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Your piece is the last I've heard (but not least, just the order I used), and yet you still brought something different from the others. I really appreciate the creativity used with form with this competition. It seems like everyone had such a different take, and splitting the stanzas into an ABA form was a great idea to me. I feel like if I had participated in this competition I would have organized the music in a similar fashion. I enjoyed the tossing around of the LH piano motif to different instruments, and the jovial sense you gave in the composition. A change to the minor mode would have served well as a contrast to me, but the beauty of composing is we all have a different take and direction we feel like the music should go. You give variation in other ways, and I especially love the piano flourishes near the end. Cool ensemble too, the horn was a pleasant change in instrumentation from the other pieces. On a side note, I've listened to basically nothing but Beethoven's late string quartets for the past 4 or 5 months (he's my favorite composer by far). It sounds insane probably, some may even call me a lateBeethovenaddict ( :P ), but I've been obsessed with what I consider to be the greatest music ever composed, always picking up on little details upon every hearing. A profound sadness lingers throughout no.12-16, but also in my opinion a novel and unrepeatable expression we're all lucky Beethoven had the strength to compose in his weakest moments. Good luck with the voting, and thanks for sharing! It was fun to listen to all the different interpretations of the competition, and yours was no exception. Well done :)

Wonderful piece! Aside from articulations and key changes as mentioned by others, this was a nice piece to hear and definitely was reminiscent of summer and love. Great advice here :) I hope you learned a lot from our little competition, that is the hopeful achievement after all. No matter the results, you should be proud of a fine piece. I'm not the most versed (pun :D ) with vocal and ensemble music, but it seemed quaint and prudent to the goal of the competition. Good luck with the voting, friend. Hope you stick around

Thanks for providing such a fun challenge! I wasn't familiar with this particular poem, so it was quite fun to analyze and work with. I agree with your thought that it casts more a dream than romance. I initially had the two singers as partners, but decided to go in a more surreal direction with love than the poem may have implied. Also I appreciate those catches in my score - thank you! I wasn't a fan of how the harp chords looked either, but I was running out of time and gave up trying to fix it haha. I'll definitely go in and take a closer look to see if there's a better way to notate them.

Please please please be nitpicky, it helps. Not only for the composer, but those reading as well. @Ninja Nolan Kudos for the recording! And also, very cool ensemble. It must have been a challenge for a quartet with instruments of the same range...and same name :D I think this is very cool, and the range and monophonic restrictions breed creativity. AND ALSO, I love the idea of different movements for the stanzas. I feel like this could have been something you wrote before the competition but fit the criteria. Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, very cool and creative piece. I agree with those who said variation in texture could have been beneficial. This to me was conservative in nature, but executed very well. There weren't moments that really "wowed" me, but it's so solid in craft that it hardly matters. You were able to showcase the instrument from your performance, and that means something. Hopefully people interested in soprano sax writing can benefit from your piece in knowledge of the instrument. This really fit the theme of the competition to me, and I enjoyed this thoroughly. Good luck in the voting!

Hi @Matthew M , Such a lush and lovely setting of the poem as an art song! I also choose to go this route and set the text. I really enjoyed your version of it. I think the piece would work even better as a solo for voice and string orchestra. One big thing, if you're planning on this being sung in English - the Richard Stokes translation is in copyright, so you may have to reconsider some things. Some quick engraving notes: in general the score is quite cluttered; make the rastral size bigger and give more space between staves and systems watch when you copy & paste that extra things don't get attached; the lyrics accidently show up in the piano part at times the syllable division don't match the slurs in the voice part at times, so I'm not sure where the words would fall check that the breath mark in m27 would not be followed; it's almost always better to not give singers breath marks add lyric extenders to syllables under a melisma Some string writing notes: I would be careful using the wedge markings for string players - this means a different sound than I think you would like in this piece the ranges of the players are all very middle of the road; explore the upper ranges of the strings In general, there's a lot of everyone playing all at once. Find places to explore the colors of only using sections of the ensemble Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 lovely melody 8 good job filling out the harmony in the string parts, but the chords used are often obvious choices with little development 7 not clear divisions of musical sections - begins to all blur together 6 6 see above comments 8 see above comments 7 nice job setting the poem 7 Average Score: 7.125

Hi @Ninja Nolan , Lovely writing, you can tell you're also quite the saxophonist in addition to being a composer! Writing a quartet for all of the same instrument is a bold choice. I find this limited sense of timbre/range leads to difficulties when listening to a new piece. However, I didn't feel this way with your writing at all. It showcased the soprano sax well, everything blended quite nicely, and I found the piece to be very successful. Breaking it up into three movements was a smart idea. You did a great job isolating and contemplating the mood of each of Verlaine's stanzas. Also, the French titles for each movement are a nice touch. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 10 good use of multiple movements 10 10 very fussy with dynamics, but I love it 10 10 9 Average Score: 9.625

