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.  

Hello @MK_Piano!

I like the dark opening with all low registers from the strings!

You mention Mozart in your programme notes. That G-A-B-C motive definitely reminds me of the opening of his D minor Piano Concerto K 466, as well as Beethoven's op.111 first movement. I like this light hearted dance, and the cello melody in b.13 which would later be reused in the Doloroso part.

I like the B minor and nepolitan Db major chord in the Doloroso section, as it makes the music more unsettling, combining with the triplets, and it would be great if there are more polyrhythms here, like the one in b.43 to make the music rhythmically more unsettling! Personally I would want the Doloroso section develops a bit more as I feel like the modulation to F minor is a bit too early for me. But this is subjective in my part! For b.56 I may just write the viola part as Ab-Db to show the nepolitan chord, but I know that your G#-C# would like to show the upward resolve, as well as preventing a natural sign in the next bar's D so it's ok too.

The modulation to A minor at the end makes the music brighter and I like how you vary the texture to get the music more exciting till the end!

The ensemble writing here is almost perfect. One thing I would hope for is that you will give viola a chance to play the melody in solo! I always like its distinctive timbre as it doesn't get too stressed in its high register like cello, nor too hard in notes normally played by violin's G string.

Thx for joining the forum and the competition!

Henry

1 hour ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hello @MK_Piano!

For b.56 I may just write the viola part as Ab-Db to show the neapolitan chord, but I know that your G#-C# would like to show the upward resolve, as well as preventing a natural sign in the next bar's D so it's ok too.

The ensemble writing here is almost perfect. One thing I would hope for is that you will give viola a chance to play the melody in solo! I always like its distinctive timbre as it doesn't get too stressed in its high register like cello, nor too hard in notes normally played by violin's G string.

 

Yeah, it feels nice to have someone else notice those decisions. In all honesty, I did not realize the Viola never had the melody until I did the A-minor Modulation lol 

So, I tried a solo Viola part at the section, but I know if played live, it was going to get lost in the heavy texture at Forte. So, I doubled it with the Cello to support as the Piano was doing the bass pattern. Also, 100% correct on the enharmonic spelling in the Viola, it was purely for voice-leading purposes versus trying to imply a different harmonic function.

Thanks for the comment! 🙂

What's up my boy. We've already spoken about this score privately. But I have to comment here, as well! 
I didn't mention the enjoyment of your use of the bVI chords in your transitions. Very tasteful and well placed. Pacing of the piece is very well executed. Also pleased to hear at mm.33 you found a way to make the playback work in your favor. 😉 a couple things to point out, from my perspective though. 

Your use of the term "Esultante" I feel is misplaced in this score, as a whole. That section is more reminiscent of chaos rather than "exultant," "jubilant," or "elated" (which is the definition of that term, from what I recall) which is but a small gripe, but a gripe nonetheless lol 

I also am questioning playability in some areas for Violin and Cello. I'm not a strings player, however, I would imagine some of the rhythms used in the rhythmic sections, and even in a couple areas of the melodic sections for either instrument, while they'd be physically playable, might not sound as it's written with any amount of ease. Not to say that it's not possible with practice, but for example, the Cello part, when ending a phrase in it's rhythmic areas, they're playing an eighth note followed by a sixteenth note chromatic triplet: 
I fear that this would come out more "muddy" than well articulated for many players, specifically being played in the lower register. Though, this is not a "problem", moreso a technicality, if we're being fair. But I digress. lol You can see my scoring chart + average score below, to conclude my thoughts on the score. Thanks for sharing, and I'm glad you decided to join us here at YCF 😉

Great work, and I know you'll keep on writing so I don't need to tell you, twice xD 

Average score: 8.125 😉

@UncleRed99

I can understand some of the confusion. As this was created and submitted for this Halloween event, my original goal was to make a skeleton dance. I was explicit in conveying that in the title and the brief description of the work. For some context, yes, I did mean to use “Esultante” to convey a jubilee as you are hearing the music from this dance reach a close. We are hearing the music from this grand gala. However, what is “chaotic” to us is fun for them as the “DJ” or Host raises the energy to close the party.

To your point about the articulation in the cello, there comes a point in performance practice where you find out that articulation markings also convey bowing information. There are multiple ways to play a staccato within the string family (on or off the string staccatos). The context of the works implies that they need to lift or bounce the bow off the string and attack for the slur with another, single-bow movement. In the context of the work, they will bounce between their C and G strings respectively. 
 

