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I had NO Idea what to name this piece. But I've worked diligently on it, and I feel that it's as good as I'm able to make it. Really just shot for the Halloween/Spooky vibe with both the Instrumentation, key, and rhythmic inflections. Hope y'all enjoy my fun lil' sextet quintet (sorry my brain wasn't all there when I posted this) piece 😉 YCF Halloween Composition 2025.mp3

Hi long time for no posting! I decided to post an old work of mine.This Nocturne in C-sharp minor is a juvenile work of me as a 16 year old. I didn't think much at the time of composing, but I did write in the style of Chopin Nocturne then. And then a sudden thought caused me to have a 1st try in fugue in 2:35! I revised the work recently to improve on some voice leadings and transitions except passages after the fugato, but retained as much the original intention as I can as a 16 year old then. The work, even though as immature as it is, does reflect some of my feelings then. Here is the Youtube video and the score of the piece: (Final Draft) Nocturne in C sharp minor.pdf This work can be regarded as in a rondo structure: 0:00 1st part(A), typical Chopin Nocturne texture. Don't know why I modulated the music to F major but the music did so himself... 0:58 2nd part(B) Main melody in F major, but with a new b motive in b.31-32 1:35 3rd part (A') The main melody in the original key can't wait to enter... Gets more agitated and cools down. 2:35 4th part (B'). A fugato using motive b as subject and main melody as episode, modulates once more to F major 3:57 Last part and coda (A''): The A section returns with some registeral change, then gets more agitated. 4:29 is the climax of the piece which is my favourite too, I like the agitation in it. 4:47 starts the coda and finally the mood cools down and ends in tonic major. I played the recording myself. I do make one major slip in 3:22 but the recording is otherwise good enough for me. Feel free to leave comment below! Henry

Dear all, Wow - that's an interesting topic for me - Halloween - never wrote a piece for an festival. To make this work more relavent to the work, I did some research to understand more about Halloween. Anyways, here is my thoughts writing this work: I have always known very little for the Halloween festival. To many, Halloween is a festival that focuses on pranking, customing and candies - but there is a long history with mysteries around Aos Sí, the Irish name for a supernatural race in Gaelic folklore, similar to elves. Here are some information from different sources: - Every year, Samhain is celebrated on 31 October – 1 November. During this liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned, Aos Sí could more easily come into this world and were particularly active. Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. From 16th century, there is a tradition in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales, where people going house-to-house in costume reciting verses or songs for food. Some impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf. Often, a man dressed as láir bhán, a white horse, and led the younf people for the activity. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune. "...In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin"." These history and myths formed the basis for the plot of this work. HoYin

.animated-text { font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: linear-gradient( to right, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet ); background-size: 400% 100%; -webkit-background-clip: text; color: transparent; animation: colorMove 5s linear infinite, bounce 1.5s ease-in-out infinite; } @keyframes colorMove { 0% { background-position: 0% 50%; } 100% { background-position: 100% 50%; } } @keyframes bounce { 0%, 100% { transform: translateY(0); } 50% { transform: translateY(-20px); } } Hi again! Here, as promised, I submit this small piece for the Halloween... Competition! Is it Halloween-ish? Dunno, probably not so much... But this is for you to judge. Do NOT expect anything bombastic though. It's a trio for flute, piano and violin so it's 3 instruments. ✔️ It's more than 3 mins, lesss than seven! ✔️ It's somewhat submitted before the deadline! ✔️ And it should definitely be entirely playable. Since here everyone has its own preferences, I am submitting the complete pdf (attached in this very post)+ the mp3 + a YouTube video with the typical (or not that typical maybe) way of showing sheet music. Now, back to more composing. I heard that the competition is strong between the contestants. MP3 Right here (or at the end of the post, one never knows). Bagatela Nº6.mp3 YouTube video HERE. And if you haven't done it yet, what are you waiting for? The deadline for this competition is still a week or two ahead! Look at the rules and drop your piece!!! Kind regards!

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

Here's my submission to the Halloween competition, written for piano quartet. I thought a lot about demons and possession, abandoned houses, what's down the cellar, all that 😄 It was a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy!

