Fumage – Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Bassoon (Halloween Competition Submission)

Hello everyone,

I’d like to share my piece Fumage for flute, oboe, and bassoon as my submission for the Fall 2025 Halloween Competition.

🎃 About the Piece
Fumage is inspired by the surrealist art technique of the same name, where smoke from a candle or lamp leaves ghostly, shifting impressions on paper. This piece takes that imagery into sound, with wisps of timbre, sudden bursts, and eerie colorations from the woodwinds. It mirrors candlelight, smoke, and the blurred line between reality and apparition—an atmosphere that fits the surreal and haunting spirit of Halloween.

Instrumentation: Flute, Oboe, Bassoon
Duration: ~7 minutes

Score (PDF)
Audio (MIDI)

Thanks for listening and I welcome any feedback!

–– Justin Gruber

Hello @Justin Gruber and welcome to the forum!

Thank you for your submission!  I have taken the liberty of editing this post to include the mp3 you uploaded to the other post and I'll delete that other duplicate post since we want you to submit your music as its own dedicated topic so that the members at large can have a space to review it properly.  Thanks again for your participation!

Hello @Justin Gruber!

Welcome to the forum and thx for joining the Halloween Competition!

I really like this light hearted piece which for sure match the Halloween theme. Changing meters, naughty interactions between the instruments, as well as some funny dissonance and oblique harmonic motions.

I like in the structure that after reaching Section K the tonality is more affirmed in C major even with some later more dissonant passages, and then more reflective passages before the ending, and then section P brings back the opening. This really gives a narrative to the whole piece.

Thx for sharing!

Henry

I enjoy the chromatism and dissonance. I have found a wide amount of dynamics used, it is neither so simple. I really enjoyed listening to this piece of music! 

On 10/12/2025 at 7:38 PM, TristanTheTristan said:

Melodies Themes Motives	Harmony Chords Textures	Form Development Structure Time	Originality Creativity	Score Presentation	Instrumentation Orchestration Playability	Execution of Given Challenge	Taste
9.5	8	6.5	9.5	10	7.5	8	7

 

I gave a high level of originality because it has very original thoughts, like a beautiful mess.

YOU EVEN WROTE A SHORT PARAGRAPH ABOUT THE MUSIC?! Definitely 10 out of 10.

Beautiful melodies.

ABA is Boring...

Average: 8.25 Above Average

Hey there Justin

Wow, this is fantastic! There's so much color throughout, and I love how you really explore some of the possibilities the instruments are capable of. Long trills, variation in expressions, all wonderful. 

It was interesting to hear how you developed your melodic cells, since there was a purposeful lack of melody. I love your jaunty changes in rhythm, and your approach to sequence-style movement in your chords (sorry don't know how to properly say that). The A sections were so free and fleeting, kind of reminded me of Debussy or how jazz musicians move chords. Very cool stuff. 

I don't know how "halloween" sounding this is, but it's an outstanding work nonetheless, one that you should be very proud of. Feel free to offer advice or say hi to others, you sound like you have a lot of knowledge we'd be happy if you shared. Thanks for posting, and be sure to vote for me for your favorite halloween piece 😄 

Overall Score Average: 6.25 

Melodies Themes and Motives: 4
  My reasoning for a 4 is because the music, for me at least, seemed difficult to follow. I did lose my place a couple of times, and there really is no melody, not any one line that sticks out at any given moment. Although, I believe that this piece's intent is to be jarring, random, or playful in it's nature, if I'm assuming correctly. (I'm sorry, I couldn't take the time to read the introduction page. 😅 It kept cutting off for me. Possibly something to do with my browser)

Harmony, Chords, Textures: 7
  Overall, I think the harmonic complexity and textures presented here are very good! I don't have a lot of technical wording to use to describe it, as it's very unique, but nonetheless, well done!

Form, Dev., Structure, Time: 4
  (I'm assuming it's supposed to be this way) I wasn't really able to differentiate too much between your sections. The textures change, but not in a fluid manner, from what I observed. The Development of the piece is mostly unchanging throughout the piece. There are moments of more pronounced dynamics, then moments of lower dynamics with only 1 or 2 parts playing. Which does show some form of development, but this would be unclear to the average listener. I also have to say, I've never seen or even considered using a time signature with a denominator of 16. 😅 to be frank, I have no idea how I'd even begin to count that. I simply followed the notes on the page, as I heard them passing, to get through those measures. Personally, I feel there may have been a more sensible choice than 3/16. (Simply my opinion)

Originality: 10
What else can I say? Never seen anything like this one, honestly. And I'm diggin' the uniqueness of it, despite any of my grievances with it.

