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Here is my submission. The whole string quintet is 5 movements, but I've just given the first 3 to fit the time slot. It's a link to the Google Drive folder with the WAV files and score. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MD4VU4YyL0m1n5gULbGStdbZU396P_oN?usp=sharing I hope I put this in the right place- I'm quite obtuse when it comes to this website.

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 8 9.5 10 10 9.5 First submission and it sounds like this? Intro is awesome! Your harmony is spot on, and keeps the entire piece moving along wonderfully. That's what harmony is supposed to do. And the melody and beat are amazing! I'm not usually a fan of the strict classical music style, however this piece changes my mind. If done right, this can be an amazing style. You put in your own flair into an old style and it works beautifully. The only criticism I have is tempo. In my opinion, you need to slightly increase the tempo, which is an easy hack. Do that, and you have yourself a fun lighthearted Halloween piece that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. Melody and harmony: You absolutely broke this metric. Many people are good at harmony, but when it comes to melody, this is where they fall apart. Not only do you have a fun, memorable melody, your supporting harmony amplifies it. And to top it off, your beat breaks the metric even more. Well done. Form and creativity: Perfectly easy to follow, and you took a standard style, and blew it out of the water. Score presentation and playability: This is where I am impressed. Your score is SIMPLE. It's in one standard time signature, and everything looks standard to play. But this is what's amazing to me. Despite how simple the score looks, the musical idea is far from simple. Music is more than just the notes and rhythms we hear. It's about the full idea, which you conveyed in a simple, well organized manner. I can learn a thing or two about this myself. Execution and taste: Again, you destroyed this metric, the music matches your vision clearly, and I felt the vision musically.

Entry: Diptych for Piano Quartet (Submission) Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 10 8 10 7 10 10 10 Average Score:9.3 very good Review: Execution of Given Challenge: 10 The entry is written for piano quartet and with in the time frame 3-7. Therefore, this piece would not be DQ, if this was official competition. Taste: 10 This piece set up to plate and swung and hit. Although the bases were loaded, it scored. It certainty created established the Halloween mood we all experience around this time. Something is always lurking. It is there. Slowly lurking in the background. Score presentation: 7 When it comes 8va marking, you might use loco markings afterwards. Just a thought. The harmonics and knockings notation is clearly marked (more knocking later). Each string technique is also visible for the player. I imagine this was a live performance. However, most scores usually have rehearsal markings. Or have every bar measure. That way, during rehearsals it is easier for them. "let start at measure x or rehersal.." Instrumentation (ect): 10 There were advance strings techniques that young musicians would not know, but if this was given to a group who knew those, they would be able to play them. Thus, it just depends on who you are writing for. The instrumentation and orchestration of the piece was executed well. The strings balanced well with the piano and with each other. No one overpowered each. Haromy and textures: 10 The knocking at the end definitely was nice surprise. It definitely caught me by surprise. The natural harmonics in the violin add coloristic effect at the second movement. The clusters was nice, too. Form: 8 It is hard to describe what the form in this entry. It does not fit any traditional forms. The overall structure seems to build on single idea that slows evolves (?). Motives: 10 The melodic and motivic material is well designed Overall this piece is creative and orginal 10

