Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été

This piece was written for the 2026 Summer Competition.

It is technically past midnight on my side, I apologise as the audio took a while, hope this can still be reviewed.

Note:

I named this piece directly after the poem, maybe because it's the best name I could give it, actually. It's meant to directly translate the poem into music, so I figured that would be apt for a piece such as this. It's written in a loose ternary form with a few motifs consistently coming back throughout. Each section (ABA) represents a stanza in the poem. The first section opens with a bright, jubilant depiction of a summer day, before transitioning to the beauty of the subject. Then, the middle section adds some turbulence to this nature of the love, a personal interpretation of mine on the poem. Finally, the return of the A theme is accompanied by fleeting runs like the evening wind, as the lovers gaze into the sky. Most of the rest I will leave to your interpretation of what is happening, but I do encourage physically reading the poem while listening to the piece.

As for the instrumentation, the French Horn is an instrument dear to me, despite having only picked it up for slightly less than three years. Through all the technical difficulties of this piece (yes, the Horn part is playable, albeit challenging), I wanted to showcase the mellow, melodic sound of the horn as something unique. The choice of the violin, then, was nothing special, another melodic instrument to complete the lovers' dialogue portrayed thoroughout the piece. The piano, then, allows for all the word painting possibilities.

It was quite a rushed piece, given my recent schedule, but I enjoyed the time spent just appreciating the loveliness of the poem. Enjoy listening!

Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été.pdf

Edited September 24Sep 24 by latebeethoven_addict

Hello @latebeethoven_addict,

congratulations for your submission just before the deadline – and, yes you’ve accomplished it in time!

Melodies Themes Motives and Harmony Chords Textures:

The piece is full of different themes of motives, some of them more „melodic“, while others seem to be a more virtuosic accopaniment. That strength is, in my opinion, also the weakness, since in the combination it results in a huge variety of the texture with a slightly tendency to „randomness“. With that in mind, the section between mm. 24 and 55 is the strongest part of the piece, for the memorable recurrence of the „sung“ melody.

Form Development Structure Time:

You mentioned, that the piece is in a („loose“) A-B-A form. I suppose, the boundaries of those three sections are at the moment of the key signature changes, at mm. 60 and 100. However, I must admit that I didn’t perceive the third section as a kind of „recapitulation“ of the first one, and even the three sections consist themselves of several passages with quite different textures. Overall, after listening three times, the form seems to me a more „free“ one.

Originality Creativity:

The piece is original and unique among the submissions for its instrumentation and perhaps for its „virtuosity“, especially in the harp-like piano runs.

Score Presentation:

The first thing I noticed was the order of the instruments in your score. In a trio with piano as the keyboard or continuo instrument, it would be placed at the bottom of the score, whereas the other instruments are ordered according to their register/pitch, meaning the violin on top and the French horn in the middle. Here is an example of a „traditional score“ of Brahms’ Horn Trio.

As another „nitpick“, there is a redundant key signature in mm. 95.

Instrumentation Orchestration Playability:

The choice of that particular three instruments gives the piece a variety of colors which I really liked (and which could not be achieved, for example, with a strings-only trio).

Concerning the playability, you mentioned yourself that the horn part is challenging. I think, this is the case for the piano part, too.

Execution of Given Challenge:

You have chosen the three stanzas of the poem and expressed their different moods, „the summer day“, „the nature of love“ and „the evening wind“, during the three sections (ABA) of the piece.

The „cantabile“ passage from mm. 24-55 could be interpreted as „the sung poem“, in a duet between the piano’s treble voice and the violin. Therefore, I can see a strong connection between your piece and the challenge of the contest.

Taste:

It is a pleasant piece to listen to, but unfortunately it does not captivate me all that much, perhaps due to the somewhat overboarding variety in texture.

Average Score: 7.75

hello, this is my review for your piece

it does sound very French, but not as much as the others, but it still has that Parisian vibe to it. Any ways I like the key changes that shows up near the end and the time signature changes much respect for that but the one thing that just bothers me is just that everything is using MuseScore basic so it wasn’t as much enjoyable as the other stuff that use muse sounds and other sound fonts if you have the time to you should definitely use muse. Sounds as it’s free.

technique wise, there is some French horn stuff that I was a little bit iffy on and nothing inherently wrong with the violin part. One thing I must say is that if you’re going to mark something pizz, it would feel better to leave that to ring rather than a staccato to note. The piano writing was really nice and I like the textures that show up.

other than that, I felt like there was some empty space that could be filled in the thing about that though is that I understand that you may put the purpose of a solo or isolation but something fell off when something was brought in isolation. Also, I felt like dynamics could also be brought out a bit more. just like with all the other pieces, the creativity score is being tanked a little bit due to the same aesthetic image that is convergently showing up.

average is 7.78

good job here. It was really nice to listen to. I feel like with some things to improve in practice. Will get you better. Hopefully, I’ll see you in the next competition.