Hi @Wieland Handke , Very different than many other pieces so far. I really appreciate the ingenuity in your composition. I also enjoy the amount of detail you put into your score. All the instruments are well thought out and notated with precision. I know the playback doesn't match, but others above me have done a much better job dissecting the accordion part. I do love the combination of accordion notes and L.H. chord buttons. The guitar part is all very easy. The double stops you have are simple fingerings with little issue. I would actually love if you added more to it. The classical guitar is quite a soft instrument compared to the rest of the quintet (I would probably amplify myself if playing this piece). As is, it comes across as more of a mandolin part than guitar part. I think it would be great to add some full chords, especially starting at Reh. B. All the final notes in the phrase could be turned into playing multiple strings. I also don't think you often need a dynamic marking for each note. If you'd like it to be louder, you can always double strings or add octaves for the player. Some engraving thoughts: I would reconsider score order: maybe tpt, gtr, vlc, acc, pno maybe? I would always have the piano at the bottom of a chamber score like this. Overall the score does look quite cluttered, but you have given us a lot of information. Even with the dense texture, find a way to bring the staves of the acc. and pno. parts closer together. In 2/4 I would still beam with the beat even at this tempo. All the unbeamed 8th notes make it difficult to count. I would mark what type of mute you prefer for the trumpet. Also, only mark this the first time and then use 'open' to cancel the marking. The mute marking should also be placed above the staff, not below. Very interesting to see your compositional process behind the piece, but for a final score I would remove the fugal analysis and lyrics. Make sure the acc and pno parts are not barred together. The pedal markings for the piano become cumbersome. I think it is natural for a pianist to play it this way. You could also simply write 'with Ped.' or use the line pedal markings instead of all the asterisks. Several bar rests are misplaced (pno m20 for example) So much of the music is playful and lovely. The notation style and having a separate dynamic for almost every single note becomes distracting from this fact. Double barlines at tempo changes; put 'a tempo', 'piu mosso', etc. markings in bold non-italic above the top staff Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 8 8 clearly organized form, but not sure if transitions always worked; did not develop well 10 very creative 6 see comments above 8 see comments above 9 very French 8 memorable Average Score: 8.125

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

Music concrete featuring Winston Churchill and his speech, "We Shall Fight on the Beaches." Music was made with trains and church bells. We Shall Fight on the Beaches.mp3

Thank you Seni, but I insist it's great that we get to discuss this stuff that lies some layers behind the surface. This is probably the best place I know to overthink stuff in this regard! That's real feedback, something that you can hardly get on Youtube for obvious reasons. Again, many thanks 😊

This piece was written for the 2026 Summer Competition. It is technically past midnight on my side, I apologise as the audio took a while, hope this can still be reviewed. Note: I named this piece directly after the poem, maybe because it's the best name I could give it, actually. It's meant to directly translate the poem into music, so I figured that would be apt for a piece such as this. It's written in a loose ternary form with a few motifs consistently coming back throughout. Each section (ABA) represents a stanza in the poem. The first section opens with a bright, jubilant depiction of a summer day, before transitioning to the beauty of the subject. Then, the middle section adds some turbulence to this nature of the love, a personal interpretation of mine on the poem. Finally, the return of the A theme is accompanied by fleeting runs like the evening wind, as the lovers gaze into the sky. Most of the rest I will leave to your interpretation of what is happening, but I do encourage physically reading the poem while listening to the piece. As for the instrumentation, the French Horn is an instrument dear to me, despite having only picked it up for slightly less than three years. Through all the technical difficulties of this piece (yes, the Horn part is playable, albeit challenging), I wanted to showcase the mellow, melodic sound of the horn as something unique. The choice of the violin, then, was nothing special, another melodic instrument to complete the lovers' dialogue portrayed thoroughout the piece. The piano, then, allows for all the word painting possibilities. It was quite a rushed piece, given my recent schedule, but I enjoyed the time spent just appreciating the loveliness of the poem. Enjoy listening! Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été.mp3 Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été.pdf

That's for me to know and for you to find out :)

ooh what piece is this!

@Grant Weep your comments made my day! I just love that. You totally nailed it. I usually try to write music that sounds spontaneous but also somehow inevitable, structured but also free. I don’t often succeed at achieving this balance, but I appreciate that you felt what I was reaching for. Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment!

It’s a beautiful trio consisting of Horn, Violin and Piano. I’m sure it’s already been mentioned that for a chamber work like this the proper score order would be Violin, Horn and then Piano at the bottom. Another thing I’m sure has been mentioned is that you should place double bars at key changes and get rid of redundant key changes. The music has a variety of different textures and not all the instruments are playing all the time with plenty of much needed breaks. The horn’s full range is well utilized. As of the writing of this review I am currently playing horn everyday in preparation of recording a solo horn sonata and I can attest to the playability of your horn part. The solo piano Cantabile section at mm. 25 shows off your ability to write a beautiful melody and dress it up through variations in the Violin. The I 6/4 chord at mm. 85 makes one expect a cadenza. Then you have the solo horn come in on the lowest of notes in the whole piece. I wonder if there’s some extra-musical meaning behind this. Thanks for your participation and good luck in the polls! Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 7.75 9 9 7 9 9 8.25 Average Score: 8.50

