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Ryan Leach October 2023 Composing Competition

Gedren said:
Yay, @Ferenc Bátri did it again!! :D Congratulations!!!
And congratulations to @Andres Sarmiento also on getting to the finals!



Congratulation to @JeffHijlkema, @Germain B and @Jonas Hallstrom on Honorable Mention, yay!

Did I miss someone among finalists or honorable mention here? Please correct me!
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Congrats everyone, seems like a lot of entries in this thread did really well.

@Gedren I got an hon. mention but I use a slightly different name on this forum, so no worries!
 
Gedren said:
@Thomas A Booker, oh yes! Yay, congratulations!=)

Here is the link for the finals livestream next Wednesday at 12pm EST.
Join to support @Ferenc Bátri and @Andres Sarmiento and enjoy the finalists' music!

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Thank you so much @Gedren !! Being a finalist is a huge thing considering the high quality of the entries for this particular competition, so let's hope for the best, and congratulations to everyone really : )
 
Congratulations to both! These two were among the tracks that sounded more professional. I had written about each of the entries shown here, but I lost the file. I think it can be retrieved, though. Others that sounded really professional were the ones that received honorable mentions, if I remember well. So, I more or less know how to improve next time. I do think that my entry for this one was better than the ones for the previous one.
 
PedroPH said:
Congratulations to both! These two were among the tracks that sounded more professional. I had written about each of the entries shown here, but I lost the file. I think it can be retrieved, though. Others that sounded really professional were the ones that received honorable mentions, if I remember well. So, I more or less know how to improve next time. I do think that my entry for this one was better than the ones for the previous one.
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Thank you so much, Pedro :)
 
Okay, wanted to compete in this one badly, too many current projects, started, couldn't finish, HATE to not finish something I started, obsessed about it to the point madness ;) and now here it is. I feel better. Much cheaper that visiting the therapist. :2thumbs:

Good luck to the finalists -- going to go listen to everyones submissions now!

 
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AbbeyRoad said:
Okay, wanted to compete in this one badly, too many current projects, started, couldn't finish, HATE to not finish something I started, obsessed about it to the point madness ;) and now here it is. I feel better. Much cheaper that visiting the therapist. :2thumbs:

Good luck to the finalists -- going to go listen to everyones submissions now!

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I like this one! Very well done. Makes me feel 'allegro'. What/where is the violin from? Curious. Nice work on the clarinet(s) also.
 
AbbeyRoad said:
Okay, wanted to compete in this one badly, too many current projects, started, couldn't finish, HATE to not finish something I started, obsessed about it to the point madness ;) and now here it is. I feel better. Much cheaper that visiting the therapist. :2thumbs:

Good luck to the finalists -- going to go listen to everyones submissions now!

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Sounds amazing. Would have definitely made it to the final round I guess :)

Also congrats and good luck to all finalists 🥳
 
Harry Koopman said:
I like this one! Very well done. Makes me feel 'allegro'. What/where is the violin from? Curious. Nice work on the clarinet(s) also.
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Thanks Harry, very kind. The Solo violin is from Spitfire Solo Strings. I also used Abbey Road 2 as well as Abby road 1. In all honesty, the group Kolsimcha did an amazing album/recording with the LSO at Abbey Rd Studio 1, and I wanted to 'borrow' (rip-off) that sound. So the Abbey Road library worked well for that. I have developed a new love for the Klezmer genre I suppose! Really fun stuff -- at least as performed by Kolsimcha -- quite amazing really!

I also enjoyed listening to your submission as well. You really wove together quite a tapestry of sound/emotion with that one! cheers!
 
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FabIV said:
Sounds amazing. Would have definitely made it to the final round I guess :)

Also congrats and good luck to all finalists 🥳
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Hi Fab -- Thanks for listening. Thats kind of you to say. Yours was a great submission as well, I really enjoyed listening. Particularly around :38 after the ostinato where the chords build and the horns enter. Nice progression, nice path from Em down to C#m. Cheers!
 
AbbeyRoad said:
Thanks Harry, very kind. The Solo violin is from Spitfire Solo Strings. I also used Abbey Road 2 as well as Abby road 1. In all honesty, the group Kolsimcha did an amazing album/recording with the LSO at Abbey Rd Studio 1, and I wanted to 'borrow' (rip-off) that sound. So the Abbey Road library worked well for that. I have developed a new love for the Klezmer genre I suppose! Really fun stuff -- at least as performed by Kolsimcha -- quite amazing really!