I saw an article today that actually surprised me. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/10/playstation-is-trying-to-scrub-any-mention-of-its-failed-concerts-from-the-internet Sony has canceled and is basically trying to bury that they were doing a tour of video game music from some of their biggest titles at present. This is the first time I'm aware of a video game music concert tour, of mainly orchestra music, being shelved due to a lack of interest. Some are saying a lack of marketing is to blame; others that the music isn't great. I can see the former possibly being true, but I can't see the latter. If Hans Zimmer, Nobuo Uematsu, & Slayer can still have sold-out concerts, then "meh" music can't be the problem here. Also, the Uncharted series I think was on the bill, and it actually has some good music. What it got me thinking about though, is that it seems to me like video game music, just in general, doesn't seem to be as popular as it was ~15 years ago. One of the first online music communities geared towards composers and studio musicians I ever joined was OCReMix, probably about 2012 or so. Back then, every college age person wanted to be either a video game composer or was going to "Video Games Live" and trying to get a Remix past the judges panel. New people came all the time. The former hasn't changed. Plenty of young musicians are still falling for the trap of video games being a golden field of opportunity, but last I checked out OCR, it's basically still the same people who were there in 2015 making remixes. VGL hasn't toured near me in years, so far as I know. I used to go annually with friends, but even 10 years ago, I noticed they weren't drawing as big of crowds each passing year. This is quite a shift as articles 10 years ago were boasting about how "Video Game Music Saved The Symphony Orchestra". In 2015, this Playstation touring orchestral concerts would've been a license to print money. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-videogames-are-saving-the-symphony-orchestra-1444696737 My hypothesis is that in the 2010s, there were nostalgic millennials still high on the '90s and 2000s video game soundtracks, which were great. A lot of millennials were big on gaming, but I don't think Gen Z is as much. From what I see of Gen Z playing games, they usually only play big franchises and social games like Fortnite, GTA and sports games. So, I think that they aren't as familiar with games where a soundtrack that "slaps" is noteworthy, and the millennials are now all middle-aged and either grew out of gaming or just simply don't have the time to go to VGM concerts anymore. But maybe I'm wrong and it's stilling secretly booming somwhere. Curious to know YC's thoughts, since I know there are VGM fans here.

Entry: Daunting Steps Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9 9.5 10 9 7 10 10 Average Score:9.3 Very good Review: Execution: 10 The entry met the two requirements for this competition: an ensemble for solo instruments with the time frame of 3-7 minutes (with a sweet spot of 5 minutes). Instrumentation : Triple tonging in the woods usually marked with Flz. (flutter tongue). That way, the flutist knows how to tongue the notes. As for String writing: there are some techincal issues to be addressed. First, Sul G marked only one measure. That seems bit confusing. The measure tremolos with double stops...that might be cause playabity issues. the port. to natural harmonics. Also, i am not sure if Arco with tremolo can be achieved then a port. That is rather demanding. In this area, the entry will be score 7. Score presentation: After a careful readful of the score, there notation and engraving errors. There was hair pin that was not algin with the staff. There are rest that 8ths rest that should be quarter rests. The 16h note triplets in compound meter might be misleading. Ergo, the score will 9 Taste: What I like about this entry is that is experiments with idioms that general audience might not be accustom to. There is high sense of chromatism that leads you wonder if this atonal or not. Ferium knows how push beyond traditional harmony and open the door into modern harmony. For that, I will give a 10 Form Development Structure Time There is a clear sense form and structure in this entry. Although it does not use classical structure, which one may be used, you have to know how modern composers use form and structure in new ways. Unlike the traditional sonata forms, this piece is more like Rapsody or similar to scherzo. Both are free forms. I am going to Scherzo in this case, since the meter matches here. (However, I am not sure...if that composer wrote that way). A Scherzo is built like minuet but in 6 or 3. And in this 6/8 with two meterical stress. And that was achieved well. 9.5. Harmony, Textures: The interplay between parts created moody polyphonic and chordal textures. 9 Melodic material The melodic material through this was well devopled. 10 Overall this orginal and creative: 10

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.

Entry: American Cryptids Average score: 9.5 (very good) Review: Each movement captures the character of Cryptiad! Execution: the competition was to write a 3-7 minute piece with a sweet spot of 5. This a multimovement work. However, it is scored solo strings. And it is quintet. The total running went over. I think it was close to 8 minutes. 8 Score/Playability: There were some minor details. But...maybe, submit each movement seperately. 9.5. Originality: Definitely original 10 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 9.5 9.5 8 9

"Legislation," is a work inspired by the government shutdown in, America. I'm so angry, I put to music all the words I can't say. The song is played over a vamp, free form. The saxophone chains melismatic ideas across the song. Other than

