Ichigo's Christmas Composition Contest

I thought it would be nice to have a special contest this time of year. Christmas isn't far away, and we need warm and pleasureable compositions to remember it with! This contest is a bit different though, so read out the rules written below, and feel free to ask any questions that come to mind.

*Judges
This competition will not be determined by our fellow members, but by a group of judges. These judges will rate the compositions in several aspects, from 0-100%. Here are the aspects that the judges will rate from:

Melody (How good is the song's melody line?)
Orchestration (How well do the instruments work together? Simplified or advanced, it's your choice)
Originality (Is your song unique? Does it have that special 'you' feeling to it?)
Overall (Not all of the aspects combined, but an overall feeling of the song)
Total Score (This is all the above aspects combined)

*Submission
Basically the same as before, but this time your goal theme is of course something that reminds of Winter, snow, December or Christmas itself. Confused? Don't be -- It's totally up to you how your composition will sound. This is the interesting part, it's your choice and preferance how your song will sound. It could be a warm, love based song as well as a parade with bells and trumpets - This is your Christmas. So back to submitting.. Once you're done with your composition, post it in this thread as usual. The approved formats will be MIDI and WAVE/MP3. If you have it in other formats like Sibelius or Finale files, then please convert them to MIDIs. Also note that it doesn't make a differance whether your song is in MP3 or MIDI - We will judge the composition by how good it is in musical quality, not in technical quality.

Judges: Noir7, Michael
Submission deadline: December 14th
Questions and Help: PM, or use this thread.

Good Luck! - Noir7 & Michael

are you guys, the judges, going to submit too?

As far as I know, nope. :D It wouldn't be fair otherwise.

No, we're just going to judge.

does it have to be a song with more than one instrument?

Orchestration (How well do the instruments work together? Simplified or advanced, it's your choice)

can the sonmg be an an arrangement of an existing christmas song? if so, I have an arrangement of the Ukrainian Bell Carol that's ready.

Ooo, ooo, I can do this :D

Originally posted by Matt&#045;Chan^^+Nov 5 2004, 09:29 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Matt&#045;Chan^^ &#064; Nov 5 2004, 09:29 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> does it have to be a song with more than one instrument?
[/b]
No, not at all. A good piano solo song could be as good as a full orchestra one. It&#39;s all about how well it is done.

<!--QuoteBegin-Ureshii Gaki
can the sonmg be an an arrangement of an existing christmas song? if so, I have an arrangement of the Ukrainian Bell Carol that&#39;s ready. [/quote]
Absolutely not.

hmmm.... if i can&#39;t submit a song in time... ya think i can be a judge too?

To keep it as easy as possible, it&#39;s better off with only two judges. Besides, I think we all want to hear your new composition.

I&#39;ll have my composition up in just a few more days&#33; :D I think we&#39;ve got a great panel of judges... Come on, everyone&#33; Isn&#39;t someone else going to submit something?

Meeee&#33; Except I&#39;m gonna be singing in it in three or four different harmony parts so everyone will probably run away screaming :P

@ Gnomish: Hold on, it&#39;s not even near the deadline date yet.

And just a small note to everyone; the compositions don&#39;t have to remind of Christmas. It&#39;s up to you how you want the song to sound like. It&#39;s just that the base theme we want to connect with is this time of year, but it&#39;s totally up to you to make it sound like a winter theme&#33;


Sorry to bother you, but for the competition, is it okay if we use a song that we have posted in the forums for critiques?
Of course.

Can it be a clash of Christmas Songs with a little something extra?

erm..you mean like arrangments? Then no.

Hellooo, I have a question - is it possible to record something being sung at a slower tempo and then speed it up to the correct tempo? Or would that mess up the actual sound too much and turn it chipmunky? Just I don&#39;t think I&#39;m gonna be able to compose the entire carol and then learn to sing it all at speed in time for the deadline :(

I don&#39;t really know what you mean.. you&#39;ll have free hands to do what you will.

