This challenge is now closed. Huge thanks to everyone who participated. It’s been such a fun one and we were blown away by the number, variety and quality of the entries!
We will be announcing the winner (and runner ups) on the 1st of May podcast. In the meantime, you can listen to the entries on the Composing Challenge page and if anyone would like to share their submissions, pitches, approaches to the challenge, feel free to do so here in this thread.
Wow, some of them I envy so much 
Good work, lads. Tough job, TCHC team.
While/Wilst doing my conjuring to make an entry to this I was driven to many experiences:
The Deadline; I knew about the entry weeks ahead of time but didn’t settle down to generate tones until 48 hours before. Grasp the muse immediately.
Threshold of “My Music” experience: The genesis of my idea came from my first sample, a odern] can tab plucked into a Kurzweil K250 circa 1983. Surely re-creating this 45 years later would be a snap. Right?
[I’m shocked to see Christian with an actual ring pull tab, discontinued for decades. The scar on my foot twinges every time I see one of those bastards]
Do the job, not 50%, not 300%: My sketches used too large a surface. The specs said “15 seconds” somewhere. My sketches were 120-300 seconds. The producer, Outre-Moi, kept tapping his fingers impatiently. RTFM.
0:00 GMT came and went. Salute to the entrants. Happy to be challenged.
I have just listened to all of these and what a fab array of inventiveness they provide! I particularly liked the “chap-hop” vocal version, and the ones that used a mash-up of CH’s various pod-cast utterances - wish I had thought of that myself… Good luck all. 
Thanks for this opportunity, TCHC! These kinds of challenges truly validate my imposter syndrome when it flares up. I had a wonderful time writing my piece and the pitch as well! Listening to the submissions via the link above, there were innumerable quality tracks. Can’t wait to see which one resonated with y’all the most!
Thank you, TCHC, for putting all the submissions together in one place. It’s fascinating to hear everyone’s ideas, to spot patterns that entrants gravitated towards, and to take inspiration from the breadth of approaches. And a bit of a rush from hearing my entry pop up in the playlist in such good company.
I’ve been hoping others might post their pitch, since that was the part of the process I was least clear about; never having seen an audio branding pitch document, I was at a bit of a loss what to write. So in the spirit of prompting a discussion, here’s what I submitted:
“The Fellowship of the Ringpull” podcast audio branding pitch - March/April 2025
Ed Harper - ~email address~
Download link (Dropbox) - ~download link~
Brand keywords
- Shared wisdom
- Open
- Honest
- Informal
- Supportive
- Welcoming
- Good-humoured
- Unpolished
- Irreverent
“Join the Fellowship”
An old-fashioned theme tune, intended to evoke an early/mid twentieth-century music/variety hall light comic song.
This is a style which, like the podcast (as evidenced by its name), doesn’t take itself too seriously, is cheerful and upbeat.
Although it’s part of the heritage of popular music this form isn’t tied too closely to modern styles, so should hopefully have a broad appeal and some longevity.Lyrics:
If you feel like you are losing your grip
and might suffer a trip
or abandon ship
open a can of whatever you sip
and join the FellowshipMeeting the commission
Music in this style is easily extended into beds and compressed into bumpers and sting.
The mnemonic would be the last few moments of the song - the euphonium/tuba tag and the “chorus of ringpulls”Bonus material
Lyrics for a second verse to the song, more focused on the content of the podcast:
So to share some muscial craftsmanship
Discuss showmanship
Or a professional tip
and perhaps the occasional Freudian slip
Come join the fellowshipBecause of all the “-ip” rhymes, I can swap lines/terms in and out if you’d prefer some of these in the main verse.
Instruments used
Pianobook (DecentSampler):
- Dusty Flugelhorn (Chris Cook)
- 1956 Tenor Horn (Arseniy Kunin)
- Rainbow Drums (Andrew Scott Foust)
- Red Tape Z2 (Kyle Reddies)
- Steinway Grand (Jon Meyer)
Live/field recordings:
- vocals
- banjo
- can sounds
- crow call
“The Fellowship of the Ring Pull” - description
- Weekly livestreamed podcast hosted by Christian Henson, lasting ~90 minutes, on the Crow Hill Company’s main Youtube Channel (also streamed in parallel on Instagram), from the Crow Hill Company’s base in Edinburgh
- Primarily covers matters of interest to composers, musicians, and fans of music technology, especially those working on music for media
- Topics can be wider, especially where a current news story has impact on the media industry
- Somewhere between a podcast and a radio phone-in, with real-time interaction with members of the audience via an open-invitation video call
- Participants can share stories, ask for and give advice on technical or career issues - this typically makes up 50-75% of the run time
Was this overdoing it? Under-doing it?
Here’s a SoundCloud copy of my entry:
