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Challenge: 10-Bars Piano Miniature

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So the premisse is: composing a 10-bars piano miniature (the title is really self-explanatory). How can you develop a musical idea in few measures?

Important observations: repetiton marks ARE NOT ALLOWED!!! Do not put Dal Segno, Rittornello or anything else that simply repeats. Each measure must be played only once.

Also, you can easily "cheat" the rules by using a really big time signature, like 50/2, and a very slow tempo, and lots of semiquivers. It's not valid! I don't want to put the strict limits about which time signatures and tempi are allowed, but be honest to yourself, hehe.

The deadline is October 10th (one week).

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  • Anton von Webern disagrees >.>

  • O_O I didn't even realize it was only 8 bars. I HAVE TWO EXTRA MEASURES??? *stomps off to edit*

  • ChristianPerrotta
    ChristianPerrotta

    I'm sorry, but as this is not a competition, but a Challenge, there are no obligation for judgements and winners. I asked Morivou about this on the main topic about Challanges. There, he said that I c

Why so short?

  • Author

Conciseness (I don't even know if this word exists). I saw once in a recital from the Course of Composition (in the University) some piano miniatures that had to be composed within few bars (I don't remember if only 10). I've proposed this challenge to se if YC composers can deal with such a limited amount of measures and still convince with a musical idea. That is: to be concise and still musical (here, the concept of "concise" was taken to an extreme; I've thought about even fewer bars (8-bars), as Czerny did in his Op. 821; althou it's a educational work, for piano students, I liked it and decided to challenge the composers to write few bars with good musical quality, not only for educational purposes).

No.. I meant WHY is the deadline tomorrow?

  • Author

I wanted a short time to a short composition. But, in fact, it may not work, as people won't see this in time.... =/ I'll change it to one week (i.e., new deadline = October 10th)

I had a piece that I literally had written (quite a while ago) in a couple of days that is only 8 measures long. It isn't really for a specified instrument, and it is already uploaded on YoungComposers. Is it eligible or not?

  • Author

Well, theviolinist7, the rules are: 10 bars and piano. You could adapt it.

Might be able to submit something...

What is the slowest tempo/time signature limit?

I've got something in mind already. I really begun my compositional "career" by writing very short piano snippets, so...

Count me in, this sounds like it could be fun.

This is a cool idea. I think I'm going to try.

I might try this as well. In a break, during my otherwise way too busy internship :)

  • Author

What is the slowest tempo/time signature limit?

As I said in the beginning, I don't really want to put strict limits on it, I just don't want people to exaggerate with an enormous time signature (ex: 120/2) and a very slow tempo (like whole-note = 10 bpm). These are NOT limits, but extreme examples of exaggeration. Just be fair with the purpose of being concise. You could pick a commonly used time signature, or a not so usual one. Just don't "create" the space for too many notes, in attempt to compensate the small quantity of measures. If you believe you're following the "rules" (and people from YC too), that's OK^^

Nice challenge. I completed and posted my piece. Here it is:

http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/3370/10-bar-piano-miniature/

http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/3374/interlude-no-1/

Here is my submission. That was rather entertaining to do,

Challenge taken ;) ...

This is my submission: http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/3375/epigram-in-c-from-six-piano-pieces-op-3/

Please enjoy and comment!

This isn't the piece I was talking about before, but here is the piece.

http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/3377/miniature-no-1/

I don't think you can do it much better than Czerny's opus 821. :veryunsure:

I don't think you can do it much better than Czerny's opus 821. :veryunsure:

Oh please no, stop it :) it's the dummies guide to Schenkerian Analysis, and it bores me to death...

I don't think you can do it much better than Czerny's opus 821. :veryunsure:

Anton von Webern disagrees >.>

I agree. Not that I think I could do any better than Czerny but they're called exercises for a good reason!

Anton von Webern disagrees >.>

Yeah, you could be right. :)

I went 1 bar over the limit... in my defense, though, the last bar just has a whole note, and I didn't use any note lengths shorter than a quarter note! :)

http://www.youngcomp...e-3-in-c-minor/

WOW! That was incredible Dosto

@Morivou oh you! :blush: Glad you liked it!

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