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First of all, congratulations on meeting the submission deadline. This competition was a real challenge, and despite the two-month timeframe, only half of the participants who originally planned to submit a composition actually finished their work! Melodies Themes Motives and Harmony Chords Textures: There is a distinctive motif introduced by the English horn in measures 3–4 that runs through the entire piece in various variations. Other motifs serve to create a kind of counterpoint in the “rich” sections of the string accompaniment, while other homophonic and rhythmic passages feature an interplay between “pizzicato” and “arco,” resulting in a varied texture. The harmonies are „friendly“ and I like that there is sometimes some „spice“ with dissonances. Form Development Structure Time: Even though I can’t identify any specific traditional form, such as ABA or rondo, the piece is nonetheless structured into, shall we say, “episodes,” which makes it more distinctive than other submissions that consist of an “endless” flow of motivic material. Originality Creativity: It was creative, not only to portrait a landscape as a „still life“ but telling a little story, the „lamento of the shepherd which lost (hopefully only one of) his sheep“. Especially the „coda“ (from mm. 89 on) reminds me of this lamento – while, fortunately, not in a deeply sad way, but in a somewhat humorous one! Score Presentation: The score is clean and easy to read. Instrumentation Orchestration Playability: The choice of using a string quartet as accompaniment and the English horn as the solo instrument gives the piece a rich, pastorale mood. I think, there are no playability issues. Execution of Given Challenge: The challenge of depicting a landscape and thus creating an image in the listener’s mind’s eye has been met with great success. Moreover, you successfully avoided the risk of creating an endlessly meandering flow of sounds by using simple but memorable motifs and a variety in the texture. Taste: I very enjoyed it with its calm and, at some passages, humorous character. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 8.5 9 9 9 9 8 Average Score: 8.8125

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 7 8 10 Disqualified due to being too long, but otherwise Average is 9.4 Congratulations! You got the highest score from me. I scored everyone else quite low. My only issue was the horn was sometimes a little high, and although each instrument is generally well written for, the ensemble would be a little imbalanced if performed live I think. But besides that, it was great. It's a shame it's too long! Thanks for sharing, it was a very enjoyable listen!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 9 8 10 10 9 7 7 Average 8.5 This was really well written piece and the score is beautiful. And I say this despite it not quite being to my taste. Your talent is very much recognized and appreciated

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 4 4 4 2 6 3 2 GoT Disqualified because string orchestra is not a 5 instrument ensemble. Otherwise average is 3.6 A sunset isn't a landscape, and the piece didn't really convey a sunset to me anyway. Sounded just like Game of Thrones. As a constructive note, Violas have only four strings and can't play a sextuple stop.