In terms of blurriness of the chromatic notes? Clarity and hearing each individual note is not the intention, as it is meant to convey a little “rush” or “wisp” motion into the downbeat(s).

Thanks for the comments.

1 hour ago, MK_Piano said:

@UncleRed99

I can understand some of the confusion. As this was created and submitted for this Halloween event, my original goal was to make a skeleton dance. I was explicit in conveying that in the title and the brief description of the work. For some context, yes, I did mean to use “Esultante” to convey a jubilee as you are hearing the music from this dance reach a close. We are hearing the music from this grand gala. However, what is “chaotic” to us is fun for them as the “DJ” or Host raises the energy to close the party.

To your point about the articulation in the cello, there comes a point in performance practice where you find out that articulation markings also convey bowing information. There are multiple ways to play a staccato within the string family (on or off the string staccatos). The context of the works implies that they need to lift or bounce the bow off the string and attack for the slur with another, single-bow movement. In the context of the work, they will bounce between their C and G strings respectively. 
 

In terms of blurriness of the chromatic notes? Clarity and hearing each individual note is not the intention, as it is meant to convey a little “rush” or “wisp” motion into the downbeat(s).

Thanks for the comments.

 

Fair enough. I suppose I didn't catch the underlying meaning or intent behind the notation. As you know, I was always a wind instrumentalist, not classically trained. So my interpretation of sheet music may differ from those who are classically trained. Although, I did mention that I can't see that as a "problem" and more so viewed it as a technicality. Which had no bearing on my final scoring of the piece! 

But thank you for clarifying that point 😉

First submission and it sounds like this? Intro is awesome! Your harmony is spot on, and keeps the entire piece moving along wonderfully. That's what harmony is supposed to do. And the melody and beat are amazing! I'm not usually a fan of the strict classical music style, however this piece changes my mind. If done right, this can be an amazing style. You put in your own flair into an old style and it works beautifully. The only criticism I have is tempo. In my opinion, you need to slightly increase the tempo, which is an easy hack. Do that, and you have yourself a fun lighthearted Halloween piece that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults.

Melody and harmony: You absolutely broke this metric. Many people are good at harmony, but when it comes to melody, this is where they fall apart. Not only do you have a fun, memorable melody, your supporting harmony amplifies it. And to top it off, your beat breaks the metric even more. Well done.

Form and creativity: Perfectly easy to follow, and you took a standard style, and blew it out of the water.

Score presentation and playability: This is where I am impressed. Your score is SIMPLE. It's in one standard time signature, and everything looks standard to play. But this is what's amazing to me. Despite how simple the score looks, the musical idea is far from simple. Music is more than just the notes and rhythms we hear. It's about the full idea, which you conveyed in a simple, well organized manner. I can learn a thing or two about this myself.

Execution and taste: Again, you destroyed this metric, the music matches your vision clearly, and I felt the vision musically.

Entry:  2025 Halloween Competition - DANCE FROM THE SKELETON BALL (Submission) by @MK_Piano

Average Score:  7.94

Review:

The main melodic material in this piece, to me, sounds like an accompaniment or bass line (which is I guess appropriate since the theme is first introduced in the Cello).  You also seem to use elision to cut the length of this phrase to three bars, which to me makes it sound incomplete and confuses the phrase structure of the melody (although now that I count the measures, you still manage to get the whole phrase to be 8 measures long from bar 13 to 21).  The main vibe or feel that I guess you’re going for here is achieved by the oom-pah’s in the Piano and Violin and Viola (at least at first) - that’s what makes it sound like a dance to me.  But melodically, the piece, to me, seems dominated by accompanimental material and scales in the Piano that’s suitable as background music but doesn’t carry a long leading melodic line that is so necessary in classical concert pieces.  To me it sounds like an orchestrated chord progression (on further reflection there’s definitely melodies here but I’ll keep this original comment here to give you an idea of my first impression of the piece).  That doesn’t mean that it’s not effective at setting a certain mood/vibe though.  Or getting the listener to imagine a skeleton ball dance which is the whole point of the composition which is why I scored the Execution of Given Challenge category at 10.  But that is why I scored the Melodies/Themes/Motives category the way I did.  And despite the fact that you have a contrasting section that harks back to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, that section doesn’t really introduce any new and memorable melodic material either and the most salient feature of that section is the triplet accompaniment figure in the Piano.  So even though there’s hints of a memorable melody here and there, the piece as a whole seems comprised mostly of accompanimental figures repeated as a vamp (to me).  But the introduction is good and really sets the stage for a great piece of music!  It just doesn’t really deliver on its promises imo.  But I do appreciate the recurring of the main motif in bar 43 in a different tempo and context!  I should mention that I also see some similarities between this submission and @UncleRed’s “Ghost Town Requiem”.  I use the same reasoning in the scoring of this work as I did with that one.  Thanks for your participation and good luck to you!