Score Presentation: 10
Very Professional - Very Demure 😎

Ins. Orch. Playability: 5
Overall, this is technically able to be performed... However, I feel that an excessive amount of time would go into rehearsing something like this, with 3 musicians, just looking at it practically. The syncopation is off the CHARTS my man... 😭 As well as some parts where I notice the pitch jumps over an octave from the previous note/measure, which can be very difficult, especially for wind players, to execute.

Execution: 5
It would scare me if I had this music set in front of me as a musician. So I think that qualifies it as "spooky" but it's not very reminiscent of pieces I'd consider to be "Halloween-ey" or however you'd put that 😅

Taste: 5
I only put a 5 here because I'm not quite sure what sort of flavor you were shooting for. I feel that this score is more reminiscent of your own taste, adding to the Originality of the score. So, I'd wager that this is a totally unique score of your own design/genre, mostly. That's about all the input I have on that topic. 

id give it a 6.7 out of ten.

Review: 

Form Development Structure Time: 6.5

I score this 6.5 for it was hard to listen to ABA form for 7 minutes. You have to keep in mind that the general listener has short attention span. ABA are usually shorter. But given the time frame that we had to meet...I realize the challenge it was to write ABA. 

Score Presentation: 8

I score this an 8 for the score looked professional; and if you send this to ensemble they would be probably say yes. 

 Instrumentation Orchestration Playability: 7

There were some interesting spots when the music went into 7 where the division changed every measure. Not to mention that meter of the piece changed throughout You have to count for sure. 
 

Originality Creativity: 8

This was truly original concept and your put thought and creativity into. Kudos 

Melodies Themes Motives: 7.5

In the A section, there was ostinato that held it together. that was interesting, The interplay between flute and oboe grabbed my attention.

Harmony Chords Textures: 8

The texture of this piece was not homophonic but polyphonic and borderline polymetric. So there was more independency of the three parts than chorale.   

Execution: 7.5

It meet reequipment to write a trio and time, but I did not feel it for Halloween.  

Taste: 7

This is hard to describe.  I feel this would be great for concert. 

Average score: 7.6 Standard 

1 minute ago, Kvothe said:

Melodies Themes Motives	Harmony Chords Textures	Form Development Structure Time	Originality Creativity	Score Presentation	Instrumentation Orchestration Playability	Execution of Given Challenge	Taste
7.5	8	6.5	8	8	7	9	7

Review: 

Form Development Structure Time: 6.5

I score this 6.5 for it was hard to listen to ABA form for 7 minutes. You have to keep in mind that the general listener has short attention span. ABA are usually shorter. But given the time frame that we had to meet...I realize the challenge it was to write ABA. 

Score Presentation: 8

I score this an 8 for the score looked professional; and if you send this to ensemble they would be probably say yes. 

 Instrumentation Orchestration Playability: 7

There were some interesting spots when the music went into 7 where the division changed every measure. Not to mention that meter of the piece changed throughout You have to count for sure. 
 

Originality Creativity: 8

This was truly original concept and your put thought and creativity into. Kudos 

Melodies Themes Motives: 7.5

In the A section, there was ostinato that held it together. that was interesting, The interplay between flute and oboe grabbed my attention.

Harmony Chords Textures: 8

The texture of this piece was not homophonic but polyphonic and borderline polymetric. So there was more independency of the three parts than chorale.   

Execution: 7.5

It meet reequipment to write a trio and time, but I did not feel it for Halloween.  

Taste: 7

This is hard to describe.  I feel this would be great for concert. 

Average score: 7.6 Standard 

 

 

maths...

7 minutes ago, TristanTheTristan said:

maths...

 

I mathed correctly

This is my first rodeo

@Justin Gruber
I appreciate this submission a lot. Some of comments or ratings seem to come from a place of tonality and western structure versus the post-tonal lens this casts. For the style, I think the execution works well. This said, this will take time for performers to nail due to the syncopation playing tricks on their ears, however, I think it is a better condition for it to be challenging on an ensemble level versus a soloistic level. (I have a feeling you already know this to be true lol)

For my personal style, I would space the measures out more and keep it to 4-6 measures versus a long stave of 8 measures. Even though you can fit 8 measures in one system, it grows to be a little "cluttery" at times (Measures 56-80). My final critique is when you apply this piece in the sense of "Halloween". I am not 100% convinced this conveys Halloween. It seems to cast the fall season in my opinion. I did not feel a "spook" or sense of "creeping" when listening.

Other than these comments, I found your work to be enjoyable! Love to see when people employ some good front matter and proper copyright information. 🙂

I enjoy this piece! The choice of the woodwinds is good - balanced timbre - especially with oboe adding some sense of mystery to the work.

The melody is pleasant to listen to, and the development is natural and colourful. But in terms of the competition, I think it might not be the best fit in the "Halloween" theme (perhaps too joyful? 😅)

However, I think section N and O lost some "energy" there - I know you may want to depict the gradual diffusion (dying out) of the smoke - I believe there are potential to be more harmonic before the recapitulation. 

