Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to the Winter 2010 Ichigo's Composition Contest entitled “Rime and Reason!” For those of you who do not understand the meaning of the title, rime is a type of ice crystal that is white in color and sounds like rhyme, a common form of poetry. Reason is what you the composer will have to add to this “rime.” Without further adieu, let me explain the logistics of this competition.

RULES AND GUIDELINES

This competition is open to any existing member or new member of the Ichigo's Sheet Music forum who has had an account before the start of this competition.
The composition must be posted in this thread by Friday December 31, 2010 at 11:59pm GMT-5. At a minimum, some type of audio file must be submitted preferably in MP3 or MIDI format. It is recommended to also submit a well crafted score, especially if your audio production skills are not up to par.
The competition will be judged by Noir7 and PorscheGTIII (myself) on a score from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest score possible. Both of our scores will be added together to determine the placing of the competition.
In order to receive a monetary prize, the participant must have a PayPal account. Registration is free and it is a very safe way to do transactions online.
The money will be awarded by Noir7 and PorscheGTIII. In no way shape or form is this a payment from the Ichigo's Sheet Music community.
All interested contestants should PM both Noir7 and PorscheGTIII their wish to enter this contest at least 2 weeks before the end of the competition. Each contestant, when submitting their entry should also supply a brief statement about their composition. In it, they should try to answer questions such as “How does my composition represent the poem? What are the strengths and weaknesses of my composition? Why should I be the declared winner of this contest?” This part of the entry should not be overlooked because it will also be taken into consideration during judging. The prompt should be well written to reflect the quality of the composition. For privacy reasons, please submit this prompt in a PM to both Noir7 and PorscheGTIII.
There is to be one entry by a single composer. No group efforts. No multiple versions. If there is more than one entry by a contestant such as a new composition or a revised entry with the original entry still present in the thread, this will be grounds for disqualification.

THE POEM
The following is the poem the contestants should reflect on when composing their entry.


Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep

THE PRIZES
Yes, prizes as in the plural of prize. Depending on the number of contestants, there will be a prize for first, second, and third place. With the help of Gand, the winner should be mentioned on Ichigo's main webpage (http://www.ichigos.com/). All entries as well will receive a certificate of entry. The prizes are the following (in United States Currency):


First Place: $24
Second Place: $12
Third Place: $4

FINAL NOTES

All entries will receive an in-depth review from both Noir7 and PorscheGTIII after submissions for the contest are no longer accepted.

All questions and comments are to be posted in this thread and are NOT to be sent in any form of PM to Noir7 or PorscheGTIII.

Please, do not enter the contest on a whim. Put forth your best effort. Also, do not be afraid to enter because of a lack of experience or exposure. Even if you do not win, the feed back is what will make you grow as a composer!

Have. Fun. If you're not having fun, why are you doing this?


FINAL DISCLAIMER
The entire contest is under control by both Noir7 and PorscheGTIII and therefore, anything previously mentioned is subject change at any time for any reason, regardless of the input from other people or parties. Note that the prize money and donations are independent actions on the behalf of Noir7 and PorscheGTIII and is not approved by the authorities of Ichigos. The funding for this activity is outside of the budgeting of Ichigos Forums' Comptroller and affiliates. Thus, in no way shall Ichigos be held liable for lost, stolen, and/or received funding from this project.

With that said, on behalf of Noir7 and myself, I declare this competition to be open! Good luck to all who enters and may the best composer win!

Excellent poem! I love that one.

Are there no requirements for length and orchestration?

I'm rather underwhelmed at the prizes for the contest... and no, I'm not trying to be greedy. The first place prize isn't even enough to cover the price of copyrighting the winning song ($35 USD). I wasn't expecting anything outlandish like hundreds, but a solid $50, $25, $10 isn't too much to ask for.

I think you'll see even people who would enter this contest regardless of prize putting out more worthwhile work with a $50-$25-$10 incentive.

This is the second contest that involves money in Ichigo's history. Get over it, and worry about more important things, the music. :)

^No kidding.