Hi Kvothe! This is nice material. Solid at the beginning, but I kind of lost trace towards the final moments of the piece. Sound-wise it does its job very well. The very end felt uncalled for. It was everything but conclusive to me, which can be good at some places but I'm not sure if this is one of them. There are also some unexpected transitions and effects that struck me like "let's experiment with this". Nothing wrong with that either, this is a relaxed and informal competition afer all but... Dunno, I'm quite sure that if you let this material mature it would become way more interesting than what we already have here. Like, from 1:05 to the col legno sections, damn, epic transition. I also like how the col legno blends with the upper string voices, but to put a contrasting example I don't like how the first very strong phrase that sounds again on ~0:30 gets dissolved and transitions to some sort of uncanny fanfare that if extended it could prove to be a worthy piece on its own. Another thing I would like to point out at least superficially: dynamics. There is always room for them, and while abusing them can be a pain for performers, underusing them is not very good either. I think this piece suffers a bit from the latter, but not so much anyway! I notice marcatos, accents, and other articulations, but say, for example: do you want the same strength/volume in the stacatto-pizz. hits in the intro and just after the beginning of the A section? And yeah, let me be honest: I get that sheets are not usually overlooked much but since I myself try to take care I cannot avoid commenting you there are a lot of details that this score needs improvement on. Some examples right here: overlapping rubato, tempo marking —intentionally?— microscopic, and a very minor one that could legitimately be brought up by some nit-picky performer: where does the rubato at the first bar begin? First note? Third? Second? You also have 2 rehearsal marks with "B" at M40 & M45, plus a "C" elsewhere near the end. Finally, let me be that guy and tell you: your piece has not reached 3 minutes, and according to the rules: Not that in this case anybody's gonna take that very seriously, but since it's still 23/10... Maybe this is enough of an excuse to revisit this piece and give it another go? And if it doesn't work, you already got a solid submission posted! Just as a suggestion 🙂 At the end of the day, if what you got is completely of your liking, to the sky with it! May any of my points prove useful to you 🗿 Kind regards, Daniel. P.S: I subscribed to your channel, maybe you could post the video here too!

I do hereby proclaim mine intent to partake in this noble contest.

I declare my intent to participate in this competition.

LoL what are all these Spanish!

In response to some recent low-quality low-effort posting in the forum the staff have decided to form some rules about proper forum etiquette and what constitutes fair and reasonable use of the forum: 1a) If you suspect that something might have to be deleted by a Reviewer, Moderator or Administrator, don't post it. 1b) Or if you suspect that your post might not be appropriate for some reason consider if it might not fit better in a different section of the forum. The forum has many sub-forums in it that are meant to be flexible and allow users to post all kinds of content, as long as it has its proper place. 2a) Keep threads on topic. Although the forum is meant almost exclusively for music discussions, there are sub-forums which are dedicated to any topic which can be used, if users so desire, to "shoot the sh*t". 2b) But if a thread is meant to be about a specific musical composition posted in "Upload your Compositions for Analysis and Feedback" please keep the thread about the music posted in question. If you want to post a new piece of music as a response to someone else's post, please create a new dedicated topic for that piece. 3) Please refrain from talking about inflammatory topics such as substance use or abuse or sexually explicit topics considered NSFW. And if you must talk about religion or politics, please create dedicated topics in appropriate sub-forums rather than flooding the musical forums with unrelated conversation. Also, please try to keep talk of religion or politics related to music history. Disregarding this etiquette will cause the member in question to be penalized with a warning point and the following penalties: 3 warning points - member's content will be manually moderated by the staff 6 warning points - member will be temporarily restricted from posting content 9 warning points - member will be temporarily suspended from accessing the site 12 or more warning points - member will be considered to be banned from the site permanently Editing of inflammatory posts in question will potentially reverse warning points.

Hello everyone, I’d like to share my piece Fumage for flute, oboe, and bassoon as my submission for the Fall 2025 Halloween Competition. 🎃 About the Piece Fumage is inspired by the surrealist art technique of the same name, where smoke from a candle or lamp leaves ghostly, shifting impressions on paper. 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. Instrumentation: Flute, Oboe, Bassoon Duration: ~7 minutes Score (PDF) Audio (MIDI) Thanks for listening and I welcome any feedback! –– Justin Gruber

Hello everyone. Here is my official entry of this contest. It is for string quartet (2 violions, viola, a cello, and double bass). The idea behind it was: how can i use the following atonality, bitonality, and sprinkle of halloween fun.

