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I have a question; when you were deciding upon accidentals for measure 41, did you ask yourself: "To ♭ or not to ♭?"

My submission for the Shakespeare summer competition. Looking forward to hearing from the judges. Hope anyone else who listens enjoys, and comments of any sort are always welcome.

This is my submission to Danish's Summer Shakespeare contest. I hope that I put everything in its right place.

As I expected, you really did go big. It was awesome, and as always I'm left wishing that one day I'll get to hear this performed. Even without a live performance though, your ability to write these romantic inspired works is impressive and the passion in it comes through unmarred. Great job as always!

The main theme is good, but the rhythm played by the cello (and the viola in most part) remains unchanged. A different middle section would have bring more contrast. Yes, the ending is a bit hurried. I'm not sure if those cuadruple stops can be played (in such a tonality as C#!) particularly by the cello. And the tremolando with double stops? There's an issue I ask (myself) many times... What's the point in writing like in 18th century? Or in any style of the past. I don't mean we don't use those languages, but there is more, many more to explore (and use in composition). I've written many things imitating classics or romantics, but I usually do for an exercise (Forms, modulations, etc...). Anyway I understand that each one of us can do what he wants to.

Great great stuff. I absolutely adore everything from K to the end especially. But this whole seems perfectly paced and beautifully orchestrated to me. Congrats!

I'm listening to all these entries at work and I'm seriously blown away. Not to sound trite but it is true, it will be very difficult for me to pick a "winner," you folks should all be proud to have such pieces of high quality to add to your already impressive oeuvres.

MIDI is a terrible thing isn't it? Going to be honest, the histories are some of the plays I've never read, but based on what I know from regular history, this sounds like a fine translation of it. Your textures are great and varied and support a very strong melodic line throughout. Nice!

Hamlet is, along with Julius Caesar, my favorite Shakespeare play. I'm really glad that I didn't choose it as the source of my own entry, since both your piece and Monarcheon's did a wonderful job translating it into music, a task I'm not sure I'd been up to (the shadow of Tchaikovsky's Hamlet would have placed me back into the rotten court of Denmark). Indeed you made a very different take - but you played into your strenghts, thus producing perhaps the most convincing piece you've written to this date. That IS the question.

Now this is a major success for me: my tone poem El Cadejos, Op. 38 has been selected among other 5 orchestral pieces, to be read (and quite possibly premiered) by my country's National Symphony Orchestra - a chance I've been waiting for over 18 years. The reading is scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, next week. Already hoping for the best!

Really nice work, KJ. Probably the best work I've heard of yours. I had several "wow" moments. So glad that this competition has brought a great new work out of you.

I found this work confident, passionate and weird, not necessarily in that order. With surprising and arresting chord changes It definitely held my interest. Perhaps you are the type that needs a competition to get the juices flowing. By weird, I should have clarified. I don't mean it in a bad way. I mean that the work is highly original. The choices you made were "different," "fresh." In any case, I liked it.

Wow, you and I really had different interpretations of the source material! A couple interesting things here and there, and I really did enjoy listening to it, even if it didn't match what I saw in "Hamlet". The 9th chord at the end was gorgeous and a really welcome surprise callback. Lovely!

Now this was rather ambitious! I expected an orchestral work from Austenite, but I'm pleased to see he's not the only one. Good luck!

Thanks for your appreciative comments! If you listened to my other stuff, it's easy to notice that I'm rather "traditional" - while tending to reserve a few surprises for the latter half of my pieces. Nevertheless, I included those few bars for two main purposes: 1) To throw the listeners off-balance a bit, 2) to achieve the musical equivalent of Shakespeare's foreshadows, hinting at the upcoming conflict. BTW, I'll make sure to look into your pieces as well.

I love the material in here. Your mixing and use of sounds to build the atmosphere really show off your strengths. The only thing I'd say is that if you're looking to use it as basis for expansion, you may consider revising the existing material to include more "texture" for you to work with (i.e. arpeggiated or pulsed harmonies, rhythmic motifs, etc.). Your harmony and melody are satisfyingly ethereal, especially if it's meant to introduce an album. If you're stuck, fool around with the textures like I said, and see where that takes you. You don't always have to like what you're writing in the moment you're writing it, but don't delete it and sometimes you'll be (pleasantly) surprised when you return to it later. Hope this helps, and would love to hear the finished product someday! Gustav Johnson