2025 Halloween Competition - DANCE FROM THE SKELETON BALL (Submission)

Hello all!

I am classical pianist based in the United States and have been composing in my spare time since 2023, mainly hand writing and using MuseScore as my notation engine of choice. This post marks my first ever post and submission here on the Young Composer's Forum. If you would like to know more about me, both my website and short biography can be found on my profile!

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YCF HALLOWEEN SUBMISSION:
For this year's halloween competition, I created a ~5-minute long work for a Piano Quartet (Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano). This was my chamber of choice as currently, I am learning, and will be performing, Beethoven's Opus 11 Piano Trio in Bb with two other peers, and felt inspired to write something more traditional. Composed in C-minor, this work is set into Ternary Form (A-B-A') and aims to cast music for the time of Halloween. If you would like to know more about the piece, you can find more information on Page 3 in the "About" section.
 
Thank you for taking the time to view my score and consider this work for this event! 

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(DISCLAIMER: The Midi playback from Musescore Studio sounds a little skewed in the solo violin part, however, this setback does not object to the playability of the part.)

8.5/10

Awesome music, and welcome!

Dude, you're fantastic. I almost went this route, kinda the dancey macabre but fun way. Loved it

Your music is very well thought out, score is clean and neat, you obviously know what you're doing. Lovely playback too, the rendering is really smooth and polished. 

We'd love to hear your feedback on some of the entrees, you sound like you have a lot of knowledge for a young age. Well done! 🙂 

@Thatguy v2.0

Thanks! I am a savant of music theory and put a passion into my music. I am personally picky on engraving, formatting and music structure, and if I were to go around scores, I think that'd be a bulk of my comments. If you really want to know... ask @UncleRed99. He's been on the receiving end of my comments lol

Welcome to YC!

Anyways, great piece, with clear inspirations from Beethoven and some from Chopin's Polonaises. My favourite so far.

Average 9.375 Very Good.

Hello @MK_Piano I will score your work later today.  Stay tuned! 

Here's my score: 

Average score: 9.7(very good) 

I do not think much to say on this piece. 

14 minutes ago, Kvothe said:

Here's my score: 

Average score: 8.4(above average good) 

I do not think much to say on this piece. 

 

Melodies Themes Motives	Harmony Chords Textures	Form Development Structure Time	Originality Creativity	Score Presentation	Instrumentation Orchestration Playability	Execution of Given Challenge	Taste
10	9.5	9.5	10	10	9.5	10	9

 

Thanks for the rate! Just to clarify: Based on this table, wouldn't the average be 9.6875 and not 8.4?

11 minutes ago, MK_Piano said:

Thanks for the rate! Just to clarify: Based on this table, wouldn't the average be 9.6875 and not 8.4?

 

Again, maths. 

Yes. I will now correct that.

Hi again man, it's me, the long reply guy again! 

But this time I'm having a look at your quartet :).

How important structure is. If there's anything I love listening to that would be 100 of 100 times how apparently simple stuff gets way stronger than what one can anticipate making intelligent use of structure. What first felt like a nice but not specially remarkable rhythm and material, later came back strengthened. It's something that our grand masters of the past knew very well and I personally never get tired of it.