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Hi @MK_Piano , Lovely writing and it was great to listen to your music! I immediately felt the connection between the music and the poem. I thought it brought out the summer love side of Verlaine's poem quite nicely. As a whole, it does come across very piano heavy, especially in terms of rhythmic pulse. Some engraving thoughts (very picky): I would make the string part staves just a hair larger for legibility be consistent with your Ped marking, sometimes it's the lines sometimes it's the asterisks once and a while a random staccato was missing in one part and not the others (vln m122 for example) I'm never sure if it's actually worth breaking secondary beams for 32nd notes in the violin runs wondering if articulations should be consistent between parts (accents in mm128-end for example) some repeat dynamics, make sure cresc/dim are always arriving at a marking not engraving but something to think about, the Richard Stokes translation of the poem is still under copyright, so the score would not be publishable with the text included in the front matter Some thoughts on the string writing (first of all, this is all very possible and doable, just some suggestions as a string player): first, thank you for switching clefs and using tenor clef in an appropriate context and style for the cello violin octaves - this gets quite exhausting on the player's wrist and in my opinion exhausting on the ears, I would use it more sparingly I would save the octaves for slow moving lines, not faster 8th notes (mm81-87 is probably not worth the effort) I would save the octaves for important places in the phrase/piece, it currently feels like a default setting if you're set on the octaves, I wonder if this would work better as a piece for piano quintet with the vlns 1 and 2 in octaves throughout similar thought - the chords in mm136-137 will need more time for the player, not a great idea to put them in such a rhythmically tight spot bowings - none of the marked bowings you have are necessary, these would all be obvious to the player vla part in mm18-21 and its analogous spots is quite tricky for a string player to be accurate off the downbeats like that, I wonder if it would be worth doubling the first note so it would be [D, DBD] separate than three slurred, that's a common string rhythm octave doubling is a string player's worst nightmare in this sort of late Romantic sounding tonal chamber music see if there are places to incorporate harmony rather than just octaves or octaves with the piano would love to see more rhythm included in the string part, not just the piano part Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 lush, memorable melodies 7.5 textures rarely develop; lovely harmony in the piano, would love to have that translate to the full ensemble 8.5 clear sense of form, with very little play or freedom to it 8.5 lovely writing 9.5 only very minor errors 9.5 notes on string writing above 10 very well with the theme, loved it 9 quite traditional at times Average Score: 9

The thing about the sound font I’m using with vibraphones has a individual pedal default meaning that all staccato notes should just mean dry sound or in this case what I think is default for non-pedaled if that wasn’t a issue then I would use no markings I know this is controversial, but I'm not sold that all the staccato markings need to be placed on the glock and vibes part. I personally don't mark percussion as staccato unless I want the player to dampen the note. If you want vibes really short you can always mark them as non Ped

Hi @Fruit hunter , It was lovely to listen to your music! I think On Pastel Skies would make for quite the fun front ensemble or indoor percussion piece as well as a concert percussion quintet. It definitely succeeded in your goal and transported me to your Florida summer evening. I enjoyed the details you brought into the score. Wonderful usage of mallet changes, vibraphone pedaling, stickings, etc. You can tell that you are comfortable writing for percussion and that all the parts are able to be performed, even if some of the transitions are tight. Overall I liked the sectional use of form with reoccurring elements. I think you could have expanded the unpitched percussion sections more and explored that sound world for longer. Or even add sections where you more more thoroughly combined pitched and unpitched sounds. (I know the time limit was only 7 minutes - I did the same thing in my piece and pushed the duration to the buzzer.) Some engraving notes (I'm being quite picky for this score): I would appreciate an instrumentation list/page after the title page, so I know what equipment is needed for each player there's a lot of white space on some pages and a lot of cramped staves on others make sure the instrument abbreviations are marked Mar. 1, Mar. 2 (they are at first but not after you switch instruments) double barlines at meter and tempo changes check that your rests are simplified correctly, a lot of two eighth rests that should be a quarter rest sometimes extra clefs are left in after changing instruments I know this is controversial, but I'm not sold that all the staccato markings need to be placed on the glock and vibes part. I personally don't mark percussion as staccato unless I want the player to dampen the note. If you want vibes really short you can always mark them as non Ped Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 wonderful atmosphere, not a lot of sections which felt melodic - not that that's a bad thing 7 a lot of octave doubling and not a lot of fully fleshed out harmony at times 8 enjoyed, but see comments above 8 interesting and successful use of the theme 8 see above comments 10 lovely blend of mallets - see comments above 9 relaxing summer vibes 8 some of the chromatic scales and octave doublings were a little too marching band-esque for me, but still greatly enjoyed! Average Score: 8.125