I finally finished! I thought we were supposed to adapt the poem to be sung, so that's what I composed. For voice and piano trio! Attached is the link to the youtube video, as well as the pdf of the score and the mp3 audio. So on a bright summer day.mp3 So on a bright summer day.pdf

A quaint pastorale-like entry with the peace of the summer day channeled through the oboe/soprano voice. The contour of the melody is also very pleasant and made me think of nature. The beginning of the piece functions well as an introduction before the oboe/soprano voice comes in. And the modulation and change of meter are a welcome contrast that develop the piece and bring musical interest! I also like the phrase extensions where you suddenly treat parts of the phrase in half-time (mm. 35). Something I miss that I think could have made the piece more complete is a return to G major at the end to round out the form of the piece into a ternary ABA. As it is, the piece doesn’t really sound finished to me. Granted, it does sound like the end of that particular 6/8, E major section. But it feels like a return to G major and a coda would be in order for the piece to really sound concluded. Minus all the score engraving flaws, the problems with many syllables being sung on a single note, the ensemble patches for the strings instead of individual strings, and the ensemble misnomer since this is a piano quartet with voice rather than a piano trio, this is a very bright and sweet piece of music that quite adequately channels the topic/theme of the competition! Thanks for your participation and good luck in the polls! Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 9 7.5 8 7 8 9 8 Average Score: 8.25

Score PDF and Audio Download About the Piece: This piece is written for 4 soprano saxophones. It has three movements: “La soie,” “Le ciel,” and “Le soir.” Each movement is based on a stanza from the original poem by Paul Verlaine, “Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été.” ______________________________________________________________________________ I - La soie (The silk) ______________________________________________________________________________ II - Le ciel (The sky) ______________________________________________________________________________ III - Le soir (The evening) ______________________________________________________________________________

Writing for a quartet of all the same instrument (not only the same type or from the same family) can be quite challenging but you managed to bring the most important parts out in high relief in your recording which gave the music focus despite the identical tone colors and close harmonic spacing. This listener was hardly ever in doubt about what to listen for. I think each movement of the piece improves upon the previous. Hence, my favorite is III. The Evening. The melancholic hue of this one is just so full of longing and heartache. It’s also obviously a great depiction of the end of a good day/sunset. The music tells me that we don’t want the day to end yet, that it’s too soon. Overall, this entry is full of ideas and contrasts them and sustains musical interest throughout the entirety of its duration. The live recording is another bonus added on top of an entry with an already excellent execution. As of the writing of this review, I’ve been tasked with recording a 4 movement sonata for solo horn. Your live recording is giving me lots of ideas and inspiration to perhaps record my own horn quartet or horn sonata after I finish this gig. Thanks for your participation and good luck in the polls! Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9.5 9.5 10 9.5 9 9.5 9.5 Average Score: 9.44

I didn't really get love or summer from this, but to each their own. I guess that's all subjective anyway, and there's no denying your exceptional talent and writing capabilities. It's all superb, and the harp writing is phenomenal. Well done. Good luck in the voting

I am officially going to change your name to “Wieland The Tinkerer” because of this piece! LoL I think the piece is made up of many interlocking contrapuntal parts and took quite a bit of skillful manipulation of motives to put together! My complaint is that usually, in a fugue, the subject gets stated solo before countersubjects or counterpoint is juxtaposed against it. But here, the listener isn’t given a chance to absorb the melodies/motifs/subject before counterpoint comes in to diffuse the identity of the melodic content. That’s why I think the music is hard to grasp at first but grows in quality upon repeated listening. From one perspective the fact that the instruments are constantly coming in and out of the foreground gives the piece more interesting textures and necessary contrast in the thickness of the counterpoint. On the other hand it also seems a little aimless and meandering since the instruments walk all over each other. The beginning especially sounds like a haphazard collection of instruments slowly starting to play together without rhyme or reason. It just seems like you really had to tinker a lot with the material to make it fit your preconceived notions of the kind of piece that it should be instead of letting the music grow organically and instinctively. Perhaps a fugue was not the best choice for depicting the theme of this competition? Perhaps a different genre of music would have been more appropriate? But of course, it’s your choice as the composer and you’ve chosen this form. Thanks for your participation and good luck in the polls! Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 8 7 8 8 9 7.5 7.75 Average Score: 7.78

A very vivacious entry full of life and longing! It depicts the summer love with its brightness and energy. It’s very sweet and vigorous - almost more like spring than summer! I think I’ve just about exhausted my complement of adjectives in describing this piece LoL. There are spots where I feel like there is a missing melody or in hindsight, it seems like the full ensemble should have been playing when only piano was present. I’m talking specifically about mm. 1 - 2 (perhaps I can understand this privation here since it’s the introduction), mm. 18 - 19, mm. 42, 123 & 136 (I feel like here the melody is missing for 3 beats even though the piano has it - it wasn’t brought out enough in the rendition for me to perceive it as present). I really appreciate the interludes (like mm. 50) where the ensemble thins out and a calmer texture is honed for some much needed contrast. I think a more developed denouement could have been achieved with this piece - right now, it seems like the piece just stops in the middle of a main phrase that was heard before. I think for me to perceive a proper coda, it would have to be made up of material that would be related to the main material but varied in a way suggesting the encroaching completion of the piece. Thanks for your idea for this competition and your participation in the creation of the awards as well as for submitting this entry for this contest! Thanks for your participation and good luck in the polls! Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8.25 8.4 8.5 8 10 9 8.9 8.5 Average Score: 8.69