Oh, if you mean like singing it slowly, and then fixing it in a different tempo? I think that will make your voice sound weird. Remember, you don&#39;t have to sing it, you could leave one MIDI track open for the MIDI voice, and then add some lyrics (in a notepad document)

Due to many requests (both from participants and myself) we&#39;re going to shoot up the dealine a bit. The new deadline will be December 21st. I think it will be better for everyone, and I might be gone at the old deadline date, so I hope this will work. :)

NEW DEADLINE ~ December 21st

YAY&#33; Phew, I get more time - yeah, it&#39;s gonna be like a three part harmony and I&#39;m singing it all and mixing the tracks together, so they&#39;ve all gotta be in time hence I wanted to sing it through slowly to make sure it went okay ;)

It&#39;s alright now though as I&#39;ve got more time to practise :D

Dang it Dang It&#33; *Continues Searching for finale*

So we post the submissions here right? well here is mine. ENJOY&#33;&#33;&#33; ^_^

Here&#39;s my composition&#33;

It&#39;s title is "Sleigh Ride Through the Snow-Speckled Woods". :)

*cries* I don&#39;t stand a chance :( These are fantastic&#33; :D

;_; don&#39;t give up . . I wanna hear you sing in harmony&#33; (I tried that once, but my voice couldn&#39;t reach all the high and low notes)

Maybe if I&#39;m lucky, I&#39;ll have a song ready x.x

Except I&#39;m a terrible singer XD I can sing both soprano and alto and a little bit of tenor but I might leave the tenor part to the MIDI as it goes down to B on the bass clef and I can&#39;t reach that low ;)

I&#39;m a terrible singer too, but :ph34r: I might be able to reach that B (below middle C, right?) . . PM me if you want my help ^^

Er, what about your bass?

Heh, the chances of me getting a bass singer are zilch so I&#39;m making that done by the cello or some midi angel voice or summat :P Oooo, I&#39;ll finish the tenor part (there&#39;s lots of those Bs though) and see if we can sort something out&#33; :D

well... heres my song... its little slow in the beginning but after 1:30 of the song it gets better. (i hope) this part is when everyone gets together and have fun. After 3:00 is when everyone says bye to each other. enough talking...

You guys are doing awesome&#33;&#33;&#33; Keep them coming&#33; The more the merrier&#33; ^_^

Some of the few pieces I listened to are masterpieces&#33; This is going to be an enjoyable contest. With the new deadline, I&#39;m sure you guys can finish up. ;) Good luck&#33;&#33;&#33;

Im currently composing a drum feature version of Angels we have heard on high

does that count as legal. Or must i write a new piece from scratch?


Also does the song have to sound christmassy? and is Alieatoric stuff ok?

:sweatdrop:

Originally posted by Starwind@Dec 2 2004, 12:04 AM
Dang it Dang It&#33; *Continues Searching for finale*



Don&#39;t use finale. Use Sibelius 3. Its great. And it converts compositions to wav files.


Finale 2004 is great too i guess :heh: But then again i have them all :P

It has to be an original composition, not an arrangement :) Aleatoric would be interesting... it&#39;s a hard thing to compose so kudos to you if you pull it off&#33;

There&#39;s nothing wrong with aleatoric . . but to be honest, I think if you want to impress the judges, stick to something tonal =P Tonal gives them the nice harmonies they&#39;re (probably) looking for, and tonal is one of the best way to achieve emotion (which is important for the Christmas spirit and theme of this contest).

And for even more references to the rules and how to impress the judges ;) refer to the first post. Also, jupter_jazz, try not to double post. That&#39;s what the "Edit" button is for. :D

Originally posted by michael@Dec 10 2004, 06:41 PM
And for even more references to the rules and how to impress the judges ;) refer to the first post. Also, jupter_jazz, try not to double post. That&#39;s what the "Edit" button is for. :D


I dont think i will be entering. Im way too busy writing this love song for this girl i like

and i agreed to write my college band teacher a brass fanfare. But i think i can

spin something here.

When will be the next contest?

Probably a few weeks after Christmas, or whenever Michael says so ^.^;

Anyway, keep the submissions coming&#33;

Okay, here&#39;s mine. :)

&#39;Carolers on a December Night&#39; (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=78350)

Okay, the current submitters are:

r4ik0
Gnomish
yellowmonkey121
Stefan

@ The other people: Just keep &#39;em comin =P

Well... this is the first competition I&#39;ve entered in... so I&#39;m reeeaaaallllyy nervous... Ah, me. Well, here goes. "running out of time," by TrumpetPLaya42&#33;

Almost done... btw, what is the actual ultimate deadline? &#39;Cause I live in the GMT+10 timezone and I don&#39;t want to miss it&#33; :/

Well, if there&#39;s just the matter of the GMT problem, then you have nothing to worry about.

