The two winners by my own ratings are Deathraider's "Raise up dreams" and Nyuu001's "Estrella". In my book, both of these compositions deserve the $100 prize, but there'll be only one winner, of course :) By my rating-scale Nyu001 currently has the top score of 4.5, while Deathraider is behind with 3.5. So, it will not be up to me who comes out of this contest a winner. Two individual judges have reflected on the pieces, and they've effectively crowned a winner. Read on for the reviews:



Nyu001's "Estrella"

Noir7's review
The short lenght of this piece serves it well, and it was a good choice not to let it drag on. it's sweet and simple throughout its duration with little to criticize on. The use of the bassoon was quite clever, and in my off-set mind I pictured the oboe as a kid jumping around in bliss, and the bassoon as his fat penguin friend. At 00:47 the penguin runs off, stealing the kid's thunder. I know, it might sounds weird but whenever songs get my imagination running it's always a good sign.

This composition isn't one that will go to Ichigo's archive of super milestones, it is simply a piece true to itself and free of pretentiousness, which to me is even better than songs titled like "Creme de la bleu la croix de petite baguette c'est grande penis No. 1 Op. 20" but has no substance whatsoever. My main liking with this piece is that, in contrary to some other pieces submitted to this competition, it doesn't feel forced. It's refreshing because there's no need to add additional, excessive, flavours to this song - and you didn't, and so it rings true with the Hemingway concept, Less is More.

This composition achieves 4 and a half Noirs out of 7.
Secret Judge's review
I don't feel I achieved the result I wanted. First, because I could not finish my original entry. Second, I think this piece I submitted could be sequenced and orchestrated in a way that can show its own beauty a lot better. I do like my piece and I think it has nice melodies, but could be better as I said. Third, I did it the day before deadline not showing what you wanted to see; people polishing their pieces and doing the best they can with their own music.

Rating: 3 //Nyu001

Final Score
4.5 + 3 = 7.5 / 14



Deathraider's "Raise up dreams"

Noir7's review
I agree with the composer that the text is very intriguing, and I enjoyed it a lot. The music set to it is no exception either. Its artistic depth, chord progressions and the integration of the lyrics are my favourite points. Let's start with the first point -- the artistic depth.

I listen to a lot of music, and a lot of *Music*. *Music*, translates into music that gets my mind wander, my creativity flowing and basically something that inspires me. Of course, Ichigo's being a small community (relatively) serving as a home for less-experienced composers, finding these special pieces of music isn't something you stumble upon each day, but there are a few composers here who are definately capable of creating those songs. Two songs of yours had a similar effect on me, which actually inspired me to write what would become some of my previous tunes. I'm glad that you've started to compose such songs again, like this one, and it's truly no matter of *getting better* and practising for you, it's simply that you need to be picky, take your time and let the creativity consume you. Composition is like a huge rock, and a composer can already *see* the sculpture and what feeling it emits even before starting to carve the stone. In this case, you had the lyrics to serve as that rock, and I feel that this composition, artistically, reached a near perfect result.

The lenght of the piece is optimal, I wouldn't want to hear less or more of it. The chord choices you made are excellent, as well as the unpredictable melodies. This song, with light strings in the background of the piano, played-back with an old radio would conjure up images of the first half of the past century. Almost a bit Casablanca-ish. Although, the piano as a solo instrument with a singing voice works as well.

This composition achieves 3 and a half Noirs out of 7.
Secret Judge's review
I feel that my piece turned out very well, and conveys the emotions which I wanted to convey; in fact, I've had several people suggest that I should write a cycle of songs based on texts from the same book, so I'm currently working on that. I also really feel that I did some interesting things with word painting (my favorite one being the one of the very last ascending piano arpeggio which paints the picture of the dreams which are being chased away, and being replaced with a sense of peace).

