Your dear beauty lovelier still

Hi all,

My entry for the "From Nothing, to Something" Summer 2026 Composition Competition is a short mixed quintet called "Your dear beauty lovelier still".

This was definitely the most challenging piece I have made: making something from nothing was by far the hardest thing I have done so far here.

I couldn't find anything that would represent summer apart from giving this song the lyrics of the poem this competition is based on (Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été).

Btw, since Musescore doesn't have any soundfonts that can sing lyrics, you won't be able to hear the lyrics in the audio.

Here is the pdf

I hope you enjoy 😁

Edited August 24Aug 24 by Musicman_3254

Entry: "Your Daer Beauty lovelier"

total51.5/80

Average Score:6.4

Review:

Melodic material: Cello line, which carries the melody, is even balanced. It introduces the main theme of the piece that is sung in baritone voice. However, we can't hear baritone signing the melody for the other instruments are overshadowing it. It would nice if instruments would drop out when the male voice is signing. Or giving a lighter texture. or only have one or two playing. This is paramount when writing for voice and orchestra.

Score prep, instrumentation, playability. : There are several issues with the score. The hairpins are not readable with in the harp part; the bliss is not connected; solo indicators when you only instrument per player. Solo is used in strings where there is more than one player per part, and the composers wants only player to play. Holst did this in Venus. When he wanted to signal a solo player in the string section, he marked "solo". For the areas, where the solo is marked, it is preferred not to have the other instruments playing. This is applicable for oboe part, too. The held note in the reeds is not ideal. When you are writing for wood instruments, you have to remember, that need to breathe. Because there is no phrase markings in the cello part, the bowing will change on every note. I feel you can add more depth here. The triple stop at the end is incredible hard to play. You have wrote out the range of the Oboe'd natural range. In fact, that instrument is no longer in use. It is not in balance with the rest of the ensemble. The harp writing is unrealistic and lacks proper study. This score needs a serious revision on this front!

Execution: Yes, this piece has met the core requirements for this competition. However, the overall mood just seems off.

Creativity: this is indeed and creative and orginal piece.

Form and time: It was difficult to what the proper formal structure of the composition was, and the timing was slow.

Harmony and textures; Overall, the piece is mainly diatonic. There are moments of other modes with in the piece. The piece has colorful textures.

Side note: Cantai can be used with Musescore.

Lovely melody and textures. Particularly the vocal line.

I’m not entirely convinced by the final section; the high notes sound too loud.

My main comment is about the harp – oh, the harp!

There’s no indication whatsoever of initial pedal positions or changes. This isn’t mandatory, though personally, one should have it checked. There are things you simply can’t do, such as this:

On the other hand, the harp part is notated by placing each note on the nearest of the two staves. But the correct way to do it, I believe, is to write on the upper stave what the upper hand plays and on the lower stave what the lower hand plays, bearing in mind that the groups (in passages that aren’t slow) consist of four notes per hand.

Huge arpeggiated chords are also impossible to play if they’re fast. If it’s an effect where each note of the arpeggio follows the next slowly, then yes. But at that speed, it’s impossible. Each hand can cover a maximum of a tenth and four notes per hand. The chords must be simplified to that (or use two harps?).

There are also some very questionable chords:

The harp is a complicated instrument and you can’t think of it as if it were a piano.

Saludos.

On 8/26/2026 at 3:38 PM, Kvothe said:

Side note: Cantai can be used with Musescore.

Although Cantai works with Musescore, the lyrics I used are in French and Cantai only works with English and Latin lyrics

Edited August 29Aug 29 by Musicman_3254

I agree with @Luis Hernández on the harp writing. That is not possible. The chords are too large for a single hand to play. This is why you need to look at scores that have harp parts in them. I can not emphasize this enough...score study is paramount.

A lovely pleasant piece of music. Remember woodwind players need to Breathe! Why the Oboe D'amore? Not many players own one.

Why not substitute English Horn? I also think in this composition the tone would be more fitting.

Mark

As a pianist, those chords also impossible to play. Not even Rachmoninov would have wrote chords in that fashion! I think you need to carefully look at scores that use the harp, @Musicman_3254.

Adler provided some scores to look at (and I included others)

• CPE Harp Sonata

• Caplet's Deux Divertissements

• Debussy's Sonata for harp, flute, and viola

• Belioz's "Rob Roy"

• The planets by Gustav Holst

• Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi

it’s a good piece, but I have some suggestions about logistics and playability and all that stuff

Octaves with harps I’m not a harpest. I’m pretty sure you may have to watch out if you’re going to be playing octave runs on one hand. Well, I have done with my competition piece. “ on pastel skies” that I have written for mallets with octave runs that are split in between hands as double verticals. So one hand would play the center note in the octave above in the left hand would play the center note in the octave below. just some stuff to watch out for.

