Leaderboard

This patron has been rather disappointed in the community response to this particular competition. Young Composers Forum (YCF) is intended to be a place where budding composers from all walks of life can grow in their craft alongside their peers. We have always welcomed those who are willing to listen to the feedback of their peers, and we have always encouraged those who post for the sake of adulation and admiration to find other outlets for their arrogance. The competitions we host are no exception to the vision of YCF. They are not intended to be "professional grade" competitions, although we do strive to make them as robust as possible. No, their primary goal is to provide a space for the YCF community to be able to grow, exercise what they've learned, and have the pleasure of sharing their music with others. We, the staff, decided to offer prize money as a way to give back to the YCF community, to thank them for their contributions and hopefully to draw in more and likeminded composers. We unequivocally welcome such people into the YCF family. This competition, unfortunately, has not produced that effect. There has been a pervasive sense of entitlement that is, quite frankly, not very becoming of our community. We, the judges and staff of YCF, are not getting a single cent of compensation for our time in judging this competition, nor for any of the other services provided for this community. I have been extremely discouraged by the behaviors and comments of some of the entrants, who have challenged the culture here at YCF and threatened it with elitist, materialistic ideals. I do not wish to see the beautiful thing we have fostered together here wither away under such ideals. (That said, we welcome feedback on how to improve these things, but please bear in mind that such feedback is better received if it comes from someone who has also invested in the YCF community, such as an active YCF member.) In closing, I would like to remind you that a competition is to be enjoyed by both judge and entrant. I have not enjoyed the competition this time around, and earnestly hope that future competitions will once again reflect the culture at YCF. Respectfully, Jörfi

Last piece of my 1st opus. Constructive criticism is warmly welcome!

A happy little ukulele thingy to show I'm not always melancholy (my "Doom-n-Gloom in D minor" piece comes to mind). Enjoy. -Rick

Hi @olivercomposer, Personally I think the opening depict well for the picture with the exotic instruments. But I think later the gigantic bass section which is quite your norm not quite fit the picture for me. Do you use this passage to depict how grand the oracle is? I feel like it can fit for anything which is thus not memorable like @Tónskáld said. I am very sorry to say this but this is how I feel. Apart from this your piece is always great for its grand sound and thanks for sharing! Henry

Hi @ComposedBySam, I don't think the rhythm samey here since it's a nocturne with very beautiful harmony, melody and colour which will cover everything. Besides your use of polyrhythm and hemiola is fascinating as it doesn't appear mechanical at all! It's fot sure very enjoyable to listen to! The use of theme is fine since it's just a short piano piece and I don't mind a looser structure here. Beware of b.11 the redundant treble clef! Thanks for sharing Sambuddha! Henry

Hey @luderart I actually enjoyed your piece very much! I will not say it's a masterpiece, because we have Paganini and when you name a certain piece a caprice, comparisons will be made. And it is a pretty short track for it to be a caprice really - not enough variations, I'd expect triple of the size you made, because your middle-to-end part is really nice and wants some continuation but you end it really suddenly, whereas you could explore more of violin sound and relay your initial theme onto it, like Paganini does. As for the competition, like with the winner, I don't see a connection with the initial track. The Dragon's Lair track, at least in my perspective, has a really dark mood (because it is played in the dungeon level of the game) and I actually don't know what you took from it, because there is no darkness, there are no characteristic to the piece chromatic movements. Even with that things said, I think your piece has a great potential and I heard it through a a lot of times listening to it. It's just that it has little developement, and, for the competition, little to do with original track, because somehow you managed to take a track, as you say, but the outcome is so original, that the original theme is unhearable. That being said, I don't think it deserves such a low score indeed.

That's very harsh. Me and @telliur just offered some feedback and I am very sorry if you feel like that showed some entitlement, elitist, materialistic ideals. Because none of that was the point. I really want to participate in the future and that's why I am offering this to organisers. If I didn't enjoy the competition and wasn't glad you took your chunk of time to analyse the pieces so thoroughly I would not be writing a single thing, because I wouldn't be affected by it and didn't feel anything for it. But I do. Be mindful that there is also a language barrier and we all may understand things differently from our point of view because English is not my native language (and maybe yours as well).

Banger is a slang and definitions differ from different societies you are in. Again, if that's what you'd like to hear - you should include it in the rules. In any way even if that was the case "Dragon's Lair" Dungeon track is not meeting this definition in the first place and certainly is very biased towards Ballade to start with.

