# TC composition contest, round 4



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Specifications for this round:
Submissions should be a single movement or multiple movements of six minutes or less total duration composed for 3-5 instruments chosen from among:

Piccolo, flute, oboe, English Horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon
Violin, viola, cello, double bass.

More than one of any instrument is okay. You will notice that this allows standard wind trios/quartets/quintets, string trios/quartets/quintets, clarinet quintets and the like, as well as eccentric mixed ensembles like that of Prokofiev’s quintet (ob, cl, vln, vla, cb) and numerous other possibilities.

If your piece has a title, descriptive or generic, it will be posted with the sound file.

Entries are due by Monday, December 17, 2018 — a little extra time to compensate for holiday season distractions. Please send me a link via PM to the audio or the audio and score uploaded to Dropbox, google drive, youtube, soundcloud or any other clickable link to the file(s). I will then post these links into a new thread with a poll and we can begin the voting round. Whoever gets the most votes can decide what the next round will be.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Revision to the specifications ^ ^ ^:

Oops!: I intended but forgot to put French horn on the list of available instruments (otherwise a standard wind quintet would be out).

So:

*Horn can be used too!*


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## Guest (Dec 7, 2018)

I’ll do my best to enter this one! I haven’t really found much time to compose whilst on holiday but I’m liking the options and amount of time we have here....


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## adrien (Sep 12, 2016)

I started writing a piece for this, but it turned into a piece for full orchestra 

maybe I should arrange it for some group of 5 players.


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## adrien (Sep 12, 2016)

ok sorry I shouldn't tease. I decided to not arrange it (after trying - it doesn't work).

So here it is.






Hope you enjoy it. Any criticism welcome


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## Guest (Dec 13, 2018)

Actually I’ve discovered I still have no time to compose a piece. 
When January comes around I’ll definitely participate more!


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

adrien said:


> ok sorry I shouldn't tease. I decided to not arrange it (after trying - it doesn't work).
> 
> So here it is.
> 
> ...


Very nice waltz. I found myself thinking a little more motion or even some countermelody would be nice in the bass line, especially where it is pizzicato? And the return to clarinet in the end is nice, but could the piece use a little more variety in the orchestration? Like some of the string melody and/or countermelody give to woodwinds or horns?

While we are posting things we didn't submit, here are two little pieces, one of which I meant to submit last month for the duo round. Alas, I started the Monday they were due, I think, believing the submission date was a week later.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/my5zp3czk70tnpy/TC Duo.wav?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnc1ei11uerbhoz/TCDDR.wav?dl=0


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## adrien (Sep 12, 2016)

EdwardBast said:


> Very nice waltz. I found myself thinking a little more motion or even some countermelody would be nice in the bass line, especially where it is pizzicato? And the return to clarinet in the end is nice, but could the piece use a little more variety in the orchestration? Like some of the string melody and/or countermelody give to woodwinds or horns?


Thanks! When you mention the pizz bit is that the first intro theme, or the recap of it? Do you mean the bassi pizz or the other strings? Problem with swapping out the bass for some counter melody is you need to retain a strong first beat for everything to hang off, or it can descend into chaos. I could give the pulse to another instrument, or this can be done with a melody rather than bom...bom...bom but I currently lack ideas for it 

There's not much to live for as a bass player in this piece. Or horns. Or upper winds. LOL

I did give the counter melody to the winds/trumpets in the penultimate section.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Come on people! This is the last day to submit entries for round 4 of the composition competition. PM your links to me, EdwardBast, at TC. I will post links to the submissions and a poll for voting tomorrow. The winner will get to set the parameters for the next round.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

adrien said:


> Thanks! When you mention the pizz bit is that the first intro theme, or the recap of it? Do you mean the bassi pizz or the other strings? Problem with swapping out the bass for some counter melody is you need to retain a strong first beat for everything to hang off, or it can descend into chaos. I could give the pulse to another instrument, or this can be done with a melody rather than bom...bom...bom but I currently lack ideas for it
> 
> There's not much to live for as a bass player in this piece. Or horns. Or upper winds. LOL
> 
> I did give the counter melody to the winds/trumpets in the penultimate section.


I just meant the bass pizz in the first statement, although in the recap where it mostly used fifths and roots perhaps a little more variety there wouldn't hurt? But I wasn't suggesting an elaborate countermelody. I still figured it would hit every strong beat with a chord tone, but perhaps walking up from the root to the third or the fifth with the passing tones on third beats? In any case it works well as is.


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## adrien (Sep 12, 2016)

EdwardBast said:


> I just meant the bass pizz in the first statement, although in the recap where it mostly used fifths and roots perhaps a little more variety there wouldn't hurt? But I wasn't suggesting an elaborate countermelody. I still figured it would hit every strong beat with a chord tone, but perhaps walking up from the root to the third or the fifth with the passing tones on third beats? In any case it works well as is.


OK thanks!

Sorry was fully intending to enter a submission, but the thing took on a life of it's own.


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