couple of listens, I still don’t perceive it as something “complete” or well-structured, despite the explanation you provided and the fact that the elements you mention are indeed present. To my ear, it feels like patches of cement and bricks placed in the middle of an amalgam of sometimes more, sometimes less convincing waves of music... The motives are definitely there, but I don’t find them more prominent than other material happening simultaneously—such as, for example, in the recapitulation, but imo it happens on the piece overall and if you didn't point them out some of them as different, I think I would have had a harder time distinguishing one another when intertwined with other material. In my opinion, there’s a lack of prioritization among the fragments, and that combined with how dissonant they are on their own creates an “uncanny” atmosphere that permeates large portions of the piece restlessly. While that can be effective, it becomes tiring to me, and I don’t feel this is resolved towards the end. Thus, the final passage is a no-no for me. After a piece plagued with dissonances & chromatisms clashing and not letting you breathe much, a final G#m conclusion comes all in a sudden despite the morendo. Don't get me wrong— It's not a very bad final passage, not at all, but I don't see it, once again, well connected with the piece overall. On the other hand, I would say this piece feels more Halloween-like than others I’ve listened to recently, which also make use of dissonances not only on the melodic plane, but also on the rhythmic and textural planes. All in all, a piece I honestly did not enjoy but that I did not dislike either. Many thanks for submitting your piece to this competition and good luck! Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

Thanks for the feedback! As a little lore to this, I originally wanted to write for Piano Quartet using the woodwind families. I started music on the Bb-Clarinet, and in college, became the Principal bassoonist for our symphonic band for two semesters. When beginning to write, I was really inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas and Danny Elfman as a whole. However, I just never found any concrete ideas with this instrumentation. It all felt too stereotypical. Thus, I went even more traditional and back to the orchestral setting for this work. I never thought about another name. One user suggested increasing the tempo slightly, and there more I listen back, there more I am beginning to agree with it. I don't have any new ideas for a name, but after this contest concludes, I may revisit it, add those changes, and change the name. Maybe, while I am at it, add another movement or installation and make it a chamber set. Thanks again!

I appreciate the feedback!! I'd love to talk more about some of the theory behind elision(s) when applied to structure. I felt that if I did a pure 4-bar phrase, it would become too stagnant due to all the repetition. As I wanted to keep your attention, I Elided the violin to carry the listener into new directions. I will admit most of my choices in this piece came from a point of wanting rich sound and low registers. I thought that going high in each instruments tessitura would not benefit the character I was striving for. To add, I was pressed for time in my already busy schedule, and I did not feel it worth to aim for complex development of the motivic structure. I did try to keep it simple instead of going for a level of sophistication that would take me a few weeks -> months to really refine. Structurally speaking, I employed transition phrases to connect either a new texture change or section of the piece. Measures 21-24 and 33-37 are such places. It was for these moments where I did not want to exercise new motives, but as I type this, I see this now it could've been a chance to do a dependent transition and allow the motif or texture to start developing as or before the third statement of the theme comes in the Piano. The development is when I broke the classical mode and tried to create a section purely for the effect of Halloween. I wanted something not active in texture to contrast the opening and just go for simplicity at it's finest. Also, not too much I can do about similarities to other works. There are only so many keys and I really wanted to use C-minor for this lol Thanks for the comments, it has given a lot to think about.

Hi Mr. Gomes. Welcome to the forums! I'll be short tonight: You made quite the orchestration. I am myself not enough well versed on such matter yet to give you proper feedback on it but everything seemed balanced, complete to my ears. I was very convinced with how well you ended the piece. Keeping the distances, of course, you do have a motif that resembles the intermezzo of the Zarzuela "La leyenda del Beso" (2nd mvt.). And I very much liked that, as well as the piece overall in fact. In order to get more feedback here from my colleagues, I would suggest you to not just upload your piece. Most people here are used to spammers &/or people that just submits their pieces but don't interact further, even when they meet some criticism, feedback, praise, or anything in return of their comments, so I encourage you to do so (interact, don't just upload) with others' pieces that are seeking for some valuable feedback, causal praise, raw criticism... Whatever suits you best! All in all, a waltz that I will share among my friends that's for sure, it was very enjoyable to me. Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

Thank you everyone!

