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Thanks to all 16 participants who submitted music to the competition - the recipients of the "2025 Halloween Participant" Award: Fumage - Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Bassoon (Halloween Competition Submission) by @Justin Gruber CLOWNS - Fall 2025 Halloween Competition Submission by @sebastian Pafundo Woodwind Quintet No. 1 - Halloween Competition Submission by @Maxthemusicenthusiast Trio Variations in D minor: A Submission to the 2025 Halloween Composition Competition by @TristanTheTristan Aos Si - Piano Quintet for Halloween by @HoYin Cheung YCF Composition Competition - Halloween 2025 (Submission) by @UncleRed99 YC Halloween Contest Entry - The Mist by @Kvothe Bagatelle No.6 | Om. 101 by @Omicronrg9 2025 Halloween Competition - DANCE FROM THE SKELETON BALL (Submission) by @MK_Piano From Above, Now Below by @Thatguy v2.0 A Hollow Theme for Halloween (Fall 2025 Competition) by @therealAJGS Piano Quintet in G sharp minor - 2025 Halloween Competition Submission by @Wieland Handke American Cryptids - Fall 2025 Halloween Submission by @Micah Dima’s National Dance - 2025 Halloween Submission by @Dima Daunting Steps - Quintet for Piano, Flute, Contrabassoon, Violin and Cello - 2025 Halloween Submission by @ferrum.wav Diptych for Piano Quartet (Submission) by @Cosmia The members have voted! --<< Decisive Fanfare >>-- And the winners are: For winning the "2025 Halloween Spookiest Piece" award with 9 votes - "From Above, Now Below" by @Thatguy v2.0 will receive the following badge: For winning the "2025 Halloween Strangest Piece" award with 8 votes - "Aos Si" by @HoYin Cheung will receive the following badge: For winning the "2025 Halloween Biggest Thriller" award there is a tie with 5 votes each! - "From Above, Now Below" by @Thatguy v2.0 and "Diptych for Piano Quartet" by @Cosmia will receive the following badge: For winning the "2025 Halloween Theme Winner" award with 7 votes - "From Above, Now Below" by @Thatguy v2.0 will receive the following badge: Congratulations to all the winners! We will now move your pieces into the "Competition Hall of Fame" subforum! And thanks to all the following participants who also reviewed all the entries! The contest would not have been as much fun and as instructional as it was without you! The following members will receive the "Ardent Reviewer" badge () for their efforts in meticulously reviewing all the entries: @TristanTheTristan, @Kvothe, @Omicronrg9, @Thatguy v2.0, @therealAJGS, @Wieland Handke, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, @chopin and myself @PeterthePapercomPoser And thanks to me @PeterthePapercomPoser for organizing and managing all the competition polls, announcements, submission thread, badges, results, satisfaction survey and advertising outreach! I will receive the "2025 Halloween Community Organizer" badge: To take the 2025 Halloween Satisfaction Survey go here: To listen to all the entries go to the submissions thread: To check out the popular voting polls go here: And for the competition announcement go here:

Nah, this is GREAT. Thank you, it's so great to come back to this forum and stumble upon such a magnificent work. I agree with Peter in that you should leave the flutes as they are. This live would probably be great! I am not really a fan of concertos. For some reason they don't really stick to me, it just must be that I have not listened to them enough and with enough attention. But here, listening to this, I feel right at home. What a delightful first movement! It was light, gentle, sweet and very enjoyable in summary, although it was not bland or boring, I loved the tenser moments with lots of timpani and the passage right after the introduction. You clearly know your craft and I think that shows in the equilibrium between the orchestra and the soloist! The andante was also lovable. It did even gain a bit of sweetness but it didn't become overwhelming, pompous... No, again I find equilibrium, and I cannot really stop the piece so here I come again. Some resolutions of certain passages remind me a lot of the second movement of Haydn's Trio No. 39, and probably of lots of other pieces written by him but this one came to mind. Third movement was a tiny tiny bit darker or more serious, those minor passages preceded by the striking brass+timpani tuttis (or tuttis overall, didn't see the score at that point) were something I 200% enjoyed. And the last fanfares and finally, the coda... Damn. Impressive, hats off. I feel almost like if I had attended to a premiere of some great musical work (and at my place that's not very common, it's either ultrahyperdissonant or conceptual stuff or already established music by our grand masters of the past). What a great job, many many thanks and congratulations. I have already shared it with my friends. Hi man. Since the OP did not reply yet let me just throw two very well known references that you may know as well, but just in case: ♫ The study of Orchestration by Samuel Adler ♫ Principles of Orchestration by Nikolai Rimsky-Kosarkov In the rare case you haven't heard of them, here you go. Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