Awesome music, and welcome! Dude, you're fantastic. I almost went this route, kinda the dancey macabre but fun way. Loved it Your music is very well thought out, score is clean and neat, you obviously know what you're doing. Lovely playback too, the rendering is really smooth and polished. We'd love to hear your feedback on some of the entrees, you sound like you have a lot of knowledge for a young age. Well done! 🙂

Please submit links to your Halloween themed competition pieces here! (Please don't submit your music directly into this thread - rather, create your own dedicated thread where members will be able to review your music there - Upload Your Composition for Analysis and Feedback and then copy and paste the URL of your topic into a reply that you make in this thread). Thank you for your participation! To read the requirements/specifications of the competitions and declare your intent to participate go here:

Welp, we have a clear front-runner here. Man, this piece is almost flawless. The only thing that comes to mind I could point out would be that the Segno could be better marked. It's not that the way most software and people usually do it is bad, but I myself found it's quite good (performer-wise, reader-wise and lastly it's a matter of tastes) to mark it with segno bars &/or a rectangle surrounding the segno symbol. Example here: . Just a suggestion. The piece itself as I was sayin' was very enjoyable to me. It's fluid, its structure works, you know how to connect the dots very neatly. The instrument choice is very good as well. I like how you don't need to deviate from tonality to get the spooky feeling you. It reminds me of PvZ OST at times, and at other times, you remind me of another composer whose work I have listened to a lot, Paul F. Page. The instrument entries are very balanced, you're stepping into solid ground! What I liked the most though, the return to the segno al fine. It's seamless. The score is alright, perfectly readable... Little I have found to be worth mentioning (I'm very sleepy though so my writing capabilities are diminished). Some overlaps here and there, misplaced dynamics due to software being stupid by default, but nothing else. Congratulations, UncleRed. My kudos. A long day awaits, may you sleep as well as this piece was enjoyed by my brain. Kind regards!

I've been writting a string quintet inspired by different cryptids. I'd love to submit it - not sure if it has to be written specifically for this challenge.

Greetings! Haven't stopped by in a while, thought I'd take the occasion of winning the 20 Year Membership badge (!) to drop in and share a big something I finished recently. This is one of those pieces I have worked with, off and on, for many years - I began composing it in 2001 and just finished it this summer. I cannot account for exactly why it took me so long to bring this to completion, except that for much of that time I didn't feel worthy of the material I had sketched, and couldn't readily come up with ideas to match it in quality. This piece is in my usual Classical style, unusual mainly in that I have employed an exceptionally large orchestra, including three trombones. Ostensibly, it is written for instruments of the period, roughly 1800 to 1810, though I have it on good authority that the flute part is in places nearly unplayable on a flute of that time - not impossible, but extremely difficult in such places as the frightful two-octave ascending chromatic scale in the first movement, and the mortifying cadenza in the third. Ordinarily I would have edited the piece on such advice, but there comes a time when artistic vision must prevail, and this was one of those times. The opening movement is a standard Sonata-Allegro as typically modified for concerti in the Classical period. The second movement (Andante) is broad and expressive. The third movement is a Polonaise (Vivace alla Polacca) in the form of a Rondo. I hope you enjoy the piece, and as always I look forward to any comments you may have. Thanks!

This one was intended as a kind of character piece. Honestly, I was watching the new season of Wednesday Addams and the music from the show inspired this. LoL There's dynamics in this that hopefully a Clavichord would be better able to perform. Thanks to @Alex Weidmann for his input about how to get the Violin to play classic phrasing rather than portamento! I would appreciate any kind of feedback, comment, critique, suggestion or observation that you may have. Thanks for listening and I hope that you enjoy!

Hey Tristan Well, I think this piece is definitely a front runner for most unique ensemble, more so than mine at least haha. Cool choice to use two pianos and only one string player, I was curious to see how you'd pull it off. I like the variety of variations you have, it made it interesting all the way through. My favorite was probably 5, but I also really like the subtle build of the last variations leading into the coda. It's also smart to have ones like variation 10 to help break up the monotony. Cool music! I hope the competition gave some inspiration to music you would otherwise have never written. It did for me 🙂 Cheers buddy, good stuff. Keep writing and practicing!