The instrumentation choice is perfect! I like the bassoon and the base clarinet introducing their own dark personalities. In contrast to so many other atonal submissions, this piece has clear melodies and harmonies and the Halloweenish timbre is almost accomplished entirely through the expressiveness of the bass instruments, without overstressing dissonances. The dance starting in section C (especially with the triplets from bar 36 on) introduces a feeling of awkwardness, raising the image of mysterious creatures wiggling around. All in all a piece I liked very much, but I must admit that it in the sense of the contest and in the context of the other submissions, it is – for my taste – a little too well-behaved and the blending of all instruments together seems too „perfect“, in order to get the award of the „most scary and spooky“ one. By the way, the title „Ghost Town Requiem“ is – in my opinion – a bit too bold, but what matters. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 8.5 7 9 9 9 6 7.5 Average Score: 8.125

As in your title - „Diptych“ - and your explanation, that you’ve being inspired by paintings of Bacon and Goya, the piece is creating impressions – not necessarily as martially and threatening as the two respective ones – but really fitting the mood of Halloween. For this purpose, the atonality and the lack of a distinct traditional musical form is intentional and well chosen. The articulation and even the advanced string techniques are clearly presented and annotated in the score, convincing that it is not only „experimental music“, but really playable. I very enjoyed this probably last - but not least - piece of the contest. Thank you for sharing. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 8 7.5 9 9 8.5 8 6.5 Average Score: 8.063

The instrumentation choice, the mixed quintet, was very clever given you the chance of having so many different combinations and colors with the instruments, so that the excessive occurence of the themes never gets boring or repetitive. I must admit that I have discovered the existence of two clear defined (melodic) subjects only upon second listening (and after reading your form description). Maybe I've listened too many atonal music the last few days. With this in mind I would consider it as a polyphonic piece – not a classical fugue – but a combination of counterpuntual theme development, variations and free or homophonic intermezzos which creates a rich and interesting texture that lets the long (more than 7 min) piece pass flowlessly. One of my top favorites. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 9 9 9 9 7 8 Average Score: 8.625

Yes, that’s a folk dance, but a brutal one! With this choice you’ve really matched the objective for a scary, spooky piece in the Halloween contest. The score presentation is clear and very precise, sometimes giving me questions concerning the playability: Where to take up to 10 fingers in one hand by the piano player? (I know, that are „clusters“ to be played with the entire hand or whatever, but some seem to be difficult to achieve with mixed white/black keys as, for example, in bar 190). In spite of the atonality, the texture of the folk dance is perceivable and so the structure of the peace can be followed and remembered by the listener – what is not always the case in „post-tonal“ pieces. Well done. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6.5 6.5 7 9 8 5 9 6.5 Average Score: 7.188

This is a submission I’ve very enjoyed. Usually, in a string quintet the instruments blend more together than in a woodwind one, the sound of your arrangement preserves the personality of the single instruments very well, thus producing imaginations of the creatures you describe in your music – perfectly matching the Halloween theme. Your score looks very professional and clear (even there is a typo in the title: „crytpids“ instead of „cryptids“ 🙂 ) A bit problematic is that its a work with three movements which together exceed the 7min maximum playing time, thus only a 5 for „Form Development, Structure, Time“. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 5 9.5 9 9.5 9 8 Average Score: 8.5

Yes, that’s a really Halloween piece. The opening repetitive piano motif reminds me on a big clockwork, the scary strings could be giant insects coming down and threaten me? Run for your life in the Presto section, starting at mm. 41? All in all makes the piece the impression on me to be best fitted as a soundtrack of a spooky movie. Concerning the score - if to be performed - I’m not sure whether the viola player is enjoyed or able to read 8 ledger lines (mm. 116). Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8.5 8 6.5 8.5 7 6 9 6.5 Average Score: 7.5