There are, however, several things in the recording that didn't turn out quite how I wanted them to. For example, in some places where I imagined the singer singing intense and/or forte, the singer didn't really exploit those moments. Furthermore, her high notes weren't as free and pure as I had desired (to depict the "purity" which Tess is supposed to have, despite the things that have happened to her). However, I felt she and the accompanist did well considering that they're two of the most busy students I know.

Overall, I think I would give this piece a 6 out of 7 (there's always room for improvement, no matter how hard you've worked on something).

Rating: 6 //Deathraider

Final Score
3.5 + 6 = 9.5 / 14 Winner :cheers:



So, by that it's over ^.^

Congratulations to the winner, you should be proud of your achievement, knowing that you deserve the prize. And by that, if you let your standards slip just because you don't enter contests with money prizes anymore I'll personally do my best to financially ruin you, you know that ;) I'll try to talk to the staff here, who seem very reluctant to speak to me, if they can arrange so that your composition is added to the main webpage of ichigos.com, in order to get more exposure with a link to your personal thread here. The prize money will be sent to your bank account as soon as I have your PayPal account address.

In the future, I'm planning on perhaps starting a $500-$1000 contest, but I'm not sure yet for many reasons. Maybe a $200 one will be up next, but I'll have to make that one more prepared. Anyway, thanks for participating (everyone) and I'll leave this thread open for comments, reviews, opinions, moaning and whining.

Good luck with future compositions!


//Your cozy grizzly bear cub, Noir7

BANG!! That was an excellent choice for secret judge. Who else to better judge your own full potential than yourself. Excellent job on the idea noir. you just let me regain all confidence in your character lol.

Oh crap, that makes me feel really arrogant or something! I'm so excited I finally won a contest, though! I've been trying for years!

Thanks so much!

Haha! That was smart Noir7! and congratulation Deathrider! :)

Hahah, nice surprise at the end there. =D
Congratulations to the both of you.

And good on you for throwing the contest Noir, even though I still don't agree with some of your reviews. =P
It's still nice to see someone trying to motivate people around here.

Congratulations!

Well done, to the both of you.

What I don't understand is how you make a numerical score out of text self evaluation; seems a bit iffy =p

Anyways, congratulations to both. Is there a place where I can listen to Deathraider's composition? I don't recall it being in the contest thread. I'm assuming he pm'ed it?

Edit: Nevermind, I just noticed it was linked in his sig =D

The numerical score, at least of the secret judge was Deathrider and me. I gave to myself 3 points and he 6 points to his piece. Quite clever from Noir7. ;)

I feel many people are upset with ONE person's viewpoint on their pieces. To start this off, you ALL KNEW the RULES. They were made clear and simple. Competitions may not always be fair, but they are legit; the contest that we have here is 100x more fair than others, this is because you know all of the rules and they are currently being followed.

But anyway, I don't spend a bunch of my time reviewing a lot of people's work, so here it goes!

Kevin Penkin – Running Home

Spirited Away? That is definitely the same chord and the notes used in the melody (nearly in the order you played them!). Very engaging introduction. Yet, I am so reminded of Hisaishi in this, that I cannot fully credit you with the originality, unless you have no idea what Ghibli Studios means to you. The orchestrating could be a little better in the strings; it sounds a tad “open” and not very fully. Where's the counterpoint? I would highly suggest you have something going on with that jumping string+piano doubling going on... the feeling of moving and “running” would be present. My favorite part is the legato strings near the last ¼ of the piece. I would variate the chords? Oh, and, one last thing : Redo some of those last held chords.. their dissonance doesn't fit the piece and possibly decrescendo instead of crescendo to the last cut-off.

This piece was OK. I wasn't very excited about it and I wasn't engaged in the energy, apparently, put forth. The piece, however, has a very high rate of success you just have to figure out what and think about what I said.

