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This is nice! I really like when the strings enter at m 16, it’s a really nice color. If it were me I would move the Horn 1 part in m19-21 to the 2nd Trumpet. Then maybe bring the 2nd trombone at m22 down a fourth so it doubles the 2nd trumpet at the octave (or maybe even remove it altogether…?) Also, why does Trombone 2 have that part instead of Trombone 1? Overall really nice arrangement, I enjoyed listening!

yes! im still intending on submitting!

Thank you @Wieland Handke for the compliment. We are here to build each other up. That is why I ensure to continue to review as a member update their works here.

A little Feedback on Melody lines :

Yusss... Have been quite behind, juggling my attempt at this score, and "life". It'll be in, on time :')

I'm 100% sure our Boss @chopin won't make silly mistake like this in Music Jotter ^0^

You're welcome. Musescore is wrong. There's some kind of glitch in the horns where if you go up to concert Bb in the treble clef it marks it as outside the range. It's because someone programmed it wrong where a concert F should be the top of the range rather than the written F (transposed into F Horn). It's just a mistake they haven't remedied yet.

If you can't listen to it fully because you aren't masochistic enough, then you should better just stay out of it instead of making rootless criticism, as it won't make us happier seeing someone not enjoying their masochistic play. Henry

You don't explain anything by posting your own music in other member's post. Also since you are a new member here, please check out the forum etiquette in the link below: Forum etiquette and Code of Conduct - Advice and Techniques - Young Composers Music Forum If you click into it please check out rule 2b: So you should post your composition as a new dedicated topic, and then you explain why @Wieland Handke 's music is "bland and forgettable, have nothing enjoyable and is not interesting to listen", and maybe then quote your own work here, instead of just posting your work here with zero explanation. Henry

But it is just your subjective feeling, you will have to elaborate more on why the themes are bland and why the music is forgettable and there's nothing enjoyable.. Maybe you are a new member here, but in this forum we only welcome constructive feedback like @PeterthePapercomPoser said. We are not like YouTube or reddit or discord where you can just leave a negative statement without explaining and get away with it, because what we want to achieve in this forum is to allow beneficial interaction between reviewers and reviewees so that both can progress in their own musical journeys. Clearly leaving just subjective statement without any analysis cannot do that at all. This can be really detrimental to many of our members because what they need is constructive feedback, not rootless criticism which won't help them grow and might harm their confidence in composing, just hope you understand that. Henry

Those are just your opinions offered without anything to substantiate them. Do you have any constructive feedback to offer? Perhaps you could use the Reviewing Template to justify your opinion?

No, unfortunately not this time. I am away and unable to finish the work I started.

Why so? Could you explain and elaborate more on that? Henry

Great! Looking forward to hearing it! You will have a week (until June 9th) to review and vote for the winners.

Yes I still intend to submit a piece :) I also have a question: will there be a period after submissions are done to allow me and others to review the other pieces?

Dear fellow composers, I’m pleased to present you today my submission to the YCF 2026 Spring Competition! Here is the picture showing a historic city rail (S-Bahn) train and a nightingale capturing the sounds of spring in Berlin. The idea behind the piece is to describe the contrast between the noise of the big city and the tranquility of nature. I know that some of you, especially if you’re from Asia or the U.S. will smile when I refer to a city with not even 4 million inhabitants as a “big city.” And yes, that’s actually the case: Berlin is indeed a “huge village” with a surprising number of green and quiet areas. The piece tells the story of a journey with the city rail from the crowded city center to a suburb where are allotment garden communities are located. Since modern trains are more or less „sterile“ and lack their unique sound, I imagined taking this trip on a historic train, like the ones that ran in Berlin from the 1920s through the 1990s and were known for their characteristic noises, such as the slamming of doors and the typical hissing sound when compressed air escapes. Once you’ve arrived in the suburbs—so the story goes—you leave the station and head to the allotment garden complex. As you stroll along the garden paths, you’re surprised to notice nightingales giving their evening concert. And yes, it’s actually true that throughout Berlin, from April through June, you can hear many nightingales every evening and every night. The nightingales are really loud and have a distinctive song, so I’m very surprised that there are so many people who tell me they’ve never heard a nightingale before. The piece is a string quintet featuring a violin, a viola, and a cello, accompanied by two pianos. I have decided to use two pianos so that they can share the extensive tremolo and trill passages, which improves playability. It has an A–B–A form, with the A sections representing the S-Bahn ride. I’ve chosen the unusual 13/16 time signature—initially as a challenge to myself— but while working on it, I realized that the 13/16 time signature can be considered as a compound meter of 3 + 4 + 6, which evokes the idea of acceleration (of the train), and, when reversed to 6 + 4 + 3, that of deceleration (as the train enters the station). The B-part is in 12/8 time signature with a lovely, lulling siciliano rhythm, thus emphasizing the calm scenario while walking through the gardens. I hope you’ll enjoy the piece as much as I enjoyed working on it (although I somewhat underestimated the effort needed …). The YouTube video is coming soon. Thus, stay tuned! Praeludium-XVII-A-flat-major-quintet-mix.mp3 Praeludium-XVII-A-flat-major-quintet-with-coversheet.pdf