Taking into account your profound comments in the competition threads and your professionally skilled background, I don’t feel capable of evaluating your work from the perspective of a judge, so that my comments are imposed solely by my overall impression and taste. As many others already stated, melodies, harmonies and form development are (almost) perfect, so I have nothing more to say. Now to my subjective and taste related comments: For the purpose of the contest to have a piece with grotesque or mysterious Halloween vibes, I think using woodwind instruments could be the much easier choice because of their different timbres. The strings blend much more together in a perfect balance. That might be the reason that I - before looking into the score and discovering the double stops of the viola – sometimes had the feeling to here more than three string instruments. What on the other hand means, that I could imagine that the piece could be performed beautifully by a larger orchestra than that quartet. „Dance from the skeleton ball“ (for my opinion too martially) should be therefore the working title for the piece with respect of this competition only. I think, it is worth to be performed anytime without that particular context, too. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 9.5 10 7.5 9 8.5 7 7.5 Average Score: 8.563

Using the key of G sharp minor for a Halloween theme is, in my opinion, a perfect choice, since for me that key has an inherent mystical and gloomy character. The overall character reminds me of a carousel at a fairground or a piece played on a historical mechanical music box. With this in mind, I can really good imagine a Halloween like spectacle. Concerning instrumentation, form development and structure, your submission is a little out of the ordinary. All other participants used the „traditional“ approach – either in tonal or atonal pieces – to use notation software that produces the score (and finally the audio/video). Your usage of „online sequencer“ is perfectly fine to produce the music you like, however implies some difficulties for the comparison: I am not able to judge whether you have met the competition requirements to use a maximum of five different instruments, your choice using different bells and percussion instruments does not let me count them and you have not specified your intent what instruments you present as the five ones, neither in your score nor in an explanation of the submission. The question of score presentation (or even the requirement to have a score at all) has been discussed in the thread already, but without an ordinary score, for example, the playability is hard to evaluate. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 8 6 7.5 1 5 7 6 Average Score: 5.938

The competition is now closed, so vote for your favorites here:

Very beautiful, dreamy music. I love the tension between the clean and consonant passages and the dissonant ones, whereas those dissonances are never scary or threatening, they only darken the calm and peaceful character a little. However, since being a beautiful piece of music, it reminds me more of a starry summer night with gold dust falling from the sky and elves playing around than on a misty, windy October evening with sinister creatures. Will say, therefore it does not so perfectly match the objective of the contest to find the "Spookiest/Scariest piece". Nevertheless, the instrumentation with the pizzicato and pearl-like thirds runs on the piano as well as with the pedalling and the reverb perfectly produce the desired mood. One of my absolute favorites! Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 9 9 9 9 6 8 Average Score: 8.5

For me this is a piece with a lot of ideas and potential. The Halloween style is to be achieved by, on the one hand, atonality, and otherwise, through the color of the different articulations which can be performed by string instruments, for example the application of „col legno“. However a lot of that potential has not been risen yet, and small improvements sometimes work wonders. For example, applying dynamics and agogics: I for myself have experienced, that the dynamics and tempo marks one usually applies in the score gives only an overview about the larger development in the sections. However if a human being will play a phrase, there are a lot of „microdynamics“ and „microagogics“ which are applied naturally in order to phrase. I don’t know what notation software you use and which capabilities it provides (I’m using lilypond), but I’m giving nearly every single note its own dynamic hint and even change the tempo slightly nearly any bar to get the sound more realistic. The end is a bit surprising - not to say that it feels to be unfinished at all (that impression corresponds with the fact that its only 02:17 minutes long and, thus, not reaches the minimum of 3 minutes). Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 7 4 7.5 5.5 8 7.5 6.5 Average Score: 6.625

