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Very nice and atmospheric!  My only comments are:

• The percussion, particularly near the beginning (around 0:25), seems like it's in a different acoustic space than the other instruments -- much further to the front.  I'm afraid my ears are trained more to orchestration and form and less to effects, so I can't tell for sure, but it sounds like there's much less reverb on the drums than the other instruments.
• The string ostinato is very effective at first (around 0:50), but it gets a bit old after two or three minutes.  Try switching it out in the more climactic parts with French horns, and put the strings on the melody instead.  Or you could leave the strings in but transpose them down an octave for a subtler effect.  I realize that transitions in background music need to be smoother than those in foreground music (like credits), but I think it could still use a bit more variation.
• It seems like the same two four-bar chord progressions are repeated throughout the piece.  You might consider inserting a slightly different section in the middle somewhere, like a bridge, before the main theme comes back again.

It sounds great, and I'd love to hear the final version of the track!

This is a fantastic topic for a contest, but unfortunately I've been quite busy the past couple of weeks, so I haven't had time to write anything.

[Eight]

Sorry for the delay, folks!  It's been a bit crazy here in recent days, and I also decided to spend a bit more time polishing it since the time pressure was off.   Here are the numbers I rolled:

4 1 4 6 10 2 11 4 (Eb C Eb Gb Bb Db B Eb)

I interpreted the B as a Cb most of the time.

Anyway, I used the eight notes above, sometimes backwards, as well as the inversion (Eb Gb Eb C Ab F G Eb), and the backwards inversion.  All primary melodic material was derived from one or more of those four sequences, often transposed into a different key; and almost all secondary melodic material was derived from parts of one of those sequences as well.  Without further ado, here's the piece:

Eight

Long and boring musical commentary below.  Feel free to skip.

Spoiler

The piece is structured in the form of a miniature symphony, with three connected "movements".  The first movement (0:00-1:16) uses the eight notes directly as its main theme.  It's probably the best movement musically: it's orchestrated fairly well (unusual for me ), fairly consistent in style, and has a decent overall arc (although, of course, it's too short).  Of interest may be the "meta" use of the sequence in that the development section starting at 0:48 is in the keys of G, E, G, Bb, D, C, [possibly Eb] successively (the first 6-7 notes of the sequence, transposed up from Eb to G).  [EDIT: Just realized I made a mistake.  The C should be an F, so I'll have to fix the music at some point.]

The slow middle movement (1:20-3:23) uses the sequence backwards for the first time (as the main theme), and also uses the backwards inversion in the middle section.  I am fairly proud of the teeny little bit of the piece from 2:09-2:23: I thought I managed to actually make something pretty out of what are basically random notes.  The violins are playing the backwards inversion, and the oboe is playing first the backwards theme and then the forwards theme as its obbligato.

The last movement (3:42-6:25) is a march.  The main theme uses the sequence in its straightforward form, then the inversion transposed to G, then the normal inversion.  In each case the first note is quickly repeated. (I figured I'd stated the sequence enough times that cheating a little was allowed this time!)  The bit that sounds like one of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance marches in the middle uses all four sequences in succession: first the backwards theme transposed to start at C, then the forwards theme starting at F, then the backwards inversion starting at Ab, then the forwards inversion starting at Ab.  Each of the wind chords from 5:37-5:41 contains all eight of the notes in the sequence; and each of the wind chords from 5:43-5:48 contains all of the notes in the inversion.  Unfortunately, the last movement suffers from schizophrenia: it's nice and tuneful for the most part, then suddenly goes all cutesy at 5:12, then all aggressive and contemporary at 5:25, then back to tuneful at the end.  Oh well.

[close]

EDIT: I would also be remiss if I didn't thank Diamond16 for the wonderful idea for a tune contest!  This forced me to write stuff I normally wouldn't, which is a good thing.   And congrats to Problem for the well-deserved win!

I really like the "city" tune -- it's very effective, and it is busy while still remaining background music (which I really struggle with).  I really don't have anything to add to this!

I'm not quite as convinced by the mountain ascension music.  It's nice music, to be sure, and it sounds somewhat exotic, but I don't particularly get a "mountain climbing" feel to it.  Perhaps it just needs some wind ambience or something.   I don't know exactly what goes on in the cutscene, but one way to make the music subtly suggest mountain climbing is to have the notes rise gradually as it goes on.  If the cutscene involves someone getting closer to some climactic moment (usually in these sorts of situations there's something vitally important at the top of the mountain without which the world will surely end), then the music could reflect that also by becoming louder, and/or more intense, and/or busier as well.