Hi @Kvothe , It was great to listen to your piece! Interestingly enough, we choose a similar instrumentation - I think the piccolo/viola/harp trio really speaks to the French summer sound of the poem. The range distinction between the piccolo and viola didn't personally bother me. Great harp part! - Breaking it down into groups of four notes makes it quite idiomatic for the player. With so much pentatonic sounds happening, it would be interesting to explore various pedal settings on the harp to group the glissandi in pentatonic scales rather than diatonic. If you liked, you could also expand the range of the harp part into the higher octaves on the instrument. Minor engraving comments: there are a couple slurs that seem to be missing or extraneous, I would prefer the viola be in alto clef for pretty much the entire piece (it never gets too high to really need to be in treble clef for the performer), and at rehearsal B I would mark those as dotted eighths rather than eighths tied to a sixteenth. It might also be nice to make the rastral size slightly larger for the entire score, just for readability. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 very summer sounding melodies 7 loved the pentatonic scale groupings, I think sections would be more effective with the picc/vla in harmony rather than in octaves 6 not much development, but works nicely for being a shorter work 7 beautiful entry 6 comments above 9 could be more creative, but very accessible for performers 9 sounds like a lush summer 6 simplistically tonal and could use development Average Score: 7.125

My apologies for not attaching it earlier. You'll see the PDF below :) HotR_FINAL.pdf

The members have voted in the poll and decided upon a theme for the next competition - "From Nothing, to Something"! This competition has no monetary awards - only kudos and badges. We are inviting the members/competitors to review and to participate in the creation of the badge awards that will be dispersed at the end of the competition! So if you have any ideas for particular badges that would accord with the kind of music that will be submitted for this competition and the theme of this competition, let us know in the List of Manually-Awardable Badges thread and we will take your ideas into consideration! Please reply to this thread to declare your intent to participate in this competition! The winners will be determined by popular voting polls! The duration of each piece should once again be between 3 - 7 minutes. Reviewing the entries will once again be spearheaded by the members/competitors at large. You are free to use the Official Competition Reviewing Template or you can review the entries in any way you see fit or create a template of your own making! Thank you for whatever time and effort you are able or willing to give towards reviewing the competition entries! There will be tiered "Ardent Reviewer" badges given out for this event: Featherweight Reviewer - for reviewing 33% of the entries Welterweight Reviewer - for reviewing 66% of the entries Heavyweight Reviewer - for reviewing 100% of the entries We are instituting a policy of not allowing any AI generated works in the competition. Because of this you will be required to detail how you created your piece and submit a PDF score or midi file for the perusal of the staff and members at large. The musical entries to the competition are final once submitted. This is for the sake of consistency of reviewing (so that each reviewer reviews the same piece of music without any changes). Instrumentation: As per the poll, the competitors will be tasked with writing a piece for a mixed trio/quartet/quintet of individual instruments/players/singers. Deadline: As per the poll, this competition will take 2 months, so the deadline to participate will be Thursday, September 24th, 2026. @MK_Piano's theme for the competition can be found below: What greater challenge of a composer than to take nothing and turn it into something! Your goal is to take the text from Paul Verlaine’s summer poem “Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été,” (So, on a bright summer day it shall be) and turn it into a piece! This poem is short, but filled with evoking images of the season of summer. It is read as a love poem, and Verlaine felt the winds and sun of summer amplified the affection he felt for his admirer. When you write, we ask that you focus on what summer brings to you as it did for Verlaine. Using this text, you must create a musical work that best captures the sensation of summer. What was nothing but words on a page, will be turned into a beautiful work of music by your hand! Attached is the poem in English: So, on a bright summer day it shall be: The great sun, my partner in joy, Shall make, amid the satin and the silk, Your dear beauty lovelier still; The sky, all blue, like a tall canopy, Shall quiver sumptuously in the long folds Above our two happy brows, grown pale With pleasure and expectancy; And when evening comes, the breeze shall be soft And play caressingly about your veils, And the peaceful stars looking down Shall smile benevolently on man and wife. The poem in French and English Entrants to the competition thus far: @MrBelegro @Fruit hunter @Ninja Nolan @Kvothe @TristanTheTristan @MK_Piano @Matthew M @GMoneywroteasong @therealAJGS @Musicman_3254 @Some Guy That writes Music @UncleRed99 @Wieland Handke @Mooravioli @latebeethoven_addict @JDevorMusic The competition is now closed to further entries. To vote for the winners go here: 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):

@JDevorMusic @Ellie Smith Are you the same person?

Thank you all for the thoughtful reviews and feedback! I really appreciate everyone taking the time to listen and share their perspectives. I’m glad the harmony, textures, instrumentation, and extended techniques stood out. I’ll definitely keep your notation and musical suggestions in mind for future revisions. Really grateful for the support! 😊