5/10

I had reviewed Battle Pursuit before I saw your other (real) entry. Double [the advice] for you, sir!
Kevin Penkin – Battle Pursuit

A nice opening. It starts off nicely, and it makes sense right away. A very followable melody in the flute-- rhythmic! Although, I do not agree with your spelling of the chords in the ostinato strings. Some of you chords are weak and are orchestrated less-than-satisfactory. Moving on, I like the “conversation” between the flute and celli. However, moving into that theme I would build up a better bridge... it kind of “happened” too fast for my liking. I like the change into the more solemn theme, but get rid of the flute. I am sick of hearing a background of strings and then a flute in the melody. There are many more instruments in the orchestra; why not try an oboe? Just a suggestion for a soft theme such as this. I like the when the voices come in, but that repeated flute pattern WITH the melody is very distracting.

Overall, it's your timbres and use of instrumentation as well as orchestrating that are in a lack. You can make an average piece, but great soundfonts to it, and it'll “sound better.” However, I am looking straight through this. I often like to advise people, who like to make their compositions computer-made, to listen to it as a MIDI file. Hey? Koji Kondo used plain MIDI sounds for his Zelda OSTs, and they sound amazing. I suggest you try this.

5.5/10

This one was better. Odd, huh?


KaitouKudou – New Beginning

I like that syncopation. (Hehe, sounds a lot like a Zelda melody ready to begin!) I am quite enjoying this piece from the beginning. I like the orchestration, however watch some notes in the low woodwind's chords in the beginning? Some sound wrong. Okay, I am just going to put this out there, but this sounds an awful lot like it'd be from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Maybe that's a good thing? Maybe it's a bad thing? It can be good in this way: I respect your simplicity and wonderful orchestration diplayed here. The instruments are very clear and he timbres created and distributed throughout the ensemble is very pleasing to the ears. Everything is followable and the overall flow is great. Bad thing? It sounds like background music to me, and there isn't as much of a dynamic impact to this. It's almost too bouncy for me. Where's some powerful articulation? The space between the notes? It feels too connected and milky. Your transitions are great, and the form is wonderful, but he overall feeling of the piece needs more contrast that what you've given me. I would attempt to bring out the melody in most places (however you want to balance that out is up to you, really) and I need more of an impact with motifs.

This piece is great, really it is, but it's just lacking that extra taste for me. Something with more impact, you know?

7/10

BigZenigata – ReMorse

Interesting start. It's catch with that syncopation and off-beat rhythm. Yet, it seems very “intentional” and when the ensemble comes in, that harp needs something done to it. I mean, it's very random; I understand this is an adopted rhythm from something, but the notes aren't matching up very pleasing. The cutoffs I hate near the end. This whole piece is just a mess of thick textures. I can't follow it; it's just a load of sound coming at me, almost noise.. I am just going to say it, “This is simply noisy and uneducated.”

I am sorry, but this piece has a nice motif, but I am no convinced at all that you knew how to really use it wisely. We all get ideas for music and stories or whatever, but the original idea is only the beginning. I myself have had inspirations that I would quote into my music and try to develop. Know what? If I had a penny for every time I DIDN'T succeed in developing and using those themes well... I would have a LOT of pennies! And I just gave you one of them.

Overall, I like your creativity, but I feel you didn't pull it off quite for me.

3/10

GermanSeabass – Adrenaline

AH! Make the piano less bright. Just throwing that out there. Oh boy, a piano piece! This will be fun to review. Nevermind, there is a violin! Anyway, nonetheless, onward! I like the echoing piano effect. The piano riffs get repetitive, and when the stings come in, their voicings seem a little random. It's very cliché, and the progressions in the “slower” part aren't very interesting. The chord before going back to that main these wasn't nice; I would have developed a little more then gone back.

Overall, the piece just doesn't say much. I don't feel that the piece is engaging enough, really. The piano part is poorly written and the strings aren't used to what they could be (even with what you all wrote here). There's so much you could have done. I like your idea of the quick, echoing piano part, but it wasn't written well and it got tiresome. There was not any melody at all in the piece, and the harmony (as I've said many times before) is weak; the spelling of chords on the piano has to be though up of as orchestrating. The B theme, I must say, is boring. The melody is even more lost, and you've tried to create a contrast, in which I think you didn't quite get it. A contrast has nothing to do with dynamic, but ALL of the material. The chords were very similar, and the piano was still kind of busy.