Hi there! I am a new guy after being recommended to come here by UncleRed99, I would like to participate in this spooky contest as well. Consider this my declaration.

aight im in

i'll join i guess.

As the third installment in my enharmonic perpetual canon cycle, this one follows a procedure nearly identical to that of the first one and is quite similar in duration as well. The lyrics (once again, in Latin) sung by the choir translate as follows: "Change is inevitable in all things. Everything flows in the balance of those who are tempestive." As with the previous installment, the coda further drives the meaning to greater clarity and realization. YouTube video link:

This is a very informal competition. Usually, in a formal competition we would have dedicated judges who used judging criteria and scoring definitions. But, then, if they were a judge they would not be allowed to participate in the competition themselves. And the submissions would also have to be kept anonymous to stave off any impression of favoritism. But since, ultimately, this competition is just a fun challenge without monetary rewards, we decided to do away with all that formality. But, we would be honored if you (or everybody really) donated their very valuable time to review the music submitted in as detailed a way as you feel is necessary and appropriate! AND, if you review all the participant's works you get an "Ardent Reviewer" badge which everyone will be able to see in your profile! In previous, formal competitions we used the following scoring definitions: And the following scoring categories: It would honor us if you (or anybody who feels up to the challenge) used these categories and definitions to review the pieces submitted! Thank you for whatever time and effort you're willing to give!

Hi Vonias. First of all: Do you use that formatted text intentionally? It's so difficult to read in dark mode though it's hardly an issue cause I may be the only one using it. Still, it's strange I don't see any filler in the usual mode. Anyway, the soundscape you created is indeed eerie, a bit repetitive but that's —more often than not— a definining aspect of many ambient music. I don't dislike it, and now that I am done with its first listening I can almost guarantee that I got used to it. It's not very tense, I think I cannot find any better term other than "eerie", really. Not even the high frequencies at the very beginning bother my ears. I like the —perhaps tiny— detail of music dying itself and not getting choped with a stop button. Finally, and reviewing my own brief commentarry, I am not certain if my notes could just apply to abortion 🗿. But I can get what you mean. I don't get what you mean by "counterfact" though. Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

We'd like to welcome a new member and Reviewer to the staff: @UncleRed99! Welcome! With his help as well as with input from the rest of the staff, @chopin, @Thatguy v2.0 and @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu we've come up with a little poll for the members to answer to help determine the form of our next fun competition/challenge. There are two questions in the poll: 1) What should the competition be about? To write background music for one of @chopin's Retry Bro's YouTube videos. Explanation: @chopin has a new YouTube channel! It's called Retry Bros. and consists of him playing Super Mario Maker levels and coming up with entertaining narration from Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and other assorted characters. There's also a musical element. So far, Mike has come up with some clever lyrics and used AI to make realistic sounding songs that go along with the video. Now, where you would come in is that you'd be writing background music for one of @chopin's new videos! To write some kind of autobiographical piece with a paragraph describing how the music portrays the autobiographical material. This one is @UncleRed99's suggestion. The idea is to "write a piece that simply tells a story about your life, and something meaningful within it. Utilize complex elements to express emotion, tension, or any other desired emotional or mentally relatable expression. Provide a brief summary describing the root of the story being told." To write a Halloween-themed spooky, weird, or outlandish and strange piece. This one is self-explanatory and was proposed by @Thatguy v2.0. My own idea is for the members to write M&M&M's - Mock-ups, Mash-ups and Medleys. The idea is for the members to take 2 or more preexisting themes from different genres of music and to make mash-ups and Medleys with them. 2) What kind of ensemble should the competitors be free to choose to write for? The poll has closed and the competition has now begun! To sign up and read about the competition specifications/requirements go here: To submit links to your compositions for the competition to the submissions thread:

Interesting work! It definitely borders on atonal, with some definite centricity on A that keeps it from going too far out of bounds. In fact, you've got an interesting arc here, with two (014) trichords at the beginning and end being sort of "built" off the tonic and dominant of A, even cooler because the "0" in both cases isn't the same note. It's a cool idea, something that George Walker probably would have been fond of. If there's one thing I'd point out is that a lot of the register and dynamic jumps feel a little abrupt. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that happens all the time in more avant-garde music (e.g., Crumb), but—I don't know—it feels like those have a little more pomp and circumstance to them because of the way they grow and decay. For that reason, I'd suggest playing with rhythm a lot more; giving yourself the space to do some really interesting rhythmic interplay will immerse your listener in the intervallic web you want to make instead of necessarily always having to be explicit about it with discrete musical cells of vertical harmonies and lines. The last of Saariaho's Papillons is a good example. Lots of semitones in there but it oscillates so much you just sort of recognize it implicitly and it flows between different playing styles (timestamped): Nitpicks: 1. You have it listed as Horn in F; make sure your score actually is in F (it's concert right now). 2. The fun thing about truly atonal music is that the spelling doesn't matter a ton; it's different here because you've got a pseudo-tonal thing going on, but even still, I don't think there's a need to have unnecessarily uncommon spellings like the E# in the last three measures. 3. Keep clef changes where the notes are played, not the beginning of the bar, e.g., mm. 13, 15. 4. The semitone addition in mm. 13–14 is a cool muddy echo, but I kind of want more out of it; maybe go even further into the depths?

The members have voted and decided upon a Halloween themed competition! This is a just-for-fun competition without monetary awards. But I will be making badges to reward the participants and to give them kudos! I'm thinking I'll make a badge for "Strangest/Weirdest/Most Outlandish piece", "Spookiest/Scariest piece" and "Overall 2025 Halloween winner" which will all be decided by a popular voting poll. The participants will also be able to earn an "Ardent Reviewer" badge if they review all the other participants works! Please reply to this topic to declare your intent to participate in the competition! The competition has the following constraints: Instrumentation - Free choice of any of the following ensembles: Piano Quintet/Quartet/Trio String Quintet/Quartet/Trio Woodwind Quintet/Quartet/Trio Brass Quintet/Quartet/Trio Mixed Quintet/Quartet/Trio Additionally, the participants are allowed to include Harpsichord, Organ or any other instrument which they believe would facilitate a Halloween-themed piece, as long as they keep the total number of instruments used between 3 and 5. Duration: 3 - 7 minutes with a sweet spot of 5 minutes. Deadline: Friday, October 31st, 2025 Entrants thus far: @Thatguy v2.0 @Justin Gruber @Omicronrg9 @TristanTheTristan @Kvothe @UncleRed99 @sebastian Pafundo @Maxthemusicenthusiast @HoYin Cheung @therealAJGS @ferrum.wav @MK_Piano @Wieland Handke @Micah Here is the submissions thread for the competition where participants are encouraged to post links to their composition (rather than posting their piece directly into the pre-existing topic - make your own dedicated topic so the members at large can review your music there):

I am joining this competition: I can be a judge. 🙂

Entrance here. I am in.

Because it's not a passing chord. The type of 6/4 record refers to what the bass is doing. In this case, the E in the bass isn't a "passing" tone (i.e., it's not approached by step and left by step in the same direction), so it isn't a passing 6/4 chord. Now, the third chord in m. 3 is technically a correct passing chord, but odd because it's minor (although minor v's aren't uncommon passing chords) and the aforementioned poor voice spacing. Minor v chords definitely exist, but—in America, at least—you're just taught to always raise the leading tone in minor unless otherwise marked through figured bass. V would indeed have a B-natural, but your use of the minor v, at least where I teach, in and of itself would be suspect. Any diminished or augmented interval in the upper voices is forbidden (unless extremely niche circumstances I won't cover here). If you did make the alto a B-natural in m. 3, it would become an augmented fifth, which is augmented, so it's not permitted. I mean, I'm sure there's music that ends in IV like some sort of plagal half cadence, but for harmony exercises, we really only deal with Half Cadences, Perfect Authentic Cadences, and Imperfect Authentic Cadences, with plagal extensions and deceptive cadences as ways to lengthen a progression, not end one. Ending a phrase in IV is really odd because it's functioning as predominant, which implies there should be a dominant somewhere in there. Note your wording. Authentic cadences resolve to tonic. Half cadences merely end on the dominant. Most phrases and pieces end on tonic because they "feel" resolved. I'm not explaining it in detail here, but 6/4 chords were considered the most unstable because of a remnant from Renaissance-style practice where creating a fourth between the lowest sounding note and any upper voice was a huge problem. So we only use passing, neighbor, pedal, and cadential 6/4s because 6/4 chords are dissonances and need to be treated as such. The fact that you have two 6/4 chords in a row in m. 3 is wrong because you have two dissonant chords in a row, prevents proper resolution. To be clear, all of this is only true in terms of doing exercises. Exceptions in the repertoire exist all the time.