Melodies Themes Motives: The piece is full of motifs that reflect the various impressions experienced during voyage of the ship. Most of them not in the manner of a melody but rather to create the respective impression: the waves, the storm, and the loneliness of a quiet night. However, there are also some melodic lines that turn the whole thing into “music” and not not only an agglomeration of imitated “sounds.” Well done! Harmony Chords Textures: The harmonic style is—though surprising at first—very varied: dramatic, atonal passages shift directly to more tonal, calm ones and are then interspersed with jazzy sections—which I really liked. One can literally imagine the different situations of the ship’s voyage: storm and heavy waves – and then again the calm, open sea or a lonely starry night. Form Development Structure Time: The composition does not follow any specific traditional form, which is perfectly acceptable for a piece intended to depict certain images, tell a story, or even serve as film music. Unfortunately, the playing time of more than 9 minutes exceeds the limits requested by the contest’s prerequisites. Originality Creativity: There is a lot of creativity! First, your attempt to get the inspiration from a prompt given random people with the task to draw the picture. How many attempts did you need? Or did you go with the first one? Since the result was unpredictable, you had to take up a scenario you perhaps did not think on and translate it to the music! And there is also lot creativity in the music itself. The instrumentation and the contrast between the more dramatic and the playful, jazz-like sections! Score Presentation: The score, while being dense due to the many “virtuoso” passages that need to be engraved, is clear and readable. Perhaps you have decided for the smaller font on the other instruments than the piano to achieve that more staves would fit on a single page. Instrumentation Orchestration Playability: The instrumentation is very interesting: With the piano as the foundation and providing the more rhythmic and percussive base, the strings consisting of a cello and violin—thus offering a large ambitus—and the horn and timpani serving as festive and signaling elements, you have a variety of sounds at your disposal to create a piece with different colors. As for playability, I think it would be at least “challenging” and would require a certain degree of virtuosity if performed by human musicians. Execution of Given Challenge: You have clearly mastered the challenge of the contest with excellence! But – and that hurts me to say – not met the rules of the competition. As you stated yourself that you „might’ve gone overboard with the duration“, you are aware of that rule violation. And I can truly understand that, when being in a „flow“ composing, it is sometimes hard to come to the end if there are a number of ideas which have to been expressed. Concerning the huge amount of effort you must have spent to achieve that final result, you’re tempting me to break the rules as well by giving you a score that takes all (other) criteria into account and doesn’t skip your piece due to disqualification. Taste: Even if that genre (let me call it „soundtrack“ or „movie score“) is not my favorite one, I really like it due to it creative ideas and colorfulness. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 10 5 10 8.5 9.5 10 9 Average Score: 9.0

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 6 8 4 9 9 8 4 Average 6.9 Not poorly written per se, but I really just don't like this style. It's sentimental, but like in a shallow way. 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 7 8 5.5 1 7 10 8.5 6 Average 6.6 Not much going on motivically (not a bad thing) but the few that are present work well for the style, and I quite enjoy renaissance harmony. But I can't say it's original at all. Sounds like any other renaissance brass piece. The score is ok, be sure to put fermatas in all voices at the end. Not very well versed in the instrumentation, so I'll assume it's perfect, and the style and instrumentation certainly evokes the landscape. Good job overall.

rescinded

rescinded

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 10 8 9.5 9.5 9 9 8 Average Score: 8.8 Review: This piece features a rich variety of motifs that also capture the pastoral mood. The textures are excellent, in my view, with sections where certain instruments fall silent (which I find an interesting way to thicken and thin out the textures and create contrasts), and there are many contrapuntal passages. At the same time, the lines are crafted with relative simplicity, without resorting to technically demanding or uncertain passages. I think it is an excellent approach to stick to what one knows is possible and make the most of it. The sections are distinct, but I also feel the overall impression is quite free. The score is very well presented. Although it is implied, given that the English horn is a transposing instrument, it might be worth mentioning that it is in concert pitch. There is one section which, I think, could be handled differently. Between bars 49 and 56, an attempt is made to create a climax leading into a new section and the entry of the English horn. However, I do not find this entirely effective as it relies on a ‘crescendo’ increase in volume; it would It is also worth mentioning that the English horn is pushed to its limits in the high register (I seem to recall a C5). However, the lower register does not appear to be explored, which is precisely where a standard oboe cannot reach.

If you intend to write romantic-styled piece, You may want a good melody to start the piece, like a singable theme which the listener can easily recognize throughout the piece. By good melody, in my humble opinion, should have "up's and down's" and good contrast other parts of the music. There are some horizontal motion but it is rather oblique and it does not stand out much from the accompliment. You may think it as a opera singer singing passionate tunes and interact with the orchestra. I would also expect more chromaticism in both the baseline and the melody. Candences. I would expect a stronger sense of cadences for the phrases in a romantic piece. It is like journey - you need some rest between the beautiful scenaries so you can stay energetic and focused. Your improvisation seems more modern to me as it reminds me of the never-ending minimalistic music with non-diatonic (non-triadic) lines. For the variety part, you may want to try with Change of tempos Change of baseline rhythms Change of scales/ modality ("colour") Change of timbre (high vs low register of the piano) Change of texture (Density of chords)

