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Thanks to all 20 participants who submitted a whopping total of 26 submissions to the 2025 Christmas Music Event! They will be the recipients of the "2025 Christmas Participant" award! - A Christmas Mash-up by @PeterthePapercomPoser Jesus was Born this Day by @Vonias Another Christmas Mash-up by @PeterthePapercomPoser My submission to the 2025 Christmas event!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by @therealAJGS Song for the Fallen (2025 Christmas Music Event Submission) by @Musicman_3254 Submission to the 2025 Christmas Music Event by @TristanTheTristan March of the Gingerbread People (2025 Christmas Event Submission) by @Crescent Roulade Fugue on "We wish you a Merry Christmas" (2017) by @J. Lee Graham Motet a 8 "O Magnum Mysterium" in E-flat Major by @Fugax Contrapunctus fantasia on jingle bells (2025 Christmas Event Submission) by @Monarcheon March of the Snowflakes - 2025 Christmas Event Submission by @Vavrinec O Soul, Seek Revelation 14:9-11 by @SeekJohn14v6 (Very Casual) Christmas Mesh Up by @HoYin Cheung The Empty Church - Submission to the YCF 2025 Christmas Event by @Wieland Handke Highland Shepherds - Submission to the YCF 2025 Christmas Event by @Wieland Handke Jingle Bells and Dashing Through the Snow by @chopin Christmas Carol by @Aiwendil Instead of Christmas (Submission to 2025 Christmas Event) by @Luis Hernández Coventry Carol (Christmas 2025) by @mercurypickles With Every Beat My Heart Knows by @HoYin Cheung A Christmas Scherzo by @PeterthePapercomPoser I composed a Christmas Song! - It went great! by @raymond doerr My Christmas Submission by @Mooravioli Christmas Mash-up No.3 by @PeterthePapercomPoser Glory to God by @SeekJohn14v6 Nutcracker inspired final by @Tunndy And thanks to all the reviewers who ardently and painstakingly reviewed all the entries to the event! (the AI generated ones aren't required): @chopin, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, @Wieland Handke and @PeterthePapercomPoser. They will be the recipients of the "2025 Christmas Reviewer" Award! - (Note that if people still want to review all the submissions after December 31st, they are free to do so and be added to the list of "2025 Christmas Reviewer" Award recipients ex post facto. Check how many more reviews you need to make before getting the badge in the 2025 Christmas Music Event Reviews Spreadsheet. If you're not on the list yet I will add you once you review a more substantial number of pieces.) And thanks to @PeterthePapercomPoser for the event announcement thread, managing new submissions, creating the Christmas calendar event, advertising the event in various discord servers as well as making this conclusion thread! He will receive the "2025 Christmas Organizer" Award! - And we all hope that you had a Merry Christmas and that your 2026 year will be great!!! To see the 2025 Christmas Music Event announcement thread go here:

Now I'm not normally in the business of mashups, but it always bothered me that Selena Gomez's "Rock God" didn't have any rock in it. When I set out to rectify this problem, it occurred to me that the "Burn It To The Ground" riff was perfect for it already, and so...

I'm always a fan of the minor and the modal, and agree with the rest of the room that the surprise C# is a particularly nice moment! If I had one wish, I think it would be nice to play around with something every so slightly different in the left hand the third time through bar one and two instead of doing an exact repeat of that material. We've gone on such a journey by that point, that to evolve, just by a note or two so the listener wonders what has changed, might be interesting to play with. This is really wonderful, and Henry's playing is very tender with excellent phrasing and use of rubato. Bravo to you both!

Hahahaha the photograph showing the DAW is epic It's my theory that Nickelback minus Chad Kroeger's voice is phenomenal, but their infamy remains. This music melts faces, and makes mine do this: Awesome job my friend!

Dude if you're going to give a shoutout give the name! That's @Vasilis Michael, yes their music is awesome 🙂

Hey @Mooravioli! Like Peter said this is a really lovely jazz influenced piece. I like all the suspension and jazz notes in it. The piece to me is somewhat like an after-Christmas party piece, happy but a little sad because the joyful party ends and knowing that it will end one day make us sad. Nice playing as well as the rubato really helps expressing the jazzy mood. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hello dear composers. First of all, I wish you a Happy New Year, and may this year give you even more inspiration for creating even more music. I present to you the first movement of my new sonata. I must admit that it challenged me quite a bit, but the final result leaves me completely satisfied. Here you will also find influences from my favorite composers, but I feel that, specifically in this movement, I put much more of my own introspective and personal style into it. I hope you like it.