It sounds like you just indiscriminately put down diatonic notes in the key of C major. Where you do stray from C major, the chromatic alterations clash with natural notes in some of the other instruments (ex: mm.13 Harp has F# while Viola has F natural) Also, I don’t think the harp can change pedal to F# that quickly while arpeggiating 16th notes at your tempo (in one beat). From your comments, it seems like you deliberately chose not to pay attention to harmony because you were trying to blend “minimalism and 20th century writing”. This doesn’t sound like either of those styles. And you don’t get to just stop paying attention to harmony when composing in any given style. The result is that it sounds like you just randomly and aimlessly started clicking in notes. And the pentatonic/Chinese-like nature of the piece doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the theme of the contest. I’ll repeat what others have said as well: Besides a single F below the staff in treble clef, there’s no justification for using the Viola instead of a Violin. And the clef change to alto clef towards the end is pointless since the range of the part doesn’t change but stays the same. The piece seems to be composed to satisfy just about the bare minimum requirements of the competition - 3 minutes if rounding up and 3 instruments. Nonetheless - thanks for your participation and good luck in the polls. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 3 3 7 3 7 6 3 3 Average Score: 4.38

To be honest, I'm not 100% certain. On my first listen through it didn't really register as a return A section. The high F in the horn felt like a return, but the section itself felt more like a coda. It was pretty short of a section by itself as well. That being said, this final section was probably my favorite part of the piece. I love the repeating piano figures on p.10, especially when the nice horn melody comes in a few bars later.

Oh interesting, the only time I've seen notehead size relate to dynamics is in some of Percy Grainger's piano pieces.

I realized this too after the fact! It seems like harp was quite a popular instrument for the competition too. Thank you for taking the time to listen and I appreciate your feedback. I find that sometimes I can get away with surprising and unconventional harmonies when there is some thread of connection - that's why I use the recurring motif and ostinatos you mentioned in your comments. I know taste varies from person to person, but I've always found that dissonance can often be quite beautiful.

Thanks for the comments and for checking out the live stream! As for your notes about the extended techniques: Yes, Xyl. is an abbreviation for xylophonic sounds. It's performed by muting the stings required very close to the soundboard with the other hand while plucking. https://harpnotation.com/de/notation-manual/plucked-sounds/xylophonic-sounds/ The bamboo tone is accomplished by using an alternative fingering to the note. That's why I also have a fingering diagram above in the score. It's a very airy sound with a still defined pitch. https://www.flutecolors.com/techniques/bamboo-tones/ Jet Whistles are a lot of fun! It's mostly air but with a little bit of pitch. You use a full breath and overblow into the flute, so that it goes up, down, or up then down across the first three octaves of partials. I've faked the playback here with hidden harmonic glissandi. https://www.flutexpansions.com/jet-whistle Flute harmonics are weird. You're right, and I've used them in the past to extend the range of the flute. Here I'm asking the flute to play three different partials but all using the same fingering. You get high notes that are possible with other fingerings on the flute, but also able to play incredibly high notes at a very soft and delicate dynamic (with also a slightly different color). https://www.flutetunes.com/articles/flute-harmonics/ Hope that your upcoming orchestral piece goes well and would love to hear it!

no worries, might be wrong. It's just weird, you know?

It's so that one bar doesn't take up the entire line, which would br way too spaced out. Also to show that one should play them lightly

@Fruit hunter makes total sense! So many times I have to change markings in my own scores so that the MIDI or sound libraries play back correctly lol

@Thatguy v2.0 No... I don't know who @Ellie Smith is...? I haven't had time to come on and check the comments here until today.

Hi @latebeethoven_addict , Wonderful entry to the competition. It was great to listen to your music. Some engraving thoughts: score order: vln, hn, pno very cramped score - put more space between systems and staves not sure why some pno notes are grace note or cue sized lots of rests divided incorrectly (m2 8th+16th should be a dotted 8th rest; m3 two 8th rests should be a quarter rest) double bar lines at section changes and tempo changes (most players also still prefer them at key changes) where it is just pno solo - hide the other two instruments General Instrumentation thoughts: I would think more about articulation/bowing for the piece and add a lot more slurs. putting in these markings would make the violin part more playable A lot of the times the vln/hn are playing together and often in unison. I would play more with counterpoint and harmonize some of the lines. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 8 7 8 the ABA form did not seem to serve the piece well 7 6 see comments above 6 see comments above 7 7 Average Score: 7.0