This is the second contest that involves money in Ichigo's history. Get over it, and worry about more important things, the music. :)
It doesn't make my point any less valid. If I'm gonna write a piece, I want to do something with it. Course credit, portfolio, sheet music, ultimately a performance... you name it. I would also think that if Noir or Porsche are going to go through the trouble of actually exchanging private information to facilitate payment, that they'd feel more comfortable with something above a mere $4 transaction that might be eaten in Paypal fees.

All this is besides the point. If you have a problem with the prize [money] then message Noir7 or Porsche privately.

Are there no requirements for length and orchestration?

I was wondering about that too.

All this is besides the point. If you have a problem with the prize [money] then message Noir7 or Porsche privately.

But they said:


All questions and comments are to be posted in this thread and are NOT to be sent in any form of PM to Noir7 or PorscheGTIII.

Prize does not bother me. But it does look funny seeing just $4. :P I said I can give at least $10 dollars. Whoever win, can receive the 10 dollars directly from me (Unless Noir7 or Porsche are against my 10 dollars or if I end with a balance of 1.00 dollars by the end of the year). :P

I like the poem selected. It fit very well for winter competition! :)

Haha, I stand corrected. I guess it just seems to be a strange subject is all, with it being a privately-run composition competition.

Unless I am convinced otherwise or Noir7 would like to say otherwise, I see no reason to place a restriction on length or orchestration. I believe the composer can use their best skills to write in their unique style this way and provides grounds for a more free interpretation of the poem.

Length is not everything. Do you know who Edward Everett was? He gave a two hour speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania after the battle that took place there durring the American Civil war. No one remembers his speech, only Abraham Lincoln's speech is remembered and it was only minutes long.

...and there doesn't have to be a prize. :P

QUESTION.

Choir singing the text? Allowed?

Why wouldn't you be allowed?

I'm rather underwhelmed at the prizes for the contest... and no, I'm not trying to be greedy. The first place prize isn't even enough to cover the price of copyrighting the winning song ($35 USD). I wasn't expecting anything outlandish like hundreds, but a solid $50, $25, $10 isn't too much to ask for.

I think you'll see even people who would enter this contest regardless of prize putting out more worthwhile work with a $50-$25-$10 incentive.

That's fine, if you end up ranking among the top 3 in this contest we will give your portion of the prize money to the other two, making their pots a bit bigger.

Nyu quoted for truth. If there were the option to bug them in private, I'd have probably saved the thread from something very much directed at the only two people that could influence the decision. heh

re: Noir - Well, depending if I get there I wouldn't be horribly opposed to that.

is it just me... or is everyone concerned about their piece sounding similar to one another? hahaha.

Don't worry of that, everybody think different. But probably most of the entries or all of them will have a calmed mood, lol. XD

I don't know about that, looking at the words at the end kinda alludes that he's nearing death and is aware. Someone might write something with an undertone of peril. At the same time, others see it as a calming, end of day stroll. It's a matter of prospectives. And that's the magic of poetry.

Could be Santa Claus too. :3

"Registration is free and it is a very safe way to do transactions online."

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Anyways, are we allowed to submit one piece, and then retract it and submit another? Or submit one piece and then submit another modified version of it? Only the last one will count, though. Just in case of a computer failure the day before the deadline :V

Whatever is in this thread at the end of the submission period is what will be judged in the competition. That said, if you submitted an entry and then you submit a revised entry but you never bothered to remove your first entry, then you will be disqualified.

Therefore, I'd just wait until you know you have your final entry before submitting. ;)

So, if only one attachment is present during the closing date, that one attachment will be counted, and all others past will not?

As long as any old version is not present in this thread, yes. Delete any old versions from this thread.

here..
I recorded the different parts separately and then tried to put them together in a music editor.. ;;
please critique - I'm new to this ^^

7. My piece starts in a high octave (the snow falling) and is repetitive at parts, like the poem... I feel that it is calm yet has climaxes (when he looks at things around him), which make it more interesting to listen to. Even though the only instrument is a piano, I think it fits the poem and makes it really seem like the music is being made by a lonely traveler.

Yay! An entry! :D

About the audio, be careful with the volume and the recorder/mic placement. You got a lot of distortion. The best you can do is to record your piece at a lower volume and placing the recorder/mic in a good distance and angle from your piano. That is just a matter of trial-and-error to get it right. Do not worry if it sounds too low, you can boost the volume later in an audio editor.