Well at least for Hollywood films music I guess. Many film composers in the Art Films are actually quite great.

sup The notes are readable, but it's like if I told you "baseball me like" instead of "I like baseball". You're using a DAW, so things like string section 1-4, single piano whole notes, 2 voices in the flutes when you probably didn't mean it, are pretty obvious things that jump out that shouldn't be there. I get what you're trying to do, but that midi seems pretty simple; it might be worth it to type in by hand the notes in musescore or something to better practice. This seemed like incidental music, like film music, and I didn't really hear much for melodies except the repeated motif like 2 minutes in. I think as it's written it'd work best to depict a scene rather than a stand alone orchestra piece. Maybe that's what you're going for? Improvements? Thicker textures, your chords are pretty bare. Maybe study up on melody (Mozart and Chopin are some of my favorites for that) to help in that department. Honestly, if you REALLY want to get better, keep writing for piano and small ensembles, the orchestra can wait. Work on simple things, like 2 note counterpoint. You'll learn a lot about harmony, and the more interesting you can make simple music, the better your works of grand scale will be. Also, not sure on that ending. Just seemed out of place. But, great work nonetheless, and thanks for sharing! Some people like to keep updating the same thread as they work on something, but other times we may hear back from you a few months down the line with the final version of this. Either is fine, just keep up the writing 😄

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 10 7 10 9 9 8.75

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

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

Hi @therealAJGS! I like the hook you use throughout the music, it kinds of reminds me Gamelan music with the percussion bell-like instrument. The organ definitely adds some ghostly mood to the music. I think acting as a sort of Halloween background music this one will definitely work. The solo music in 2:50 sounds nice to me. Harmonically except the modulation to Bb minor in 2:12 the music mostly stays in G sharp minor, so the music is more or less moved forward only by timbral contrast, not harmonic progression. i am sure in some spot there can be some modulations! Thx for sharing and joining the competition! Henry

"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

Aaah, understood. To be honest, I had never thought much of differences between modern film composers ways of developing motives and themes and the ways of the grand masters of the past. See you around in the forums 😁

@chopin and @therealAJGS are you going to vote in the poll?

Sorry, Ignore the previous post. It is too messy. Hi There! Welcome to YC! Anyways, I can clearly hear from the start of what tone you want it to be like. I favor that part from measures 49-76. It generally gives a Coda feeling. You might be wondering: @TristanTheTristan, why didn't you just write from bars 49-the end? That is because, you had outlying part at the end for piano solo, which doesn't feel like it was needed. I will be analysing most bars by themselves here. Interesting, slightly prokofiev-like ideas. Is intended to sound very slightly off-beat by the end? The following is quite a smart idea that plays with syncopation. Nice! (Harp) No. Rename it to just 'Piano (Right hand)'. It is not grand at all. It barely plays anything at all. It usually plays a note and then rests. Other times it is just playing eighths. You are not using the bass either, so rename Piano (Right Hand). Also notice that you are using the simplest chords possible at most times. I, IV, V, not even using the relative minor which would be VI. I listened through the full 3 minutes and whatever something seconds and I didn't find a hint of other chords. You should study pieces like Fantasie Impromptu by Frederyk Chopin Op. Posth. 66, by NOT LISTEN TO IT AND ENJOY IT, but instead study the chords he has used. Study Gaspard de Le Nuit's Ondine by Maurice Ravel M.55 in the same way. Apatite is supposed to be glowing-like. This feels too straight-forward. Music isn't like that. In musical composition you use your brain to find ways to describe it. It is just like the technique in lingual-writing: Show don't tell. You are telling. Good composers show. If you tell it, it might be a lie, but if you show it, you couldn't be lying. Listen, you know what, here is something: on discord I am friends with Meliton Soupelin; you probably know about him. At the start of my composition journey, he has given me great advice. Exactly the following: "Also, if you are at the start of your composition journey, I strongly warn against trying to compose large pieces. Start with small pieces and work your way up with progressively larger pieces only when you are satisfied with the results of the smaller compositions.Your quality of work will substantially increase. I used to compose like you when I was younger. I forced myself into studying my favorite pieces and trying to understand each technique the composers used, and apply them myself. I did not merely pay attention to melody and technique, but also harmony and structure. It was a humbling but very reward experience.That is my only advice. Few people have the bravery to take it. They usually get mad and leave in a huff. But the ones who did follow my advice have made significant improvements as composers." -Meliton Soupelin. I took his advice of forcing myself into studing my favourite pieces and composers and their techniques and everything. I studied Polonaise Fantasie for hours. Then, I continued with the next piece, and then the next. As he said, it DOES in fact take much effort, but worth it. I now see, that he was correct all the way, and I am glad I took his advice. Even now I am using this technique, and as a composer I have wrote much better pieces than before. I wish you listen to my advice. Have a nice compositional life. Remember, Every composer goes through different things. You don't have to take my advice if you don't want to. It is your choice whether you want to regret it or not. Bye. -TristanTheTristan 03/11/2025

