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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

Hi @Cosmia! Welcome to the forum and thx for joining the competition! I am the same, especially at the ending of it. It just dies away. I agree with @Omicronrg9 and @PeterthePapercomPoser. This one plays more on timbre and mood so it doesn't necessary use melodies or motives to push the music forward. The use of quintal and quartal harmonies are very apparent in this case. I would say this piece, even though it captures the horror side of Halloween, is less fitting to the competition, since it's a bit contemplative and serious to the festival in my opinion. The writing is however first rate, with great use of extended techniques like glissandos, harmonics, knock on instrument etc with great effect. Thx very much for submitting this high quality work to the competition! I really like them! Henry

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!

this is a submission for the 2025 halloween competition. i was just really going for a spooky halloweeny vibe but not like "terror and dread and killer" vibes. it's definitely lighter than the other submitted pieces. also, contrabassoon! very spooky sounding instrument, and i've tried my best to harness that specific quality of it. enjoy! update: -updated score from @Kvothe's feedback

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6.5 10 10 10 10 9 9 10 Ah, this piece is right up my alley. I could tell this is perhaps Ravel inspired, and this is a style I really enjoy. Id say that the melody is weak, or just missing, however, you do a great job at still keeping things very interesting, purely with your structure and harmony. Speaking of harmony, amazing and well done! The mood of the piece brings on a sense of high tension and release. Technically, this is hard to play, but given my experience with piano and this type of style, its very doable, especially at this slower tempo. Does it remind me Halloween though? This is definitely more "art style" music, however, it offers chilling sections, with some released tension. After all, in horror situations, no one's being chased for the whole movie, right? There always is a sense of reprieve! Melody: While there are some instances of motifs, I found this to be more of a mood piece. But you are able to keep it interesting. This is due to your structure, and harmony. Harmony & Structure: This is where you shine, your harmony is what drives this piece, but the structure is what keeps everything legible and easy to follow. Originality and Score Presentation: Score is beautiful, nice use of cross staves to keep the music easier to read, and tuplets help group your rhythms. Playability: Very difficult to perform, but clearly laid out and with a lot of practice, there should be no problems here. The second movement could be trickier because you have more key changes. Execution of challenge: Eerie atmosphere, tension buildup and release. Great elements to get into the Halloween spirit! Taste: I absolutely love this style, I started getting into Ravel which influenced some of my later compositions. I feel like you do an excellent job at capturing this style.

Yeah, I've settled on making it readable for me, and it could always be spelled differently for certain instruments and spots if the need ever arose. The diminshed scale stuff was fun though, I have decent experience with the whole-half dim. scale but not so much with the half-whole. Very different colors harmonically 🙂 Nice, I'll check it out! I don't remember, it's been so long since I've seen those movies haha. I only remember Marty playing guitar 😄 Thanks Peter! Some of the technique stuff I wanted to do my samples wouldn't allow, but I liked the way the glissandos turned out. This piece made me realize I need to keep practicing string writing, I was afraid of double stops and playability at such a fast tempo. With more time and study, I would have been more fearless with it, but I still like the way it turned out. I'm glad it evoked such scary imagery for you!

it is a mix and it's all free: flute, contrabassoon: Symphonic Sounds (Flute SSO, Contrabassoon SSO) violin: VSCO-2-CE-1.1.0 (Versillian Community Chamber Orchestra) cello: Virtual Playing Orchestra 3 (for the tremolo i used the orchestral one cus i couldnt find one for solo cello) piano: Yamaha C5 Grand-v2.4 do keep in mind that i also manually edit the velocity of every single note and add reverb but yoursss is my favoriteee, i actually got a bit creeped out listening to it. but yeah your description of my style is pretty accurate, no matter how many times i've tried to tone down the wildness, the wildness creeps back thanks for the comments !!!

I know your pain, I think it's rained for a week straight. But Halloween is tonight for me, maybe the dreary cloudy vibe will help the snobbery of my vampire persona Thanks for commenting, glad you liked it! TFW you hear a Henryism for the first time 😄 Hahahahaha! Glad I can keep you on your toes. Thanks for the kind words Mike! Hey thanks for commenting, I'm glad you liked it! Regarding the ledger lines, I agree. How should it be written? I know string players don't always mind ledger lines because of hand positions, but I'm not sure.