Also if you are using cheap audio recordings, save your mp3 file at the higher bit rate (320Kbps), so the difference from the original audio won't be so different. If you are using Audacity, you have that option when you are saving a file.

i think it's very brave of you to upload a piece that you're actually playing. i really enjoyed the beginning, and i think there were some uncomfortable transitions.

a quick question... aren't we obligated to submit a written description of our piece?

Wow, an entry already!


a quick question... aren't we obligated to submit a written description of our piece?

Yes. And if one isn't turned in by the end of the submission period, then the piece will be disqualified. Please see Rule 7.

:heh: oops

here..
I recorded the different parts separately and then tried to put them together in a music editor.. ;;
please critique - I'm new to this ^^

7. My piece starts in a high octave (the snow falling) and is repetitive at parts, like the poem... I feel that it is calm yet has climaxes (when he looks at things around him), which make it more interesting to listen to. Even though the only instrument is a piano, I think it fits the poem and makes it really seem like the music is being made by a lonely traveler.

:\

You're still not doing it right. Please read ALL the rules thoroughly and try again.

PianoPlayer:


I think it would be best for you to record each part in wave format, and then assemble the waves before reducing the combined tracks to an mp3. This ensures that you don't reduce the quality until the final step.

Combining Waves (uncompressed formats) ---> MP3 generally gives higher quality output than

Combining MP3's (or other compressed format) ----> MP3

After re-recording all your parts, consider panning them (carefully) and out-putting a stereo track, rather than the mono track you've submitted. Also, bump your bit rate up to a minimum of 192 kbps (320 may or may not be necessary) and you'll probably want 44.1 KHZ as your sample rate, for best quality and to capture those high freqs. Other than that, as Nyu said, move the mic back and/or reduce the gain on the mic or the software.

While mixing your tracks, you should be very careful not to have the volume too high on any one of them. This is because once you start to combine them, each waveform can combine with the others to make the overall amplitude (volume) higher, which may have contributed to the distortion (clipping) in this instance. If you're worried the end result will be too soft/quiet, you can always compress and amplify as necessary to make it as loud as you wish.

I hope this info I gave at least helps you to improve your entry.

QUESTION.

Choir singing the text? Allowed?

Just know that if you do that you will have copyright problems if you ever want to go anywhere with it. Eric Whitacre set this poem, but was never allowed to perform/publish/record it with those words because whoever is in charge of the copyright on the poem wouldn't allow it. He ended up having a new poet (Charles Silvestri) write a whole new poem to his music, which then became his "Sleep". Of course I have heard of some bootlegged recordings of choirs performing it with the original lyrics from the Frost poem...

Randall Thompson also set this as a choral piece, but he was a contemporary of Frost, so I guess it was different for him.

Yeah, it was different. I hear that Frost wasn't a very big fan of Thompson's setting, and that's why there haven't been any other Frost settings allowed, but then again I've also heard that Frost loved it, so it's hard to say which is true. :P

I rather like this idea! I'm not so worried about the prize money as much as the fact that I can treat this almost like a commission. Guided composition comes more naturally to me than sitting down in my room, or a studio and trying to write whatever comes to mind. I absolutely love this idea! Great selection of a poem!

Looking forward to reviewing the pieces :) It's been a long time since I listened thoroughly to the composers' work here on Ichigos!

alright....I guess I'll just submit it right now.

I don't know if there's a rule against adding text so you know what I'm going for... but I thought it'd be easier to explain what I was trying to do with the music and the poem by doing this. Hope y'all like it.

Does that start at 0:23 or at the beginning? :V

yes. everthing before that was to set the scenario; the title, one could argue. why? was it a little awkward?

Rule no.7 can we post the answer to "“How does my composition represent the poem?", and to send the other questions privately?

As long as Noir7 and I get a PM of your writing prompt, you can post whatever you want.

We've got a bunch of new people who have expressed their interest in the competition! The veterans better watch out because they're gunning for you!

This is not based off of my progress, however deadlines... I have a lot of stuff which is "due" December 1st for me, so I should have the whole month of free time to write and record (yes, that's right, record) the piece. Ideas are free flowing. Maybe Mazeppa will finally come out of the closet... the composer's closet that is.

