Arr. contest 2 - The grand dance! SCORES UP!

[Cobraroll]

Welcome to our second arrangement contest! As you might have guessed, the theme this time is waltz.

Imagine the New Year's Ball at Princess Peach's castle. Game characters from far and near have come to attend, the ballroom is packed with people. Luigi has dug his suit out of the closet. Mario has reluctantly let Bowser have the first dance with Peach. Link is wearing his finest green hat, walking hand in hand with Zelda down the ballroom floor. Captain Falcon and Snake are both eager to ask Samus out. Kirby and Jigglypuff are both oblivious to everything but each other. Nathan Drake and Lara Croft stand in a corner, discussing their latest adventures.

Suddenly, a cough is heard, and a tiny voice calls for attention. The game characters pair up as Toadsworth straightens his glasses and lifts the conductor's baton. Then, he turns towards...
Yes, who exactly? Which piece is played during the grand dance? The Ball programme only says that it's a waltz based on a non-waltz video game piece, but which game, which theme, and which instruments are played, that's up to you. It can be a full-blown Toad orchestra, a Goron steel drum trio, a lone Creeper with a guitar, or anything in between.

Take any song from any video game, excluding pieces that already are waltz-like, and make a waltz out of it. That means, songs like The Song of Storms and The Comet Observatory can not be used. You can use any instruments you may like. In case you are in doubt whether your selected piece is valid, PM MaestroUGC and ask. As a rule of thumb, no songs in 3/4 rhythm are allowed.

Your score will be based on the following criteria:
1) Orchestration: Do the instruments serve the music? A simple copy/paste would result in a low score, while a dynamic orchestration would yield something higher.
2) Preservation: does the arrangement make it clear what the original was while meeting the criteria? If the arrangement only makes a single reference to the original while it does something else entirely, then it'll get a low score.
3) Creativity: does the arrangement go beyond the criteria? If it only does the basic change, low score.
4) Criteria: does the arrangement meet the criteria for the challenge? If no, low score; barely, middle; totally, high.
5) Popular vote: each entry gets a correspoding score from everyone who votes, an average from the votes for the piece out of all the votes.

We're doing blind voting this time. That means that all submissions are to be sent to me. I will not partake in judging, nor will I vote in the poll, or tell the judgrors who made what. Upload the .MUS-file (the only accepted file format, but your version of Finale should not be an issue) to a website and PM me the link, or PM me for a mail address to send it to. If I post it here, spambots would pick it up, so I prefer to have it this way. This also means that the sheet should not contain the arranger's name, but please tell me who you are when you submit. It would also be nice if you gave your sheet a title, to make it easier for us to catalogize (for instance, Waltz of Brinstar). The piece's file name should be the same as its title (WaltzOfBrinstar.mus for instance). Also include a YouTube (or similiar) link to the piece you based your submission on.

Here are some example waltzes for inspiration:
Strauss:
Blue Danube: Video Sheets
Kaiser Waltz: Video Sheets
Voices of Spring: Video Sheets

Chopin:
Grande Valse Brilliante: Video Sheets
Op. 69 No. 1: Video Sheets
Op. 70 No. 1: Video Sheets
(Thanks to MaestroUGC for providing the examples)

The deadline was March 17th. Nothing extraordinary happened.

The winner gets to choose between a copy of Minecraft or a Steam game of the same price (20€, ~27$).

Let the arranging... and discussion... uhh... END/CONTINUE!


The contestants are among these guys:Clanker37
Olimar12345
Brassman388
SlowPokemon
insaneintherain
K-NiGhT
Dahans
MaestroUGC
Bespinben


THE ENTRIES:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61044072/AC2/MUS-files.zip
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61044072/AC2/CurlySwing_MP3.mp3 -- One of the sheets was written in XML, and didn't take the conversion to MUS very well. The arranger asked me to provide the sound file for listening, as it reflects the intention of the arranger better than the MUS does.

These would only be the .MUS files as submitted by the contestants. The judgrors have received all the other files sent in. This is because some entries were created in different programs than Finale, so there would be some formatting differences. The public are asked not to worry about this.

Poll is up. Voting for yourself is wimpy.

[MaestroUGC]

Before you start arranging, make sure you check with me first. Once all the contestants have their pieces approved then the contest will begin. Just PM a YouTube video of the original so I can go over it. If there is an issue, I will tell you. If the piece is good, then I trust you to play fair and wait. Thank you in advance.

[MaestroUGC]

Right now we have two competitors, we can't get this going if people don't sign in.

Players thus far:

Olimar12345
Clanker37

[Olimar12345]

Yay I'm not alone! Good luck to you, Clanker!

[Clanker37]

Good luck to you, Clanker!

I won't need luck! I'll suck anyway!   

[insaneintherain]

Wow. I feel like such a noob here. But I do have lots of experience arranging and composing and stuff like that. Unlike most of you, I use Musescore, the free version of finale. I think that I would have fun with this and would like to give it a go. Despite my newness, am I allowed to participate in this competition? I think it would really help my music skills.

[MaestroUGC]

Hmm, I guess it would be alright. As long as you provide us with a PDF and a midi, or save the file as a .xml, it should be fine. Let's wait to hear the other judgrors' input.

[K-NiGhT]

*agonizing over whether to enter*

[MaestroUGC]

Give it a shot, what have you got to lose?

[insaneintherain]

I can provide a PDF and midi. Xml is preferable though. So do I PM you the song that I think I'll be waltzistrating?

[K-NiGhT]

Um...i'll keep thinking about it. Idk if i'd even have time to arrange a piece before the deadline...school :/

[MaestroUGC]

Yes, just give me a link to YouTube to the piece.

Also, you all are free to change the piece you want to waltz-ify during the contest. Just be sure to let us know what the new piece is.

The contest won't start until we get about...6-8 people, and on top of that you have three weeks to get it done. I expect this to begin by at least next weekend, ending mid-March.

[insaneintherain]

Okay, good. I PMed you a link to a version of it. Already concocting ideas in my head!

[Dudeman]

I use Musescore

Woot! Welcome to the club!

[insaneintherain]

Woot! Welcome to the club!

Yeah! *High fives*

EDIT: Can I be added to the competition list? I would suggest putting the list of people in the first post, to save some searching. Thanks!