The language is truly magical since it allows us to communicate abstract, intangible things that are fundamental to the human experience in life, for example, emotions. What I find even more wonderful is that each language has its own set of unique words that are very difficult to translate. That's why I really enjoy searching for and discovering words from different languages. There's one in particular that I love. That word comes from Portuguese: "Saudade". Although it's a very difficult word to translate, I will try.

''Saudade'' represents a profound longing or nostalgia for someone or something absent, combining feelings of love, yearning, and melancholy.

The challenge

In this challenge, you will create a score in Flat that embodies the term ''Saudade''.

Instructions

  • The composition must be an original song created specifically for this challenge in Flat.
  • Collaborations are allowed this time (3 composers max.).
  • The song must be 1-3 minutes long. We know this is a very limited time but we're getting so many submissions lately, we want to make sure we can carefully review each of them❣️
  • You can only submit one score.
  • External audio sources can be used (doing so won't influence the results).
  • Deadline: January 31st. No late submissions.
  • Remember we can not consider private scores.

Scoring system

✅ Accuracy (30)

How accurately the song represents the term ''saudade''.

✅ Engagement (30)

How well your song captures the listener's attention for its entire duration.

✅ Transitions (30)

How smooth and well-designed the song's transitions are (e.g. modulations).

✅ Founder Enjoyment (10)

How much the founders of Tutteo, the company behind Flat, like your piece.

If you win more than once during the period of the yearly subscription you won, the prize will be applied as follows:

  • You can give away the yearly subscription to a person who does not have a premium subscription yet of your choice.
  • If you decide to keep the prize for yourself, we will add one extra month to the annual subscription you already won, and the second place will be awarded the annual subscription prize.

Bonus points

  • Subscribe to our YouTube channel (2 points).
  • Make a Bossa Nova piece (10 points).

🥇 The score with the most points wins!

We'll announce the winner on February 13th.

Prize

🏆 One-year Premium subscription.

Additional incentives

  • Promotion in our blog and social media.
  • Special badge for a year showing you as the winner of this month's challenge!

Submissions

Please send your submission 👉🏽 here.

Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered.

⚠ Private scores cannot be reviewed! Please make your score public before submitting it.

After submitting, we will manually add your score to the Challenge tab on the Flat Community Page. This isn't an automatic process, so you'll need to have a bit of patience.

We can't wait to hear what you come up with!