The riot music is pretty good too, although it feels a little funk-ish for a riot.  I would imagine a bit more aggressive music, but it does work, especially with the riot sounds you've put in the background.

Great job overall, thanks for sharing your music with us!

Nice!  I particularly liked the Campfire Tale.  In Ferryman, I liked the music quite a bit, but the recorder was just a touch sharper than the guitar.  I also felt that the recorder could use just a little subtle reverb (I know, this is acoustic music, but still) -- it sounded like it was recorded in a pretty dead room.  Overall, quite nice, thanks for posting this!

Nice!  It definitely feels gritty and futuristic, and I love the Eb chord at around 1:15.  I'm not sure I get a "swamp" vibe from it, but that's tricky.  If this were an orchestral piece, I'd put some low, short clarinet runs in there, and maybe some bassoons or ethnic percussion that sounded kinda swampy. I'm not exactly sure how to do do the same with electronic music, but maybe you could put some short runs from some low electronic instrument in there instead.  Pretty weak, I know.   Hope that helps somewhat!

Wow, nice entries, everyone!  Congratulations, Problem!

I guess I have some more time to work on the piece now.   If this thread is still open when I finish, I'll post what I've got here.  Oh well, I should know by now that it's not exactly realistic to finish a reasonably detailed five-minute orchestral work in two weeks of sporadic evenings!

Hello!  I hate to ask this, but could I have a slight extension, probably a couple of days?  I'm working on something fairly long compared to my normal entries, and I'm about 3/4 done.  Ordinarily I would just not enter if I didn't finish in time, but I think (I hope!) this one will be worth the wait.

You're trying to turn us all into serialists!

Just kidding...this is a really neat idea!  Are we allowed to repeat a note of the sequence?  For example, if we got C D Eb, could we use C D D Eb in the motif?  Or does it have to be exactly eight notes long?

Not sure if I'll have time to actually write something, but I have an idea, rather different from my usual stuff.

[Seven Kinds of Cool:]

Wow, this one was very hard for me to decide!  Here are my comments about each one:

Seven Kinds of Cool:
+ Really nice ambiance
+ Subtle use of time signature, feels pretty natural rather than "odd"
+ Great variation, never gets into a rut or gets too repetitive
- Rather short

Nature Trail:
+ Live instruments, woohoo!
+ Also subtle use of time signature, doesn't feel too "odd"
+ Great driving metal atmosphere
- Agree that the guitar solo is a bit overlong
- The exact same ostinato in the bass throughout the whole song is a bit repetitive; some kind of bridge would flesh this out nicely

La Pholie Dressage:
+ Very unique instrumentation (I love the music box type sounds)
+ Interesting effects
+ Lots of variation in instrumentation
- Seems to just repeat the same melody several times without changing it much (except for instrumentation and background effects)
- Doesn't seem to really "go" anywhere musically (for example, it stays at approximately the same dynamic level, there's no feeling of building up to or coming down from anywhere)

Lonely Prime Number:
+ Lovely atmosphere (indeed feels lonely)
+ Also subtle use of time signature, feels quite natural
+ Nice instrumentation -- the bit where the strings come in is particularly effective, as well as having the piano and guitar playing the same tune in octaves
+ Lots of nice, very natural variation
+ Nice overall musical shape, including a lovely ending
- Some of the harmonies are a bit murky and don't quite resolve satisfactorily, and I'm not sure this is intentional (e.g. overreliance on Am2 to resolve Esus4 chords, which is really the same chord in a different inversion, so it doesn't sound like a real progression)
- Percussion is too timid when it comes in

I had a hard time deciding between Seven Kinds of Cool and Lonely Prime Number -- they're very different but both well done -- but in the end I'm going to have to give it to Lonely Prime Number by Problem!  Take it away, Maestro!

I had a bit of chaos here today, so I will be posting results tomorrow instead.  Sorry for the delay!

I prefer the layout of the second, but the colors and backgrounds of the first (although on the first, I think the middle section should be a little lighter, like the second version, to maximize the contrast).  Also, I know I'm being picky now, but I'm not a big fan of the plain Helvetica font that you're using, although I do like the font you're using for "Piano Stories".  The Helvetica font looks too normal and clean for the grungy background.

Wow, neat entries, everyone, and very different!  Tamatic, I think yours is not really a prime number >= 5 beats per bar -- it's more like 3/4 against 2/4, which is kinda cool -- but I'll allow it anyway since I was probably not terribly clear.