.animated-text { font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: linear-gradient( to right, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet ); background-size: 400% 100%; -webkit-background-clip: text; color: transparent; animation: colorMove 5s linear infinite, bounce 1.5s ease-in-out infinite; } @keyframes colorMove { 0% { background-position: 0% 50%; } 100% { background-position: 100% 50%; } } @keyframes bounce { 0%, 100% { transform: translateY(0); } 50% { transform: translateY(-20px); } } Hi again! Here, as promised, I submit this small piece for the Halloween... Competition! Is it Halloween-ish? Dunno, probably not so much... But this is for you to judge. Do NOT expect anything bombastic though. It's a trio for flute, piano and violin so it's 3 instruments. ✔️ It's more than 3 mins, lesss than seven! ✔️ It's somewhat submitted before the deadline! ✔️ And it should definitely be entirely playable. Since here everyone has its own preferences, I am submitting the complete pdf (attached in this very post)+ the mp3 + a YouTube video with the typical (or not that typical maybe) way of showing sheet music. Now, back to more composing. I heard that the competition is strong between the contestants. MP3 Right here (or at the end of the post, one never knows). Bagatela Nº6.mp3 YouTube video HERE. And if you haven't done it yet, what are you waiting for? The deadline for this competition is still a week or two ahead! Look at the rules and drop your piece!!! Kind regards! Ø Thanks to @Kvothe & @MK_Piano for his reviews in the engraving, layout, and instrument-specific feedback. I have attached here the second edition of this piece, released today 28th of October 2025 (first edition was released on 25th of October 2025) . It comes with a Piano+ score that has reduced parts & system separators. Now all parts have rehearsal marks on top the usual measure numbering I commonly use in all pieces. Maybe a bit redundant, but better to be safe than sorry. 101 - Bagatela Nº6 [Completo, 2Ed].pdf Thank y'all for your kind reviews. We'll read each other in the forums!

Dear readers, This is my submission for the Halloween (Fall 2025) competition. I realize it’s quite a last-minute entry, but after discovering the event a few days ago, I decided to give it a try for fun. I’m genuinely excited that we can all share and experience each other’s music. It’s wonderful to meet you all and hear your work. About this submission: Diptych for piano quartet - I haven’t settled on a title yet, so it will remain Diptych for now - a two-part musical piece, hinged yet paired to form a unified whole. It leans toward the contemporary classical genre, shaped by elements of both expressionism and impressionism. If I had more time (and I hope there will be more competitions like this), I might have written something more whimsical or festival-inspired for the occasion. Still, to me, contemporary harmonies and expressions possess their own kind of "terrifying" beauty that is celebrated on Halloween. My inspirations for this piece include artworks such as Francis Bacon’s Painting 1946 and Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son. Kind regards, Cosmia

This is my contribution to the YCF Fall 2025 Halloween competition: First the story: On the last evening of October, you take a walk to the nearby urban forest. In the shade of the trees, dimly lit by moonlight and distant streetlights, you spot five figures. They're not ghosts or other sinister creatures, but musicians who – somewhat awkwardly, like marionettes – are performing their Halloween serenade. All this puppets – while playing perfectly together – have their own character: The pianist hides behind his slightly out-of-tune piano. The flute player trembles a little nervously, while the horn player sometimes blares loudly, the clarinetist and the bassoonist alternate between playful and calm roles. After the last melancholic chord has faded away, the wind picks up, swirling the leaves on the forest floor. The rain begins to fall and the illusion disappears into the mist. Now some musical explanations about the piece: The piece is derived from my Prelude XVIII in G sharp minor, arranged as a piano quintet with woodwinds as the accompanying instruments, in that particular case flute, clarinet, French horn and bassoon. For me, the key of G sharp minor has a mystical and gloomy character and since the piece features many dissonances and rich chromaticism - together with the usage of the tritone as a central interval – it seems to fit perfectly with the subject of the competition. Here is the structure of the piece, composed in sonata form: 0:07, mm. 1 – Exposition, 1st Theme: The first thematic material (highlighted in purple) consists of a quartet of chromatic runs and syncopations that can be easily be distributed among the four woodwind instruments, achieving a playful character – in spite of the dissonances. 1:02, [E], mm. 30 – Exposition, 2nd Theme: As the second theme (highlighted in blue) I quote the subject of the subsequent Fugue XVIII in A flat minor in a rather chorale-like and calm form. 1:25, [G], mm,46 – Exposition, Codetta: Repetitive notes (highlighted in green) form the thematic material of the codetta, first in chords accompanied by the bassoon, and finally as a tutti. 1:52, [H], mm.55 – Development: In the short development section, the augmented second subject and the chromatic runs and syncopations from the first theme interwove together. 2:40, [K], mm. 78 – Recapitulation: In the recapitulation, the instruments change their roles, picking up the voices from their counterparts and swapping solo vs. tutti sections to avoid a simple repetition of the exposition. The codetta with plaintive chords finally descends in a morendo to the minor triad. Here is the score: Piano quintet in G sharp minor

