Fall 2025 Halloween Competition

The members have voted and decided upon a Halloween themed competition!  This is a just-for-fun competition without monetary awards.  But I will be making badges to reward the participants and to give them kudos!  I'm thinking I'll make a badge for "Strangest/Weirdest/Most Outlandish piece", "Spookiest/Scariest piece" and "Overall 2025 Halloween winner" which will all be decided by a popular voting poll.  The participants will also be able to earn an "Ardent Reviewer" badge if they review all the other participants works!  Please reply to this topic to declare your intent to participate in the competition!  The competition has the following constraints:

Instrumentation - Free choice of any of the following ensembles:

1. Piano Quintet/Quartet/Trio
2. String Quintet/Quartet/Trio
3. Woodwind Quintet/Quartet/Trio
4. Brass Quintet/Quartet/Trio
5. Mixed Quintet/Quartet/Trio

      Additionally, the participants are allowed to include Harpsichord, Organ or any other instrument which they believe would facilitate a Halloween-themed piece, as long as they keep the total number of instruments used between 3 and 5.

Duration:  3 - 7 minutes with a sweet spot of 5 minutes.

Deadline:  Friday, October 31st, 2025

Entrants thus far:

@Thatguy v2.0

@Justin Gruber

@Omicronrg9

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):

On 10/5/2025 at 7:42 PM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Please reply to this topic to declare your intent to participate in the competition!

I declare my intent to participate in the competition

I'm a little confused. If everything's decided via popular poll, what exactly are the criteria for "judging"? For instance, do I need to spend a lot of time on a score? Will I be be viewed less favorably if my audio recording is just standard MIDI? The competition idea is exciting, but don't know where I need to focus my time if I were to join.

11 minutes ago, Monarcheon said:

I'm a little confused. If everything's decided via popular poll, what exactly are the criteria for "judging"? For instance, do I need to spend a lot of time on a score? Will I be be viewed less favorably if my audio recording is just standard MIDI? The competition idea is exciting, but don't know where I need to focus my time if I were to join.

This is a very informal competition.  Usually, in a formal competition we would have dedicated judges who used judging criteria and scoring definitions.  But, then, if they were a judge they would not be allowed to participate in the competition themselves.  And the submissions would also have to be kept anonymous to stave off any impression of favoritism.  But since, ultimately, this competition is just a fun challenge without monetary rewards, we decided to do away with all that formality.  But, we would be honored if you (or everybody really) donated their very valuable time to review the music submitted in as detailed a way as you feel is necessary and appropriate!  AND, if you review all the participant's works you get an "Ardent Reviewer" badge which everyone will be able to see in your profile!

In previous, formal competitions we used the following scoring definitions:

And the following scoring categories:

It would honor us if you (or anybody who feels up to the challenge) used these categories and definitions to review the pieces submitted!  Thank you for whatever time and effort you're willing to give!

Let's go. I'll try. Deadline a bit bad to me but I'm sure something can be done.