Wow, it seems like this competition really attracted top tier talent. I didn't realize such beauty could come from such a dissonant language! The performers were incredible too, any shout outs to them? You absolutely captured the spirit of our competition, even though written for another purpose. As others have said, I felt calm in a sea of unpredictability and horror, sort of like watching the world burn through a lens. Thanks for participating in our fun event, your music is wonderful!

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!

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.

I finish reviewing all of them! I have to say, this is by far my favourite competition on YC. It's so hypered and lots of members of participating in it, not just submitting works but also commenting each other! That's what a forum is for right? I wish this popular vote format will contiue in future competitions! Henry

Hi Cosmia. Bear with me a bit, I promise to be short. I have been listening to dissonance after dissonance in the textural, rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, metaphysical and who knows what else tonight. And now I have reached your piece. In all honesty, when I looked at your score first, I knew, or I supposed at least that this was gonna be hard to swallow. But no, you let me breathe. Despite this piece being built on tension, I found calm on it, even peace. Your atmosphere does not choke me, it doesn't overwhelm me with "pandirectionalism", effects because yes, and breaking of every rule because it's breakable. In my humble and honest opinion you very well managed to create a piece that demonstrates that: • You know your craft when it comes to manage elements that are purposefully clashing with each other. • You seem to know when to stop and when to go again, in other words: you don't hesitate to leave the music suspended, you don't abuse of textural overlap but use it wisely. • Dissonant spaces are very interesting to listen to when they are finely crafted. • There's no need to convince me of what you try to convey when the music, in this case your music, is pretty much able to speak for itself. I would agree with Peter, there's little to no "melody". I don't think that's the approach anyway, and I'm not rating that. Your approach, whatever it was, created an atmosphere that I can not only withstand but enjoy. I am thankful. Regarding the score, it has some room for improvement I guess but it's more a matter of tastes than anything else; things like • Alignment between pizz. and arco because why not. • Tempo equivalences in a frame or bigger/better alligned with the barline. • Instruments should be indicated at the beginning of the piece most likely. Stuff like that, very minor for most. Overall the score is readable, you can read it along the music, and the interpretation is really neat. The score states that's not gonna follow any tonality from the very beginning (no key signature). You have made in summary a very convincing piece with a really uncanny atmosphere. Congratulations, and good luck. Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

Dear @ferrum.wav, Heads off to this piece you wrote. Full command of motives, varieties in terms of style, mature chamber writing all are present in your work here! I love the beginning and how you introduce the chromatic motive, as it's accompanied by the tone cluster of piano, as well as the 2nd motive of the dancing motive in b.5. And very nice use of that tremolo too, if adding a sul ponticello would be even better! I simply love how you go from the more atonal beginning to a firming G minor dominant preparation in b.45 with chordal texture, nice combinatio of both tonality and texture for an intro! Nice imitations throughout the main section, and the glissandos throughout are great. I love you bring the opening in b.92 with a quicker tempo. The modulation to D minor in b.122 is very fluent and I like the 2 against 3 rhythmic figure introduce there too. The climax in b.151 is very prepared with consistent imitations, as well as the cool down. I really love J sections with that augurs of dancing motive by Flute, and that nice disturbance with the recurring tremolo in b.206! And the figure in b.212 is naughty! The brillante in b.238 is really brilliant, I would it would be longer! I just go straight to the end. CLearly the end to a Bb minor closure is very CLever. Beware of the tremolo markings though, the 32th note tremolo should be just written with double stroke if it's already a quaver itself. Clearly this one and Vince's piece are both in the very top level. If I'm to judge this whole competition, I will put Vince's piece slightly over yours. In terms of technique you too are great, but Vince's is more heavy in tone which I always like, given how I write heavier music lol! Once again, congrats for writing such a piece! Henry

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.

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 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

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

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

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: From Above, Now Below by @Thatguy v2.0 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: This piece is awesome! It was the inspiration for creating the “Biggest Thriller” badge, so I hope you win! This is definitely edge-of-your seat intensity and drive throughout (but with some much needed contrasting sections). I guess this piece was the reason behind your post in the Random thread about how you’re annoyed by the Octatonic scale and how it’s always difficult to pick the most correct enharmonic spellings for it since it doesn’t fit neatly into our Heptatonic musical system. This actually reminds me in style of Alan Silvestri’s score to the “Back to the Future” trilogy - he also uses quite a lot of Octatonic scale in that score. The creepy string harmonics and glissandi really add to the horrifying mood when it’s not intense and in-your-face. The piece is also very motivically unified and develops well. The downward sliding glissandi give an impression of a blurring or evoke images of humid bathroom mirrors breaking. The girl taking a shower in the high school locker room after hours is scared by something seen out of the corner of her eye and the chase begins. The ending is just as spine-chilling without really resolving anything for the listener. Great job and thanks for suggesting this competition!