Here's my submission to the Halloween competition, written for piano quartet. I thought a lot about demons and possession, abandoned houses, what's down the cellar, all that 😄 It was a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy!

Dear all, Wow - that's an interesting topic for me - Halloween - never wrote a piece for an festival. To make this work more relavent to the work, I did some research to understand more about Halloween. Anyways, here is my thoughts writing this work: I have always known very little for the Halloween festival. To many, Halloween is a festival that focuses on pranking, customing and candies - but there is a long history with mysteries around Aos Sí, the Irish name for a supernatural race in Gaelic folklore, similar to elves. Here are some information from different sources: - Every year, Samhain is celebrated on 31 October – 1 November. During this liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned, Aos Sí could more easily come into this world and were particularly active. Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. From 16th century, there is a tradition in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales, where people going house-to-house in costume reciting verses or songs for food. Some impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf. Often, a man dressed as láir bhán, a white horse, and led the younf people for the activity. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune. "...In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin"." These history and myths formed the basis for the plot of this work. HoYin

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 8 8 9.5 8 9 10 8.5 I can't believe this is the guy who created The Crusty Candy Cane! Great use of instruments to create atmosphere. Fun motifs throughout, lots of "I'm being chased" scenes, and you portray this while still being musical, which is awesome. What intrigues me about this slasher-esque piece, is when we get to around 4:30. It gets really emotional here, almost like, a monster who realizes his identity, and expresses grief momentarily. This is such a brief, heartfelt emotion. You pivot quickly back to horror, but in my opinion, this amplifies the emotion that much more. Melody and harmony: The melody/theme is easy to identify, it's catchy, and can easily be heard throughout. My very first impression, after the first few seconds, I thought this would be more of a "mood piece", but nope...if you keep listening, there definitely are clear themes. Form and originality: A structured, fun free-form work, very original! Score presentation and playability: Score is easy to follow, simple 4/4 time throughout. Triplets help break out of the 4/4 rhythm, to keep time signature sane. Great dynamics and very articulated to help intensify the mood. Execution and taste: Very Halloween-like in the slasher sense, with an incredible heartfelt section at around 4:30, where you momentarily change the mood. This is a moment of self reflection, and possibly realization of what one has become, before going back to terror.

Wow, I'm truly amazed with your music here. What an incredible contrast between movements and I absolutely adore how you use tonality together with contemporary expressions/ effects. The flow of music is very natural and quite exciting to listen to, keeps attention very well. The score is really well done, very clear and clean. Overall the music corresponds with the theme you've chosen so I had to comment simply to express my amazement, keep it up! ^^