Thank you. But I don’t think we should take the reviews all that seriously. They’re mostly just opinions, and I, for one, don’t feel qualified to ‘judge’ anything. But I do think any feedback can be useful.

When I was looking at my submission thread today I was excited to see more than expected replies – after the reviews were coming in somewhat slowly in the last few days. The more I was surprised when I realized that a “battle” or a “rodeo” had broken out over my post! So I must first state the following disclaimer: I did not create the user D.V.Vanin to troll my own thread in order to have more replies, but however, thank you @D.V.Vanin for producing that amount of attention to my piece, LoL! 😉 Thanks to @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu and @PeterthePapercomPoser for wielding the sharp sword of forum etiquette to defend me against negative comments. But I must make it clear that I don’t take these personally or seriously. I’ve just seen, that D.V.Vanin has posted some short pieces to compare his compositions with mine. I will – after doing my work reviewing the submissions to the competition – give him feedback with a „counter review“ - in the way as I usually do: seriously, honestly and kindly. And thank you to all the „serious“ reviewers so far, @Kvothe , @Luis Hernández and @chopin for their reviews, I will come back to them later, individually.

Jealousy : Is when you want someone to STOP what there doing Envy : is when you want to DO what there doing

This should be treated as a sister piece to event Horizon. If not, A continuation of the story . As much as I don't wanna expose myself, I feel like the story behind This is very integral to what you're gonna be hearing, especially with a bunch of source material from event horizon. Five lacrosse balls is a story built on many experiences where I felt like I have been living in a fever dream from foreseeing certain relationships into people and having a whole entire room build up with a ripple effect of the US anthem. I find pure solace on the fixation of a random tangible object something that will keep you grounded through all of life's troubles. Yes, in many ways like most of my other works to some degree is a personal narrative Five Lacrosse Balls.mp3 Five Lacrosse Balls.pdf

Hello This is a piece I really like and find fascinating. The composition is superb, and the way you break up the sections with what sound like interjections is really appealing. It’s also fantastic to see the techniques you use in the strings. The quotation from the hymn is brilliant. Just like Ives used to do.

Hi Music Maestros! Just wanted to post my latest orchestration, which I only started on Thursday: so it every rough and ready. This is from a piano piece in three movements by Frank Bridge, and I've so far tackled only the first movement. Planning to do the rest soon. I think it's a beautiful piece, that's not very well known, and has, to my knowledge, never been orchestrated before. I'm hoping Peter may be able to give some advice on whether my French horn parts are playable, because they go a bit high. Also my trombone and viola parts are sometimes in the uppermost range. Have taken quite a few liberties with my arrangement, including tempo adjustments, additional notes, retiming transitions, and new counter-melodic lines. Without these changes, the orchestration doesn't work well, as it's quite challenging to adapt from piano. Some of my fermatas will be replaced by ten. markings (which Bridge himself uses in the original). Dynamic markings are intended for midi playback only: so I will be adjusting those. My flute is getting buried in the mix towards the end: so I will be adjusting that. But any other mix advice would be very helpful. I wonder, should I lower the threshold on my compressor, as the dynamic range is very wide? Anyway, hope you enjoy, and hopefully I've introduced some new people to this lovely work. Frank Bridge - Dusk #24 (added ZL compressor).mp3 Frank Bridge - Dusk #24 (added ZL compressor).pdf

Dear Henry, Thank you very much for your kind words. I’m delighted that you enjoyed it. Haha, regarding your handwriting, what matters is that it is genuine and authentic. After all, Beethoven was never famous for the beauty of his manuscript scores, yet even from his handwriting one can perceive the uniqueness of his personality and the genius that he was. Best regards, Vasilis

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? I’m happy to present my latest composition to you. This time it’s my second Concertino for oboe and harp: https://youtu.be/JxpGgbgH_Y4?is=gqxZEb_TLF88EW9e Thank you to everyone who listens to the piece, I really appreciate it!

