Imagine a “baking show” but instead of baking it’s composing.
Like you enter and then the host is like “for your ‘confection’ you will choose one of these pieces from famous baroque composers and arrange your own version of it; you’ll have 4 hours to do so and you must complete at least two-sheet music’s worth!”
So you do that, and there’s guest judges of like… famous classical musicians and stuff. And they judge your piece based on things like how natural the bowing is, if it’s accurate to the time period, the tone, etc.
Then you move on in the competition and they’re like “today you will be arranging another piece, except this time you will make it a concerto centered around an instrument of your choosing!”
And then a curtain opens and there’s a few different instruments to choose from, old and modern.
“It’s very interesting to me that Berry there chose a harpsichord whilst Alyaa is going with the electric guitar; I’m intrigued to see what they’re cooking up; a classic that already has hundreds of concertos, or something new which doesn’t.”
They all get their own recording booths to work on stuff too, and the host can visit them to ask what their vision is.
Also there’s professional musicians there to play the music for them. They take like an hour or so to learn the music and then perform it in front of the judges. The judges all have their own copies of the sheet music to follow along too if they want.
The musicians can mess up a bit too without it effecting the results of the score the piece gets - they only had like an hour to learn it. they’re just there to give a piece of the vision to the judges.
You move up again and then the host is like, “Finally it’s time. Today you will be composing your own piece for the judges!”
*gasps*
*shocked*
*excitement*
*wooooow*
So you go and do that and then you come back like five hours later like, “Today I have for you a quartet in E-flat Major; it’s supposed to give you the feelings of great sadness and anxiety.”
“Oh a sad song in a major key? I’m interested to hear that.”
“Yes.”
“And do you have another title for this piece yet?”
“Yes, it’s Souls of War.”
“Ohh interesting!”
“Yes - it’s supposed to be- very sad.”
And then the quartet plays for the judges and they judge you and all.
And the prize for all of this is getting to have all the songs you composed in the competition - as well as another song you’d been given proper time to compose on your own - performed by [famous musician(s)] at [famous theater], and like… 5k or something idk.