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9 8 9.9999 8 7 9 10 8.8749875

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 7 7 10 9 9.5 5 6.5 7.625

Hey Peter. Sorry I ended up missing out these last few days of the month. Personal-side issues, on quite a severe level, have had my focus diverted on them rather than here. Since Music is more of a Hobby for me, I'm unable to prioritize it often. I will still go through and provide feedback for the pieces I missed, as time permits, for the sake of integrity and following through with what I helped to plan for the forum with you all. 🙂

Hi, I just caught up. I just reviewed Max and Uncle reed.

Entry:Woodwind Quintet No. 1 Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 6 7 6 10 9.5 8 8 6 Average Score:7.5 Average Harmony, Textures, Chords: This piece explores the boundaries tonality and plays with sense serialism, chromatism, and dissonance. However, it never quite full fills that modern sense of what atonal and serialism should be. The dissonances seem to resolve, which is not common in serialism and atonal music. If the piece push beyond further, it could achieve so much more. Score: The score was laid out in professional manner. It was easy to read. The only thing that noticeable was odd notation with rest between beats. Execution: Meet the core requirements of the challenge. However, the Halloween theme or mood was not meet. Orchestration and playabity: If this given to woodwind musicians, the odd notation could be problematic. They might be not know how to count that. Thematic material: Usually in serialism or atonality, certian methods are used to devopl the core idea. I feel these methods were not used, but could be used. Originality: This is certinally a creative and orginal piece. Taste: the slowiness of piece made harder to listen to. If the piece had achieved serialism and atonality, then that it would be better. Form: It lacked proper strcuture.

And... I am done! Thank you and good job to everyone who has joined the competition! I am looking forward for the Christmas Competition!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!