Entry: 2025 Halloween Competition - DANCE FROM THE SKELETON BALL (Submission) by @MK_Piano Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6 8 6 6 10 10 10 7.5 Average Score: 7.94 Review: The main melodic material in this piece, to me, sounds like an accompaniment or bass line (which is I guess appropriate since the theme is first introduced in the Cello). You also seem to use elision to cut the length of this phrase to three bars, which to me makes it sound incomplete and confuses the phrase structure of the melody (although now that I count the measures, you still manage to get the whole phrase to be 8 measures long from bar 13 to 21). The main vibe or feel that I guess you’re going for here is achieved by the oom-pah’s in the Piano and Violin and Viola (at least at first) - that’s what makes it sound like a dance to me. But melodically, the piece, to me, seems dominated by accompanimental material and scales in the Piano that’s suitable as background music but doesn’t carry a long leading melodic line that is so necessary in classical concert pieces. To me it sounds like an orchestrated chord progression (on further reflection there’s definitely melodies here but I’ll keep this original comment here to give you an idea of my first impression of the piece). That doesn’t mean that it’s not effective at setting a certain mood/vibe though. Or getting the listener to imagine a skeleton ball dance which is the whole point of the composition which is why I scored the Execution of Given Challenge category at 10. But that is why I scored the Melodies/Themes/Motives category the way I did. And despite the fact that you have a contrasting section that harks back to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, that section doesn’t really introduce any new and memorable melodic material either and the most salient feature of that section is the triplet accompaniment figure in the Piano. So even though there’s hints of a memorable melody here and there, the piece as a whole seems comprised mostly of accompanimental figures repeated as a vamp (to me). But the introduction is good and really sets the stage for a great piece of music! It just doesn’t really deliver on its promises imo. But I do appreciate the recurring of the main motif in bar 43 in a different tempo and context! I should mention that I also see some similarities between this submission and @UncleRed’s “Ghost Town Requiem”. I use the same reasoning in the scoring of this work as I did with that one. Thanks for your participation and good luck to you!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 5.5 8 8 9.5 10 7 5 7.25 What an adventurous trio! And your key changing is really fun, especially around the 3:25 and 3:40 mark. I had mixed feelings about whether this felt like a Halloween piece though. But there are certainly sections that represent structured chaos and friction. As for your time signatures, very abnormal (when was the last time I saw 3/16?) but hey, you made it work! Melodies & Form: I think you had some fun motifs, especially in the Bassoon. I do think this piece is pretty structured, but the melody / themes are sometimes is hard to piece together. Harmony: This modern sounding trio creates some gorgeous harmonies, especially towards the end! Creativity & Score Presentation: Beautiful score presentation, and original! Playability: Not sure, but the note density seems pretty high for a woodwind trio. Also, there are a lot of time signature changes that could be hard to follow. Execution: As I stated in my summary, it doesn't quite sound like a Halloween piece to me. But if you were to put this in a cartoon, I think that's where the piece would shine! Taste: I listened to this a few times to make out the structure so I could give a somewhat coherent review. I have to say, the style grew on me. Originally I gave this a 6.5 from my first listen, but I could bump that up to an 8. So I just averaged them out, and that's why I put a 7.25 in case your wondering!