There's potential in this piece, but you'd have to tear it down a lot to know where your original inspiration came from to see what you KNOW it SHOULD be.

4/10

PorscheGTIII – Your Name

Interesting title. XD And interesting synth introduction. I am liking the sound of everything, and the bass is nice. Oh, and I'd get rid of that singer. He's all over the place in pitch. Another thing, the balance on the music and the voice don't match up very much. I can barely even hear him... and when I do, his phrasing and tone and pitch are all over the place and bad. Even though the music is balanced very high, I can't even hear it now because the vocals take away from the piece.

On to the music, it's almost too repetitive. The synth in the guitar solo was bad; the counterpoint was just icky, and it felt like the synth was recorded and it wasn't even at tempo. I hated the guitar solo itself. If it was written, it wasn't written very well, but if not-- your guitarist is as of the same musicianship of your vocals. I would variate that pattern the synth plays, and the drum fills (and the drums overall) need to be a little more incorporated, and the bass has a really similar pattern as the synth... try using inversions? The only real part is that intro riff, but the verses and chorus and the bridges/solo were just bad. There needs to have more to catch my ear, because my ear was “caught” on just one or two things and they weren't very flattering.

4/10

Deathraider – Raise up dreams

Another interesting title! Heheh. I like the piano introduction. I can take a piano that's not tuned, but I cannot accept something that rhymes! Skipping her phrasing and tone (eck), the compositional quality is quite nice. I like the moving parts, however, the Soprano's recitative section went on for too long I feel. The piano part in the slower section could have more interesting counterpoint; I like the background of it, but maybe it needs more of a followable counterpoint. (Word to the pianist: make better pedal changes and play quieter in her lower register).

Overall, it was very nice, but it felt kind of “safe.” I don't feel moved by it, yet it was very well voiced (piano part) and the soprano line is written quite well too. The attention to these things impress me a lot, and I enjoyed this piece far beyond most of the ones before. Good job, I'd love to review more for you sometime later, but this is good for now.

8/10

Chopin4524 – Notturno

I don't know, really, about this piece. I know it's supposed to be a memory from childhood and they aren't good ones, but listening to this piece basically was a dreadful experience in itself. I was looking quite forward to an interesting piano part for this, knowing you're a lover of Chopin and a pianist yourself, but the recording and the music itself was just bad. I can appreciate a straight-forward MIDI, but it just made it worse. There was NO dynamic changes anyway, and there was no tone other than “Boresville” for me. The melody wasn't engaging, and the B section was just a bad version of the Berecuse in Db. It was very uninteresting and it kept on dragging on.

Basically, the piano wasn't used to it's full potential, if any at all, and the music was just depressing (and not the good depressing, either).

3.5/10

Nyu001 – Estrella

I am loving the soundfont! Reminds me of Whisper of the Heart's sounds. Hehe. The melody I very followable and I am loving the dotted quarter note “undermelody.” The the Oboe makes a nice change, except it sounds a Trumpet in the higher register? Odd. I am noticing something, in some places, chords sound wrong in the background.

This is a very short, and a very short review. I don't know much else to say! It sounded very nice, and I have nothing to add other than to review your chords in the parts. Some notes not lining up; “bad” dissonances are created (the thirds, I feel). Great job!

7.5/10

Another interesting title! Heheh. I like the piano introduction. I can take a piano that's not tuned, but I cannot accept something that rhymes! Skipping her phrasing and tone (eck), the compositional quality is quite nice.


Hey, don't be rude to my performer! I'd like to hear you do it better :heh:. And what on earth are you talking about with "something that rhymes"?! lol

It isn't a question of being rude, it's being critical. I am pointing out faults and what needs to be worked on. I CAN tell how to phrase and shape the lines if need be, just get me a ticket to Utah. XD

Oh, I was mostly joking anyways; no need to get so defensive. Yes, she did have some issues (which probably would have been worked out if she had been able to make my song a top priority, but she couldn't because she had to work on pieces for juries). My question about "something that rhymes" still stands, though. I have NO idea what you are referring to! Sorry.