Hi Justin. Welcome to the forums! I'll try to be brief here and I will possibly fail terribly. First of all, nice scoring, very standard and professional looking. "The winds enrapture a surreal version with significant variance in color and timbre, demonstrating the depth and nuance that the smoke and candle cannot on their own." (A surreal version of what? Fumages?) "This piece takes that imagery into sound, with wisps of timbre, sudden bursts, and eerie colorations from the woodwinds. It mirrors candlelight, smoke, and the blurred line between reality and apparition—an atmosphere that fits the surreal and haunting spirit of Halloween." This is an informal competition. I am aware that kind of "selling" your piece with words like these is the everyday basis, the norm, specially in more "serious" ($$$) music composition competitions, calls for scores, etc. and in some other places within this vast realm. Let me just state that there's no need to here, and frankly after listening to your work for the fourth time (1st time before reading the speech in the PDF, 2nd-4th after having read both small texts) I still can't see how what you say your piece depicts matches in any way or form with halloween, or even spookish fumages, of course, other than by you yourself fixing these concepts and thus tying them to your music by means of the words that you have put before the very score begins. This is not to say Fumages themselves are not spooky or suggest Halloween-like sensations. To me, they very much are (some): So there are two possibilities, either you composed this piece in 2024 with "an atmosphere that fits the surreal and haunting spirit of Halloween" in mind or you submitted it elsewhere, with another speech more adequate to that moment, and then reused it here. If it's the former, weird that no reference to Halloween is found in your introductory text. If it's the latter, I do not buy it and there is no need to do that here 😉. Let's finally continue to the piece itself. Not sure if the audio is incorrect at the beginning or it's just on my end but I hear M9 like this instead of how it's written. Other measures with this rhytmic fragment happen to sound like that sound-wise. Just a detail. Second, I do think I have listened to this piece before. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Third: I more or less agree with the commentary of @UncleRed99. I myself have pieces with X/16 tempi indications and just for reference I don't feel it Halloweenish but I did enjoy some parts of it. I'm dropping an example just for future reference: These are the first bars of Beethoven's Sonata No. 32, 2nd movement. Why? Sure there must be lots of discussion for why the F did our Ludwig choose 9/16 instead 9/8 and possibly many members here have their own ideas! But I digress. Summarising a lot, and Halloweenish considerations aside, you got in my humble opinion a VERY solid introductory section! The way instruments meet while entering the score feels very natural to me and they begin blending so well, creating a nice texture, but then they get a bit lost into some hmmm... not chaotic but vague and definitely not convincing —to me obviously— passages where the music feels like it wants to go to many places at the same time. This is most likely where the atmospheric approach should overcome the typical melody+harmony approach but it doesn't seem to stick to any particular one for long. It's all moments of calm vs moments of half-intricated lines intertwining each other. The former I liked, the latter not so much. My favourite parts of the score are probably the already mentioned beginning and undoubtedly letters M to O, specially the transition from O to P, very well done. You clearly know your craft Justin. Hats off for that great O->P. All in all, a piece that is more or less enjoyable to me, with its ups and downs sure, and imo a brilliant transition. After many listenings, it ended up almost convincing me, specially towards the end of it. Many thanks for submitting your work here, Justin! Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

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!!!