Regarding the playability, I think it is completely fine, in terms of the clear indication and suitable difficulty to the players. Irregular time signature is a feature here.

I think it is a light-hearted work that is worth a concert performance! Good work!

Hi Justin. Welcome to the forums!

I'll try to be brief here and I will possibly fail terribly. First of all, nice scoring, very standard and professional looking. 

"The winds enrapture a surreal version with significant variance in color and timbre, demonstrating the depth and nuance that the smoke and candle cannot on their own." (A surreal version of what? Fumages?)
"This piece takes that imagery into sound, with wisps of timbre, sudden bursts, and eerie colorations from the woodwinds. It mirrors candlelight, smoke, and the blurred line between reality and apparition—an atmosphere that fits the surreal and haunting spirit of Halloween."
This is an informal competition. I am aware that kind of "selling" your piece with words like these is the everyday basis, the norm, specially in more "serious" ($$$) music composition competitions, calls for scores, etc. and in some other places within this vast realm. Let me just state that there's no need to here, and frankly after listening to your work for the fourth time (1st time before reading the speech in the PDF, 2nd-4th after having read both small texts) I still can't see how what you say your piece depicts matches in any way or form with halloween, or even spookish fumages, of course, other than by you yourself fixing these concepts and thus tying them to your music by means of the words that you have put before the very score begins. This is not to say Fumages themselves are not spooky or suggest Halloween-like sensations. To me, they very much are (some):
 


So there are two possibilities, either you composed this piece in 2024 with "an atmosphere that fits the surreal and haunting spirit of Halloween" in mind or you submitted it elsewhere, with another speech more adequate to that moment, and then reused it here. If it's the former, weird that no reference to Halloween is found in your introductory text. If it's the latter, I do not buy it and there is no need to do that here 😉.

Let's finally continue to the piece itself.

 

Not sure if the audio is incorrect at the beginning or it's just on my end but I hear M9 like this  instead of how it's written. Other measures with this rhytmic fragment happen to sound like that sound-wise. Just a detail.

Second, I do think I have listened to this piece before. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

Third: I more or less agree with the commentary of @UncleRed99. I myself have pieces with X/16 tempi indications and just for reference I don't feel it Halloweenish but I did enjoy some parts of it. I'm dropping an example just for future reference:

These are the first bars of Beethoven's Sonata No. 32, 2nd movement. Why? Sure there must be lots of discussion for why the F did our Ludwig choose 9/16 instead 9/8 and possibly many members here have their own ideas! But I digress.



Summarising a lot, and Halloweenish considerations aside, you got in my humble opinion a VERY solid introductory section!
The way instruments meet while entering the score feels very natural to me and they begin blending so well, creating a nice texture, but then they get a bit lost into some hmmm... not chaotic but vague and definitely not convincing —to me obviously— passages where the music feels like it wants to go to many places at the same time. This is most likely where the atmospheric approach should overcome the typical melody+harmony approach but it doesn't seem to stick to any particular one for long. It's all moments of calm vs moments of half-intricated lines intertwining each other. The former I liked, the latter not so much. 

My favourite parts of the score are probably the already mentioned beginning and undoubtedly letters M to O, specially the transition from O to P, very well done. You clearly know your craft Justin. Hats off for that great O->P. 

All in all, a piece that is more or less enjoyable to me, with its ups and downs sure, and imo a brilliant transition. After many listenings, it ended up almost convincing me, specially towards the end of it. 

Many thanks for submitting your work here, Justin! 

Best regards,
Daniel–Ø.



 

What an adventurous trio! And your key changing is really fun, especially around the 3:25 and 3:40 mark. I had mixed feelings about whether this felt like a Halloween piece though. But there are certainly sections that represent structured chaos and friction. As for your time signatures, very abnormal (when was the last time I saw 3/16?) but hey, you made it work!

Melodies & Form: I think you had some fun motifs, especially in the Bassoon. I do think this piece is pretty structured, but the melody / themes are sometimes is hard to piece together.

Harmony: This modern sounding trio creates some gorgeous harmonies, especially towards the end!

Creativity & Score Presentation: Beautiful score presentation, and original!

Playability: Not sure, but the note density seems pretty high for a woodwind trio. Also, there are a lot of time signature changes that could be hard to follow.

Execution: As I stated in my summary, it doesn't quite sound like a Halloween piece to me. But if you were to put this in a cartoon, I think that's where the piece would shine!

Taste: I listened to this a few times to make out the structure so I could give a somewhat coherent review. I have to say, the style grew on me. Originally I gave this a 6.5 from my first listen, but I could bump that up to an 8. So I just averaged them out, and that's why I put a 7.25 in case your wondering!