There used to be more reviewers, but it seems it seems they have moved on. 😞 Also, at times, activity at is rather slow. Young composer strive for quick feedback. That they can improve. No feed back will not help them. 😞

hahahaha, OH THE SHAME WILL BE SEEN

Your caliber of writing deserves to be entered with all the others, you're great! Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check out his music

@Thatguy v2.0Thank you so much, really nice of you to say! This was my first submission ever, I have not participated in any competitions before, which is why I love the fact it's informal and open to such wonderful community of individuals, so I wanted to try it out to get more encouragement for applying haha. When it comes to recording - the piano part is played by one of my collegues and my favorite composer of this age: Veljko Nenadić, If you like exploring contemporary music I highly recommend ( https://www.youtube.com/c/VeljkoNenadić ). The strings were added afterwards and they are midi. ^^

Oh... ferrum... THAT guy...right, um, you didn't hear? He uh, couldn't get one submitted in time. Said he had other things to do gooooooooooooood Awesome! I don't think I've heard much of his work since college, thanks for the recommendation! I love hearing what my music makes people think of Thanks buddy, we're all lucky that you're around to give such detailed feedback on our music. I don't have a lot of people to share this kind of music with, so I'm really happy you enjoyed this one! Thanks for your enthusiasm Henry! 💋

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 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.

@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

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.

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

Hello all! I am classical pianist based in the United States and have been composing in my spare time since 2023, mainly hand writing and using MuseScore as my notation engine of choice. This post marks my first ever post and submission here on the Young Composer's Forum. If you would like to know more about me, both my website and short biography can be found on my profile! __________ YCF HALLOWEEN SUBMISSION: For this year's halloween competition, I created a ~5-minute long work for a Piano Quartet (Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano). This was my chamber of choice as currently, I am learning, and will be performing, Beethoven's Opus 11 Piano Trio in Bb with two other peers, and felt inspired to write something more traditional. Composed in C-minor, this work is set into Ternary Form (A-B-A') and aims to cast music for the time of Halloween. If you would like to know more about the piece, you can find more information on Page 3 in the "About" section. Thank you for taking the time to view my score and consider this work for this event! __________ (DISCLAIMER: The Midi playback from Musescore Studio sounds a little skewed in the solo violin part, however, this setback does not object to the playability of the part.)

Entry: American Cryptids - Fall 2025 Halloween Submission by @Micah 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: Mothman - I really enjoyed this one! I can immediately imagine the fluttering of the Mothman’s wings portrayed by the arpeggiation of the stack of 5ths that’s so well and idiomatically set for the Violin, Viola and Cello. The non-vibrato Violin harmonics portray the red light shooting out from the Mothman’s eyes like lasers! Letiche - Moderate swing for string quintet?! Quite unusual to say the least! But it creates a very slithering character very appropriate for this cryptid. And the glissandi really make it sound like it’s creeping around the corner and sticking its head out of the swamp here and there. Very cool! You’re not the first in this competition to use glissandi to very effectively creep us out! Great job! La Chupacabra - Very quiet to start off with to portray the stalking behavior of this predator, which then transforms into a chase scherzo. I can imagine the running reptile-like hound chasing its prey and sucking the blood out of it. Very grotesque - I would have enjoyed hearing even more of this movement! Although I know you’re limited by our time constraints. I encourage you to post the complete finished work for us once the contest is over! I think your work definitely deserves more attention. I enjoyed listening to this piece so much that I forgot that I had to score it! Thankfully, there is little to criticize here. What really stands out in your pieces is their very effective characterization of the different cryptids which just brings a whole other dimension to the music and the overall experience. Also, despite this not having been written with this competition in mind, it fits the theme of Halloween very well and I am glad that you entered. Because of how different the character of each of your pieces is, it could be a contender for just about any of the Halloween specific badges that we’ll be giving out! We’ll see how people vote. Congratulations on a wonderful achievement and I look forward to hearing the whole thing!

Entry: Piano Quintet in G sharp minor - 2025 Halloween Competition Submission by @Wieland Handke 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 10 9 10 9 9 9 Average Score: 9.19 Review: It’s a clever idea to use themes from your pre-existing series of preludes and fugues! It makes your piece that much richer. I like how you give a programmatic context also, for why the piece is for this particular instrumentation (and why you’re using a honky-tonk piano patch! LoL) The piece is certainly creepy and fits the Halloween theme quite well. It’s easy for me to follow the various different recurring themes despite the complex harmonic language that you use. And in the end I guess you included the sound of someone stepping through the leaves? Besides that the ending did kind of sound like the music just stopped. It seems like the piece could have ended at any of the short pauses/cadences that you have throughout the piece and it would have had the same effect. But I guess it’s hard to make a piece sound truly conclusive in this kind of style. Also, I noticed in the recording that there’s some grace notes present that I can’t see in the score - what did you intend there? Thanks for your participation and good luck in the public voting polls!

