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ON PASTEL SKIES - REVIEW Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 4 9 5 8 3 6 9 9 Total score: 53/80 Average Score: 6.625 Review: Attached is a PDF of my comments. They were too lengthy for me to write in a single comment on YCF and I hope you find them helpful. The score above does not reflect the extent of my comments and by no means do I write anything to be addressed personally. Good job on this work! F. Hunter_Notes.pdf

I like your piece very much, and I think the formatting is the main thing to make sure you get right when submitting. You have the cover page, all your formatting looks good. I think one more thing to get an edge is to add some program notes notes, and performance notes. If you have anything to say, maybe consider putting it on paper. Maybe consider making the your measures per system more consistent? I think sometimes the computer chooses 3 measures per system when its not really appropriate. Your music looks like it can stick with 5 measures every system. m. 87, you have a crescendo leading to a forte, but with a rest in between, maybe go around and make sure nothing like that is happening. If the rest of the orchestra is crescendo-ing to forte, go ahead and write that in all the parts unless you intend otherwise, and specifically write otherwise. Clarity over concise. The rest of what I have to say is lower priority, get your formatting perfect first. One more thing to consider, only if you have time. You put most of the rhythmic interest in the snare drum. One way you could create some interest, would be add some more short rhythms in some other brass parts. Trumpets love fast tonging, maybe find a place for that. I know you play trumpet. what do you like playing that you haven't done? Also percussionists can play more than one instrument. I understand the mood/style you're inspiring strongly evokes the instruments you've chosen, but at least consider if there is some mid piece changes that would maybe strengthen the piece? (Bass drum?) Also consider giving your players some more breaks, especially before solo-like sections. The horn is hard after playing for 10 minutes straight. A couple more 10 second breaks for horns seems in order. Maybe give some trombones a chance. No VST can recreate the absolute beauty of a trombone solo. Trombones have an easy time with vibrato. Also maybe consider a coda with more extensive V-I action, I was surprised when the piece ended. Don't try to do everything I said, I gave you a bunch of stuff, some of which might be totally against your creative idea. I think you have written a wonderful piece that I believe is warranted for a selection, but I think some of the above things are especially important. Consider your jury, if you don't know who they are, its usually 50% conductor, 25% executive director, and 25% players. I think you can have a director convinced with the idea of your piece, (program notes help with that). Your score is very clear. But I think at the moment, the players are going to feel like the piece is tiresome for horns, and lacks time for trombones to shine, and under utilizes the wide range of a state-level symphony percussion section. Trumpets are going to have a great time. Your piece can still be selected, so don't toss this beautiful work, but these are the possible issues catching my eye.

I don’t think that you—as a composer at this level, as here at the YCF—should try too hard to develop a personal style, since it seems impossible to me to even intend to do so; for, on the one hand, “almost everything” already exists in terms of musical forms, systems, and languages, and on the other hand—even if one of us were the absolute genius who shapes and influences an entire era—he would unfortunately never live to see it, since such groundbreaking developments are usually only recognized decades or even centuries after the composer’s death. With that said, one should not bother much about it, since a personal musical language actually develops almost automatically as long as your composition exercises and works aren’t too “random,” you follow a consistent approach in your work, and try to incorporate only a few influences from different musical styles or languages into your next piece, rather than imitating a specific style in one piece and then switching to the style of a completely different composer or era in the next. After a year of being a member here on the forum and participating in three competitions or events, I think, I could identify some composers based on their “personal style”—for example (this is a very arbitrary list and by no means exhaustive …): @UncleRed99 – famous for the „warmth“ in its pieces, its chord progression and beautiful utilization of woodwinds. @Fruit hunter – very interesting percussion pieces. @Fugax Contrapunctus – everything about fugues and canons in an extremely thorough, intellectual (and even theoretical) way. @HoYin Cheung – mostly atonal pieces, especially for strings. @L.S Barros – influenced by renaissance and baroque, often utilizing brass ensembles and perhaps myself – counterpoint composition technique, voice leading, and mixed with influences from the 20th century, always starting as piano piece, but more and more orchestration examples ... Maybe for one of the next contests, we could make the submissions anonymous and award badges to the reviewers who correctly guess the most composers… (perhaps a silly idea).