Let's go. I'll try. Deadline a bit bad to me but I'm sure something can be done.

I'm a little confused. If everything's decided via popular poll, what exactly are the criteria for "judging"? For instance, do I need to spend a lot of time on a score? Will I be be viewed less favorably if my audio recording is just standard MIDI? The competition idea is exciting, but don't know where I need to focus my time if I were to join.

@Justin Gruber is the first participant to have submitted music! Listen to it here:

Not sure if it serves, but the thing that probably made me not feel that much uneasy was that there was a constant bass sound that I even perceive as comfortable at times. Maybe some more movement in the bass, subtle but noticeable, would help. Or even some absence of bass at times or a shift in its timbre.. At the end of the day, these are your and only your choices. Maybe this is VERY uncanny for some other listener, who knows (I certainly do not). Kind regards!

Hi Churchcantor, or Robert, however you prefer 😁. It seems that this post went through in silence. Let's fix that. I listened to the first movement. While I enjoy the repetition of some ryhtmic patterns, I think it's too contrasting in terms of material (or it appears so at first) and not very well-founded structurally. At the same time it sounds plain: not a single dynamic marking (maybe I missed some?), almost constant tutti except from some sections where all in a sudden virtuoso-fast passages appear and also a pizz. ending that does not convince me at all. But I just could be wrong, I listened to it twice and more often than not pieces require a bit more to be appreciated, specially if they're ones like you submitted. Some other times I just don't like them, though. It's perhaps harmonically daring or inconsistent in that regard too: a more in-depth analysis would reveal one or the other, or both, since practically everything is valid this days and I'm sure you could justify many of the things I may have heard as "wrong" or "weird" or "misplaced", etc. At the end of the day, almost all that matters is that you yourself feel that the work is decent enough. Several years have passed since 2009 so if you are not fully convinced now, maybe these points I brought here are worth noting (and maybe at this point, you know the majority): • Even if you didn't change a note, a better balance of the dynamics of each instrument would greatly help. • The sudden contrasting sections do not reinforce the stability/coherence of the movement, in my humble opinion they rather weaken it. M17 & M18 appearing in the middle of the syncopated section, so dense and all on a sudden, is one example of such a contrasting section. In my opinion, even if you want an abrupt transition, I think it could be stated better (again via dynamics, but also via articulation or even slight rhythm changes, there are many ways to accomplish this better) both in the "before" measures and in the "after" measures. • I can see the movement can be technically demanding at times too. Quadruple stops... Assuming these ones in the score are doable specifically, are you completely sure you need them to be quadruple? After all, it's not a solo, maybe you can distribute the voices in order to avoid these maybe problematic stops. I won't comment much on the score per se, since I am well aware of the poor layout results noteflight default usually delivers. Not to mention the default midi sounds it uses. Wish you could upload a better audio here, it would be neat... I'm myself not a fan of it, but perhaps porting your sheet music to Musescore 4 is not a bad idea. It's 7 AM here and I really need to sleep, but I am eager to listen to the rest of your work...! Thank you for submitting it here and once again, I am sorry the post got a bit lost. Usually posts with material to be analysed are replied sooner or later... Kind regards, Daniel.

Alright, fixed the dark mode issue. Counterfact in this case falls into the "other" category where it's all else but redefining a set of chords into a new song, creatively. I simply forged one of my songs with a new title to approach a different context that also resonates emotionally with me. I was inspired by, Kim Cascones, "Recontextualizing Ambient Music," vying for a more convincing sound structure, if not by the pounding of the anvil that is ostensive in the music: Recontextualizing Ambient Music in Csound That's good that it doesn't bother your ears. I had it professionally mastered, before I shared. I have the unmastered version somewhere if that's your thing? Subtle horror is tough. I thought I had got it, it's not so much unexciting, but uncanny, psychological, maybe personal, but the subtlety in horror is tough to pull off without explaining everything. Maybe you have a few pointers? Anyway, thank you for the review. It spurs me on to the next one.