Also for cello’s and I don’t think so, but possibly for baritone as well you should use tenor clef rather than alto clef

and also, I saw what you did with the implementation of the oboe d amore

anyways, another thing I would point out is near the end with the pentatonic sounding thing was a little too loud. Honestly, this was good writing. You just chose the wrong dynamic. It would fit better more smooth at a forte or something a little lower

melody 8.7

Harmony 6.8

Form and structure 7

Creativity 4.78

Engraving 6.5

Orchestration and playability 6

execution 8

Taste 7.5

average is 6.91

The reason why your creativity originality score is tanked is due to similar title with other scores in this competition and also simply putting the name of the competition as a title

However, though you must acknowledge that your execution score, unless if some miraculous magic happened, would also get tanked if you tried thinking outside of the box so it’s kind of a sacrifice unless if you know what you absolutely are doing.

Edited September 7Sep 7 by Fruit hunter

Avg: 8.43

Very nice relaxing theme, which was clear throughout the piece. Your form / structure was easy to follow, and this made the listening experience very enjoyable. I think you nailed the challenge with the mood. Aside from feeling serenity and peace, it reminds me of a night summer afternoon with a cool breeze. Your audio is great, and your usage of dynamics really bring out your music! Overall it's a very beautiful piece, short enough where the harmony isn't too much of an issue, but any longer, we'd need some changes in key in my opinion. This is why I marked you down with harmony. When harmony doesn't really change key, the music risks starting to sound like a hymn.

Hello @Musicman_3254 !

The piece has (at the beginning) a very calming character and is somewhat reminiscent of a fairy tale movie (especially one you’d watch in winter during the Christmas season) or—once the vocals come in— of @PeterthePapercomPoser’s Christmas mashup from last year. 😂

Just when one is (almost) fallen asleep (around 03:11, measure 102), you’re instantly jolted awake by the staccatos of the harp and cello, as well as the blood-curdling trill of the flute, which sounds like a piercing birdcall—perhaps that of a cockatiel.

Melodies Themes Motives and Harmony Chords Textures:

The piece is based on a memorable melody, reminiscent of a lullaby, which recurs repeatedly in the treble instruments (i.e., flute and oboe d’amore) as well as in the baritone voice. This contrasts with accompanying textures, chords, and arpeggios, which are played largely by the harp.

While the song maintains a diatonic harmony throughout all three verses, the coda appears to be somewhat different, with a pentatonic impression.

Form Development Structure Time:

The form of the piece could be that of a song with three verses and a coda. As mentioned above, the verses unfold in a pleasant and calming manner, with the accompaniment employing various textures without losing that character, only to be turned into the exact opposite in the coda.

Originality Creativity:

The originality of the piece arises on the one hand from the contrast of the calming song and the surprising end, as well as from the instrumentation, combining two melody instruments, a human voice and two more or less accompanying and percussive instruments together.

Score Presentation:

The notation for the vocal part—that is, the baritone staff—is somewhat inconsistent regarding the use of slurs and beams:

In vocal score notation it is important to distinguish whether a single syllable is represented by a single note or whether multiple notes are sung for a single syllable (i.e., a melisma). There are two possibilities:

• In older, classical scores eighths and sixteenth notes are notated with flags (not beamed) for a single syllable, but if there are multiple notes to be sung for a single syllable, those notes are beamed together. No slurs at all (except for quarter or longer notes).

• In contemporary music, beams are used to show the rhythmic pattern, regardless of the text. However, in that case slurs indicate whenever multiple notes should be sung for a single syllable (and nowhere else).

For example, there should be no slurs in measures 18–19, since each note has its own syllable, whereas the slur in measures 62–64a is correct, since all the notes are sung on a single syllable.

As for clefs, I believe that a vocal score for baritone uses the standard bass clef, and the cello in its middle/high register uses the tenor clef (and neither uses the alto clef).

One more minor point: You forgot to remove rests from some measures on the high staff of the harp (for example, in measures 32–42).

Instrumentation Orchestration Playability:

The choice of the instruments is effectively used to achieve the mood and effect of the piece. However, there are a number of concerns on the playability – as already mentioned by other reviewers, especially in the harp part.

Execution of Given Challenge:

You have set the poem to music and, therefore, created a relation to the given challenge. However, my personal—and therefore subjective—impressions evoke associations with winter rather than summer, though I could be completely wrong—perhaps I’m being influenced by today’s cold weather at the start of fall.

Taste:

I like this piece because of the humorous contrast between calm and scare.

Average Score: 7.5