Hello there! The Sherphad's Lament Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10. 10 10 10 9.5 10 9 10 Average Score:9.8 Review: The general score presentation and layout was clean and readable. There were a few collisions errs that were noticeable. With the given forces at play, this can be easily playable. There were no imbalances between strings and the E. Horn. Yes! this piece is creative and original in nature. The given forces create an interesting. There is interesting dovetailing with the strings. The strings provide a rich background and middle ground material while the EH carries the foreground material. This, indeed, creates a rich harmonic palate. What I am not sure about is the form of the piece. It seems to free form. Free form pieces (fantasia, preludes, and etc) tend to flow like a river. They have sections where previous comes back. But that depends, on the style and the composer. Here, I think the intent was to create fluid piece that logically flows from start to finish. The high use of motives was well done. The 6 minute mark is one minute above sweet mark. But that is fine. Overall, this is piece I enjoyed. Yes, it is hard to write something. That is where I am at. I am stuck too.

I didn't know the ship sank

Vote for the winners of the Landscapes - Soundscapes competition! Please note that the themed badges were created for the following pieces: Padovana et Gagliarda “Detta la Lombarda” by @L.S Barros - "Rustic Mood" Award Amidst the Clouds & Flowers by @InstrumentalistElle - "Nature's Garden" Award Morning On Whidbey Island by @BipolarComposer - "Peace of Nature" Award City Rail and Nightingale by @Wieland Handke - "Nature and Civilization" Award Alishan (for Flute Quintet) by @HoYin Cheung - "Forest Echoes" Award “Warmth” by @UncleRed99 - "Home and Hearth" Award Lamentare Ciobanului - “The Shepherd’s Lament” by @ComposaBoi - "Pastorale" Award We have decided not to create more badges because it was inevitable that there would be some overlap/competition in the theme-ing of the badges. For that reason we concede that although the above badges were created for those specific pieces, it is up to the voters at large to determine whether those pieces will actually win those badges. The winners of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies will be determined by points allotted in the following way: Every 1st place vote in the poll gets 3 points. Every 2nd place vote in the poll gets 2 points. Every 3rd place vote in the poll gets 1 point. 1st place will be given for the entry with the highest number of points. 2nd place will be given for the entry with the 2nd highest etc. .... The poll will close and the competition will be finalized and winners announced on Tuesday, June 9th, 2026. The competition is now over! See the winners and results here: To listen to all the entries go to the submissions thread: And for the competition announcement go here:

With pleasure!

Hi!! Thank you for taking your time to analyse this! Its true, maybe a thats a bit fast, i could play It at 45-50 bit no 60, ill check that, as for the chords: i wanted to give It a first-ravelian//percussive sonorite, thats why I used extended chords in closed dispositions! Thank you for your feedback!!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 7 5 6 8 10 9 8 Average 7.5 Overall a well written piece. The main issue was the structure felt meandering and didn't have much direction to me. The string chords and arco/pizz changes are completely fine, so I gave you a ten there to counter-balance those who said it wasn't good instrument writing lol. Overall, good job!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 2 4 1 3 5 N/A 0 1 Disqualified, but otherwise average is 2.3 It really doesn't do what it's trying to very effectively. Nothing fugal about it.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 1 1 1 2 0 1 0 1 Average 0.9 Sorry, this just wasn't really anything. Sounds like you pressed random notes on a midi keyboard and not much more.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 7 5 3 6 7 8 9 Average 7.4 Brought me back to old fantasy games! But overall, not much going on, and because it just kinda sounded like old fantasy game soundtrack, I wouldn't say it's particularly original. But I liked the nostalgic trip, so thanks for that

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste N/A 7.5 8 9 1 5.5 7.5 7 Average 6.5 The piece was pretty fun, fairly simple too, and it sounds like good percussion music, but it seems like you maybe are more familiar with large percussion sections in bands rather than percussion ensembles, because I would NEVER write out so many staves for a single percussionist. And the amount of instruments each player has would be a pain to set up effectively in a concert hall. But again, the piece was enjoyable to listen to, and the idea of only percussion is fairly unique compared with other submissions