Taking into account your profound comments in the competition threads and your professionally skilled background, I don’t feel capable of evaluating your work from the perspective of a judge, so that my comments are imposed solely by my overall impression and taste.

As many others already stated, melodies, harmonies and form development are (almost) perfect, so I have nothing more to say.

Now to my subjective and taste related comments: For the purpose of the contest to have a piece with grotesque or mysterious Halloween vibes, I think using woodwind instruments could be the much easier choice because of their different timbres. The strings blend much more together in a perfect balance. That might be the reason that I - before looking into the score and discovering the double stops of the viola – sometimes had the feeling to here more than three string instruments. What on the other hand means, that I could imagine that the piece could be performed beautifully by a larger orchestra than that quartet.

„Dance from the skeleton ball“ (for my opinion too martially) should be therefore the working title for the piece with respect of this competition only. I think, it is worth to be performed anytime without that particular context, too.

Average Score: 8.563

2 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Entry:  2025 Halloween Competition - DANCE FROM THE SKELETON BALL (Submission) by @MK_Piano

 

Melodies Themes Motives	Harmony Chords Textures	Form Development Structure Time	Originality Creativity	Score Presentation	Instrumentation Orchestration Playability	Execution of Given Challenge	Taste
6	8	6	6	10	10	10	7.5

 

Average Score:  7.94

 

 

I appreciate the feedback!! I'd love to talk more about some of the theory behind elision(s) when applied to structure. I felt that if I did a pure 4-bar phrase, it would become too stagnant due to all the repetition. As I wanted to keep your attention, I Elided the violin to carry the listener into new directions. I will admit most of my choices in this piece came from a point of wanting rich sound and low registers. I thought that going high in each instruments tessitura would not benefit the character I was striving for. To add, I was pressed for time in my already busy schedule, and I did not feel it worth to aim for complex development of the motivic structure. I did try to keep it simple instead of going for a level of sophistication that would take me a few weeks -> months to really refine. 

Structurally speaking, I employed transition phrases to connect either a new texture change or section of the piece. Measures 21-24 and 33-37 are such places. It was for these moments where I did not want to exercise new motives, but as I type this, I see this now it could've been a chance to do a dependent transition and allow the motif or texture to start developing as or before the third statement of the theme comes in the Piano. The development is when I broke the classical mode and tried to create a section purely for the effect of Halloween. I wanted something not active in texture to contrast the opening and just go for simplicity at it's finest. Also, not too much I can do about similarities to other works. There are only so many keys and I really wanted to use C-minor for this lol

Thanks for the comments, it has given a lot to think about. 

1 hour ago, Wieland Handke said:

Taking into account your profound comments in the competition threads and your professionally skilled background, I don’t feel capable of evaluating your work from the perspective of a judge, so that my comments are imposed solely by my overall impression and taste.

As many others already stated, melodies, harmonies and form development are (almost) perfect, so I have nothing more to say.

Now to my subjective and taste related comments: For the purpose of the contest to have a piece with grotesque or mysterious Halloween vibes, I think using woodwind instruments could be the much easier choice because of their different timbres. The strings blend much more together in a perfect balance. That might be the reason that I - before looking into the score and discovering the double stops of the viola – sometimes had the feeling to here more than three string instruments. What on the other hand means, that I could imagine that the piece could be performed beautifully by a larger orchestra than that quartet.

„Dance from the skeleton ball“ (for my opinion too martially) should be therefore the working title for the piece with respect of this competition only. I think, it is worth to be performed anytime without that particular context, too.

 

Average Score: 8.563

 

Thanks for the feedback! As a little lore to this, I originally wanted to write for Piano Quartet using the woodwind families. I started music on the Bb-Clarinet, and in college, became the Principal bassoonist for our symphonic band for two semesters. When beginning to write, I was really inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas and Danny Elfman as a whole. However, I just never found any concrete ideas with this instrumentation. It all felt too stereotypical. Thus, I went even more traditional and back to the orchestral setting for this work. I never thought about another name. One user suggested increasing the tempo slightly, and there more I listen back, there more I am beginning to agree with it. I don't have any new ideas for a name, but after this contest concludes, I may revisit it, add those changes, and change the name. Maybe, while I am at it, add another movement or installation and make it a chamber set.

Thanks again!