Cool video, but I prefer your Waltz in F minor 🗿 Cheers! 😁

Hello @J. Lee Graham and welcome back to the forum! Wow! What a wonderfully accomplished work! I am glad that despite feeling "unworthy of the material" that you managed to finish it after more than 20 years!!! I also have had such an experience. I started my Variations on "Deck the Halls" for Piano and Orchestra back in the 2000's as well, over a decade before when I ended up finishing it. And it was only thanks to the fact that I learned to write music on paper that I managed to have the discipline to finish it. I totally understand the sentiment! It is hard to limit yourself when writing for period instruments when you know that superior versions of the instruments would in fact have capabilities that would very much facilitate the music in question for the composer. I think I would also leave the piece as-is knowing that there do in fact exist versions of the instruments with the capability to actually perform the piece live, which is ultimately all that I would care about. I have to say that my favorite movement is the Polonaise! What a delight to hear someone include this stately Polish dance in a concerto! I am Polish myself and have danced the Polonaise as a youth in a Polish Folk Dance Ensemble. The dance has all the pomp and nobility of the spirit of Poland! I think it was also you who remarked that your favorite National Anthem is the Mazurek Dabrowskiego in an old thread I read somewhere. I actually have always dreamed of creating a mash-up of the Mazurek with the American National Anthem to create a kind of "Polish-American Heritage Anthem". We'll see if that ever comes to fruition! Thanks for sharing this wonderfully bright piece! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Hey @Tunndy and welcome to the forum! I think that both the melody and harmony in this piece are quite unique and personal to you! The piece starts quite underwhelmingly and gives the listener time to get used to its unique melodic content and the waltz rhythm. Then it gets really pompous and dynamic! And despite it being undoubtedly a piece that you will consider a part of your juvenilia, it still shows great talent and musical sense. I think the only part that I find objectionable is that the piece sounds like it's ending for too long. To me the piece sounds like it could have ended at 1:30, but then it keeps going, repeating a phrase which to me seemed a little redundant. But that's just my 2¢. Thanks for sharing! P.S.: Please consider leaving a ❤️ or a 🏆 reaction for the people (including myself) who have gone through the trouble and donated their time to review your music. It really helps us feel appreciated and keeps the forum a healthy place for people to share! Thank you!

Changed the number of warning points which will result in each type of penalty.

Added more content to the post about specifically what kind of penalties will be enacted.

Allllright.... Interesting. As far as I remember from College, and from my years as a trumpeter prior to that, "scherzo" is usually defined as a piece with a light, playful, yet vigorous style. My interpretation of that doesn't quite arrive at the conclusion that it should be difficult to perform, or rather, in this case, appearing near impossible, or, that the notes are randomly chosen. No intent to insult you at all, I'm simply explaining my perception of this piece, coming from an educated and experienced point of view. I'd urge you to continue writing, but to truly step back and analyze what you've written before you finalize it. Compare it to other works as well, in terms of it's overall form and structure, as well as the shapes of your phrases within the music. I'm sure you'll come to find that there are things that you did not realize before, and that could be altered to create a piece of music that you can truly be overjoyed at! Thanks for sharing 🙂

Ah no wonder! Your playing is the element I really enjoyed, your music was really brought to life. You're quite the player!

Hello my dear friend. Thank you so much that you like my music. The piano is VST from pianoteq8. Here I use petrof mistral. So I recorded myself with pianoteq8 plugin. So what you are hearing is me playing and use pianoteq8 sounds.

Man, this seems incredibly difficult! This piece seems like an experiment or something, but you have a lot of really cool ideas. It's a bit hodge podge to me, like a bunch of ideas thrown together that don't quite fit or don't transition well. However, like I said, your ideas in this are cool. This would be something if it were my piece that I would take ideas from and build new pieces out of! Regardless, was a fun listen, even if I didn't quite know how the piano parts would be played in certain spots 😄

@Churchcantor and @TristanTheTristan please refer to this forum etiquette and code of conduct:

My proposals