Thx Vasilis, I am happy you enjoy it! Henry

Hi @Alex Weidmann ! I really enjoy your arrangement here, especially on how you create sparse atmosphere with flutes and harp (which is also your favourite style). The Strings passage in b.16 sounds amazing and I absolutely love the parallel 5ths there to create the hollow and ethereal effect. Yup i really agree with you here, two trumpets may sound a bit too loud to me especially when the strings are up high in the sky playing that etheral melody! The weaker power of horn conversely becomes an advantage since it acts more like an overtone of trombone there, just like what you do in the strings section when the 2nd violin as overtone is sandwiched between the 1st violin and viola. Given how you pair up an English horn with flute in b.30, would you also pair up a clarinet with flute in b.32, and drop it in b.34? Thx for sharing this wonderful arrangement! Henry

Hello @Tristan25 , Welcome to the forum! It is a nice little waltz. I feel like sometimes the harmony and melody are in clash, e.g. in b.5 the accompaniment suggests tonic A minor but the melody suggests ii7, or in b.18 the accompaniment it's domininant while the melody is in tonic, plus a false relation clash of G# and G natural. This happens in a quite a lot of place throughout the piece. Unless you wanna go for the tonal clash effect, you will need to check whether both hands are in same harmony. About the scoring you don't need to include the time signature in all the rows, but only in the beginning of the piece. The first triplet marking is probably wrong I guess. Some crotchets rests are unnecessary and shoukd use a whole bar rest instead, e.g. b.15. The dynamic markings (p) in b.42 and onwards are unnecssary and should be removed until b.50's mf. Thx for sharing and joining the forum! Henry

Hi @Vasilis Michael ! Lots of nice harmony like sudden nepolitan chords, modal borrowings (usually from minor keys) and unexpected modulation throughout the work, in a nice hunting rhythm. Thx for sharing! I haven't written a score for many years given my bad handwritting haha, unlike our PaperthePetercomposer a.k.a@PeterthePapercomPoser lol. Henry

Sorry, I kind of ran out of inspiration and even though I never forgot about the competition and even composed a draft I couldn't really go any farther than that. Thanks for understanding in advance.

Thanks Peter! MuseScore was telling me the horn part was straying into "expert range": so it's good to know it's ok.

Thank you so much for the kind words. Coming from you it's a great compliment, as I'm a huge fan of your work! I actually tried that brass arrangement in Bars 19-21 already; but much prefer the way I have it now. I found two trumpets together were a bit harsh, and the mellower tone of the horn created a better colour overall, when blended with the rest of the brass section. Think I also tried the trombone an octave lower in Bar 22, and switched it back; but will give it another shot. The Trombone 2 thing is just a temporary glitch in my score. I will be switching it to Trombone 1.

@ferrum.wav @ComposaBoi I can not wait to read your scores, listen your pieces, and then score it. :)

@MK_Piano , @UncleRed99 , @MrBelegro , @Luis Hernández , @Some Guy That writes Music , @ferrum.wav , @Monarcheon , @mercurypickles , @apple , @ComposaBoi , @HoYin Cheung , @Oak , @Brandon S Could you let us know if you still plan on submitting music to the competition? The competition will close to further submissions on Tuesday!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 8 10 10 10 8 10 8.5 Avg: 9.25 This piece definitely captures the anxious commuter during rush hour I think. You captured the forward momentum beautifully during the train ride sessions. The score presentation is a perfect 10 because of your annotations, which helps the listener understand your intentions much more clearly. Your usage of dissonant chords to designate the train's departure was excellent, and the trills to portray the nightingale was really creative. And on top of all of this, your theme was extremely coherent / catchy. Overall, between your director's cues (basically, your score) and the music itself, this was a coherent, creative and beautiful piece to listen to. And you weren't afraid to take chances, which I feel, paid off very well.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 8.5 8 9 9.5 9 10 9 Average Score: 8.8 Review: Melodies/Themes/Motives - There are many recognisable motifs, quite a few of which take the form of trills, etc. Harmony/Chords/Textures - The texture feels rich yet dynamic. Form/Development/Structure/Time - Performed as described and for an appropriate duration.. Originality/Creativity - The choice of instruments, particularly the two pianos, is unusual, but having listened to the piece and looked at the score, I believe it is entirely justified. Score Presentation - The score is correct and easy to read. Instrumentation/Orchestration/Playability The score is very effective, but it seems entirely playable. Execution of Given Challenge - I think the author has succeeded in achieving his aim. Taste - I like this piece because of its unique flavor.