SPANISH VERSION Hola Sebastián. Te contesto en español y luego lo traduciré al inglés todo para que la gente lo pueda leer. En general aquí hablamos en inglés pero no te preocupes, no es problema dedicar un par de líneas en el idioma de Cervantes a tu pieza. Es una pieza que no me ha disgustado para nada. De hecho, teniendo en cuenta que has usado los sonidos del general midi no suena tan mal. La idea se entiende. La ejecución de la idea ya es otro cantar. Me he fijado en esto: Imagino que a menos que el gliss. termine arco arriba el pizzicato instantáneo está complicado de hacer. Puede comportar una dificultad innecesaria, pero si a ti te gusta como está no hay más que hablar. La pieza en sí no abandona la disonancia pero tampoco se va tan lejos como para provocarme aversión o disgusto. Generas una atmósfera de suspense que con instrumentos de verdad o con mejores sonidos (soundfonts mejores o usando librerías) estoy seguro de que funcionaría muy bien. El final, sin embargo, no me convence, pero en este caso no sé si atribuirlo a la pieza o al sonido, que no ha permanecido todo el tiempo necesario para dejar la tensión suspensiva que has creado el tiempo suficiente. Viendo la partitura diría que es lo segundo. En referencia a la partitura en sí, menudos márgenes! Yo soy muy de ajustarlos mucho, pero creo que incluso para alguien que no esté de acuerdo conmigo y prefiera márgenes más anchos, diría que te has pasado. Puedes aprovechar mucho mejor el espacio y aún manteniendo márgenes grandes, hacer también más grandes los pentagramas y facilitar la lectura. No sé qué programa de composición usas, ¿quizá una versión antigua de Sibelius?. Si no te importa comentármelo a lo mejor podemos entender qué ha pasado aquí, por ejemplo: Estos son solapamientos extraños que no he visto en versiones modernas de este tipo de software, pero vete tú a saber. Haces un uso extensivo (que no abusivo) de los matices, cosa que es inteligente siempre y cuando se haga correctamente. Lo tienes todo bastante bien marcado y de no ser por los márgenes tan anchos yo creo que la maquetación te habría quedado bastante bien (que no está mal, es mejorable. Hay cada cosa...). La pieza, según el midi, dura 2:59, que en interpretación real yo creo que llega a los 3 minutos fácil, ✅. Lo que te dicen los demás usuarios del foro no va desencaminado en mi opinión. Creo que a tu motivo le quedan kilómetros por recorrer. No me extiendo más! Muchas gracias por participar Sebastián, ojalá sigas componiendo (y pasándote por aquí 😀). Un saludo, Daniel–Ø. Ø ENGLISH VERSION Hi Sebastián. I’m replying in Spanish first and then I’ll translate everything into English so everyone can read it. We generally speak English here, but don’t worry—it’s no problem dedicating a couple of lines in the language of Cervantes to your piece. It’s a piece that I didn’t dislike at all. In fact, considering you’ve used General MIDI sounds, it really doesn’t sound bad. The musical idea comes through clearly. The execution of that idea is another story, though. I noticed this: (First IMG) I imagine that unless the glissando ends with the bow moving upwards, an instant pizzicato is quite tricky to execute. It could create unnecessary difficulty, but if you like it as it is, that’s totally valid. The piece itself doesn’t abandon dissonance, but it doesn’t go so far as to provoke aversion or discomfort. You manage to create an atmosphere of suspense that, with real instruments or better sounds (using improved soundfonts or libraries), I’m sure would work really well! The ending, however, doesn’t quite convince me. But in this case, I’m not sure if it’s the piece itself or just the sound, which didn’t sustain the tension you created for long enough. Looking at the score, I’d say it’s probably the latter. As for the score margins… wow, those are wide! Personally, I like to make margins tight, but even for someone who prefers wider margins, I think you may have overdone it a bit. You could make much better use of space, and even with big margins, you could enlarge the staves and make reading easier. I’m curious...What notation software do you use? Maybe an old version of Sibelius? If you don’t mind sharing, maybe we could figure out what happened (Second image). These are some strange overlaps I haven’t seen in modern versions of this kind of software, but who knows. You make extensive (but not excessive) use of dynamics, which is smart as long as it’s done properly. You’ve marked everything fairly clearly, and if not for the wide margins, I think your layout would have turned out quite well (and it’s not bad as it is, it just could be improved). According to the MIDI, the piece lasts 2:59, which I think would easily reach three minutes in real performance. What the other forum users say is pretty much on point in my opinion. I think your main motif still has a lot of potential for development. I’ll stop here! Thank you very much for sharing, Sebastián—I hope you keep composing (and dropping by here). Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

@therealAJGS I attached it here. Woodwind Quintet No. 1.mp3 I hope you do not mind, @Maxthemusicenthusiast! If this had any bossa feeling, you made sure to change it completely. One can still perceive the rhythm but it's something utterly different. Hi Max, and welcome to the forums! Interesting notation here: I am not too used to it and I myself don't use it, but it's cool and convenient for some and I totally understand why! I agree with @Thatguy v2.0, first part of the piece seemed like a prelude and I liked it despite of the MIDI sound (that doesn't actually bother me because of videogames I played in the past, I believe). I also agree that the fast part ends a bit too soon to my taste, but you created a very nice theme, really I think you found some gold combining the slowed down bossa nova rhythm with these dissonant passages. You take your time and don't go farther away, which I like, as sometimes we are tempted to break rules in all directions due to having broken some on a single one. I am glad you did not do that, consciously or not. You make good use of dynamics, articulations, and your writing contains nothing incredibly difficult. This piece you submitted suggests me you do know your craft, you did not rush the end, and I feel balance when I listen to your piece over and over again. It doesn't sound very Halloween-ish to me, though, but it doesn't really need to. The work is sober, but solid, and it does a good job by portraying some indeed sinister place in my honest opinion. It does transmit uneasiness to me, but at the same time, it doesn't let me go far away and keeps me there, uneasy, but enjoying nonetheless. Shall I repeat again, the ending did convince me. Very good job. Thank you for your submission, I hope you stay around! Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