I also enjoyed listening to your submission as well. You really wove together quite a tapestry of sound/emotion with that one! cheers!
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Thanks for your kind words about my Uncle Bean submission.
I recommend everyone to take a look/listen at

Kolsimcha - Contemporary Klezmer

Official Website of Kolsimcha
www.kolsimcha.net www.kolsimcha.net
as AbbeyRoad suggested Kolsimcha as an excellent group of musicians, with a genre (Klezmer) most of us are not familiar with. On their website is a video of a recording session in studio Abbey Road One. It is very inspiring.
You 'ripped-off' that sound very well. Two questions: the clarinet, is it the one from BBCSO? And I believe that Spitfire allowed us here to use pitch-bend, and I hear you use that very much, bending, and in this style you cannot do without. Vibrato also, you cannot do without.
But, a minor point of Spitfire libraries is that they often shut off the pitch-bend option, with the argument that 'using pitch-bend can be bad for the sound quality'. It is the argument though that is bad here: leave it to us to decide what is bad or not.
What makes me even more 'allegro' is that the solo violin is from SSS (Spitfire Solo Strings). I own it but never explored its possibilities. Now I know that squeezing out the real thing is possible with that violin.
I am a frequent user of AbbeyRoad One too. In the meantime I own also the selections/add-ons. Just for fun: below a soundcloud link to a piece I made with AbbeyRoad One only, without the selections, so the original AbbeyRoad One. I made it a year ago, since then I made some progression in mastering and finetuning, but it still holds:
 
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Contratulations on 2nd place, @Ferenc Bátri! I really believed you would win this one! It's insane how high the skill level is for these competitions, one after the other just sounded like a finalist...

Could you (or someone else) perhaps clarify if that style of music writing you did on your submission has a particular name? Personally, I often tend to go the "AABA" way, with a specific melody being used all the way through - but the way your track is made sound so sophisticated and pleasant, very dynamic and evolving - but without a very clear melodic theme. Would love to be able to write like that, but have trouble understanding the "structure" of it...

Hope you will be making another breakdown video! :)
 
Kenneth Malm said:
Contratulations on 2nd place, @Ferenc Bátri! I really believed you would win this one! It's insane how high the skill level is for these competitions, one after the other just sounded like a finalist...

Could you (or someone else) perhaps clarify if that style of music writing you did on your submission has a particular name? Personally, I often tend to go the "AABA" way, with a specific melody being used all the way through - but the way your track is made sound so sophisticated and pleasant, very dynamic and evolving - but without a very clear melodic theme. Would love to be able to write like that, but have trouble understanding the "structure" of it...

Hope you will be making another breakdown video! :)
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Thank you so much, Kenneth :) Honestly, I'm surprised and after the feedback, I didn't really expect any placement. I often get criticism because of the missing clear top melody line, all the time :D I can agree with that, there are many great creative and more melodic entries in the range. Whatever, I always learn some little things...
Ok, I will create a breakdown video, soon :)
 
Ferenc Bátri said:
Thank you so much, Kenneth :) Honestly, I'm surprised and after the feedback, I didn't really expect any placement. I often get criticism because of the missing clear top melody line, all the time :D I can agree with that, there are many great creative and more melodic entries in the range. Whatever, I always learn some little things...
Ok, I will create a breakdown video, soon :)
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The YT posting here sounds way better than the reproduction in the livestream today, although I agree with the comment that the overall mix is a little on the dark side (of the moon maybe :), my humble thought is that a tiny little pull on the low side and a tiny push on the high side, that the overall sound benefits from that.

The beginning has a reminiscence of Ravel's Lever du Jour from Daphnis et Chloé, might very well be that that music was somewhere in your thoughts too. I do not quite agree with the comments of missing a theme; there is thematic material in your piece only not on the foreground but more subtle hidden in the overall instrumentation. And that asks for a repeated listening to recognize, it is not wham bam sing the theme along with me... reminds me a bit of Debussy's orchestral music. Short thematic material, or better said, short motives, it can very well be, also depends on the purpose of the music. There is no right or wrong in this.
 
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