Entry: Bagatelle No.6 | Om. 101 by @Omicronrg9 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: This piece is more contemplative, perhaps a bit reminding me of Erik Satie. The overall major tonality is encroached upon by out-of-key notes that give the piece a happy-go-lucky but creepy quality much like the way clowns are happy but creepy to many people. It’s very atmospheric and free until the main theme comes in in bar 32 which is unsettling in its lack of clear melodic direction and resolution. But this lack of direction and resolution is intentional and definitely achieves a certain deliberate effect. When listening to the main theme of this piece I imagine a creepy clown dancing and bobbing his head left and right LoL. The piece ends like an unfinished puzzle better left that way or maybe like a question better left unanswered. I could also imagine this being played in a movie such as “The Talented Mr. Ripley”. The rendition also uses crystal clear piano and flute which are a big advantage to this listeners impression of the piece. This piece also borders on being both atmospheric and a storytelling piece. It has both melodic development and cinematic repetition of its themes. Very excited to see how people will vote in this competition. Thanks for your participation and good luck to you!

Entry: YCF Composition Competition - Halloween 2025 (Submission) by @UncleRed99 Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 4 7 7 7 9 9 10 7.5 Average Score: 7.56 Review: You’ve set a very atmospheric mood that would be very appropriate as background for perhaps a Ghost Town hidden object game or a short film or documentary about a Ghost Town! As a concert piece however it falls short of the melodic and harmonic development prescriptive norms of classical music. The most salient features of your piece that leave a lasting impression after the piece has concluded are the moods created by your chord progressions and oom-pah accompaniment figures which give a certain impression of a grotesque dance perhaps akin to @MK_Piano’s submission DANCE FROM THE SKELETON BALL submission. I can’t hum, whistle or sing any of the melodies that you present in this piece after the piece has concluded. I mention this because I think you probably do consider that this piece has melodies, but to me it doesn’t. The melodies are too complex and not self-similar enough to stay in this listener's musical memory and create a lucid listening experience. I know this isn’t the first time you’ve heard me say this, so let me just try to elaborate on the point in a way I haven’t before. The reason why Beethoven’s 5th Symphony 1st movement is so popular and such a lucid listening experience is because he managed to generate all the melodic material and unify it through a single motif, sometimes using it as just a rhythmic motif, sometimes as both rhythm and pitch, and other times as just pitch. There is great economy in the melody. There isn’t a single note that is missing nor superfluous. I am not saying that you should aim for perfection in your music, I’m just trying to point out how Beethoven used the motif as a dynamo to generate and develop all the rest of his melodic material and create a lucid listening experience. Many composers have done this and you don’t have to be a genius to use the idea to your advantage. I hope that makes clear what I mean when I keep talking about these things. But you did create a piece which as I said, is very appropriate for the Halloween theme. Another advantage is the crystal clear rendition of your music - the piano sounds like glistening ice in its high register. Another way I’d describe the melody in Polish is “tuzinkowe” which translates to “random” or “ordinary” (a term I learned after my grandma used it to describe some of my music LoL). There is a certain grotesquery to the melody too, because it's dark and it has a sort of march-like character. But, those are my thoughts. Thanks for your participation!

Score presentation: Thank you so much for presenting us a score. That goes miles when you want feedback. It helps us to follow what we are listening. Yes, indeed, this score does need clean and polish. The first thing is to remove the empty bars. There is no need to have them there. Second, you have cleft change, but it is barely visible. You probably want to find want a way edit that. Also, go through, and check collisions and everything is line up. Clean up the rests. Use trills instead of 32nd notes. Remove legar lines as much as possible! (b87-88 needs to re worked with out legar lines). Thus: elimate b43-57 and b89 to end. If I was to score to in a competition, It would be probably get a 4-6 because of these errors. In Ternary or a minuet and Trio it is one piece not two. Might consider that. I do not what I am looking when it comes to form? Sorry. I am lost. I do notice you have second version of your dance. I will look at, too.

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.

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!