Hehe, I suppose it does give me extra time ;) So it all has to be posted on the 21st, not by the 21st?

yeah, I&#39;ll close the submissions as late as I can that day. (GMT +1)

Woowoo, it&#39;s done&#33; :D :D

A HUGE GIGANTUOUS THANKYOU to the wonderful Alphonse who gave me looooads of encouragement and sang the alto part for me - even though he thinks he sounds ghastly I think he sounds fab ^_^ I used Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer and Cooledit to do this so excuse the crackles where I spliced some bits together (and I&#39;m a total n00b to mp3 making so &#39;scuse that too XD)

MP3 (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?showtopic=1930&view=findpost&p=79496)

Lyrics: The Match Girl

She&#39;s dressed in rags and worn out shoes
The path she walks she cannot choose
You may have seen her walk the streets
Crying out to those that she meets

Matches, matches, penny a box
And though on many doors she knocks
Disdain is all she ever sees
She&#39;s paid in bad apologies

Six boxes buys her mouldy bread
A futile way of staying fed
For often she sells only five
It&#39;s luck by which she stays alive

Matches, matches, penny a box
And though on many doors she knocks
Disdain is all she ever sees
She&#39;s paid in bad apologies

Her fingers blue-tainted and numb with cold
Cast out on the streets at just ten years old
She struggles on through the wild-flying snow
Her face drawn and thin and her pace is slow
She grows so old before her time
Even though she has done no crime

Matches, matches, penny a box
And though on many doors she knocks
Disdain is all she ever sees
She&#39;s paid in bad apologies

The town is full of Christmas cheer
But there&#39;s no joy left for her here
It&#39;s all too much for her to bear
Nobody has a coin to spare

Matches, matches, penny a box
And though on many doors she knocks
Disdain is all she ever sees
She&#39;s paid in bad apologies

And still she trudges down the road
Bent double with her heavy load
She starves again though hard she tried
So she fell and froze and then died.

Matches, matches, penny a box
And though on many doors she knocks
Disdain is all she ever sees
She&#39;s paid in bad apologies

She&#39;s paid in bad apologies

Midi:

^^ I&#39;m proud of you, all that work you put into it&#33;&#33;

WOW&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33; <cleans out ears>... I... uh... well... I liked the midi... but I think alphonse&#39;s right... :( Sorry... But good job writing it.

Well here&#39;s mine...slightly updated. :unsure:

This is the MP3 of my composition as stupidstupid Geocities won&#39;t host it anymore ^_^ Thanks, TrumpetPlaya42 for your feedback - heehee, me and Alphonse aren&#39;t the world&#39;s most wonderful singers (my soprano sucks big time, haha, my range is alto so reaching top C was evil) but the mp3 is to give you an idea of what it sounds like when it&#39;s sung because all the parts get a bit lost in the midi :)

Wow, Madmazda86, Wow&#33; That was a splendid song with quite the unique vocals... I love the subtle instruments in the background; they sound very NES-ish to me, but in a good way&#33; The lyrics are stupendous&#33; That sounds very much like a poem, to me. I wouldn&#39;t be surprised if you could get it published as a poem. It&#39;s so sad&#33; :( (Once agian, in a good way&#33; :P)

Great job&#33; (You too, Al&#33;)

This thread will close somewhere around 21:00 / 9pm (GMT +1)

huff, made it in time... ;)

Title: Candle Light
Composer: Matthias Samland
Link: attached

O WAIT&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33; I just remembered&#33; That song the match girl&#33; There was that one little christmas story thingy about that girl who sold matches and she, like, saw stuff when she lit them. Then she struck her last match and her grandma in heaven came to take her away... Then everyone found her frozen and dead in the morning... <sniff> :cry: :crybaby: :crybaby: Man... that&#39;s sad... but good job portraying it... I definitely agree with Gnomish about the poem thing... ... ... :crybaby:

Indeedy, that is what it&#39;s based on - I wanted to portray the more sombre side of Christmas and hopefully I&#39;ve succeeded in that :) The lyrics were intended to be song lyrics, but I wrote them as a poem because that&#39;s the easiest way for me to write :)

Gnomish - thanks for the feedback, hehe, it sounds NESish because the instruments are MIDI recorded into a mp3 recorder, heehee - I would&#39;ve played the parts myself but alas I didn&#39;t have time to practise them :(

Matt-Chan&#33;

That song is very saddening. :crybaby: It&#39;s so emotional yet simple&#33; I try for that blend myself, but often fail in the process. I love the melody and the gentle LH is the perfect back-up. How long did it take you to compose it? :)

Also, what MP3 sequencer did you use? Or is that acoustic?