Hi @Musicman_3254 Really beautiful entry to this competition. I loved the music to this piece, a lot of my thoughts are on cleaning up the score and parts so that they are more legible and effective. Some engraving thoughts: make sure the first full system of the score includes all instruments and their full names (even if resting) hide bar rests in the harp part if you are writing cross-staff for the opening, use hairpins instead of the cres. and dim. lines solo marking for instruments is extraneous octaves in the harp (mm15-17) would be better read on two staves as one hand would play each note clefs: none of these instruments should use alto clef cello should only ever be in bass, tenor, and treble clefs baritone should always be in bass clef never use octave clefs for a non octave transposing instrument harp m51 - use an ottava line instead key signature Gb is a lot of flats, it works great for the harp though I might be tempted to leave the harp in Gb and notate the flute/cello/voice in F# major, but unsure if it would be any better put slurs on the grace notes and connect them to their primary note not sure what purpose the marking in the cello part in m59 serves don't let dynamics or other text cut into barlines unless you really need them to (m86 flute) make sure trill lines extend to their last note (mm102-104 oboe) large harp chords - use one arpeggio line across both staves; don't need the up arrow arpeggio line unless you're going in both directions Some playability thoughts: I saw lots of comments above about the playability of the harp part, but I didn't read all of them. None of the harp part is currently technically impossible, but here are my thoughts to make it easier on the player. the Dnat to flat ped change (m20 and m101) is totally fine and doable. There's plenty of time for the player to flip the pedal to natural and back to flat - you might hear a little bit of noise, but it's unlikely. This is also the only pedal change in the piece, so I'm sure they'll manage. the cross staff arpeggios at the beginning are wonderful, adding in doubled notes in mm5-14 is difficult and likely not worth the additional amount of sound that will be created. I would suggest either start up the octave and bring it down an octave for more resonance in m12. on a similar note, any passage which immediately repeats the same note is challenging on the harp, as it required the player to mute the string and then pluck it again my thoughts on the large chords - again technically possible, it's just asking a lot and is quite fast. The player would alternate hands to play across the entire harp, so get rid of two arpeggio lines and put one big one across both staves. The tempo is likely too fast to play all the notes, it will also be too loud at the dynamics you have marked. Save the big arpeggiated chords for one per bar at most and make sure you really want to volume of so many strings sounding at once. A trill on the harp (m86) doesn't always work well. I would switch the pedal so that it's a bisbigl. between G# and Ab. The flute part is very low. I would not have it written to sound lower than the oboe damore. Even the very beginning I would switch the pitches or bring the flute part up the octave. Curious as to why you chose the oboe damore. It's an uncommon instrument and very, very few players have it. The range doesn't call for it either, as it all fits nicely in the range of the traditional oboe. The oboe does not dim. to nothing effectively. m72 and similar places will be difficult The cello range is too demanding of the player. High Gbs and Bbs at the dynamic level you have asked for is impossible. Bring it down one or two octaves. mm53-59 is confusing as well, it's very high and the ppp dim marking makes it seem like you don't want it to be heard Not all of the cello doublestops in mm59-71 are possible. The Gb and Ab dyad is a real stretch. ( I wonder if the entire piece could be transposed up a half step and you could use open strings?) Some text-setting thoughts: Lovely, lovely use of the voice. I also set the poem as an art song and I really love your rendition of it here. I know there are different house styles, but I would only use slurs to show syllable melismata or very long phrases. I love the stress of the first phrase, but make sure that important words are highlighted on the beat Make sure word divider lines (-) are not causing collisions with the text Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 beautiful and memorable melodies 9 effective harmonies and instruments harmonize more often than play in octaves 9 good form which supports the text of the poem 9 loved the musical content 6 see comments above 6 see comments above 9 love the setting of the text 8 great piece! Average Score: 8.125

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

Hello, Out of the several pieces you have posted, I like this one the most. I think you have this very fluid and spontaneous quality to the way you write music. I am starting to hear your style. Your piece title has the word "bird" in it". I think we've all had experiences in our lives where we hear a bird chirping in nature and appreciate the immense natural beauty that comes with it. I guess what I am trying to say is that your music sounds somewhat random, but also natural at the same time. I would imagine that if I analyzed your piece, I might find some unified themes, but maybe that doesn't even matter for your music. When listening passively, it sounds like I am in my backyard with all the birds chirping. Maybe this is what synesthesia might feel/sound like. From a technical point of view, I am loving the dissonance and colorful chords. But it doesn't sound too overly indulgent or serious. I didn't read the poem. While I appreciate that your music was inspired by it...my personal philosophy around music is that it's bit more of an absolute art form. I certainly was able to enjoy your music without any reference to a poem.

Entry:Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 Average Score: 10 Review: You know, I was not expecting piece inspired by the composers of the 2nd Vienna School as part of this competition. I must agree with @MK_Piano with the engraving! It is done with such care! Great job on that front. I must say that instrumentation and orchestration of that is on par. And yes you can play it. It is very creative and it has it unique form. Form when it comes to 20th century, well...let us not bring up. Form in the classical sense was toss out of the window and modern composers were more focused emotion and new ideas. Yes, this went above what expected of the expected and exceeded. Overall, I think this is best one!