Oh I didn’t notice it . Thanks for point it out

This composer has an account here! https://www.youngcomposers.com/p19069/cyberpianist/

I happen to discover this lovely YouTube channel. It is mainly solo piano works, but (still) if is the performance of standard works and originals are excellent. Charming pIano works.

An epistolary work for choir with piano accompaniment. And yes, I did pluck a little clump of dog hair out of a box I was mailing that wriggled and turned out to be a small spider. The spider was released back into the basement, which I'm sure it and the person receiving the box were both grateful for. Thanks for taking a listen! My dear Sir, It may please you to know that this box does not contain a spider. A bit of fluff, pinched out 'twixt thumb and finger, pushed back in desperate protest, unspooling thread-fine legs, and we saw each other face to face, both equally surprised, and so I send your order and a reminder from the spider, who was not mailed to California, that when the hand of Fate plucks you up, beat with your tiny fist, and sometimes the grip relaxes, and Fortune herself will stare in shock at your small soul looking up.

This time I have mixed "O, Christmas Tree" with "Hark! The Herald Angel's Sing!" I included three stanzas of each Carol and each occurrence of each stanza is set differently with the final one being a bit polytonal. Also, this time the mash-up is accompanied by a brass octet instead of strings. And the choir is a SMAATTBB 8-part choir. Thanks for listening and I hope you had a Merry Christmas and that your New Year will be a happy one! I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or observations!

henry my brotha, I apologize for replying to you later, but I am very happy you enjoyed my work. I guess the work has a tinge of sadness to it. After ruminating a lot about life + the anxiety I've been through, the work has an inevitable bittersweetness. I hope to record the piece in its full version for my dedicatee. Thank you as always for commenting. Here is a fun pic:

Hi @Kvothe! I check the score and it only has p.3 with just one staff of score. I will check this out once you update the score to the full version! Henry

Hi @pateceramics! I really like how you use different mood and word painting for different lyrics. The A minor section in b.13 really depicts the agitation to “protest” with short and accented tone, and then the next section you use long slurs to depict the “unspooling thread fine legs”. Next section is like a declamation. And then next section you really “beat” your beat with staccato and accents, and then “relaxes” with longer notes, and ends with longer note value too. Thx for sharing! Henry

Yeah

I wrote this piece over the past two months as a sort of challenge to myself and as a demonstration for a few other people on writing pieces out of short themes. I think it's structurally a lot more complicated than typical sonata allegros, but I kind of got carried away (especially in the recapitulation). Honestly, it sounds to me more like the scherzo (third movement) of a four movement sonata rather than the first movement, and I kind of tried following the scherzo form a bit by introducing some new material in the development section.

Possible performance notes: Calutions is a made up word that plays nicely with its antonym of concoction. It is a collection of complementary flavors. The origin of the word came from a large spice market located in New York City called Kalustyan's. This piece is a collection of modes and scales that have a main stepwise theme, but enters in many different variations in styles. theme : March in B major A; minor variation in B B; waltz in B Dorian C; Taqsim in Phrygian D; Fantasia in B lydian E: folk dance in mixolydian F; sinister March in Locrian G; variation in E Major Pentatonic H; Gagaku in minor Pentatonic I; variation in suspended Pentatonic J; shuffle in blues pentatonic K; folk dance in dominant Pentatonic L: kabuki dance in A insen M: Taqsim in A harmonic minor N; kinda maqsum in double harmonic minor O; Tarantella in A octatonic

Hi @Fruit hunter! The whole piece has wonderful changes of orchestral timbre fitting for each dances. I like how you use B as the tonic for different modes, then E and then A and lastly D as the fundamental note, under the circle of 5th. The whole piece thus becomes a whole bazaar of different cultural dances with fully apt harmony, scale, rhythm, color etc for each dance, but the main theme of the repeated notes is easily recognizable. Thx for sharing! Henry

This is a rather short and concise exercise in writing a sonata for cembalo that is playable even for me. It started with a minuet I wrote for a wedding; some improvising on the piano generated the idea for the allegro, and then only a slow movement was missing to have a three movement sonata, a basic structure popular in the 18th century. The allegro flows happily in 6/8, composed in sonata form; the reprise is slightly shortened so it is not too tedious, but also to have a balanced feel (Exposition: 32 bars; development + reprise 36 bars). The andante (binary form) provides some contrast by starting out in d minor, modulating to a minor and going back via g minor and F Major to d minor. The concluding minuet returns to more joyful music with a lively dialogue of left and right hand. I am considering adding a fast rondo, or composing another sonata concluding with a rondo; not sure about that.