Note: The winner and the ratings and comments on all entries will be shown in a few days. There are a couple of reasons why it got delayed: First off, I had all the ratings and comments on my other comp (which is pretty dead right now) so I&#39;m re-rating everything today. Michael&#39;s entries are almost done too, and he&#39;ll send me the finished ones shortly

Sorry for the waiting&#33;

Geesh, it must be hard listening to so many fab songs and rating them all @_@ Take your time - more than anything else it&#39;s great to get feeeeeedback XD

Okay - My ratings are done now *awaits Michael to send me his completed ones*

Oh Madmazda&#33; That was one of the saddest songs ever&#33; I loved it though. Everyones submissions are great&#33; ^_^

Yay, more feedback :D I&#39;m a feedback fiend, I thrive on it XD Thanks for the comments, Sakusora... y&#39;know, I&#39;m planning to do one for the tsunami victims... but I dunno if I&#39;m good enough to express the magnitude of it through music and words alone, especially not having experienced it - you have to really go through disasters like that to be able to describe it in a way that gets through to the listener. So I guess nobody except the survivors will really be able to get their feelings across adequately :(

I really love all the compositions on here - Christmas is something that everyone experiences in a different way and it really comes through in their music. Gnomish and Stefan&#39;s compositions in particular I loved listening to, and the other submissions have their own unique styles that make each one worth listening to again :)

I&#39;m so sorry people for this delay, but in order to work I need michael to send me all his ratings too. He hasn&#39;t got on MSN for quite a while now. He said something about not being able to download some mp3s off the forum, though.

That might be mine... somebody else told me they couldn&#39;t get it to work even though it&#39;s uploaded here and not to Geocities :think: it works ok for me but that might be because I have the actual MP3 on my computer anyhow. If it is mine then he doesn&#39;t have to worry about downloading it :)

it&#39;s okay, when (if) he comes on MSN, I can just send it to him.

Heehee, michael made an appearance last night XD Did you grab him? :P

I wanna see who wins&#33;&#33; *Starts jumpy&#33;* ^.^

:poke: *pokes Michael&#39;s apparently-dead body with a stick*

Psst&#33; You still have to give the judging results, Mikey&#33; :heh:

Oh, dear. I hope this doesn&#39;t drag into February, too&#33; :unsure:

seems like it will...oh well ^_^

Hm.. I really want to post the results v_v; If Michael doesn&#39;t wake up by Saturday (GMT+1) I will post my ratings and comments only, and give out the winner by myself. I hope I won&#39;t have to though, because two people&#39;s thoughts serves more justice.. :think:

Just a reminder.

i remember seeing him online within the last week :think:

Originally posted by Noir7@Feb 3 2005, 06:35 PM
Hm.. I really want to post the results v_v; If Michael doesn&#39;t wake up by Saturday (GMT+1) I will post my ratings and comments only, and give out the winner by myself. I hope I won&#39;t have to though, because two people&#39;s thoughts serves more justice.. :think:

Just a reminder.
still better than nothing though. ;)

Aye, it&#39;s a shame &#39;cause he was around on the 27th - it&#39;s not like him to forget about it so I think maybe he&#39;s got bigger concerns on his mind...

he&#39;s also judge of the composition of the month, so...yeah.

He doesn&#39;t judge the regular compositions of the month. For those contests, the members simply vote for the best piece.

:huh: ?? isn&#39;t it feburary? why is the january one still on?

Gwoar. I nearly forgot about this. <.<

Dum dum daaaaah :ph34r: It&#39;s the final countdown&#33; :P

Sorry... my computer has been dying. I had the hard drive replaced... but now my processor is dying... etc. etc... Sorry I&#39;m making everyone wait. X_X Noir will send me the files soon.

Forgive me. :frusty:

Take your time, Michael. :) Just make sure you keep us informed&#33; :P

Would you please announce a runner-up for this, as well? :)

I saw Noir and Michael online this morning - I think they were plotting Chrimbo-compo-related things ;)

Yup.

Muahahaha, I keep tabs on everybody :devil:

:poke:

Okay. *closes thread*

The ratings are finished, *goes making magic*