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7.75 10 7 10 10 8.5 7.5 8 Avg: 8.59 Very clear motif throughout, and the whole tone harmony makes this sound more like a fantasy. What's interesting is that I think you mix the harmony with bits of pentatonic. Thus, we have lots of tension and release throughout which helps keep you on your toes. At times I felt like this piece turns into a thriller, and this has a lot to do with your chosen harmony. The piece therefore gives us a mixed bag of emotions. Sometimes I feel like we are in a fantasy world perhaps in a forest. Then there are peaceful sections which could be the summer afternoon setting. The pentatonic sections remind me of beautiful vast fields or feelings of zen. Then we have the viola sections which could be a chase scene. Finally, your harp runs sometimes creates a mood of terror. Nevertheless, this is a very fun and interesting piece, and a good lesson on how harmony can really transform moods from one to another!

Hi @Matthew M ! This one does portray the joyful mood of summer in the poem! There are things to maybe take note of: First it’s the harmonic colour varieties. I know that you build a good contrast between G major and E major in two sections with different time signatures which is good. But within each section there is almost no modulations as each section remains in G major/E major which makes the moving force weakened. For the chamber writing there is almost no interaction between the instruments, they are all accompaniments which rarely carry melodic weight, and rhythm are more homorhythmic and usually in pairs. They almost always appear all together without some spots when you let some instruments rest, which lessen the variety of spacing and texture, More Instrumental Interludes should be added between stanzas/sentences to allow more varieties in texture and allow the instruments to sing the melody as well. The strings and piano should have slurs to indicate Bowing/ legato playing/ phrasing. @Wieland Handke and @MK_Piano are right on the marking of syllables, as for the melismatic notes you would need to indicate which syllables would be sung with which notes by hyphen. Also vocal scoring is a bit different: grouped notes represent they will cover a syllable, while separate note-head represent syllabic lyrics. So for example for your first three words “so on a”, the three Ds should be marked as 3 separate notes instead of grouping together. The high B5 and D6 in b.37-39 would be really difficult to sing with even for sopranos. And you should add more rests for the soprano to breathe! Now it almost becomes a never ending Wagnerian melody with no spots to breathe! Thx for joining the competition! Henry

Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7.5 5.5 9 6 9.5 10 8.75 7.5 Avg: 7.96 Very upbeat piece easily reminds me of a summer afternoon. The intro is a beautiful opening in the classical style, very well done. Clear structure and elegantly formed themes make this a very easy piece to follow. The dynamics or audio balancing need a little work because a lot of your melodies (anything in the treble clef) sound muddled due to the lack of proper balancing. My favorite part aside from the opening, is your key changing at around 2:40. This was a very much needed change because most of your harmony was quite tame. Although the key changing was a fun deviation of your piece, modulations within key can sometimes break the monotony, so don't be afraid to temporarily venture out of key every so often.

Hi @JDevorMusic ! Technically this should be the most complete piece of the competition! The harmony and mood are the most varied, the use of motives very notable and coherent, instruments, like @Fruit hunter noted, are extended to their utmost potential. I like your use of whole tone scale which definitely makes the music sound impressionistic and French. The piece keeps moving forward because of the varying textures when you allow some moments of quieter passages with fewer players. Like @MK_Piano I think the piece less related to the original poem and the competition theme. But this one is subjective as we all have our own interpretations on poems. But the piece stands alone well! Thx for sharing and joining the forum! Henry

Hi @Ninja Nolan ! I like the idea of using different movements to present contrast. The opening movement sounds like an introductory chorale to the piece while the last movement sounds like an ending chorale to the piece, much like the structure of a cantata. The centre movement is the main statement of the piece to me and I love the vivacity of the march, it sounds like opera buffa to me. I am expecting that after the Ab major trio the Eb major march will return as in a da capo piece. I think the texture of the piece can be more varied: mostly it is chordal except the march, and even in the march it works in pairs so rhythmically the whole piece sounds less varied. I think you can also add more contrast inside movement 1 and 3 as well, instead of only having the contrast between movements. Also it would be great if there are some coherence of materials between movements, but this point is subjective! Harmonically it's Baroque and more traditional. And for the text, I think the 3rd movement shouldn't be tragic as in your music with the corresponding stanza: And when the evening comes, the caressing breeze That plays in your veils shall be sweet, And the peaceful gazes of the stars Shall smile benevolently upon the lovers.I myself cannot link the tonic G minor with the happiness of the stanza. The 3rd movement sounds more like a contemplative reflection of something sadder than portraying peace and love in the poem. But this point is also personal and subjective! Thx for sharing! I know I am nitpicky in this comment, but I do like the music especially the 2nd movement, thx for joining the competition! Henry