Looking forward to hearing all of these entries, Porsche. :)

dammit! well... i ain't scared... just curious and anxious.

How does one submit their piece to this?

Also how do I listen to other peoples works?

Yes this is true!

How does one submit their piece to this?

I'm sorry, but it appears you joined the community after the start of the competition. This makes you ineligable to participate for this competition as per rule one. Please understand that this is to prevent people from joining the forum just for the sake of trying to win money and not giving back to the community. If you have a composition and would like feedback, create a new thread and post it in it and I'm sure someone will comment!


Also how do I listen to other peoples works?

No one has really submitted yet, so there isn't really anything to listen to.


Yes this is true!

...what? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmwZwFbTy5A)

No one has really submitted yet, so there isn't really anything to listen to.

is that same as saying i'm a "no one"? :\

Wow over 1.4k views on this thread already. Good luck everyone :D

is that same as saying i'm a "no one"? :\

Ah. Sorry 'bout that! My quick skim jumped over your entry.

Hey all! Just a reminder, you have 25 days until the end of the submission period. Good luck!

Hey guys ! Just to say I'll be entering the contest . I PMed Porsche about it but Noir7's box is full so yeah that's why I am saying it here.

Good luck to all ! ;)

Apparently this new forum software won't allow me to have an infinite PM box :( Anyway, I have fixed the problem and you can now send me stuff again.

-sigh- I would love to enter this competition...but it's making me extremely nervous. Haha. ^^; I compose on the piano as a hobby...my extent of exposure is videos on Youtube recorded with a very crappy camera placed on the side of the piano...with short and simple songs...
But dang this is drawing me in. =D
I guess I'll work hard at composing something and if it turns out well I'll enter. But good luck to everyone who is entering. :)

Only 16 days and a few hours until the end of submissions!

Good luck!

So I totally forgot about the PMing part of the contest while working on my submission. Can I still be entered since I kinda posted my interest here in the thread way back on the first page?

also, is there some sort of notification system I can use on this new board configuration for new posts to this thread? I don't want to keep forgetting things :\

Yeah! Just submit your entry to this thread and PM your writing prompt to Noir7 and myself. Good luck!

EDIT: As for subscribing to this thread, at the top of this page under thread tools you can click subscribe to this thread and it will send you and e-mail to your registered e-mail address every time there is a new post in this thread.

Eight more days until the end of the competition! Get your entries in ASAP!

Hey! Five (5) more days to enter and only Ander has completed the entire entry process! Wrap your compositions up and start submitting your entry and writing prompt!

I took a couple days off for Christmas, giving me a chance to reset my ears. I'm not sure how far I am in the composition, but I should be done by the last day. Here's hoping the power doesn't go out due to the snow storm!

Warm Memories (http://tindeck.com/listen/vckh)

nothing really changed. I just adjusted some of the volume

Not quite sure if this can be answered but, will the judges be evaluating purely the audio sample submitted or will the intentions outlined in the score be looked at?

I'm asking this because Sibelius3.0 doesn't seem to be responding to those pesky DYNAMIC MARKINGS in playback x_x

It's mostly audio since that's the only required file, but submitting a score could further help in the interpretation.

Here is my submission for the Rime&Reason composition contest.

Below is an MP3 and a PDF of the full score. B) (Just PMing the "brief statement" now!)

That was intense. I can feel an agony created by the strings. Heavy piece there.

Rime and Reason? Tis the Pinetree Season.

13315
13316

:V Did this in one day, and have no experience, so it sounds horrible and rushed. OH WELL

Late edit: You'll realize there's no dynamics or whatever; that was my laziness/rushness too :/

Happy New Year composers!

That being said, we will no longer be accepting submissions for this contest. Good luck to the four entries that have made it! This thread will be closed soon and a new one with the results will be created.

That was intense. I can feel an agony created by the strings. Heavy piece there.
I wouldn't say "heavy" per-say... it's got a weight to it though, and that was intentional. Thanks Nyu, you definitely experienced the emotions I was aiming for with the piece. :)

I'm curious if any of the other 26 people who've downloaded my submission (and presumably the others' submissions) who aren't Porsche or Noir have any comments for us.

I have scores and I'm working on giving comments. There should be a new thread soon where I'll post my results and Noir will post his and we'll see who has the best combined score!