JUST FOR FUN Composition Contest –Variation(s) on an original Russian folk theme

[georgey]

Hello PianoStreet members!

Having come “full circle” on my thoughts, I am pleased to announce the following contest open to all Pianostreet members.  Beginner to world class musicians/composers are ALL eligible and encouraged to participate.   My promise – this thread will not be edited with m1469 style “.”.    Let’s work to keep PianoStreet forum alive and well!

Submit your variation or set of variations or improvisation for solo piano on the original Russian folk theme used by Ronde in his audition room thread entitled “Tetris Fantasy (Vid)” and kindly provided below by Ronde.  Attached here is the original theme also provided by Ronde.  Measures 9 through 16 may be used or disregarded at your discretion. Your variations may include an introduction, coda, etc.  A single variation is also acceptable.

Submissions for this contest will be closed on 12/31/2019, 11:59 Eastern Standard Time.  Voting by PianoStreet members will begin on 1/1/2020 and will close on end of day 1/31/2020, 11:59 PM EST.  I will tabulate the results and announce the top 3 winners on 2/1/2020. 

Submission rules:
Submit an audio file (e.g. MP3) or video of a performance of your work here along with a copy of the music.  The performance must be on solo keyboard, but does not have to be performed by a real person.  However, the work must be playable by a real person.  Submissions can be edited up to the submission deadline of 12/31/2019, 11:59 Eastern Standard Time.  All styles of composition are welcome.

Improvisation: There is an exemption to the copy of music requirement. If the contestant wishes to improvise on the original Russian folk theme, please announce that you are improvising and you will not be required to submit the music of your performance.

Voting rules:
In order to keep the quality of votes high, the voting will NOT be anonymous.  During the voting period, the voter will post the name of the member he or she feels has the best composition.  [EDIT: OPTIONAL is to vote for a 2nd and 3rd place position.  When you vote for first place, you are giving that person 1 point. 2nd place is worth 0.5 points and 3rd place is worth 0.25 points.] Your vote may be edited up to the voting deadline of 12/31/2019, 11:59 PM EST. A contestant of the contest may vote, including a vote for themselves.  Votes can ONLY be made for members that submit their composition to this thread. 

I ask that the voter consider placing high significance on the use of the original Russian folk theme, as modified*.  For example, someone could have a great composition, but use of the theme is only of minor importance. Think of a cooking contest that is to feature mushrooms as the star ingredient.  The cook makes GREAT beef stew with a couple mushrooms tossed in and looses the contest.  This is the only direction I will give to the voter.

* - In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint or any combination of these. Each variation is different, but can still be traced back to the original theme in some way. 

Voting tabulation:
On 1/1/2020, I will announce that the voting period begins and give the list of eligible participants to vote for and give instruction on how to vote 1st place and optional 2nd and 3rd place. In the case there are no submissions, I will announce that there are no winners on 1/1/2020.  Otherwise, I will announce the winner on 2/1/2020.  If there is only 1 submission (for example) and there are no votes, I would suggest the submission vote for himself, otherwise there will be no winner.  EDIT: Say 5 people participate and there are 8 voters. Considering that a 1st place vote is worth 1 point, 2nd place vote is worth 0.5 points and 3rd place vote is worth 0.25 points, I will add up all the points for each contestant and announce the first, 2nd and 3rd place winners without revealing point totals.  In order to be a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place winner, you must receive a total point score greater than 0.

Posts in this thread will be of 3 types:
1) Submission posts (with or without comments) – but only up to submission deadline
2) Voting posts (with or without comments) – but only during the voting period.
3) Comments

Comments on the rules of this contest:  Please post here if you have any concerns.  I may modify the rules to address the concern, but no later than 7/15/2019.  Rules become final on that date.

Good luck to all that decide to participate.  Thank you to all that participate and/or vote.

[georgey]

My main hope with this contest is to possibly encourage members to give a try in composition, including beginners and wannabe composers like myself.  Variation is the perfect form for beginners to try their hand at composition.  I know we have fine improvisers and composers that might want to give this a shot also. I hope they do!  Finally, I’m hoping Ronde will participate, maybe with some new variations added!  He will surely have my vote!   

Theme and variations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variation_(music)

[ronde_des_sylphes]

This is the theme, as used in the audition room post referred to in the first post of this thread (https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=65759.msg693556#msg693556), reduced to its simplest form and without lh accompaniment, etc.

Obviously there is no reason why people should keep it in B min, and I imagine they should feel free to mutate it in other ways

[georgey]

This is the theme, as used in the audition room post referred to in the first post of this thread (https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=65759.msg693556#msg693556), reduced to its simplest form and without lh accompaniment, etc.

Obviously there is no reason why people should keep it in B min, and I imagine they should feel free to mutate it in other ways

Thank you Ronde!!  Your work will hopefully inspire MANY to give this JUST FOR FUN contest a shot. You are not a contestant at this point since you have not declared yourself as a contestant.   

I edited my instruction in this thread to reference the PDF that you provided of the theme and I attached your PDF.  I instruct the contestant to use measures 9+ or to ignore these measures at their discretion.
 

[georgey]

Hello prospective participants and/or voters. Just want to give a little background of myself and a quick progress report.