Hi James, Welcome to the forum and thanks for submitting this work! It's been wonderful seeing how various people have tackled the challenged I have laid out. Now, I am in the process of doing my reviews and it has come time to leave one here! To preface, I wish to address some things. I am a tonal composer and while I have written post-tonal, or post-modern, I have only done so in the academic scene. My taste is to romantic soundscapes and I may not be the best suited to properly address this work. However, I wish to give it my best shot! ENGRAVING: The engraving of this score is meticulous and leaves no errors. My only comments here is that in your copyright footer on the first page of the score, you misspelled "LLC" and put "LCC" instead. Just a heads up before you sell this work elsewhere. Another picky thing is with the front matter, I am not sure you need to specify "written for the YCF competition..." twice: before the notes and above the title on the first page of score. It makes more sense to see a dedication for the ensemble above the title or to the organization of the event versus saying "written for XYZ" twice. Seems a little redundant. The last picky thing is the page 19 to the end in the harp. I feel there is a better way to notate the cluster arpeggios. The accidentals tend to stick out way too much for me to say it makes sense. Visually it seems a little silly, especially the last harp chord. To me, even for those moments, using two stems, an extra stave, or voices to notate the individual notes, or help spell them out may be better; lastly, use of enharmonic spellings to keep the accidentals uniform (all sharps or all flats) may prove beneficial. (unless the goal was for every string to be used, which aha! That makes sense for varying accidentals) Essentially, I am reasoning that it may be more effective if you make the readability easy for the performer because a lot of challenge will go into the playability and technique. Some of your pedal changes are cumbersome for a harpist. Outside of these comments, nice work! MUSIC: This to me, is the hardest to review as personal taste plays a factor. I did look at some snippets off your Instagram and Twitch of the process, but I do not have the time to do a proper analysis, which I feel may benefit my own understanding. Your use of the whole tone scale is most prevalent throughout the work, and there are certain motifs that come back and can be remembered by a listener during the duration. The form, if applicable seems to be a large binary with sub-forms within them. These forms being separated at rehearsal-J with the harp to break the piece in two. However, to me, the midi doesn't do a good justice as it seems quite monotonous, even though the score has very strong dynamic implications and a singer would actually sing the written lyrics. To add, when it comes to the context of the competition, it casts more a dream than a romance. The soprano and tenor help the visual of two partners, yet, the nature of the work doesn't cast unbridled love, but a complex and troubled relationship in my opinion. Verlaine wrote this before the marriage to his Fiancée and there is a level of raw joy he may have felt. The ending of the work, after rehearsal-J seems to better capture that point, versus the front half, which is weaker in my opinion. As a chance for another to give a better addressed review, I believe @HoYin Cheung will have the tools for more direct feedback. Good work on this piece, and we'll be eager to see what you create next!

Hi Matthew, Welcome to the forum and I'm glad to see another M-based name around here! It is wonderful to engage with other composers and I am very excited to see others participate in an idea of my creation. Thus, let's get right into my review! However, some things to address first: I am attaching an annotated PDF of your score with some comments. I do not have the time to sit down and do a thorough analysis, thus the feedback is aimed at the engraving and surface level details. However, I will elaborate my thoughts both on the annotations and the music here over the course of the comment. Please find the attached PDF at the end. Thanks! GENERAL COMMENTS: To start, your understanding of the ensemble is not quite right. It is not voice and piano trio, instead it is Soprano and Piano Quartet. Any piano ensemble INCLUDES the piano with the number of instruments. Piano Trio = Piano+Violin+Cello | Piano Quartet = Piano+Violin+Viola+Cello | etc. ENGRAVING: Next, I wish to address the numerous engraving mistakes in the score. The biggest being rest placement, dynamic placement and the spacing of the vocal text. These are annotated on the score, so please refer to the PDF to see exactly where and what I mean. To add, please ensure to add a double bar line when using key changes, and please restate the tempo when changing time signatures! A dotted quarter note and regular quarter note are NOT the same and you need to specify the change. As you did not in the score, it is confusing currently. Also, how come the articulations for the vocal line and instruments are not the same? There are spots where the violin and soprano are identical or state the same gesture over the course of the work, however they do not have the same articulation. I would consolidate and make sure the instruments also have the same articulations when they state the melody. Speaking of Melody, @Wieland Handke is correct with the writing of the text. You need to ensure there is at least one pitch for EACH syllable. A syllable can be sung over multiple notes, but two syllables CANNOT be sung in one note duration. An example would be measure 22, beat 3 with the word "Partner". MUSIC: The main issue with the music is how dense it is. You use all instruments constantly over the runtime of this work. There is no change, almost no instrument drops out for a long time, instead, it is just sound, sound, sound! What would immediately create variety is changing this. Drop out the piano, drop out the strings, and use other combinations. As is, because of the density, the voice can get overpowered quickly. If you wish to make the voice stand out, then make the accompaniment simpler or less active. If you have sounds going the entire time, then it beckons the question what is special? What needs to be heard? If you use all instruments all the time, then it makes them all less unique. Instead, if you were to reserve an instrument or chord progression for a particular moment, then you heighten its effect when heard! To add, changing who is playing the melody or doing the accompaniment is another aspect to look at. Lastly, spreading out the ranges of each instrument could be good as currently, I feel their ranges are all close and can lead to some pitch clashing if played live. Keep this as some food for thought going forward. To end, the recording is a little skewed too. I would not use the Violin, Viola or Cello Section soundfont for the singular instrument in MuseScore. It makes the strings sound way too lush and resonant for what a singular instrument can do. Consider changing it to be the solo soundfonts instead. If the violin sounds too whiny or slides too much, use a sound flag or text field to change the playing to "Ordinary". Good work, and we'll be eager to see what you make next! M. McAlister - So, on a bright summer day [ANNOTATED].pdf