Hi @Dima! I quite enjoy this furious dance full of tone cluster. The energy here is very apparent to be sensed. Although I would say, this piece doesn't fit very much as a Halloween competition piece with the folk quality in it. I think this piece is for solo instruments? So, the div. in b.5 1st Violin and b.22 2nd violin and Viola, tutti sign in b.78 1st violin would not be applicable. Also, the division of voice within an instrument would not be applicable, and this will for sure deduct points for scoring/engraving. I would hope there will be more varieties in harmony, as this piece more or less grows on the tone cluster of the dissonant minor 2nds. I would hope to have more passage stepping away from that dissonance, so it will provide contrast! I love the contrast you bring in b.119 meno mosso section, and I hope that you will extend that section longer before returning to the furious dance! Also, how would the tone cluster in b.30 and 199 played for the pianist? I am eager to know! Thx for joining the competition! Henry

This one is most definitely "Halloween". The subtle use of that Gb Tritone / Cdim. chord suggestion in the piano, as a part of the eighth note phrases on the right hand staff really makes the listener get that uneasy feeling. Overall, I like this piece very much, and would even go as far as to say I'd like to see it performed live! I'm sorry that I don't have more to add in regards to this score, today. I'm strapped for time lately, trying to make rent, working around poor weather to make that happen. 😕 I'm attempting to comment on all the submissions for the competition, with something at least. I hope this will do 😅 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 10 7 5 6 10 10 7 Average score: 7.87 😉

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

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 4 7 4 10 10 5 5 5 Overall Score Average: 6.25 Melodies Themes and Motives: 4 My reasoning for a 4 is because the music, for me at least, seemed difficult to follow. I did lose my place a couple of times, and there really is no melody, not any one line that sticks out at any given moment. Although, I believe that this piece's intent is to be jarring, random, or playful in it's nature, if I'm assuming correctly. (I'm sorry, I couldn't take the time to read the introduction page. 😅 It kept cutting off for me. Possibly something to do with my browser) Harmony, Chords, Textures: 7 Overall, I think the harmonic complexity and textures presented here are very good! I don't have a lot of technical wording to use to describe it, as it's very unique, but nonetheless, well done! Form, Dev., Structure, Time: 4 (I'm assuming it's supposed to be this way) I wasn't really able to differentiate too much between your sections. The textures change, but not in a fluid manner, from what I observed. The Development of the piece is mostly unchanging throughout the piece. There are moments of more pronounced dynamics, then moments of lower dynamics with only 1 or 2 parts playing. Which does show some form of development, but this would be unclear to the average listener. I also have to say, I've never seen or even considered using a time signature with a denominator of 16. 😅 to be frank, I have no idea how I'd even begin to count that. I simply followed the notes on the page, as I heard them passing, to get through those measures. Personally, I feel there may have been a more sensible choice than 3/16. (Simply my opinion) Originality: 10 What else can I say? Never seen anything like this one, honestly. And I'm diggin' the uniqueness of it, despite any of my grievances with it. Score Presentation: 10 Very Professional - Very Demure 😎 Ins. Orch. Playability: 5 Overall, this is technically able to be performed... However, I feel that an excessive amount of time would go into rehearsing something like this, with 3 musicians, just looking at it practically. The syncopation is off the CHARTS my man... 😭 As well as some parts where I notice the pitch jumps over an octave from the previous note/measure, which can be very difficult, especially for wind players, to execute. Execution: 5 It would scare me if I had this music set in front of me as a musician. So I think that qualifies it as "spooky" but it's not very reminiscent of pieces I'd consider to be "Halloween-ey" or however you'd put that 😅 Taste: 5 I only put a 5 here because I'm not quite sure what sort of flavor you were shooting for. I feel that this score is more reminiscent of your own taste, adding to the Originality of the score. So, I'd wager that this is a totally unique score of your own design/genre, mostly. That's about all the input I have on that topic.

I stood it. It's not bad at all, but a bit directionless to my taste. I suppose that it happens a lot more than I realise with incidental music? I don't know. There were bits that I liked more, others not so much. Again, if I had to point something out, it would be the lack of dynamics throghout the whole piece. A new dimension of nuances awaits there. Hope noteflight would improve the playback system, but it's not that bad anyway if you've enjoyed OSTs from 90s-00s videogames. In fact it kind of rings a bell in that regard. Despite of the seemingly random pauses, the music itself has some continuity. I liked specially the M84-M92. But a question arises: why keeping the key of this piece if it diverts that far away from it? I myself do that as well, but I'm just curious about your thoughts. Finally, I did like the add9 in that Eb at the end. It's a bit contrasting, sounds like the bad trip is over. Regards!