About 37 years ago, I got a music degree in classical guitar, then decided to go into math instead.  I’m retired now.  My last music composition was about 37 years ago.  My composing was done in the following:  My 3 music theory courses – writing in the style of composers that we studied:  Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Hindemith for example.  I also wrote a few fugues, etc in my one counterpoint writing class.  That’s it except I also wrote about 15 pieces for solo guitar just for fun.

I’m writing a 3 voice fugue on the Russian folk theme in the key of a minor. So far I have the exposition done and the first episode that modulates from a minor to b minor (about 60 seconds of music).  Seems to be going okay, but it won’t be anything great.  I plan on putting this aside for a few weeks.  I may take a short-cut approach and repeat what I have starting in b minor, then repeat again in c# minor before ending in c# minor.  Kind of like one of the endlessly rising canons in Bach’s musical offering, except this is not a canon.  This will be my worst case scenario fallback if I’m unable to do better.  I plan to post it regardless of how bad it is.

Will be doing this in Sebelius Ultimate software to create PDF of music and MP3 recording.  So far I installed the software, clicked on the music template for piano score (had to scroll WAY DOWN – it’s the last one) and saw a bunch of menu items that I think I can figure out.  I also noticed it has a quick start guide and there are a lot of videos on you tube.  I don’t think I will run into any problems here.  I don't play Piano, so this is the only way I can get MP3.  Some that play piano may submit handwritten music - this is great!

This will probably be my last update about myself here until I post the work or say that I was not able to complete this.  Regardless of anything I do with my try – THE COMPETITION IS ON!  I look forward to seeing your work!!  Please feel free to post here with any thoughts or progress reports! 

Thanks again to Ronde for providing great inspiration for the project and thanks to all that participate and/or vote!

[j_tour]

Pretty good!

Yeah, I'm just going off the pdf attached by Ronde, but I still have more than half a year to work on this!

I'm thinking a basic statement of the theme, a simple variation using an accompaniment at twice the harmonic rhythm ETA(think Beethoven's Op. 26, or his variations on Mozart's "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen," or elsewhere), a polyphonic interlude (likely not a strict fugue, ETAbut at least using [I hope] many of the tools of part-writing), followed by a Wayne Shorter/Joe Henderson-style reharmonization of the melody, followed by one chorus at most of improvisation.

It's a good time-schedule for terminal procrastinators.

I'm looking forward to doing my own entry as well as seeing what some of the real composers here come up with.

Might be the most fun I've had outside a bedroom all year!

Awesome idea.

And, yes, out of common courtesy I will probably typeset the music in MuseScore or Finale.  No promises, though — I love my pencils and staff paper too much.  Certainly I'll do a recording:   even if I can't figure out a tripod setup for tablet/phone, at least you all can have some mediocre sound quality from my home studio, since I don't want to do direct-->tape/SSD audio only.

EETA after seeing georgey's reply, I got to thinking, yes, after a chorus of just inside improvisation including all elements of the piano, I just tag out, ending with a reminiscence of the melody (which, if my "solo" is any good, shouldn't be lost too much), and, yeah, just add some little tag ending.  And that would be that.  That will be a nice, compact exercise for me in toto, and it will be fun to write it all out.

[georgey]

I'm thinking a basic statement of the theme, a simple variation using an accompaniment at twice the harmonic rhythm ETA(think Beethoven's Op. 26, or his variations on Mozart's "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen," or elsewhere), a polyphonic interlude (likely not a strict fugue, ETAbut at least using [I hope] many of the tools of part-writing), followed by a Wayne Shorter/Joe Henderson-style reharmonization of the melody, followed by one chorus at most of improvisation.

Now there's a plan.  Fantastic!!

[georgey]

Deadline for submissions is 11/15/2019 - less than 5 months from now.  Let me know if anyone needs more time.  Thanks.

[j_tour]

Deadline for submissions is 11/15/2019 - less than 5 months from now.  Let me know if anyone needs more time.  Thanks.

Oh, come on, man.  I think everybody needs/wants more time.

Didn't Mahler like die from this kind of pressure?

No, it's cool:  I'm just complaining about deadlines like usual.

Should still be until the end of the year, though

 

[georgey]

Oh, come on, man.  I think everybody needs/wants more time.

Didn't Mahler like die from this kind of pressure?

No, it's cool:  I'm just complaining about deadlines like usual.

Should still be until the end of the year, though

 

I understand your point.  I can change submission deadline to 12/31/19 if no one objects.  Voting will be first month in January.   I'll make and announce the date change in a couple days.  On 7/15/2019 - all rules will be final. 

[georgey]

Rule change:

In order to give everyone a little more time, I changed the submission deadline from 11/15/2019 to 12/31/2019.  Voting will take place January, 2020. 

Thanks!

[georgey]

Oh, come on, man.  I think everybody needs/wants more time.

Didn't Mahler like die from this kind of pressure?

I know Mahler took a copy of the Charles Ives Symphony #3 with him when he left for Europe for his 1910-1911 tour (if memory is right).  He may have died from the pressure.  Too bad for Ives because his whole career could have been launched by Mahler, who liked the work.  It is a gem!!

I know what you mean by more time.  I forced myself to write the first episode of the fugue in 1 sitting, and I am not happy with it.  Thanks for the suggestion for a little more time.