Hi @Willibald! I like the jovial mood for the 1st and 3rd mov minuets. Maybe you can end the Sonata with a Rondeau? Henry

Check out the conclusion to the event here:

Hey Chris! This one sounds really cool! I have never listened to the original song but after listening it, I have to say your version is better! How come a Rock God song lacking rock elements in it! Thx for sharing!! Henry

nutcracker inspired final.pdfmy submission :3 I'd like to get reviews ofc nutcracker inspired final.mp3

Hey @Tunndy! I remember I listened to quite similar music before haha: Maybe you can combine them in one post! I feel like the orchestration here is fuller than the previous versions. It certainly depicts the Christmas mood. Thx for sharing! Henry

Yo Peter! This mashup is my favourite of your 3 because I think this one mixes the best! The counterpoint works so well here and even for passages in b.44 when the "O, Christmas Tree" melody enters in F major while the "Hark! The Herald Angel's Sing!" stays in C major it doesn't sound weird but fluent. That results in a lovely Lydian ending! Thx for sharing! Interesting, you are mixing real composition with originality then "originality" by clicking a button to generate, and call them the same thing as technology.

Yes, the Theorbo is a “larger lute” which (at least here in Germany) is increasingly being used in baroque orchestras alongside the harpsichord and a small organ as a Basso Continuo instrument. I think I first discovered it about five years ago and am always delighted when it is used, for example in Handel's Messiah. It lends such warmth or even a “Mediterranean feeling” to the accompaniment that it surpasses the somewhat “boring” harpsichord and organ, which are unable to play dynamics, while they are needed for rhythmic and percussive accents (the harpsichord) and harmonic filling and foundation (the organ). That in mind, I decided - after nearly completing the instrumentation of my Prelude IX in E major as submission for the 2025 Christmas event - to create a Basso Continuo part, too, to emphasize the Baroque orchestra character. I must admit that it was a larger effort than initially expected (and my figured bass „numbers“ might be error-prone), however I really enjoyed the result so that I came around to present it as an „own piece“ here since I think it is worthwhile to hear it without the other instruments, which otherwise so strongly dominate the Basso Continuo that it's usually only perceived subconsciously. Thank you, @chopin, @Luis Hernández, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, @Kvothe and @PeterthePapercomPoser for confirming my belief that the atmosphere of this trio is calming and it could be indeed played on its own in a church, for example during evening prayers. Oh, I must say that I neither had "Where Sheep May Safely Graze" nor „Sleepers Awake“ in mind (while being wonderful) when composing the prelude, my inspiration was the „Sinfonia“ from the Christmas Oratorio. But, yes, if there are feelings of quotations from Bach, that is intentional (and fortunately, Bach won't be making any copyright claims...).

What a nice piece. Tonal, but quite adventurously so. An absolutely fascinating ending, by the way.

Fun depiction of such an ancient carol. Love how the soprano has a mind of its own though; we can basically call this the disruptor. It blends nicely, but also ads some friction to this well harmonized tune.

I must admit, that I didn’t know the „Coventry Carol“ before, so I had to find out more about it first. Even though it is not a new or own composition, the performance as a „Posaunenchor“ is quite unique and exciting. The picardy thirds at the end of many phrases sound so heartwarmingly clear with the trumpets or trombones! I really enjoyed the meno/crescendo part at bar 41 after nearly falling asleep from the lullaby! And even though the trumpet was obviously obliged to hold back to piano soon, there's still a very jazzy feel to it right up to the end. All in all a very enjoying piece which perfectly captures the calm mood of Christmas, paired with humor and joy!

These guys are really funny https://www.youtube.com/@twosetviolin You gotta watch this episode: The World's FASTEST (and most INACCURATE) VIOLINIST!

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu uh they actually don’t make sense. I actually at least said something, unlike you. You had nothing to say to my previous questions. 🫠 Anyways, I am done interacting with you. I have given you enough of my time. You must have nothing else better to do than bug me. I’ll read whatever you reply to this, after that I’m just going to ignore you.