Keep composing, folks, only four days left!

Oops, you're right!  Wikipedia agrees.  I'm not sure why I thought it was James Horner.  Anyway, I've changed it above.  Thanks for pointing that out!

No, we're not writing the tune to a TV show.  Instead, we're going to try stretching those compositional muscles a bit.

For this contest, I'd like you to write some music using an unusual time signature -- one where the numerator is a prime number that is at least 5.  Confused?  Let me explain in a bit more detail.

Most music has a simple time signature, something like 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4.  This means that there are two, three or four quarter notes per bar.  I'd like you to write music with 5, 7, 11, 13, etc. beats per bar, or per phrase.  You may think that this is difficult or impossible, and would sound really weird.  I beg to differ!  Lots of music has been written with time signatures like this, in lots of different styles.  In popular music, there are plenty of examples:

• Pink Floyd's Money is in 7/4;
• Enya's Book of Days keeps changing time signature, using 5/4 most often, but also 4/4, 6/4 and 7/4;
• The Beatles' Here Comes the Sun is mostly in 4/4 but has a repeated bridge section ("Sun, sun, sun, here it comes") that uses 11/8 and 15/8 patterns.  (I know, 15 isn't prime, please don't shoot me.)

In classical music, it's even more common:

• One of the first famous pieces to have an irregular time signature like this is the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, which is in 5/4.
• The recurring main theme of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition alternates between 5/4 and 6/4, creating a regular 11/4 pattern.  It's done so subtly the listener doesn't even notice.
• Stravinsky's Rite of Spring keeps changing time signatures, but near the climax of the piece in the second half, there is a famous 11/4 bar.

It's also fairly common in film music.  Since you're all probably getting bored at this point sitting through interminable links, I'll just give you one example: the Isengard/Orc theme from Howard Shore's score to Lord of the Rings.

How do you write something like that?  Here's a tip: most pieces that are in a time signature like this subdivide it somehow.  For example, in the Tchaikovsky symphony, the 5/4 is really 2/4 + 3/4.  In Pink Floyd's Money, the 7/4 is really 2+2+3/4.  So it can help to think of a regular pattern, say, 3/2 (2+2+2/4), then take out a beat to make it 2+3/4 or add a beat to make it 2+2+3/4.  Another thing to consider is that the regular major and minor western scales repeat every 7 notes, so if you play a scale, you will be naturally forming a repetitive 7-note pattern.

So...with all that being said, here are the rules for this contest:

• You must compose a piece where there is a regularly repeating prime number of beats which is at least 5.  Parts of the piece can use two, three or four beats regularly, but the majority must use a larger prime number of beats.
• The time signature may change constantly or stay the same.
• The music must be at least one minute long.
• You'll need to post your entry by the end of Sunday, January 20, 2013, in whatever your local time zone is.  Yes, that means that you might slip one past me if you post it on the following Monday.
• On January 21, or shortly thereafter, I'll pick a winner.

Have fun!

Woohoo, thanks! Yeah, sorry about the horrible choir. In the full score I've written out the lyrics, but alas, I don't own a choir synth library like EWQLSC yet, so choir aahs is all I can manage. I don't even have separate sounds for men, women, and soloists (the first part of Away in a Manger is supposed to be a solo treble or, if need be, soprano).

I really enjoyed listening to all the entries -- there were some really great ones this time around. I'll post a new contest as soon as I think of something!

Le Woltaire, that is really splendid music!  I particularly liked Marley's Ghost and the Ghost of Christmas Present.  I'd love to hear an orchestrated version of the whole thing.

Well, I know I'm a day late, and I'm not sure if this even quite fits with the theme, but I often compose a Christmas carol medley for friends and family for the Christmas season.  (For some reason, I have a penchant for harmonizing Christmas carols in odd ways.)  Unfortunately, I didn't quite finish this year's composition by Christmas and so I didn't send it off.  But after seeing this contest I thought I'd go ahead and finish it anyway.  I guess my work next year will be rather diminished.

Anyway, this one is definitely "light" classical.  The title was an afterthought, I'm afraid.  I tried combining all the names of the Christmas carols that it used, and came up with God Jingling Away in Silent Joy at First, but somehow that lacked that certain ring to it (and also sounded like God had forgotten where he put his car keys).  So, I tried again and settled on Comfort and Joy.

Here's the composition: Comfort and Joy.  Hope you enjoy it!

Shouldn't it be red?

Cool, congratulations, m0ds -- well deserved!  And thanks for hosting, nihilyst!  I look forward to the next competition.