Summer 2026 Competition Poll

Multiple users have inquired about the next competition, so that warrants a new Summer 2026 Competition Poll!

Here are the givens that each competition will maintain:

• The duration of each piece should once again be between 3 - 7 minutes.

• Reviewing the entries will once again be spearheaded by the members/competitors at large. You are free to use the Official Competition Reviewing Template or you can review the entries in any way you see fit or create a template of your own making!

• There will be tiered "Ardent Reviewer" badges given out for this event:

  • Featherweight Reviewer - for reviewing 33% of the entries

  • Welterweight Reviewer - for reviewing 66% of the entries

  • Heavyweight Reviewer - for reviewing 100% of the entries

• We are instituting a policy of not allowing any AI generated works in the competition. Because of this you will be required to detail how you created your piece and submit a PDF score or midi file for the perusal of the staff and members at large.

• The musical entries to the competition are final once submitted. This is for the sake of consistency of reviewing (so that each reviewer reviews the same piece of music without any changes).

However, there are a few things we'd like the members to help us determine (in the poll):

1) What should the competition be about?

1. To write background music for one of @chopin 's Retry Bro's YouTube videos. Explanation: @chopin has a new YouTube channel! It's called Retry Bros. and consists of him playing Super Mario Maker levels and coming up with entertaining narration from Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and other assorted characters. There's also a musical element. So far, Mike has come up with some clever lyrics and used AI to make realistic sounding songs that go along with the video. Now, where you would come in is that you'd be writing background music for one of @chopin 's new videos!

2. To write some kind of autobiographical piece with a paragraph describing how the music portrays the autobiographical material. This one is @UncleRed99 's suggestion. The idea is to "write a piece that simply tells a story about your life, and something meaningful within it. Utilize complex elements to express emotion, tension, or any other desired emotional or mentally relatable expression. Provide a brief summary describing the root of the story being told."

3. @Thatguy v2.0 has bestowed his theme proposal to me. I had another idea for an "Excerpt Exchange". Basically composers entering the competition would send the staff an unfinished excerpt of their music for the ensemble that we'll be writing for in this competition (we'll find out what ensemble from the member voting to question no.2 below). By sending your unfinished excerpt you bestow upon others the right to work on and finish your composition. The composers will be given a random excerpt from a random composer without being told who composed it. Each composer will be tasked with making the best piece they can and finishing it to the best of their ability. The minimum length of the excerpt should be 8 measures.

4. @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu has also bestowed his theme proposal to me so I decided to include another theme in the options: "Sound Mimesis - Acoustic Anatomy". The idea is to use the instruments at your disposal to mimic sounds in your natural environment (although the sounds don't technically have to be created by nature - they could definitely be artificial sounds, but should be mimicked by acoustic instruments). As an example watch this Talking Piano YT Video. Or watch this flute mimicking bird calls.

5. @Omicronrg9 has also bestowed his theme proposal to me. This theme would be called "A Plenty of Persichetti Prompts". The composers would be given a choice to compose music based on prompt(s) inspired by exercises from Vincent Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony". There would be 5 prompts inspired by Persichetti's exercises (but not directly taken from the book) that the composers could use to inspire their music. These prompts would be based around various music theory ideas. I've amassed a document listing various such ideas that could be used in this competition: Musical Composition Prompts.

6. @MK_Piano has proposed the theme - "From Nothing, to Something."
   

   What greater challenge of a composer than to take nothing and turn it into something! Your goal is to take the text from Paul Verlaine’s summer poem “Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été,” (So, on a bright summer day it shall be) and turn it into a piece! This poem is short, but filled with evoking images of what summer can feel like. Attached is the poem in English:

   So, on a bright summer day it shall be:

   The great sun, my partner in joy,

   Shall make, amid the satin and the silk,

   Your dear beauty lovelier still;

   The sky, all blue, like a tall canopy,

   Shall quiver sumptuously in the long folds

   Above our two happy brows, grown pale

   With pleasure and expectancy;

   And when evening comes, the breeze shall be soft

   And play caressingly about your veils,

   And the peaceful stars looking down

   Shall smile benevolently on man and wife.

   The poem in French and English

7. @Tónskáld has also bestowed his theme proposal to me. Another idea I had would be called "An Invitation to Dance". The composers would be tasked with writing music in the style of a dance in a modern style, that could actually be danced to and exhibited all the proper characteristics of said dance. The composers could choose from a list of dances including but not limited to the following: Pavane, Galliarde, Tarantella, Saltarello, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, Bourree, Polonaise, Chaconne, Gavotte, Tango, Samba, Mambo, Merengue, Rumba, Paso Doble, Cha-Cha-Cha. Note that the composer would be tasked with composing only one of these dances rather than a whole set (such as a Baroque Dance Suite). It would also be expected that the music be "dance-like" meaning that it's not just an instrumental derivation of one of these dances that aren't meant to be danced to.

8. My own idea is for the members to write M&M&M's - Mock-ups, Mash-ups and Medleys. The idea is for the members to take 2 or more preexisting themes from different genres of music and to make mash-ups and medleys with them. The staff and/or members would vote about what pieces/songs to include in the following list of genres and the composers would then choose 2 or more pieces from the list to combine in a medley or mash-up (or both!):

   1. A single piece of Film Music

   2. A single piece of Video-Game Music

   3. A single piece of Early or Ancient Music

   4. A single piece of Classical Music (Baroque, Classical or Romantic)

   5. A single piece of Pop, Rock or Jazz Music

   6. A single piece of Rap or Hip-Hop Music

   7. A single piece of Anime Music

   8. A single piece of Modern/Avant-Garde Music

   9. A single piece of World Music

2) What kind of ensemble should the competitors be free to choose to write for?

1. Solo piano/keyboard or solo polyphonic instrument (such as guitar, harp or accordeon)

2. One monophonic instrument accompanied by one polyphonic instrument

3. Choice of mixed trio/quartet/quintet of individual instruments

4. Other mixed ensemble of more than 5 individual instruments not exceeding 10

5. Chamber orchestra (string orchestra)

6. Full orchestra

3) How many months should the competition span? (1 month, 2 months or 3 months)

Happy voting and let us know what you're happy about or what could be changed about the upcoming competition!