Hi bkho, Just to add some tiny feedback (I tried to restrain myself of giving suggestions in the judgement process since I believed it was not the right place): • In the phrase starting at 1:23 I think some more intense contrasts in dynamics would have been nice. What do you think? • Have you considered adding pizz. sections here and there? Just a thought. I can say that in my opinion (and I believe in others' opinions too) your entry was a solid take despite the issues you had. My kudos 🎩. Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

It's not a personal bias, it's a definition of a word. A banger is an upbeat rockin tune, like, you know, all of the 8 bit tracks to choose from. I chose to judge in the best way I saw fit. Um, yeah. If we met the goal of 10 entries, the prizes given would be increased as was mentioned in the OP. Pretty simple stuff.

We discussed splitting up the monetary awards differently with @Tónskáld - the patron of this contest without whom the contest would not be possible, while the music was being submitted. We decided against that since it was in the original competition announcement that a 2nd place prize of $60 and 3rd place prize of $40 would be given only if there were more than 10 entries, so we did what we said what we were going to do. It is important in a competition like this to follow through with our commitments and be consistent with our decisions, so although we had conversations about the prize money since the number of submissions was so close to 10, we decided against splitting up the money differently because it would be inconsistent and go against our original commitment. It's very likely that the 1st place winner would feel cheated out of the prize they were expecting if the prize money was split differently. Also, offering more prize money is up to @Tónskáld's discretion, since he is the sole patron of the competition and the competition wouldn't be possible without him in the first place.

Congratulations again, Ferrum. You truly deserve this place in our little but old hall of fame 💯. Looking forward to check your next works, be either big and bombastic or little and subtle!! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Very delicate piece, specially with the soundfont/library you used. It's definitely nocturnal to me and I loved how you decorated the score in the video. There's little criticism I can give this time, since I liked it all the way to the end. Personally I would have enjoyed if you put some tuplets here and there, but the way it is now, but this is just me, not that the piece asks for them necessarily. It was a bit brief to my taste, since the atmosphere you create is very enjoyable and maybe that is why I felt the end to be a bit unsatisfying. Perhaps a little reminiscence of the first bars would have been a nice addition to the section before the end. I found the absence of pedalling strange, but I suppose the legato mark suffices for the performer. All in all, a wonderful piece, and very pleasant to listen to! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Perhaps the best question to ask before embarking on a fugue is to ask, why fugue? Answering with 'so I can present a work in schoolbook form' is unlikely to be a good approach for creating worthwhile music. So it is good, I think, that you did not try to maintain 'conventional' fugue form. Allowing the dialectic of the lines to roam in a freer manner is better suited to artistic purposes. I feel that there is much latent energy in this that is not fully realized. The fact that it exists is to my mind a compliment to the way things have been presented and to the way they are currently organized. But I find myself wanting more even though I do not claim or believe that any such realization is absolutely needed or to be preferred. Do things here reach too steady of a state? The idea of breakout passages in running 16th notes keep suggesting itself to me. Perhaps passages where the four-voice texture is not maintained would provide interest? Also, the chordal ending and it's change in feel seems a bit too sudden as if the 'joy' - read 'musical idea' - that it wants to present has not yet been fully earned. I am not suggesting that you change anything. These comments are more an acknowledgement of the fact that there are zillions of ways to organize notes. Your choices are as good as mine would be. Why fugue?

I think this sounds like ambience music for a discovery or exploration sequence from any movie. It has a slightly exotic sound owing to the "ethnic" instruments you use, but nothing else really stands out to me. It's not bad at all. In fact, I think you have an excellent grasp of how to fit sounds together for ambience like this. Musically, though, it's a bit wooden. You use block chords beneath an extended melody and that's about it. It's a nice melody, don't get me wrong, but I don't think this piece is very memorable. It would play in the background of some film, the clip would be over, and I'd forget about the soundtrack accompanying it. Clearly, I can't speak for the judges in your competition, so you can take what you want from my comments here. Generally, though, I recommend studying counterpoint and exploring ways to change up the harmonic motion of your music. Thanks for sharing! Jörfi

Congratulations to all the entrants, they were outstanding and I learned a lot from all of you. A hearty congratulations to all the winners and most of all, thank you to the judges who clearly took a great deal of time to listen and provide constructive feedback to each submission.