Hi Tristan. I'll try to be brief: your material is decent. I'm not puttin' grades in this informal competition but some variations here are not of my taste and would not pass. Others, maybe. I am not sure myself, for 4 hands at least. Passages like these seem very difficult to get right for one hand only: , had it been a B natural I would see it more feasible but with the speed demanded and the time you are required to sustain it, well I agree with MK's point: performers would ask you to change stuff right away or pass it off. If this is what you truly like though, don't hesitate to follow your path but be aware of the shortcomings when it comes to publish. Where is variation 12? Is the one that began at M248 perhaps? The score seems to go from 11 to 13 "Alla de Var. 12" but I don't see the Var. 12 marked. If it's that one, it's among my favourites along Var. 8. Regarding the engraving, the score is pretty much unrevised as likely 90% of scores submitted to musescore so no biggie, just another day in the job. Standard. Since it's not very heavy on content off-staff there are not overlaps (or I didn't detect any in a superficial analysis) and that's definitely a good thing. With this piece, in summary, I did like some things, disliked some others... So it ended up being about even, except for the final. Thank you for your submission, Tristan. Keep composing! Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

Hi, HoYin Cheung! Bear with me for a small while this time. Couldn't resist to quote this, I think it's a very good way to define the difficulty of some parts of this score. It doesn't seem to be an easy feat for neither the strings nor the pianist (perhaps the pianist has less trouble than the violin though!). I am in partial agreement with @MK_Piano here. I do appreciate the atmosphere you created in some parts (the piano solo w/pedal part for example), but after a couple of listenings, and while being true that "I wouldn't mind listening to it again" (and so I did, many times already), there is essentially nothing that makes or would make me gravitate towards this piece enough to listen to it much longer. At this point, I may have heard hundreds of these pieces, part here at YC or other forums such as free-scores, part LIVE, and while I honestly think you did a good job with the score and you probably took a while to write all of this... Truth is, that after the less and less likely initial surprise/shock it went directly to the same far away place in my mind that I am no longer curious to explore or remember. It just melt, liquid; fused with an immeasurable and diffuse blob of notes, clusters and dissonances that are all different yet they feel the very same and which time has taught me to withstand but never to enjoy. Truth is, I very rarely enjoy "contemporary" pieces of this kind, more of a mesh of dissonances stained with interesting material than anything else. They almost always simply "go through", and this one was sadly no exception. However, I would say the ending of this piece was ok, which is five to ten orders of magnitude better than what I usually think of ending sections/passages/bars of pieces that more weakly or strongly (I guess that's again subjective) resemble your piece. And as a rule of thumb with all pieces that come with a description first, I tend to have a listen or two before I read it. Now it would be impossible to me to tell you if reading it beforehand would have influenced me enough to be in agreement with what you claim to portray with your piece, but by having done the opposite process I can guarantee you that from my humble and maybe very wrong opinion (not only because I am not familiarised with Gaelic culture but because I am familiarised with the particular sound of this particular style of contemporary music) this piece did not evoke anything related with the story, not any more than other pieces or parts in pieces like...Dunno: • String Quartet No.1 - Javier Torres Maldonado • Ligeti: String quartet No.2 - Arditti quartet. Just in case, I am not sure if these are composers of reference (they ain't very famous but they ain't precisely unknown either) or that they do mimic your work, this is not what I tried to convey here. Finally and despite my not very benvolent words I would still judge your piece at least one or two orders of magnitude above any section of these two examples I have provided had they been brought to this informal cozy contest, so they may not do justice to the work of yours. All in all, thank you for your submission! Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

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 9.5 6 8 Average Score:9 very good The chromatic double stops in 1st violin might cause some to throw the score at you.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 6.5 6.5 9.5 10 10 5.5 9.5 Average Score: 9.5 Very good Th exaction for this competition was to write a piece between 3-7 minutes with a sweet spot of 5 minutes. If this was formal competition, it would not make pass the first round. There was a lack a proper form and devolvement in this piece; However, it was creative and original, and certainly the score looked professional and if this was delivered to players, they could read it. The melodic material was design.

@MK_Piano Thank you for your kind reply. I hope my music is still pleasant to "post-tonal" ears. I treat it as a compliment when audience tell me they are willing to revisit - that means there are some places of work that is worth memorizing. While in the post-tonal context, while there are lots of idea I want to express in my work, I agree that there should only be "necessary" details in the writing - audience should be able to enjoy the work with their ears - instead of intelligently enjoying the tuplets or excessive dynamic markings by compulsively referring to the score.🫠 Gosh, I apologize for the double stops. I hope all violinists and pianist will forgive me for the effect.😆 While this work will be a part of my larger set of project "Festive", I do want to make it distinctive from other few works. So yes, I am writing this Halloween music with a storyline and realistically refering to the tradition - glad to hear from you I might have succeeded to convey the idea. Thank you!

