City Rail and Nightingale – Submission to the YCF 2026 Spring Competition

Dear fellow composers, I’m pleased to present you today my submission to the YCF 2026 Spring Competition!

Here is the picture showing a historic city rail (S-Bahn) train and a nightingale capturing the sounds of spring in Berlin.

The idea behind the piece is to describe the contrast between the noise of the big city and the tranquility of nature. I know that some of you, especially if you’re from Asia or the U.S. will smile when I refer to a city with not even 4 million inhabitants as a “big city.” And yes, that’s actually the case: Berlin is indeed a “huge village” with a surprising number of green and quiet areas.

The piece tells the story of a journey with the city rail from the crowded city center to a suburb where are allotment garden communities are located. Since modern trains are more or less „sterile“ and lack their unique sound, I imagined taking this trip on a historic train, like the ones that ran in Berlin from the 1920s through the 1990s and were known for their characteristic noises, such as the slamming of doors and the typical hissing sound when compressed air escapes.

Once you’ve arrived in the suburbs—so the story goes—you leave the station and head to the allotment garden complex. As you stroll along the garden paths, you’re surprised to notice nightingales giving their evening concert. And yes, it’s actually true that throughout Berlin, from April through June, you can hear many nightingales every evening and every night. The nightingales are really loud and have a distinctive song, so I’m very surprised that there are so many people who tell me they’ve never heard a nightingale before.

The piece is a string quintet featuring a violin, a viola, and a cello, accompanied by two pianos. I have decided to use two pianos so that they can share the extensive tremolo and trill passages, which improves playability.

It has an A–B–A form, with the A sections representing the S-Bahn ride. I’ve chosen the unusual 13/16 time signature—initially as a challenge to myself— but while working on it, I realized that the 13/16 time signature can be considered as a compound meter of 3 + 4 + 6, which evokes the idea of acceleration (of the train), and, when reversed to 6 + 4 + 3, that of deceleration (as the train enters the station).

The B-part is in 12/8 time signature with a lovely, lulling siciliano rhythm, thus emphasizing the calm scenario while walking through the gardens.

I hope you’ll enjoy the piece as much as I enjoyed working on it (although I somewhat underestimated the effort needed …).

The YouTube video is coming soon. Thus, stay tuned!

Praeludium-XVII-A-flat-major-quintet-with-coversheet.pdf

Entry: City rail and Nightingale

Average Score: 8

Review:

I definitely could hear the imagine you were trying to capture in this piece.

As promised yesterday, here is the YouTube-video of the piece which I suggest to watch, since it automatically pages thru the score (sorry for the advertisement).

For more background, here are a few YouTube-links with scenes from the Berlin S-Bahn in the 1980s which are characteristic for that time and have inspired me for the A-part of the piece:

Scene on the platform, closing the doors and departure of the train:

https://youtu.be/F-oexAoylmI?t=1461

„With a jolt, the train starts moving.“ … „The train is passing a railroad crossing.“

https://youtu.be/F-oexAoylmI?t=736

„The train stops and makes its typical hissing sound when the compressed air escapes.“

https://youtu.be/F-oexAoylmI?t=486

As a kind of „non-AI proof“ I also attached my „working score“ from which the MIDI is generated. It is nearly unreadable and of cause not intended for playing but shows in detail all dynamics, articulations, agogics etc. I applied to achieve the final recording.

Finally, there is an audio of the „concerto“ by a number of nightingales in a park I recorded in April 2025.

WORKING-SCORE-P17.pdf

Hi @Wieland Handke ,

I like the descriptive effect you used for both the train part and the nightingale part. I enjoy the train part more than the nightingale part, but only due to the rendition, because the should-be soft trills and glissandos representing the nightingales sound too hard to me haha. Thx for sharing.

Henry

Average Score: 8.8

Review:

Melodies/Themes/Motives - There are many recognisable motifs, quite a few of which take the form of trills, etc. 

Harmony/Chords/Textures - The texture feels rich yet dynamic.

 Form/Development/Structure/Time - Performed as described and for an appropriate duration.. 

Originality/Creativity - The choice of instruments, particularly the two pianos, is unusual, but having listened to the piece and looked at the score, I believe it is entirely justified. 

Score Presentation - The score is correct and easy to read. 

Instrumentation/Orchestration/Playability The score is very effective, but it seems entirely playable.

Execution of Given Challenge - I think the author has succeeded in achieving his aim.

 Taste - I like this piece because of its unique flavor.

Avg: 9.25

This piece definitely captures the anxious commuter during rush hour I think. You captured the forward momentum beautifully during the train ride sessions. The score presentation is a perfect 10 because of your annotations, which helps the listener understand your intentions much more clearly. Your usage of dissonant chords to designate the train's departure was excellent, and the trills to portray the nightingale was really creative. And on top of all of this, your theme was extremely coherent / catchy. Overall, between your director's cues (basically, your score) and the music itself, this was a coherent, creative and beautiful piece to listen to. And you weren't afraid to take chances, which I feel, paid off very well.

Composition is awful

2 minutes ago, D.V.Vanin said:

Composition is awful

Why so? Could you explain and elaborate more on that?

Henry

16 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Why so? Could you explain and elaborate more on that?

Henry

It's bland and forgettable. There's nothing enjoyable. It's not interesting to listen.

1 minute ago, D.V.Vanin said:

It's bland and forgettable. There's nothing enjoyable. It's not interesting to listen.

Those are just your opinions offered without anything to substantiate them. Do you have any constructive feedback to offer? Perhaps you could use the Reviewing Template to justify your opinion?

3 minutes ago, D.V.Vanin said:

It's bland and forgettable. There's nothing enjoyable. It's not interesting to listen.

But it is just your subjective feeling, you will have to elaborate more on why the themes are bland and why the music is forgettable and there's nothing enjoyable.. Maybe you are a new member here, but in this forum we only welcome constructive feedback like @PeterthePapercomPoser said. We are not like YouTube or reddit or discord where you can just leave a negative statement without explaining and get away with it, because what we want to achieve in this forum is to allow beneficial interaction between reviewers and reviewees so that both can progress in their own musical journeys. Clearly leaving just subjective statement without any analysis cannot do that at all. This can be really detrimental to many of our members because what they need is constructive feedback, not rootless criticism which won't help them grow and might harm their confidence in composing, just hope you understand that.

Henry

1 minute ago, D.V.Vanin said:

I'm just going to send my own composition and what I mean will be more understandable in comparison

You don't explain anything by posting your own music in other member's post. Also since you are a new member here, please check out the forum etiquette in the link below:

Forum etiquette and Code of Conduct - Advice and Techniques - Young Composers Music Forum

If you click into it please check out rule 2b:

2b)  But if a thread is meant to be about a specific musical composition posted in "Upload your Compositions for Analysis and Feedback" please keep the thread about the music posted in question.  If you want to post a new piece of music as a response to someone else's post, please create a new dedicated topic for that piece.

So you should post your composition as a new dedicated topic, and then you explain why @Wieland Handke 's music is "bland and forgettable, have nothing enjoyable and is not interesting to listen", and maybe then quote your own work here, instead of just posting your work here with zero explanation.

Henry

I'm sorry, but I can't listen it fully, because I'm not a masochistic person. Thanks for understanding.

2 minutes ago, D.V.Vanin said:

I'm sorry, but I can't listen it fully, because I'm not a masochistic person. Thanks for understanding.

If you can't listen to it fully because you aren't masochistic enough, then you should better just stay out of it instead of making rootless criticism, as it won't make us happier seeing someone not enjoying their masochistic play.

Henry