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste N/A 9 4 8 8 10 8 8 Average 7.9 Good sound, very good string writing! I suspect you play a string instrument? Overall nice quality and conveyed the landscape well, but structurally, nothing really happened. There was no direction except the beginning really. Kind of meandered. Overall though, I enjoyed the piece

No Jeremy Soule yet? 😬

Hi, I'm back yet again, with the 3rd movement of Frank Bridge's "The Hour Glass". It's a crazy work for piano, and not at all easy to orchestrate. I think my filigree passages in the woodwind may be unrealistic in terms of coordination? Also, MuseScore is telling me the vibraphone and marimba parts are straying into "expert" territory, which I guess means you need extra large instruments with additional tone-bars? N.B. The score is an early draft designed for midi only: so will need a lot of adjustments for a real orchestra. Anyhow, hope you enjoy! Frank Bridge - The Midnight Tide #35.mp3 Frank Bridge - The Midnight Tide #35.pdf

A revamped and corrected version of a previously published prelude and fugue transposed from F-sharp minor to E minor, originally comprised of two separately uploaded works joined together as neatly as possible. YouTube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMss1kFsid8 Prelude and Fugue in E minor.mp3 Prelude and Fugue in E minor.pdf

Hello @L.S Barros ! To me, your piece is the one with the most solid musical form and structure, which makes sense, of course, since you chose a piece in the Renaissance or Baroque style; in that era, the musical forms—e.g., melodies, harmonies, voice leading, etc.—came first, before they evoked a specific mood or image—whereas in the Romantic period, it was the other way around. This strength is—on the other hand—also a weakness, since I cannot easily recognize an association between the music and the image it is meant to represent. This might be because I initially associate such a brass ensemble (which reminds me of a German “Posaunenchor”) with Christmas rather than with a serene spring scene. And—since I’ve never been there—I don’t know whether sackbutts are used in traditional Lombardian music. Melodies Themes Motives and Harmony Chords Textures: The piece features simple melodic motifs that harmonize perfectly, giving the dances the character of a chorale. The voice leading sounds harmonious, so I chose not to look for parallel fifths. Form Development Structure Time: You have well done to combine the „Padovana“, a slow, stately processional court dance with its „afterdance“, the „Gagliarda“, which is a fast-paced energetic dance in 3/2 meter with repeated sections (AABBCC). Originality Creativity: You did not invent something new, such as a weird instrumentation or rhythm, but the solidity of the piece makes it unique between all submissions to the contest. Score Presentation: The score is clear and with no issues. It is in concert pitch, e.g. the part of the Soprano cornett has not been transposed, which makes it easier to follow for a reader which is not familiar with transposing. I would have liked to have some articulation and dynamics marks, even if it was not usual in Renaissance or Baroque times. Instrumentation Orchestration Playability: The usage of sackbutts instead of trombones demonstrates the thoroughness with which you have studied the period you wanted to evoke. I think, there are no playability issues. Execution of Given Challenge: The piece really reminds on a scenery from the Renaissance era, corresponding with your image taken from inside an ancient building—or perhaps of other buildings from the same era. Taste: I really like the piece as a solid contrast to the other submissions, which without exception represent “program music.” Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9.5 10 7.5 9 10 7 8 Average Score: 8.75

Hello @Samuel_vangogh Below you will find my review and feed back of your waltz. Score prep: When choosing a M.M it needs to be closer what musicians play. You have a doted half note at 60. Although a program can play that, musicians cannot. A better marking would quarter at 160. That is still rather. You can still provide a tempo marking, too. The dyamic marking are vague. Yes, it starts are p at the start of the piece. But the cres and dim don't indicate rather what dynamic level the player they are heading to. The chords under the melody need to split up! On b 13. remove the chord in the left hand... Form: A: Phrase structure that creates period structure is solid. You have strong sense how use to motive! B: I love the falling 8 note motive and how it does not feel like a waltz A: Great return of waltz.