# Composition contest: Rules and info



## DaDirkNL (Aug 26, 2013)

This thread is merely to make everything clear to participants and listeners.

*Ground rules*
-Scores are NOT required
-Some sort of contemporary style is recommended. 
-Instrumentation will be done as follows:
+- 10 instruments of one type(wind, brass, percussion, string, fretted string, etc.) will be put in a list. Every participant will pick a number of instruments to compose their music for.
-Form is up to the participant
-Duration will differ every round
-Participants have ONE MONTH to post their entries. The month starts the day AFTER the poll for instrumentation closes.
-The audio file the participant uploads should preferably be mp3, wav, etc. So that means it has to be accessible to everyone judging
-Judging will be done by polls. I will create the polls the day after the deadline.

This should cover most of the questions asked. Should anyone have questions, wich I bet they will, post them on this thread.


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## Freischutz (Mar 6, 2014)

Could you define the boundaries of contemporary style?


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## DaDirkNL (Aug 26, 2013)

Freischutz said:


> Could you define the boundaries of contemporary style?


By 'Some sort of contemporary style is required' I mean that you can of course compose a piece in the classical style, but that won't get you anywhere. A composition contest is there to get people out of their comfort zones. I can't give you the boundaries of contemporary style, but when your entry gets the critique: It's too classical, then that means that for the next round you should adjust your style and try to find your own unique voice. I know that doesn't answer your question, but the answer is: it depends on a lot of things like atonality, techniques like 12 tone system, rythmic feeling.


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## Freischutz (Mar 6, 2014)

DaDirkNL said:


> By 'Some sort of contemporary style is required' I mean that you can of course compose a piece in the classical style, but that won't get you anywhere. A composition contest is there to get people out of their comfort zones. I can't give you the boundaries of contemporary style, but when your entry gets the critique: It's too classical, then that means that for the next round you should adjust your style and try to find your own unique voice. I know that doesn't answer your question, but the answer is: it depends on a lot of things like atonality, techniques like 12 tone system, rythmic feeling.


OK. I suppose that these are going to be subject to a community vote, so does that mean that this subjective rule will be exercised by the community, giving us the opportunity to defend the 'contemporary' qualities of a piece if other people call it pastiche?


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## Freischutz (Mar 6, 2014)

P.S. Atonality and 12-tone systems are _old news_ now so it's not quite "contemporary" to draw a line around. Maybe what you're really getting at is that people aren't allowed to compose something in common practice style? That's a little different, but I don't think that an entry piece is going to be in any way innovative _solely_ because it uses a compositional technique that has been around since Schoenberg.

In any case, I'm not looking to nit-pick or be pedantic. I just want to find out whether these things are guidelines or rules for disqualification.


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## DaDirkNL (Aug 26, 2013)

Freischutz said:


> OK. I suppose that these are going to be subject to a community vote, so does that mean that this subjective rule will be exercised by the community, giving us the opportunity to defend the 'contemporary' qualities of a piece if other people call it pastiche?


By all means, yes. If you are 100 percent sure that the piece is in your opinion contemporary, then of you course you can defend that opinion. It won't change the outcome of the voting though.


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## DaDirkNL (Aug 26, 2013)

Freischutz said:


> P.S. Atonality and 12-tone systems are _old news_ now so it's not quite "contemporary" to draw a line around. Maybe what you're really getting at is that people aren't allowed to compose something in common practice style? That's a little different, but I don't think that an entry piece is going to be in any way innovative _solely_ because it uses a compositional technique that has been around since Schoenberg.
> 
> In any case, I'm not looking to nit-pick or be pedantic. I just want to find out whether these things are guidelines or rules for disqualification.


To be short: No, it won't cause disqualification.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

DaDirkNL said:


> By all means, yes. If you are 100 percent sure that the piece is in your opinion contemporary, then of you course you can defend that opinion. It won't change the outcome of the voting though.


I think the majority of members here can distinguish a clever yet highly derivative pastiche from a fresher take on even something similar, and 'we' are going to have to trust a great deal to the average TC members who on a whole have, conservative or modern tastes apart, a fair amount of musical savvy and common sense.

A sophomoric 'defense' that your piece is contemporary because it was composed this year I would assume is not going to fly if the piece is basically pastiche or wholesale model writing in an antique style. Anyway, I cannot imagine a legitimate construct where one member running the competition thread either vets and accepts or rejects submitted compositions, so the ultimate acceptance or rejection will be up to the voters.


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## Matsps (Jan 13, 2014)

Composing in a contemporary style is not pushing someone out of their comfort zone if they already compose in that style...


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

I still don't quite understand what you guys really mean by a "contemporary style". Much of the more recent classical music has been atonal in my experience, but obviously that's not a requirement to be "contemporary style." I just want to understand the style before I begin my composition.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Freischutz said:


> Could you define the boundaries of contemporary style?


This is rather like the fact there is no simple concrete definition of "what makes it classical." The best answer to which came from a colleague, who said, after you listen to lots of it, meaning really a lot, and over much time (again, a lot of time over a long period of years) then you will know instantly, for example, why John Adams is classical and a film score of John Williams or a piece by Lodovico Einuadi are not 

It runs quite the same re: "contemporary classical."

LOL, in a word, then, the answer to that one is, "_NO."_


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

musicrom said:


> I still don't quite understand what you guys really mean by a "contemporary style". Much of the more recent classical music has been atonal in my experience, but obviously that's not a requirement to be "contemporary style." I just want to understand the style before I begin my composition.


You have my permission to not only write any way you like, but I would also urge you to earnestly compose what and as you can -- the only way to go, to my way of thinking.

One look at the Mozart-like 'classical style' piece, or the "Am I like Beethoven," piece in the Today's Composers thread will make it clear enough what (though skills are therein demonstrated) is not contemporary style, regardless if it was written yesterday 

Look to, in that thread of the piano pieces from the first competition, and then listen to the various entries -- there you will find quite a variety, all pretty much one sort of contemporary or another.

Best regards.

ADD P.s. "You can only start _[or proceed] _from where you are."


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