I enjoy this piece! The choice of the woodwinds is good - balanced timbre - especially with oboe adding some sense of mystery to the work. The melody is pleasant to listen to, and the development is natural and colourful. But in terms of the competition, I think it might not be the best fit in the "Halloween" theme (perhaps too joyful? 😅) However, I think section N and O lost some "energy" there - I know you may want to depict the gradual diffusion (dying out) of the smoke - I believe there are potential to be more harmonic before the recapitulation. Regarding the playability, I think it is completely fine, in terms of the clear indication and suitable difficulty to the players. Irregular time signature is a feature here. I think it is a light-hearted work that is worth a concert performance! Good work!

In the modern landscape, this, to me, was refreshing to listen to. I have experienced listening to bad post-tonal works where my peer thought more noise and crazy writing benefited the music or hall being played. I appreciate the landscape you painted and would not mind listening to this again in the future. Of course, on an objective level, this piece is difficult. I think it would be effective when played live, however, I would be the one to pass off learning it and give it to the next musician due to the ensemble difficulty lol. When applying it to Halloween, I think you have succeeded. Maybe not in the terms of the 'trick or treat' or lighthearted celebration that happens each year, but in terms of capturing the eerie and scary images a haunted house or creepy film shows. Good work!

@Justin Gruber I appreciate this submission a lot. Some of comments or ratings seem to come from a place of tonality and western structure versus the post-tonal lens this casts. For the style, I think the execution works well. This said, this will take time for performers to nail due to the syncopation playing tricks on their ears, however, I think it is a better condition for it to be challenging on an ensemble level versus a soloistic level. (I have a feeling you already know this to be true lol) For my personal style, I would space the measures out more and keep it to 4-6 measures versus a long stave of 8 measures. Even though you can fit 8 measures in one system, it grows to be a little "cluttery" at times (Measures 56-80). My final critique is when you apply this piece in the sense of "Halloween". I am not 100% convinced this conveys Halloween. It seems to cast the fall season in my opinion. I did not feel a "spook" or sense of "creeping" when listening. Other than these comments, I found your work to be enjoyable! Love to see when people employ some good front matter and proper copyright information. 🙂

@TristanTheTristan As I am still getting accustomed to the site, I have taken it upon myself to get familiar with some of the other forums and type of music people have put on YCF. I have been interested to explore what people have to offer, and from my curiosity, I decided to also start giving feedback on scores submitted by people for this Halloween Competition. This said, to whomever I comment on, I will be treating them like a professional and write based on the expectation that they know, at minimum, intermediate music theory. For now, I will avoid making a table of my rating, however, please find the following to be my review of your submission. As a final note, I like to be straightforward with colleagues, and by no means am I coming from a place of bad faith. I want to push my peers to new heights, and I will be honest with them so they know the truth and can evolve from there. __________ While fitting the criteria of the competition, I do not see this piece as a practical work made for performance. I have noticed multiple errors where a professional concert pianist would have a high level of difficulty playing this work; specifically "Variation 4" where you employ single note tremelos. However, they are not uncommon to use as Liszt, and Debussy used them in their music. Liszt in the Friska from "Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2" and Debussy from the Prelude "...Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest". In comparison, your usage of them is more difficult due to the amount of note shifts a pianist will have to do, versus the raw technique. In a similar mindset, I do not believe the first section from measures 1-40 to be realistically playable on the piano. Continuing on, the engraving for the score concerns me heavily. The measures seem to be too small or placed too closely together throughout and in spots, like measure 128, you have two different spellings for the same note (G# and Ab). Musically, is it rather interesting and I did enjoy the theme you created. I love to write in D-minor when given the chance, and I was vibing with the "sinister" nature the key provides in your theme. If you would like to talk more or explore these comments, I would not mind doing so. Thank you for taking the time to read this 🙂

