Hey all!

As I finish up comments, I'll post my results to this thread. I have scores for everybody, but I will hold up on giving out the scores and announcing my winner until I have posted all the comments.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest! It was enjoyable to listen to all your compositions.

EDIT: Final scores have been posted! Check them out! RESULTS POST (http://forums.ichigos.com/showthread.php?17424-quot-Rime-and-Reason-quot-Winter-2010-Composition-Contest-The-Results&p=474658&viewfull=1#post474658)

Ander - Warm Memories

I gave this entry an overall rating of good.

First I'll comment on the sensuousness of the composition.
The composition has very good first listen appeal. I could envision the
scene dipping in from black to a pan down of a forest in the middle of the
night with a lonely man and his horse-drawn cart braving the night's
weather. When the solo violin first appears, I was a little dissapointed by
the composer's orchestration choice. I felt that the accompanyment was too
open-sounding. The choir then came in, and I think I understand what the
composer was trying to do at this point, but the execution was a little
under-par. I think the solo violin needed either the melodic support of the
entire string section or brass section. The choir cuts out and then so
would the brass or strings and only the solo violin would be playing. I
would have also like to have heard a little more tension built in this
section through the use of a stronger cressendo. Then everything up to the
2:00 mark I was satisfied with as a listener. Between 2:00 and 2:30 I was a
little dissatisfied with that section. I feel again, that would have been
an oppertune time to bring the brass in to make some magic happen. I do
however really like from 2:30 to 2:43. It reminded me of a choice Michael
Giacchino would have made. You then go back to reprise your initial melody
but you switched in the string section for the part the choir played the
first time through. You end on a very interesting chord that, I believe, is
not the tonic. I like it.

This composition displays to me a good sound as a composer. I felt that the
form that the composition took and some of your orchestration choices were
nothing too special, but they were not something to be dissapointed in. You
appear to have a great inner ear and as you grow older, your sound will
mature even more.

Next comments relate to the expressiveness of the composition. I thought
your interpretation of the poem was pretty original. I felt that the
composition itself was good in terms of orginality. I felt that this
composition did a good job representing the poem.

My final comments relate to the musicality of the composition. Melodically
I feel you did a good job with your phrases, but they were not as strong as
I could have hoped for. Rhythm wise I feel you did an above average job. I
feel like you didn't make enough use of rhythm to add the right sparkle to
this composition. Harmony wise you did a good job. I could tell you gave
some time in thinking about how the different instruments would interact
with each other. My only complaint is that I feel that your harmonic
phrases could have been brought out better in sections. Tone color wise,
again, I feel you did a good job there. The instruments you chose blended
very well. Finally, form wise you did a very good job. I liked the reprise
of your opening statement and how it was slightly different when you take
the time to listen to it.

Thanks PorscheGTIII for the thorough comment. I feel like I learned so much by reading your comment :heh:. I appreciate your thoughts and will consider them.

BigZenigata - Frost Fantasia

I give this composition an overall rating of very good.

First I'll comment on the sensuousness of the composition. I feel that this composition has excellent first listen appeal. There was one time when I felt awkward when listening to the composition. It happened around 0:13 - 0:29. It just felt strange to me at first, but upon subsequent listens I didn't feel that way again. Your sound as a composer was very good. I enjoyed the orchestration choices you made.

Expressiveness wise you did a very good job representing the poem. You chose to write the composition to reflect the poem not in a way that a film score would have, but in what I would call a more traditional sense. It captures the mood of the poem and is a very good original composition.

Musically, your melody was very good. It felt strangely familiar yet was completely original. That's how you know when you have a great melody. You did a good job with the rhythm, though there may have been a few spots where you could have probably made use of it better. I understand though, that that may be a hard thing to do with the hymnal kind of approach you mentioned you took with deriving your composition. You have very good harmonies. Your made some choices that were refreshing to the ears and yet very logical to the ears. Your tone color was very good. You did a great job a blending the brass in with the string section at the climatic part of your composition. Finally, you did a very good job with your form. I liked how after the climatic part of the composition you transitioned back to your opening phrase; I really liked it!

I have not forgotten about this competition! I'm just slow as hell. Two more comments and the final scores will be administered and the winners will be contacted for their prize information.

I am still giving my 10 dollars to whoever win. That run from my part, if the winner want it, cool, if the winner does not want it, I will donate it to Ichigo's then.

Sorry this has taken WAY longer than it should have. This last semester of undergraduate work has taken more time than I originally thought. I am currently on winter break for the week so my goal is to wrap this competition up by the end of the week!

Yay...!