Taken into account how much work you invested to achieve such a piece (including the thorough examination of the backgrounds and myths of Aos Si - as you explain in your introduction), you should earn a 10. However, I must agree with the comments by @MK_Piano and @Omicronrg9 in that way, that it’s not easy to remember the piece pushing me to listen to it again and again. „Post-tonal“ works are not worse than more traditional ones, but due to the lack of tonality, the texture and the overall structure of the piece are crucial in allowing the audience to follow the piece and imagine a picture or story in their minds. Maybe your story – while perfectly matching the subject of the Halloween competition – is too diffuse or too complicated to create clear synapses with unambiguous „landmarks“ of the piece (the only „landmark“ I remember was the Bach-quotation). Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 6.5 4 10 8.5 7 6.5 6.5 Average Score: 7.125

Firstly, the idea behind the piece is very original and was not used by any other participant - variations about a theme. And then there is the instrumentation for two pianos and (only) one violin! Concerning the Halloween vibes, they are perceivable at the one parts (for example in the opening part and especially in the variations 1, 5 and 9), whereas other parts have a more playful, bright character (for example, the picardy third, lol) – which is perfectly fine, giving the piece variety. Due to the idea based on a memorable theme, you can introduce the different textures throughout the variations giving the piece a clear structure. However, because of the inherent recapitulation in the variations, the texture and harmonies become sometimes too repetitive, for example when using unisono between the two pianos or repeating the same accompaniment over a dozen of bars. As mentioned before in the thread, there are a number of issues with the playability (for example the chords to be played by one violin in mm. 32-39), so that the score cannot be rated as „ready for performance“. Nevertheless, a piece I enjoyed. Thanks for sharing. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8.5 7 8 9.5 6.5 4.5 7 8 Average Score: 7.375

A woodwind quintet is a good choice for the subject of the contest, Halloween. And, as of many of the participants do, we have a piece with a lot of atonality, which also fits the contest’s intent. However, in my opinion, the piece is a bit to long and to slow (where the latter one implies the former). I would love, if there were more contrast in tempo between the sections, as it was to some extent in bar 58. Concerning the score, there are too much spaces around (starting on page 2) and on pages 6, 7 and 13 there is only one system on the page. Even if only a question of aesthetics, I think musicians would hesitate to play from that score only due to that first visual impression. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 6 5.5 7 4.5 7 7 5 Average Score: 6.125

The piece has a distinct theme or motif that makes it easy to the listener to remember to it. However, in my opinion, it is a bit to repetitive and could be developed more. It has a kind of darkness, especially expressed by the pizzicatos, and one can imagine dancing clowns, however the imagination of „killer clowns“ seems a be too martially to me. The score has much too much whitespace around, so that the notes are unnecessarily small. Even if this might only be a question of aesthetics, I think musicians appreciate a good readability in case of performing. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6.5 5.5 6 6.5 4 8 6.5 6 Average Score: 6.125

Listening to your piece with your intention in mind - to reflect the surreal impressions of candle smoke on paper -, that objective has been perfectly matched. And that mood also fits the atmosphere on a foggy Halloween evening. However, that „pro“ is also its „con“, since the intentional randomness of the motives, it is hard for the listener to follow the piece, since its texture is diffuse, vague and fluid. The pick of the woodwind trio is a good choice (if I would imagine a string trio instead, it would be – in my opinion – boring). The melodies – even if not intended to build functional harmonies – blend well together, sometimes creating a taste of atonality. Even it is a long piece, and therefore it is hard to pay attention on it all if you here it for the first time, it is real worth listening more than once - and I must admit, the more I have listened to it, the more I like it. Thanks for sharing! Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7.5 6.5 6.5 8.5 9 7 6 7 Average Score: 7.25