Great work nothing to really criticize just some curiosities though since you definitely milk the hell out of almost every instrument in that piece with experimental extended techniques, I’m a strings player so I understand more information about the viola stuff and some information about the flute stuff. I’ll definitely be studying the harmonics and how flute harmonics work. (wood wind harmonics are a big part of my next upcoming composition for large Orchestra. “morse”). Anyways, the textures are amazing in the harmony, though is dissonant works extremely well with that dreamy quality of the whole tone scale. Time for interrogation in my assumptions again, this is more about curiosity as that these techniques are not thoroughly explained either in the actual score or in performance notes Xyl. -harp- i’m assuming this is a xylophone sounding technique though I don’t know how exactly is it to be reproduced I’m assuming that you kind of just strike the fingers against the strings bamboo tone flute- this is pretty self-explanatory as in the idea that they’re trying to achieve a sound similar to a bamboo flute, but how could it be reproduced? how is a jet whistle produced I’m assuming that you make a jet of air near the opening mouthpiece of the flute, but harsh enough not to make an actual sound for the flute harmonics there’s two ways I could feel about them that first they are usually used as a method to extend the range so they are played as a normal actual technique used in producing a “normal” sound , are the flute harmonic similar to artificial harmonics on string instruments? Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9.5 9.7 8.85 7.76 9.93 9.3 9.4 9.6 average 9.26. I also have watched part of your live stream about the composition process so that was nice only though five minutes of some parts. I don’t know if you explained the techniques there so I may have to look back. Anyways, other than the lower score for originality due to the convergent factor of all the pieces of this competition almost having the same aesthetic it was a very nice piece and it was amazing. Great job and I hope you join more competitions in the future.

Hello @JDevorMusic, thank you for sharing such an incredible piece of music, and by the way – a hearty welcome at the forum. Interestingly, the very first submission to the competition, and the last one – so far – have the same instrumentation, a flute, a viola and a harp (while you’ve added two vocals). Melodies Themes Motives and Harmony Chords Textures: There is a memorable motif that recurs throughout the piece and is first introduced by the flute in measures 4–5. The sung poem features relatively long note values or coloraturas for the faster notes, so that the vocal parts are somewhat reminiscent of Renaissance singing. The accompaniment contrasts that with its – one the one hand „percussive“ arpeggiated chords – and, in other passages with energetic ostinatos (on the harp or viola), so that the piece unfolds a varied texture. As a piece in „contemporary style“, or to be said „atonal“, it is difficult to speak about „harmonies“ in the traditional sense. However, there are some chords which could be perceived as „pentatonic“. Form Development Structure Time: The piece has no „traditional“ form (such as sonata or rondo form), but is clearly structured due to the realization of the poem as a modern „aria“ (or better duet), with passages of increasing tension and „rests“, calming down between the stanzas. And finally, you were thoroughly enough to meet the requirements of the competition by finishing the piece exactly at the 7:00 minute limit. Originality Creativity: This piece is absolutely unique among all the submissions, obviously for its atonality, but also because of its detailed and meticulous craftsmanship. Score Presentation: The score presentation is absolute professional, starting with the title page, preface (including instrumentation, program notes etc.) and is full of information. So I didn’t look around to find some nitpicks but was rather impressed by the vast majority of details, including markups on articulation, playing instructions, harp pedals, breakdown of compound meter signatures etc. Instrumentation Orchestration Playability: The instrumentation works well, the three instruments from different families blend together and complement each other in their timbre, as well with the vocals. As for playability, you yourself mentioned the the difficult level, which would be suitable for professionals only. And I'm sure you've checked all the passages for “unplayable” notes or chords. Execution of Given Challenge: Your piece represents a very thorough realization of the task of the contest: To take Paul Verlaine’s poem and create „Something“ in music. The question remains, whether the dissonant character of this contemporary piece will evoke associations with summer, beauty, and love in the majority of listeners. Taste: That might be the problematic part. For me, it's a fascinating piece when I can really focus on it (maybe during a live performance). But I don't think it works as well if you're just listening to it in the background. Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 9 9 9 10 10 8 7.5 5.5 Average Score: 8.5

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):

I finished my piece! Saxophone Quartet no. 2 - Un clair jour d'été It's written for 4 soprano saxophones. Each movement is based on a stanza from the poem.