4 minutes ago, Fruit hunter said:

hello, this is my review for your piece

it does sound very French, but not as much as the others, but it still has that Parisian vibe to it. Any ways I like the key changes that shows up near the end and the time signature changes much respect for that but the one thing that just bothers me is just that everything is using MuseScore basic so it wasn’t as much enjoyable as the other stuff that use muse sounds and other sound fonts if you have the time to you should definitely use muse. Sounds as it’s free.

technique wise, there is some French horn stuff that I was a little bit iffy on and nothing inherently wrong with the violin part. One thing I must say is that if you’re going to mark something pizz, it would feel better to leave that to ring rather than a staccato to note. The piano writing was really nice and I like the textures that show up.

other than that, I felt like there was some empty space that could be filled in the thing about that though is that I understand that you may put the purpose of a solo or isolation but something fell off when something was brought in isolation. Also, I felt like dynamics could also be brought out a bit more. just like with all the other pieces, the creativity score is being tanked a little bit due to the same aesthetic image that is convergently showing up.

MelodiesThemes Motives	Harmony Chords Textures	Form Development Structure Time	Originality Creativity	Score Presentation	Instrumentation Orchestration Playability	Execution of Given Challenge	Taste
7	7.75	7	6.95	7.5	7.5	9	7.5

average is 7.78

good job here. It was really nice to listen to. I feel like with some things to improve in practice. Will get you better. Hopefully, I’ll see you in the next competition.

Hi, thanks for the feedback! What do you mean by the French Horn part being iffy? Is it too hard? Because I do feel that a competent player could pull it off.

Thanks for the Muse sounds suggestion though, been putting it off for a while, but my playbacks do sound bad.

As for the empty space I really agree and I myself felt the same way, but I was also rushing other deadlines so I did the bare minimum I guess. Not the most proud of this piece honestly.

just the usage of the range of some stuff for the Frenchorn part and maybe some performance issues

Hi fellow @latebeethoven_addict !

This piece has some really nice melody and warm mood. One thing I notice is that within section you do not modulate which make the piece less interesting harmonically. The whole piece is never in minor. Even though the poem itself is beautiful and "positive", you can add more varied harmonic color in the piece. The use of rhythm is varied enough.

The passage in b.66 accidentally reminds me of Chopin etude op.25 no.6 lol! The use of high register piano fast notes in b.108 is beautiful and you capture "breeze" there really well! The ending is lovely as well.

Thx for sharing!

Henry

Avg: 8.125

This is like a mini Beethoven piano concerto, how cool! If I were to rate just the first half, your harmony would be 4 or 5. I'm unsure if the choice of the French Horn as a solo contributed to this. But after the first half, things start to get much more interesting. The piano sections and your choices of rhythm and harmony absolutely remind me of a Beethoven piano concerto. The harmony is no longer a 4 or 5, and the rhythms and melodies mesh together really well.

Entry:Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été

Average Score:8.25

Review:

I have concerns about the engraving about this piece. First, there are many empty measures. There is easy fix for this, though. Do not show them. It will create more professional score. Next up is the trills in the violin section. Place the trill sign above each note vs trill with line. The method you used is for a single note that could be held. Why did you forget to use double bar line when you change keys? and there is different section? With the horn part, please remember what the sounding note is! The consecutive use octave double in a row could be challenging for even for the most experience player. The triple stop you wrote is not possible: it does not have open string. Besides that, it is a nice piece.

1 hour ago, Kvothe said:

Entry:Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été

Melodies Themes Motives	Harmony Chords Textures	Form Development Structure Time	Originality Creativity	Score Presentation	Instrumentation Orchestration Playability	Execution of Given Challenge	Taste
10	10	6	10	5	5	10	10

Average Score:8.25

Review:

I have concerns about the engraving about this piece. First, there are many empty measures. There is easy fix for this, though. Do not show them. It will create more professional score. Next up is the trills in the violin section. Place the trill sign above each note vs trill with line. The method you used is for a single note that could be held. Why did you forget to use double bar line when you change keys? and there is different section? With the horn part, please remember what the sounding note is! The consecutive use octave double in a row could be challenging for even for the most experience player. The triple stop you wrote is not possible: it does not have open string. Besides that, it is a nice piece.

Thanks for the great comments about the engraving.

I do agree about the empty bars and I made a mistake with that.

As for the violin trills, here's an excerpt from Paganini's Variations on a Theme of "Nel Cor Più Non Mi Sento" that does this to avoid chunky notation, and I copied the same idea here so it doesn't look messy. It's perfectly acceptable notation.

I think this will help you too, but there's no requirement regarding engraving about double barliens at key changes or tempo changes. It's done as a visual aid, and I personally put it only if the change is at the end of the line.

What about the horn sounding note? It's all in a playable range by the way. I'm a horn player.