updated. i thought i only needed to use the triple tremolos, or flz., or both. i've chosen to use both to make it clearer. updated to encapsulate the measures that should be played Sul G i'm not sure what this is referring to? if you meant the cello in b.37 where it plays measured tremolos with double stops, i'm pretty sure that's doable unless there's something else to it or i'm just outright referring to the wrong thing it is intended to indicate playing on open strings, not nat. harmonics, hence the "0" fingering. i've changed it to an actual open string symbol now. with the tremolo glissando, i think that's also doable? i've done some searches and have heard that specific playing in a piece i'm pretty sure. can't remember which piece though. fixed fixed changed the run from 16th note triplets to a 9 tuplet for form, it is true that I didn't really think of scherzo while composing form: Introduction: b.1 - b.50, includes both themes playing against each other A: b.51 - b.91 Transition I : b.92 - b.117, includes the intro B: b.118 - b.169 Transition II : b.170 - b.181 Intro*: b.182 - b.223, a variation of the intro A*: b.224 - b. 251, variation of A with change of accompaniment towards the start. Transition I*: b.252 - b.267, variation with added trills. B*: b.268 - b.319 Transition II*: b.320 - b.335 Coda: b.336 - b.359 thanks for the review!! the feedbacks and the comments are really appreciated!!

Unfortunately, I can't read the Wall Street Journal article without getting a subscription. From my own experience, I think video-game music has become kind of a niche genre. I think that there is a tendency in both film music and VGM to create more atmospheric music that works in a certain context but that doesn't stand alone the way a piece of concert music does. And in the past, because of hardware limitations, these kinds of atmospheric tracks were hard to produce effectively so composers defaulted to just writing good music period. And the music had to have basic elements that could be easily reproducible with the limited hardware and appealed to the spirit of the level/game in a more basic way, using melody and harmony in a more classical approach. Also, I once watched a YT video of a World of Warcraft concert, and I really just couldn't see the appeal of the music to the music goers. And I've even played WoW myself back when it first came out. But with all the new expansion packs that have come out by now, it was no longer familiar to me and the music seemed empty and unfulfilling to me. I think that just attests to my first point, that music has become more atmospheric and less able to stand alone, the way a piece of concert music would be expected to. And so the appeal of music written for games and movies that's written in this atmospheric way is dying out, imo. Only the hardcore fans who have played the games for hours can enjoy the concerts of this kind of music. But imo the older music from the golden age of VGM (in my opinion) - the 90's, still has concert appeal and it shows - because there are lots of YouTubers making covers and re-imaginings of this old music on their YT channels. And I believe the music from that age can definitely stand on its own and capture the imaginations of listeners who have never even played the game that the music was written for. But I might be biased, since I was a kid in the 90's and experienced the music from that era very personally. But that's my 2¢. Cool topic!

basically what @Kvothe said. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 10 9 10 7.5 9.5 8 9 average: 9.125 (very good)

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 9.5 9 10 8.5 9 8 9.5 Ok so in terms of creativity, this one is off the charts. The harmony is so creative, and haunting. You sometimes feel like its simple harmony but then you confuse the listener with 2 or more different harmonies, but still somehow make it sound good. My favorite part is around the 3 minute mark, where the violin and flute share the melody. Does this feel like Halloween? I think it does. The slow pace with the pleasant but eerie and confusing harmonies give it that vibe. Extremely well done! Melody and Motive: I feel like it's a pretty catchy melody, but where you really shine is at the 3 minute mark. That part is definitely a 10 in my opinion. Harmony: You somehow made your harmony sound pleasant to the ear, despite it being non traditional. I think it's because you used dissonance sparingly. Form and structure: I was able to follow this piece with clarity. What I do is first listen with the score, but I find the score to sometimes be distracting. I almost always like to genuinely listen without any distractions (this includes visual performances too). When I listened to this with my ears only, you can tell how structured this piece is. Creativity: This is the strongest point, if I could give you a 15, I would. I think this is an extremely original composition. Score + Playability: Yeah, this is playable! Execution and Taste: Hey I love this style of music. Just the right amount of dissonance, maybe some counterpoint, a clear melody, and techniques that I can learn from!