This thread needs a mega-poke. Like a prod that's been seen only once or twice before on the Internet. A massive "Get on that" that could only be rivaled by Inuyasha fans near rabid ferocity at clinging to the ever crappier series they adore.

Next time, I think we will need a bigger personal for avoid long periods of waiting... :heh:

...who won?

There is still missing Mushyrulez's entry and Pianoplayer's entry.

Mushyrulez - 生蛋 ~ Always Pinetree Season

I give this composition an overall rating of above average.

Sensuousness

I feel that this composition has above average first listen appeal. Everything melodically and harmonically seemed to make sense, but it can across pretty bland to my ears. Your sound as a composer was above average as well. The instruments you choose to use would work well together in a live performance.

Expressiveness

I feel you did an average job representing the poem. I find it hard to understand how the story of Genesis has to do with the Frost's poem, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt in case I was missing something. As for the originality of the composition, I say it is above average. I can blatantly tell you borrowed from hymns such as Hark the Harold Angels Sing, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it also isn't a very original thing to do.

Musically

Your melody was above average. Your melody works, but as I said before it seemed too bland. You could probably have explored other things to spice it up like another scale/mode. You did an above average job with the rhythm, but I feel like you didn't make enough use of syncopation and when you did it felt slightly out of place. You have above average harmonies. I mentioned before that your harmonies were passable, and i think you need to explore chord extensions and other neat harmonial things you can do to spice up your composition. Your tone color was again, above average. There were a few times I felt it hard to hear the instruments blending nicely. Finally, you did a very good job with your form. I felt as if there was no definite climatic part of the composition, but it the composition did fit together nicely which can at times be hard for a composer to achieve.

I feel you have some growing to do as a composer. The talent is most definitely there! Your composition skills will improve as you grow older and you learn new ideas to make use of in your future compositions. Keep at it! I'll be looking forward to hearing more from you!

PianoPlayer - No Name

I give this composition an overall rating of good.

Sensuousness

I feel that this composition has very good first listen appeal. It reminded me of an animation done with watercolors and looks very choppy. It gave me a warm mysterious feeling. Your sound as a composer is very good as well. The overall sound you got from this composition was very nice!

Expressiveness

I feel you did a very good job representing the poem. Like I said I imaged a watercolor animation of a man riding through snow covered wood area on a horse-drawn cart. I could see the relation between the composition and the poem. The originality is very good. I feel like I have heard a similar kind of piano composition like this before, but it was still very refreshing to listen to.

Musically

Your melody was good. I really can't remember a distinctive melody from the composition, but I feel that this composition is more harmonically and rhythmically driven. You did a good job with the rhythm, but I feel like it sounded like constant arpeggios. It would have been neat if you changed up the composition for a few bars and just simplified everything for a little then worked your way back into the more fast-passed stuff you have going on already in the composition. You have good harmonies. I really didn't hear anything out of the ordinary though when it comes to accidentals or different scales/modes. Your tone color was very good. You created a nice effect with the rushing notes as I mentioned earlier. Finally, you did a very good job with your form. I could tell how the composition came back to the beginning and then proceeded to your ending. Everything progressed nicely.

Great job with this one. Performance wise it sounded like you were rushing in places and I wish the recording quality was better, but that doesn't distract the fact that it was a great composition! I hope to hear more from you on the forums!

FINALLY!

Sorry for leaving everyone hanging on this for a few months. This last spring semester has been killing me with my senior design project! Without futher adeu, here are the final scores for the contest out of 10 points...



BigZenigata - 9.03
PianoPlayer - 8.33
Ander - 7.28
MushyRulez - 5.53



Congratulations! I enjoyed listening to everyone's compositions and I can't wait to hear more from everyone as you post your latest creations on the forums! I'll be in touch with the top three about prize information.

Again, sorry this took so long! Next time will be much faster!

Congratulations BigZ! :D Your entry was very well done! If you want my 10 dollars, please send me a PM to make a transfer in Paypal.

Congratulations!

I got third place! Yeah! Congrats to BigZ! You deserve it.

Hey all! Porsche sent me a link to the thread, and I'm flattered :D I'm very happy with the way the piece turned out (though the audio could be better :hey: ), and I think there's only a few small bits I'd add in to finish it off.

I'm very busy right now settling into a new full time job, so I'll send Porsche and Nyu001 PM's in a little while about the prize ;)

Still waiting to hear back from PianoPlayer.

Still no PianoPlayer. We'll wait one more week.

Sorry! the email went to my spam folder!

Cool! Give me a few days while the semester wraps up and I'll finish up getting the prizes to everyone!

Finally got my PayPal account squared away. Waiting for my funds to transfer to the account and to accept the funds from Noir7 and then I'll be able to distribute the prize money!