Hi @Wieland Handke , I like the descriptive effect you used for both the train part and the nightingale part. I enjoy the train part more than the nightingale part, but only due to the rendition, because the should-be soft trills and glissandos representing the nightingales sound too hard to me haha. Thx for sharing. Henry

I wrote my first string quartet. I liked it while I was writing it, but now listening back I'm not so sure it would keep the attention of listeners. Maybe I regret opening with a slow movement. I think 2nd movement is best. I like the section in 3rd mvt. from 15:25 to 17:08, because of those chords and the counterpoint. And maybe I should have used more modern harmony in places to spice it up. 00:00 Movement I. 07:27 Movement II. 13:22 Movement III. Od. G. - String Quartet No. 1.mp3 Od. G. - String Quartet No. 1 [2026-05-29_06-41-34] .pdf

Hiihiiii!!! This is my submission for the Spring 2026 Landscapes Competition :) For my landscape, I've chosen the mountains of Zhangjiajie, China. The first time that I saw these mountains, I was awestruck by just the sheer scale of them. Massive peaks and towers, overgrown with centuries-old moss, reaching beyond the clouds. Really just gorgeous. I wanted to try to write about them. The piece starts off zoomed outwards, depicting the sparseness of the clouds, until eventually, a melody begins to creep towards the first real theme--which I call the garden theme. The focus is on the garden now, zoomed in, it's a sort of natural oasis along the side of one of the tall mountainous pillar. It's beautiful, lush, full, until the garden begins to die as winter comes. The harmony because sparse and vague again, with large spontaneous gusts of wind... just very dry sounding overall. That is, until months later, the clouds darken, promising a heavy storm. Anticipation builds, until eventually, rain comes pouring down, so densely that it's almost like a wall. It's the first rain of spring!!! After the rain settles down, the garden comes to life again with the re-entry of the garden theme!! The piece ends as the focus zooms back out onto the clouds, and the tension finally resolves again. My goal with the piece was to try to represent the life cycle of the plant life out in the setting of Zhangjiajie. I hope you all like it !!!! AmidstTheCloudsAndFlowers.mp3 AmidstTheCloudsAndFlowers.pdf

@therealAJGS One question, do you have an intended title for this piece? We can change the title so it better represents the music.

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 8.5 10 10 5 8 9 9 Avg: 8.4 Rough crowd with this one lol. I have a very different take. While I'm not sure this reminds me of rain, this DOES remind me of meditation with an Asian influence perhaps. I'm not sure if you were going for that, but that's how I feel. I love the mood you portray too, even though it's dark sounding, you were able to portray a sense of peace and contemplation in my opinion. Very nice work, and creative!

Here is my 3 string quartet becouse 1 and 2 didint finished yet so i present you this this is the pdf: String quartet no 4 op 3.pdf this is musescore:musescore mp3 file:String quartet no 4 op 3.mp3

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste - - - - - - - - Average Score: No calification Review: The truth is, I don’t think this piece can really be judged, as it’s always being compared to others in some way, and a certain minimum standard is expected. And I’m not so much referring to creativity, which is evident at times. There’s a certain rhythmic pattern, a few clichéd lines. But overall, it lacks coherence and the score defies all logic.

Hi @therealAJGS , I would be regret to say that this one is a less competent piece in this competition. i don't quite think the music captures the landscape of a rainy weather to me. The scoring of this piece is not as polished as other entries, as the music to me is in B minor but there are many unnecessary accidentals in the score without a key signature. The flow of the music is less moving as well, sometimes it just stays without moving forward, especially in passages when there is only one instrument lingering, Even though it may be harsh for you to receive comments not so positive, I hope you will take it as a learning opportunity! Thx for joining the competition! Henry

Entry: I do not what to put here? Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 1 2 1 5 1 0 0 1 Average Score: 1.375 Same reasons as @Kvothe

Entry: I do not what to put here? 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 1 1 0 1 Average Score: 1 Review: Score presentation: The score was not well presented. You did not know what the instruments were playing! Playability: This is impossible to be played by anyone. Execution: this failed to meet the goals of the competition Form: This piece barely any proper form or structure. Taste: sadly, this is not with in my musical taste. (Note: It hurts me score a piece this low)