Leaderboard

Hello everyone! The following post in my formal submission for the 2026 Summer Competition: From Nothing, to Something. Below includes a detailed and extensive explanation of the work, both in inspiration and construction. If you wish to skip, the score PDF and Audio will be found at the end. Thanks and talk to you all soon! [TAKEN FROM SCORE] Plus belle encor votre chère beauté  - Your dear beauty lovelier still Duration: c. 6:08 Written in 2026, Plus belle encor votre chère beauté is a work for piano quartet that evokes summer and the experience of love. It was composed for the “2026 Summer Competition” hosted by The Young Composers Music Forum and is inspired by Paul Verlaine’s poem “Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d’été,” whose opening line may be translated as: “So, on a bright summer day it shall be.” The poem is number nineteen in Verlaine’s collection La Bonne Chanson (The Good Song) Find the French text and translation to the poem here The title of this work is drawn directly from the French text and has similar inspiration as the Gabriel Fauré song from his op. 61 bearing the same name as the Verlaine poem. However, this work takes the title from the fourth line of text, and unlike Fauré, this work is late-romantic in style. The musical inspiration came from two places: Tchaikovsky and his Nutcracker ballet, and a spell of improvisation at the piano. This work was created in late July and early August 2026, and during that time, I was experimenting with modal improvisation, and felt drawn to G-lydian. Specifically, the ivø7 chord you can build and find in Tchaikovsky’s music. It was also around this time I was listening to parts of the Nutcracker, where I felt drawn to the idea of harp-writing, and thus, during a period of improvisation, the foundation of this work came to be. With structure, Plus belle encor votre chère beauté is in ternary (A-B-A’) form and includes an intro and coda. The B-section acts as our development while the outer A-sections are comprised of a smaller AABA form. The principal theme stated in the A-section occurs throughout the work, where it can be heard in the introduction, coda and within the development where the piano states the principal theme in inversion. Lastly, I composed this work following the end of a relationship. In short, this work evokes those unspoken emotions I harbored and the romance I long to have one day. A day where I too can say “Your dear beauty.” PERSONAL NOTE: For me, the connection to this text, and now to this piece of music, is very personal. By the time this post goes live, my last relationship, of more than a year, ended a month ago. I will leave my thoughts on the matter with this: while rare in occurrence, being in the throes of thought can make the weight of longing feel immeasurable. However, amidst the satin and silk, this piece came to life. To add some fun for the competition, and incase people worry the music is not playable, I can assure you everything on the page works and is practical. However, better to put money where my playing is. A few hours before posting, I decided to record myself playing the work and trying out things. I originally improvised it on piano and this was one of the few times I tried to mimic what is on the page. It is not 1-to-1 and I made certain liberties in performance, however, this was fun to do! (This YouTube video is not my official audio entry for this competition. MP3 for score can be found below. Also, my camera was not in focus during the take... grrr) Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy! (The art on the cover page is Claude Monet's "Woman with a Parasol." A wonderful piece of art!) AUDIO_YourDearBeauty.mp3 SCORE_YourDearBeauty.pdf

on pastel skies was “commissioned” (more in this case called for) by the young composers 2026 summer competition fit this team after a poem about the serene atmosphere of the Midsummer afternoon 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 gestation of this piece (initial thought, even before the entry of the first note) was an image of a dreamy Florida sunset over the Gulf of Mexico with this image the piece will transport you to another dimension of into the pastel pink, orange, and red opalescent skies instrumentation xylophone (doubling on glockenspiel and crotales, /w large zill bell attachment vibraphone I /w sus and Z.bell and dull metallic object (something like a Burma bell) vibraphone II /w sus and Z.bell and dull metallic object (something like a Burma bell) Marimba I /w sus and temple blocks Marimba II /w Chimes, sus and temple blocks and large, vibrating drum ( tom or surdo ect.) Very important note ^please use the official scoring system if you feel like it and if you’re able to with this piece, it helps a lot with my learning and also feedback and scoring of the music also is very important for my statistical research^ On Pastel Skies.mp3 On Pastel Skies.pdf

Hi I’ve really enjoyed these pieces you’ve mentioned. Video game music and the like is a subgenre that fascinates me, but one I know very little about. I’ve carried on listening to a few more tracks. I think the orchestration is very rich and colourful. It’s true that the brass really stands out. Thank you.