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 6.5 8 8 7 9 7 Review: Form Development Structure Time: 6.5 I score this 6.5 for it was hard to listen to ABA form for 7 minutes. You have to keep in mind that the general listener has short attention span. ABA are usually shorter. But given the time frame that we had to meet...I realize the challenge it was to write ABA. Score Presentation: 8 I score this an 8 for the score looked professional; and if you send this to ensemble they would be probably say yes. Instrumentation Orchestration Playability: 7 There were some interesting spots when the music went into 7 where the division changed every measure. Not to mention that meter of the piece changed throughout You have to count for sure. Originality Creativity: 8 This was truly original concept and your put thought and creativity into. Kudos Melodies Themes Motives: 7.5 In the A section, there was ostinato that held it together. that was interesting, The interplay between flute and oboe grabbed my attention. Harmony Chords Textures: 8 The texture of this piece was not homophonic but polyphonic and borderline polymetric. So there was more independency of the three parts than chorale. Execution: 7.5 It meet reequipment to write a trio and time, but I did not feel it for Halloween. Taste: 7 This is hard to describe. I feel this would be great for concert. Average score: 7.6 Standard

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 8 8.5 9 7.5 7 9.5 9 Entry: Trio Variations in D Minor Hi @TristanTheTristan I am going to highlight areas the areas that believe could reworked. As a pianist, I think those 32nd notes could be replace by tremolos instead. They have a similar effect. The readable in the piano section is hard at times. I do not where the beats are. You have difficult rythmn patterns that make it hard to play. Also, those single note tremolos, are not idiomatic. You will see them more in strings. What you need to do is write them out. Trust me! That is why you scored 7 in playabity and in 7.5 score presentation. You score higher in the other areas for it was original, creative, and you knew how to create variations. You carried through this competition. And you melodic material was spot on. It just needs better notation and idiomatic writing. 7.4/10

nice! quite a fitting piece. there is a lack of theme though. some interesting chords and great texture. Average: 6.875 Below Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 4 8.5 9.5 7 7.5 7 6.5 5

id give it a 6.7 out of ten.

7.5/10

Hi @TristanTheTristan! This one has a cool atmosphere in it! And I like how you vary the theme. I am more on the playability issue here. The quadruple stops in b.31-38 are unpractical to be played on a real violin, like in b.32-36 any notes lower than the E string would be unplayable with the E string to achieve the quadruple stops. The double pizz. in b.152 variation can also be difficult to play too, as well as the seconds in b.198 for 2nd piano and the octaves for pianists in b.296. Also, I hope there are moments when the first piano's melody isn't the same as the violin's melody! Nonetheless, good attempt to write in a variation form! Henry

Hi @Maxthemusicenthusiast! Thx for joining the competition! The use of motives is very noticeable in the whole piece, and I love the sinister mood you portray in the piece with the crunchy dissonances. I feel like (subjectively) the piece is a bit too long because the music doesn't really move forward especially in the slow sections. I think it's fine in the slow opening, but when you reach the reprise of those slow sections after the fast middle section, I think you can cut the ending a bit, or at least add more varieties in it, for example invite more polyphony and interactions between instruments. For both the Andantino and Allegro sections I feel like the tempo can be faster to make the basso nova feeling more lively, and like b.58-66, having more individual voices instead of just the melody and the rhythmic bass. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hi @sebastian Pafundo! Thx for joining the competition! Gonna agree on both of them. I like the dark mood in it, even though I think the music can move forward a bit more in around 2:00. The motive of the piece is quite noticable with the hiccups of rests. I also agree with @Thatguy v2.0 on the ending, it definitely sounds inconclusive which could possibly be developed more. But, given the length of the piece I think the development of material is quite OK to fit into the mood! Henry

Pros: Keeps a certain mood throughout good instrument layering Cons: a bit repetitive Suggestions: make some parts more playful or intense. I'm agreeing with Tristan here, 7.875 standard

English/Inglés Hi there! Welcome to the Forums of Young Composers! Anyways, I always like to start with the positives. You have used various amounts of dynamics, and dissonance (I am starting to see a pattern here). I find a clear sequence that is repeated throughout the music. Very good!

Nice Quintet! I find a lot of dissonance used, nice! Sadly, it is slightly boring to me. Otherwise, it is good!