Piano, Soprano.

I think they rhyme; to me they do. XD

Oh! XD

Thanks for the comments mazeppa. It is very interesting as my friend also said the same thing about that piece in that it sounds close to Zelda: Twilight Princess. I would very much like to hear the part you are referring to as I've never played any of the zelda series and knows nothing of its music other than the main theme heard on smash bros.

It was actually intended to sound like background music. I've been studying background music these couple of month since I've been scoring for an spoiled rotten. It is a project started by me and my friends and we are currently working on getting the intro theme done. But anyways...back to the topic...I believe my readings on what background music should and should not do to the listener has impacted my composing style greatly.

However, I do agree with what you said about the contrast and impact of the piece. I had felt the lack myself when I heard the piece but I did not know why as I had already used a full range of dynamics and going from solo to full orchestra on the piece. As such, I accepted it to be the best I could do for this piece at this point in time. I may go back to this piece once I become more mature with my composing skills and who knows, I might find the answer then.

I am very satisfied with the piece as it is right now. Your comment I believe really hit the mark on what it was that this piece is good and lacking on.:lol:

Thanks for the comments mazeppa. It is very interesting as my friend also said the same thing about that piece in that it sounds close to Zelda: Twilight Princess. I would very much like to hear the part you are referring to as I've never played any of the zelda series and knows nothing of its music other than the main theme heard on smash bros.

It was actually intended to sound like background music. I've been studying background music these couple of month since I've been scoring for an spoiled rotten. It is a project started by me and my friends and we are currently working on getting the intro theme done. But anyways...back to the topic...I believe my readings on what background music should and should not do to the listener has impacted my composing style greatly.

However, I do agree with what you said about the contrast and impact of the piece. I had felt the lack myself when I heard the piece but I did not know why as I had already used a full range of dynamics and going from solo to full orchestra on the piece. As such, I accepted it to be the best I could do for this piece at this point in time. I may go back to this piece once I become more mature with my composing skills and who knows, I might find the answer then.

I am very satisfied with the piece as it is right now. Your comment I believe really hit the mark on what it was that this piece is good and lacking on.:lol:

And you now see, ladies and gentlemen, this is a fine example of integrity.

I am glad you appreciated the comments, KK. I'll find some excerpts sometime soon for you.

Thanks for the comments mazeppa.
Yes, thanks a ton. I'm sorry I sounded so ungrateful before; I really do appreciate the criticism.

Congratulations to deathraider and all the contestants!

Noir7, you must be loaded or something to think of a possible $200//$500-1000 contest!

Chopin4524 – Notturno

I don't know, really, about this piece. I know it's supposed to be a memory from childhood and they aren't good ones, but listening to this piece basically was a dreadful experience in itself. I was looking quite forward to an interesting piano part for this, knowing you're a lover of Chopin and a pianist yourself, but the recording and the music itself was just bad. I can appreciate a straight-forward MIDI, but it just made it worse. There was NO dynamic changes anyway, and there was no tone other than “Boresville” for me. The melody wasn't engaging, and the B section was just a bad version of the Berecuse in Db. It was very uninteresting and it kept on dragging on.

Basically, the piano wasn't used to it's full potential, if any at all, and the music was just depressing (and not the good depressing, either).

3.5/10



Good critic but the underlined part really leaved me speechless. Maybe I should change my nick and my avatar.

I do not know what you mean. Explain.

I am noticing something, in some places, chords sound wrong in the background.7.5/10

There can be various reasons for that, I think. But I checked and I notated all as I wanted, no mistakes. My bet will be some of the inversions I did like G7, Fmaj7 or D7. Where some notes are a whole or half step apart.

Anyway, thanks for take your time listening to it!

Unsticking this thread now; Thanks everyone for participating an congratulations to Deathraider for the winning position and the 100 dollars!