And finally, the piece is meant to be virtuosic, so the octaves are playable. The triple stop is not meant to play as one go, but a broken chord. That's the violin standard! I don' needs to put an arpeggios sign for the player to infer.

Behind Bars:

A double bar line preceeds the new key only if the key belongs to new section.

4 minutes ago, Kvothe said:

Behind Bars:

A double bar line preceeds the new key only if the key belongs to new section.

hmm ok, I take note of that and use next time.

Could you respind to the bit about the trills and the horn and violin part though? Honestly confused about what is it that's wrong.

Hi!

Umm this piece is quite virtuostic, but could work on voice leading and meaning, you could vary dynamics a bit more too.

Hi @latebeethoven_addict ,

Wonderful entry to the competition. It was great to listen to your music.

Some engraving thoughts:

• score order: vln, hn, pno

• very cramped score - put more space between systems and staves

• not sure why some pno notes are grace note or cue sized

• lots of rests divided incorrectly (m2 8th+16th should be a dotted 8th rest; m3 two 8th rests should be a quarter rest)

• double bar lines at section changes and tempo changes (most players also still prefer them at key changes)

• where it is just pno solo - hide the other two instruments

General Instrumentation thoughts:

• I would think more about articulation/bowing for the piece and add a lot more slurs.

• putting in these markings would make the violin part more playable

• A lot of the times the vln/hn are playing together and often in unison. I would play more with counterpoint and harmonize some of the lines.

Average Score: 7.0

31 minutes ago, JDevorMusic said:

not sure why some pno notes are grace note or cue sized

It's so that one bar doesn't take up the entire line, which would br way too spaced out. Also to show that one should play them lightly

32 minutes ago, JDevorMusic said:

the ABA form did not seem to serve the piece well

ohh why?

36 minutes ago, latebeethoven_addict said:

It's so that one bar doesn't take up the entire line, which would br way too spaced out. Also to show that one should play them lightly

Oh interesting, the only time I've seen notehead size relate to dynamics is in some of Percy Grainger's piano pieces.

42 minutes ago, latebeethoven_addict said:

ohh why?

To be honest, I'm not 100% certain. On my first listen through it didn't really register as a return A section. The high F in the horn felt like a return, but the section itself felt more like a coda. It was pretty short of a section by itself as well.

That being said, this final section was probably my favorite part of the piece. I love the repeating piano figures on p.10, especially when the nice horn melody comes in a few bars later.

Your piece is the last I've heard (but not least, just the order I used), and yet you still brought something different from the others. I really appreciate the creativity used with form with this competition. It seems like everyone had such a different take, and splitting the stanzas into an ABA form was a great idea to me.

I feel like if I had participated in this competition I would have organized the music in a similar fashion. I enjoyed the tossing around of the LH piano motif to different instruments, and the jovial sense you gave in the composition. A change to the minor mode would have served well as a contrast to me, but the beauty of composing is we all have a different take and direction we feel like the music should go. You give variation in other ways, and I especially love the piano flourishes near the end. Cool ensemble too, the horn was a pleasant change in instrumentation from the other pieces.

On a side note, I've listened to basically nothing but Beethoven's late string quartets for the past 4 or 5 months (he's my favorite composer by far). It sounds insane probably, some may even call me a lateBeethovenaddict ( :P ), but I've been obsessed with what I consider to be the greatest music ever composed, always picking up on little details upon every hearing. A profound sadness lingers throughout no.12-16, but also in my opinion a novel and unrepeatable expression we're all lucky Beethoven had the strength to compose in his weakest moments.

Good luck with the voting, and thanks for sharing! It was fun to listen to all the different interpretations of the competition, and yours was no exception. Well done :)

It’s a beautiful trio consisting of Horn, Violin and Piano. I’m sure it’s already been mentioned that for a chamber work like this the proper score order would be Violin, Horn and then Piano at the bottom. Another thing I’m sure has been mentioned is that you should place double bars at key changes and get rid of redundant key changes.

The music has a variety of different textures and not all the instruments are playing all the time with plenty of much needed breaks. The horn’s full range is well utilized. As of the writing of this review I am currently playing horn everyday in preparation of recording a solo horn sonata and I can attest to the playability of your horn part.

The solo piano Cantabile section at mm. 25 shows off your ability to write a beautiful melody and dress it up through variations in the Violin.

The I 6/4 chord at mm. 85 makes one expect a cadenza. Then you have the solo horn come in on the lowest of notes in the whole piece. I wonder if there’s some extra-musical meaning behind this.

Thanks for your participation and good luck in the polls!

Average Score:  8.50

20 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

As of the writing of this review I am currently playing horn everyday in preparation of recording a solo horn sonata

ooh what piece is this!

4 minutes ago, latebeethoven_addict said:

ooh what piece is this!

I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it yet! LoL .. but don't worry .. we'll publish it here when it's done!

32 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I wonder if there’s some extra-musical meaning behind this.

That's for me to know and for you to find out :)