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6.5 4.5 7 8 N/A (don't count this metric) 7 10 6.5 Intro is very cool, and the melody created by the organ is definitely fun! The issue is that the piece is very repetitive, and your one key change at around 2:00, feels too forced without any smooth modulation to that key. There are of course times in music that this can work, but because the harmony rarely changes, we needed a bit of this forward momentum. Think about this, if you are in one key, and you simply transpose it up a half step without modulating through other keys, you are still basically in the same harmony. This is why I like when you break up the piece with the solo vibraphone, because something needed to break the monotony. But you did a good job at getting the vibe of Halloween. After all, this is a Halloween competition! And you know what, getting mood right is not an easy thing to do. Also, you have a good melody, it's a little hard to pick out because of the very robotic midi render. Melody and Harmony: Fun melody but the harmony needs to be a little more varied. This will help break up the monotony. Form and Creativity: Pretty creative! The form seems easy to follow enough. Score: Basically, N/A, we won't count this metric. Playability: I'm sure it's playable. The midi render makes it hard for me to judge this because of the lack of musicality in the audio. Execution of Challenge: You nailed it! Taste: Fun piece, but a bit on the repetitive side. Great melody, but buried in poor midi render. Melody could easily be enhanced with better / more varied harmony.

Entry: Submission by @Cosmia Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 5 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 Average Score: 9.38 Review: Another wonderful performance/recording submitted to our competition! And another entry steeped in extended techniques - ones that are especially well utilized towards evoking the unnerving and spine-chilling sounds of perhaps a cellar, basement, attic or just a haunted mansion. The use of knocking on the body of the instrument is a really nice touch, as well as the arpeggiated natural harmonics and sul ponticello. Also, in this case, even though this piece was not written for this specific competition, it fits the Halloween theme so well that I feel inclined to look past that. And like you said in your description, this piece does in fact induce a quiet kind of terror in the listener - the kinds of things that in a horror movie would prepare for a jump-scare really well. My favorite parts are probably m. 28 - 29. The creepy descending figure in the Violin at m. 41 is also really great. Great job and thanks for participating!

Entry: Daunting Steps - Quintet for Piano, Flute, Contrabassoon, Violin and Cello - 2025 Halloween Submission by @ferrum.wav Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 Average Score: 10.00 Review: You’re right - your description of this piece being much more lighthearted is an accurate one. It is a playful kind of spooky fun! And the piece coheres well and has very recognizable themes that are well developed and repeated to create a very lucid listening experience. It is sort of dance like too - very much akin to a Siciliana with its dotted 8th note, 16th note, 8th note rhythms. It also seems like a kind of variations fantasy which you’re very well known for composing. There is a great balance of both unity and variety because of this and the piece cements its themes very well into this listeners mind. The ending is quite succinct but effective! It’s actually kind of capricious! Very cute. Another entry that I simply enjoyed listening to over and over. The score is well engraved although I would have displayed some things a bit differently to, in my opinion, “beautify” it. Such as for example some places where you use 16th notes followed by 16th note rests - I would have simply used an 8th note with staccato. But I won’t count you down for such a tiny nitpick. As already mentioned it also fits the Halloween theme quite well. It is perhaps similar in style to Saint-Seans’ “Danse Macabre”. You also used the instrumentation to your full advantage making great use of the contrabassoon. Really can’t say enough good things about this piece! Congratulations!

Entry: Dima’s National Dance - 2025 Halloween Submission by @Dima Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 5 9 9 7 10 5 7 Average Score: 7.38 Review: First off - congratulations on getting a decent performance/recording of such a demanding piece! For that, your Playability category is automatically 10 despite its difficulty. As far as this piece being appropriate for the Halloween theme, I don’t think it met the mark. It definitely sounds like folk music, perhaps inspired by the style of Bartok. But, it doesn’t sound creepy, scary, strange, nor thrilling. The most salient feature of the composition is the cluster chords and the almost (if not completely) atonal approach to harmony (and perhaps a modal approach to melody). I don’t think you really wrote this piece for the Halloween theme considering the amount of time to write the piece and get it rehearsed and performed wasn’t long enough to get a performance of this quality. Because of this I will not be voting for you for any of the Halloween specific badges that we will be handing out. But the composition is definitely skillfully conceived, although musically, it’s not my cup of tea. I won’t go so far as to call it pure noise, since there’s definitely melody to it, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it, and there’s definitely folk dances that I do enjoy that are conceived in a much more palatable style despite being modal and also using clusters and dissonance. I guess the degree of dissonance was just too much for me in this particular case. But there is craft to this piece, despite that. So good job and thanks for your participation!