Hey, cool concept! The atonal parts required me to put on my creative listening skills! But I agree with everyone else that the col legno section is very well done. The beginning section could potentially be akin to a march perhaps. But even though this is atonal, the piece sounds pretty structured to me. The ending though, is a bit to abrupt for my taste. While it does have a cadence, it just felt unfinished to me.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8.5 9 8 8 9 10 8 9.5 This gives me a spooky romantic vibe. Perhaps lost souls on Halloween trying to find love or meaning to existence. It's very enjoyable to listen to not only because of how emotional this is, but because this type of harmony resonates well with me. Furthermore, I find this piece to be well structured, and easy to follow. I love how you break up the momentum at around 1:20. As a YouTuber, I learned that this is incredibly important to do on longer videos. Especially with the the shorter attention spans these days. Melody and Motive + Harmony: I just find these to be very clear throughout your piece, with logical breaks and great emotional supporting harmony. Form and Creativity: Highly structured, easy to follow. Score presentation + Playability: Beautiful score and this seems very playable. Execution and Taste: This is a highly romantic piece that does give off Halloween vibes, and I resonate well with this style.

That's exactly what I noticed: the tonal clusters. It is so refreshing to hear modern harmony. Do not get wrong...I traditional harmony is great, but modern harmony is like diving into the deep end of pool when it is 90 degrees out side. you feel so much better.

I don't think a piece like this can fit metrics such as Melody, or Harmony, so I will just give you my thoughts. I love the use of articulations, I feel like its a great way to make a piece sound more authentic. The score is beautiful, and interesting to look through (since you use articulation marks). Is this playable? Probably! But it looks really hard. My favorite part was when the piano came in, and brought a false sense of security and peace. That part is awesome! And nice homage to Bach's Fugue and Toccata to conclude that (somewhat) peaceful, but eerie piano section! There is so much dissonance, but you do introduce some clarity as well, the mix is something I find quite interesting. Does it remind me of Halloween? Yes! At the 1 minute mark, this part in particular, reminds me of a chase scene. At 1:33, with the parallel octaves, I felt it was a good way to break the chase scene (as if the person being chased is looking around for safety). Not sure if anyone picked up on this...we all know at 3:18 we hear Bach's theme. But at 3:23, we hear it again, listen closely! Very cool piece!

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.

Ah, I caught that Toccata and Fugue in D minor Reference lol Subjectively, I feel this piece could've been made much more enjoyable to listen through all the way, had you made different choices with harmony, in this work! While I understand the goal is to capture "Halloween" as a theme, every bar in this score seems to have some level of dissonance. Especially in the "F" section. You begin with a nice, but lonely piano texture, then comes in the strings, like nails on a chalkboard, much like most of the piece presents itself, in the strings. In my humble opinion, I feel when it comes to music, even the music that's meant to elicit a feeling of unrest, suspense, or thrill such as the Halloween theme should represent, finding a way to balance out dissonance with consonance is a very important aspect in creating something that can be enjoyed by everyone, or utilized within other works of art such as film for example. Telling a clear story using melodic textures that are able to be naturally resonated with is Important, if you were to ask me. Otherwise, the score had interesting ideas that should be commended. I will have to agree with much of the feedback that Daniel @Omicronrg9 has left behind for you to review. 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 4 2 5 5 8 8 8 2 Average Score: 5.25

Quite a unique ensemble... 2x Pianos & 1x Violinist? Interesting... lol 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 10 5 0 4 5 Average Score: 5.25 😉 I will try to return and elaborate on this score tally when I have time to do so. 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 3 3 7 8 5 9 7 4 Average Score: 5.75 😉 I will try to come back here, when I have time to, to provide a more thorough explanation of my reasoning with this score tally. Thanks for sharing!!!

