Landscapes Competition Submission -- Amidst the Clouds & Flowers

Hiihiiii!!! This is my submission for the Spring 2026 Landscapes Competition :)

For my landscape, I've chosen the mountains of Zhangjiajie, China. The first time that I saw these mountains, I was awestruck by just the sheer scale of them. Massive peaks and towers, overgrown with centuries-old moss, reaching beyond the clouds. Really just gorgeous. I wanted to try to write about them.

The piece starts off zoomed outwards, depicting the sparseness of the clouds, until eventually, a melody begins to creep towards the first real theme--which I call the garden theme. The focus is on the garden now, zoomed in, it's a sort of natural oasis along the side of one of the tall mountainous pillar. It's beautiful, lush, full, until the garden begins to die as winter comes. The harmony because sparse and vague again, with large spontaneous gusts of wind... just very dry sounding overall. That is, until months later, the clouds darken, promising a heavy storm. Anticipation builds, until eventually, rain comes pouring down, so densely that it's almost like a wall. It's the first rain of spring!!! After the rain settles down, the garden comes to life again with the re-entry of the garden theme!! The piece ends as the focus zooms back out onto the clouds, and the tension finally resolves again.

My goal with the piece was to try to represent the life cycle of the plant life out in the setting of Zhangjiajie. I hope you all like it !!!!

AmidstTheCloudsAndFlowers.pdf

Edited April 11Apr 11 by InstrumentalistElle
(cont)

55 minutes ago, InstrumentalistElle said:

Hiihiiii!!! This is my submission for the Spring 2026 Landscapes Competition :)

For my landscape, I've chosen the mountains of Zhangjiajie, China. The first time that I saw these mountains, I was awestruck by just the sheer scale of them. Massive peaks and towers, overgrown with centuries-old moss, reaching beyond the clouds. Really just gorgeous. I wanted to try to write about them.

The piece starts off zoomed outwards, depicting the sparseness of the clouds, until eventually, a melody begins to creep towards the first real theme--which I call the garden theme. The focus is on the garden now, zoomed in, it's a sort of natural oasis along the side of one of the tall mountainous pillar. It's beautiful, lush, full, until the garden begins to die as winter comes. The harmony because sparse and vague again, with large spontaneous gusts of wind... just very dry sounding overall. That is, until months later, the clouds darken, promising a heavy storm. Anticipation builds, until eventually, rain comes pouring down, so densely that it's almost like a wall. It's the first rain of spring!!! After the rain settles down, the garden comes to life again with the re-entry of the garden theme!! The piece ends as the focus zooms back out onto the clouds, and the tension finally resolves again.

My goal with the piece was to try to represent the life cycle of the plant life out in the setting of Zhangjiajie. I hope you all like it !!!!

As a chinese person, I appreciate your love for my motherland.

Anyways, the music is atonal. I think that isn't the BEST way to describe this place.

The structure is weird too. I liked the brief g major chord parts.

Melodies Themes Motives 2

Harmony Chords Textures 1

Form Development Structure Time 7

Originality Creativity 10

Score Presentation 10

Instrumentation Orchestration Playability 8

Execution of Given Challenge 6

Taste 6

Average 7.5

12 hours ago, TristanTheTristan said:

As a chinese person, I appreciate your love for my motherland.

Anyways, the music is atonal. I think that isn't the BEST way to describe this place.

The structure is weird too. I liked the brief g major chord parts.

Melodies Themes Motives 2

Harmony Chords Textures 1

Form Development Structure Time 7

Originality Creativity 10

Score Presentation 10

Instrumentation Orchestration Playability 8

Execution of Given Challenge 6

Taste 6

Average 7.5

Hi!! Thank you for your feedbackk. I actually tried to imitate harmonies from as many Chinese composers as I could find (could only find a few so took some inspiration from some Japanese composers too) and I thought that I did alright. I was wondering, what made you think it's atonal?
For reference, here were my biggest inspos:
https://www.youtube.com/clip/Ugkx9sWO_07nOcVc31RWLQukpCSRIRGoLMvi
https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxCY-tbOrbg9ovMKSOY2F8QWCYvY1tz2w6
https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkximtvrASDQuNCaQ47ieLpRZ6iXuaxGym1
https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxJnJpo0JuB56eB7LF3MQe0J9b-F1EbNEy
tytyyy btw !!!

A lot of overlapping perfects. I see you tried to imitate birds and animals. I see you have done it in a creative way, so I gave you a 10.

Overall, it isn't very bad.

Did you check out these?

or piano

I was expecting this type.

Edited April 12Apr 12 by TristanTheTristan

😯

Wow... This piece really transported me there. Therefore an amazing submission, outstanding work.

You seem like you may be a string player with your preference on hand position, and your pfp, but I still must say, this is some very difficult music to play. If I were to find out that a chamber group was going to play this, my first question no matter the group, would be if they could pull it off. But if I trusted the group, I would NEED to hear this.

i love the texture in this. its very subtle but it goes really well with your description! it is imaginative in a way that i could visualize the imagery. for example the gusts of winds starting on b.28 using the dynamics, or the rain on b.52. the beginning usages of harmonics to represent the clouds and the subsequent ones are also pretty cool

the string writings are lovely in my opinion, in the way that you took advantage of the different individual string timbres of the quartet. those low C string cello notes are powerful and prominent, especially on b.48 where, i think, it indicates the start of the "wall of rain" section contrasting the high register notes of the preceding section

and finally, im fond of the way you use the variety of dissonances and added notes, it feels very effective and not over bearing that you're drowning in a chromatic porridge

Melodies Themes Motives 5

Harmony Chords Textures 9

Form Development Structure Time 10

Originality Creativity 10

Score Presentation 10

Instrumentation Orchestration Playability 7

Execution of Given Challenge 10

Taste 9

Average Score: 8.75

final note: its peak.

Edited Wednesday at 03:23 PM5 days by ferrum.wav

Hello, I will do the overall judging of your piece.    

First, let me talk about the program notes and also your stunning picture out of curiosity though have you took this to yourself?  Anyways, you give a very interesting concept so I’ll see how that ties in with the music and you’re very descriptive.

I like to say at first that I enjoy the use of the artificial harmonics

This gives a very alien in what I like to call crystalline atmosphere. Almost glassy in a weird good way. I also enjoy the dynamic use as well.   As for the change structures, this is the only thing you really listening for so nothing is really a pallet cleanser however, though this is a five minute piece so there’s no need for one.

Melodic material : 3.5

Harmony and texture: 8.3

Structure and development 3

Original creativity 7.56

Score presentation 9.79

Orchestration 8.9

Execution 9.04

Taste:7.9

This average is out to a 7.25