YC Halloween Contest entry (The Mist)

Hello everyone.  Here is my official entry of this contest.  It is for string quartet (2 violions, viola, a cello, and double bass). 

The idea behind it was: how can i use the following atonality, bitonality, and sprinkle of halloween fun. 

Hi Kvothe!

This is nice material. Solid at the beginning, but I kind of lost trace towards the final moments of the piece. Sound-wise it does its job very well.
The very end felt uncalled for. It was everything but conclusive to me, which can be good at some places but I'm not sure if this is one of them.

There are also some unexpected transitions and effects that struck me like "let's experiment with this". Nothing wrong with that either, this is a relaxed and informal competition afer all but... Dunno, I'm quite sure that if you let this material mature it would become way more interesting than what we already have here. Like, from 1:05 to the col legno sections, damn, epic transition. I also like how the col legno blends with the upper string voices, but to put a contrasting example I don't like how the first very strong phrase that sounds again on ~0:30 gets dissolved and transitions to some sort of uncanny fanfare that if extended it could prove to be a worthy piece on its own. 

Another thing I would like to point out at least superficially: dynamics. There is always room for them, and while abusing them can be a pain for performers, underusing them is not very good either. I think this piece suffers a bit from the latter, but not so much anyway! I notice marcatos, accents, and other articulations, but say, for example: do you want the same strength/volume in the stacatto-pizz. hits in the intro and just after the beginning of the A section?

And yeah, let me be honest: I get that sheets are not usually overlooked much but since I myself try to take care I cannot avoid commenting you there are a lot of details that this score needs improvement on. 

Some examples right here: overlapping rubato, tempo marking —intentionally?— microscopic, and a very minor one that could legitimately be brought up by some nit-picky performer: where does the rubato at the first bar begin? First note? Third? Second?
You also have 2 rehearsal marks with "B" at M40 & M45, plus a "C" elsewhere near the end. 

Finally, let me be that guy and tell you: your piece has not reached 3 minutes, and according to the rules:

On 10/6/2025 at 2:42 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

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

Not that in this case anybody's gonna take that very seriously, but since it's still 23/10... Maybe this is enough of an excuse to revisit this piece and give it another go? And if it doesn't work, you already got a solid submission posted! Just as a suggestion 🙂  At the end of the day, if what you got is completely of your liking, to the sky with it! May any of my points prove useful to you 🗿


Kind regards,
Daniel.

P.S: I subscribed to your channel, maybe you could post the video here too!
 

52 minutes ago, Omicronrg9 said:

Hi Kvothe!

This is nice material. Solid at the beginning, but I kind of lost trace towards the final moments of the piece. Sound-wise it does its job very well.
The very end felt uncalled for. It was everything but conclusive to me, which can be good at some places but I'm not sure if this is one of them.

There are also some unexpected transitions and effects that struck me like "let's experiment with this". Nothing wrong with that either, this is a relaxed and informal competition afer all but... Dunno, I'm quite sure that if you let this material mature it would become way more interesting than what we already have here. Like, from 1:05 to the col legno sections, damn, epic transition. I also like how the col legno blends with the upper string voices, but to put a contrasting example I don't like how the first very strong phrase that sounds again on ~0:30 gets dissolved and transitions to some sort of uncanny fanfare that if extended it could prove to be a worthy piece on its own. 

Another thing I would like to point out at least superficially: dynamics. There is always room for them, and while abusing them can be a pain for performers, underusing them is not very good either. I think this piece suffers a bit from the latter, but not so much anyway! I notice marcatos, accents, and other articulations, but say, for example: do you want the same strength/volume in the stacatto-pizz. hits in the intro and just after the beginning of the A section?

And yeah, let me be honest: I get that sheets are not usually overlooked much but since I myself try to take care I cannot avoid commenting you there are a lot of details that this score needs improvement on. 

Some examples right here: overlapping rubato, tempo marking —intentionally?— microscopic, and a very minor one that could legitimately be brought up by some nit-picky performer: where does the rubato at the first bar begin? First note? Third? Second?
You also have 2 rehearsal marks with "B" at M40 & M45, plus a "C" elsewhere near the end. 

Finally, let me be that guy and tell you: your piece has not reached 3 minutes, and according to the rules:

Not that in this case anybody's gonna take that very seriously, but since it's still 23/10... Maybe this is enough of an excuse to revisit this piece and give it another go? And if it doesn't work, you already got a solid submission posted! Just as a suggestion 🙂  At the end of the day, if what you got is completely of your liking, to the sky with it! May any of my points prove useful to you 🗿


Kind regards,
Daniel.

P.S: I subscribed to your channel, maybe you could post the video here too!
 

 

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I don’t feel there’s any need for my input… Lol 

Though I will add a bit of my own $0.02 to build upon this reply; 

pivoting off of his use of the word “Uncanny” I think I would also use the same word to describe how my experience with this piece felt. And I very much so agree; If this piece were allowed to mature for some more time, the ideas presented on your score could be spot-lit easily. The potential is there, in black and white! 
 

i think you might also benefit from reviewing your understanding of chords, leading tones, harmony, and form. Some of the score feels as if you were unsure of what to do, and just played the “fake it til’ you make it” game until you made it to a stopping point where you could then introduce the next idea that you had in mind. 
 

that being said, my advice would be to revisit areas in the score where you felt a sort of “writers block” at, and instead of allowing yourself to “wing it” through, slow down and really analyze what it is that you could effectively achieve. 
 

Lastly, yeah… This score wouldn’t be considered “complete” being under the 3 minute minimum, and if this were a true competition, would be immediately disqualified for judgement 😕