Yo Vince my babe! I listen to this piece twice and I am gonna say that I think this is the best piece in the competition so far (of course @ferrum.wav still hasn't submitted his piece lol). The opening itself is already very captivating. The Reich-like repeating figure in the piano scares my 💩 out, and it gives me some Messiaen vibe too from his Quartet of the End Time. It reminds me very much of the rehearsal mark D of the 2nd mov of the work: The octatonic notes really captures the anxious mood well. The Glissando in b.13 intensifies the tendency of my 💩 to burst out from my ass, b.21 even more so, and I absolutely love the polyrhythm in b.20. Even though this section sounds very effective in portraying the horrible mood, structurally it's very tight with motivic usage and you have your materials under your control! The sabbath dance is even more wonderful. It reminds me of Bee's 6/8 fast section in his Grosse Fuge but with Halloween touch. I love the very low register you use for the piano right at the beginning as the unsettle bass of a dance. I would interpret the opening motive a motivic extension from the opening with wider intervallic usage. The melody in b.56 violin, despite sounding in a complety different context and mood, derives from the beginning bar, which shows how organized this work is despite its wonderful mood creation. And while I am typing this sentence the music turns to the contrasting section in b.64, which is another wonderful section with the subito p. The piano melody, harmonics in violin and viola, as well as the pizzicato cello (which the melody comes from the beginning of this section, b.46), combinied together creates a wonderfully eerie timbre. Wonderful development till b.90. And when I think the climax will come, you suddenly tone it down, have the piano playing the melody here, and add a wonderful counterpoint with a jazzy touch in b.96. This struggle between lightness and grotesque really enhance the drama of the work, just like the film ＂It was just an accident" I watched where the director added comedy touch to enhance the tragedy of the whole film. The polyrhythm, use of the high register of violin and cello and piano, very reasonable development of materials in this section is wonderful to listen to. After the slight "rest" in b.112 which resembles b.68, another great development follows with more instensified imitations and answering of motives in b.119,and after reaching the climax it moves fluently to the A' section in b.136 with a quicker tempo. The polyrhythm here is even more complicated and wonderful. Within the general mood of the piece, even the "normal" C major sounding in b.154 sounds weird. I love the sadness you reach in b.166 (in my favourite C sharp minor!). It doesn't sound out of context at all as it follows fluently from passages before! Next is the section in b.171. The transition to it with mood and tempo change is so coherent, and now it's the shortening of the motive with just the minor second left with octatonic key influence. I have nothing to say in this section given how you develop the climax in b.231, and then.... a random pause? Where do you learn the idea from haha!!!?? The ending is wonderful reminiscence of the beginning as well! I would give this piece the 1st place from all the pieces available now, given how wonderful this piece is from mood, treatment and development of materials, timbre, rhythm, structure... It's just so perfect itself and with the eerie elements in it it just adds as a bonus as a competition piece of a Halloween competition. You are too kind, it should be -100/10 as it's "so below" lol! Thx for sharing this wonderful music to us!!!!! Henry

Entry: Piano quintet in G sharp minor Review: The metrical stress of the composition switches between pattern 2, 3, and 5. The meter in the composition are 4/8. 3/4, 6/8, and 5/4/. These meters have different stress pattern and feel different. It would wise to either stay the 8th is division: 4/8, 6/8, and 5/8 or switch to 2/4. 3/4, and 5/4. Furthermore, it is hard to know where half point of each measure is. In some measures, there are two 8th notes rests that can easily be a quarter rest, or two 16th rest that should be 8th rest. That would make easier to read in the piano part. In rehearsal H: you are implying both 2/4 and 4/8. It is hard to know what meter you are using. I could not follow that section... Overall, in both score presentation and playability this will be score 6 for the reasons explained. The overall landscape of the piece was polyphonic, and it used atonal methods: possibly set class and others(?). This will be score be 9 The execution of a sonata form Exposition-Dev-Recap was well done. 10 There were well crafted themes, motives, and melodic materials 10 (also for creativity). This entry meet requirements of competition 10. It was done well 10 Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9 10 10 6 6 10 10 Average score: 8.8 Above Average/Good

And @Micah has posted their submission as well!

Here is my submission to the contest: After finishing that, I will now go forward to review the contributions from the other participants.