So, I definately have not been on this forum in like 2 years xD.

Anyway, I know I have a thread somewhere amongst these 23 pages of forums, however finding it would be a really big hassle and there is nothing on that thread I particularly care for.

Now to the point. This is a song my choir premiered this year. Gloria Patri is the title, and lyrics follow suit to that. I styled it mostly after the Gloria Patri from Vivaldi's "Lauda Jerusalem." That should explain the minor setting for those of us who know what the texts translates too. Let us remember, that we are judging the composition, not the choir, or the piano playing. Yes I know they are god awful. And disclaimer this is how the chorus is balanced
12 Sopranos
1 Alto
8 Tenors
1 Bass
and those other basses who can only sing one really low note, so i don't really count them. This was just recorded on a mac book, so nothing really special about it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. And yes, I know its risky have the Alto's lower than the tenors in the beginning. I did it purely for the sake of tone and volume.

The choir is very enjoyable and the piece does not lose its interest. I did not get distracted listening to the choir in any moment. Well Done!

Something I would say about the piece is that some parts would benefit of ritardando/holding a bit before going to the other sections, for make it sound smoother. The piano part I think is the only thing that you should re-work, it sounds very poor written. There was something else I was going to say but I found myself incapable to say it in a short coherent way in English, lol... But well, I am not experienced with choirs. So I leave it to the experts here!

Nice work!

You should be careful of your voice leading (for example your parallel fifths at mm5 and parallel octaves at 24). Sometimes it's ok, but in the context of a chorale that is in the Baroque style, definitely be more strict with voice leading. Furthermore, your word emphasis/syllabic emphasis is off in a couple of places, the main one being "Sancto" at measure 13. The first syllable in the word should be emphasized, but by the way your rhythm works and also the shape of the musical line, the second syllable is emphasized way too much.

Deathraider, I was actually really excited to read your comment, because your practically the only choral composer here. xD.
The syllabic emphasis concept you mentioned is very interesting. I didn't even take that into consideration at all, mostly because I didn't know. Thank you for informing me.

and Nyu, I actually really envisioned that piano part on a harp if that makes a difference. But I know arpeggio after arpeggio does tend to get boring.

Thank you both. =]

You're welcome! Sorry it took me so long to notice your thread. BTW, how long have you been involved in choir, and what kinds of stuff have you done? I might like to send you some recordings and have you listen for certain things if you want.

I actually joined choir about a year and a half ago. I was always a band kid, but then I decided to start singing too. And now i'm in two church choirs, 2 community choirs, and school choir. (apparently I can sing...). In these choirs, I mostly do sacred stuff, usually from the baroque period, with an occasional Mozart, or John Rutter, stuck in there. And then everything else is this contemporary pop nonsense. So I haven't really done much with choir. However, its pretty much all I ever listen too. xD
And I would love some recordings.

Ah, OK. Well you should study baroque voice-leading then if you want to continue writing choral music (well, or any kind, really, but especially choral). I'll work on putting together some stuff I'd like you to listen to so you can listen for some important aspects of choral writing/singing.

Since Deathraider already pointed you to what you should work on in terms of classical harmony rules, I'm not going to reiterate that. However, I think there are quite a few things you need to beware about your piano accompaniment:

To put it bluntly, the piano part you have with this piece is boring to play, and even to listen to. The biggest reason for this is because it only serves the function of providing the bass notes and arpeggios. True, some people pull off a choir piece with just bass notes and arpeggios in the piano. However, if you change your perspective about their role, they are also a soloist. They are also competent people to provide foreground elements.

The piano part could also improve rhythmically; all you have is straight arpeggios and block intervals. Give it some more variety. The rhythms got tedious and predictable by the third or fourth bar. Experiment with some interesting rhythms that amplify the choir parts.

As well, another thing I noticed that wasn't quite effective in your piano part was the abrupt ending of the arpeggio sequence. An example would be from bar 10 to bar 11. The piano part just 'stops', it sounds like a choke to the flow of the music. Give it the downbeat. Give it a chord, or even just one note on the first beat of bar 11. It will make your pianist's life so much less awkward.

Asides from those points, as Deathraider mentioned, go through your harmony rules again and learn a bit on how the words fit with the music. If your words are not heard right by the audience, what's the point of having the words in the first place?

I completely agree with all of that.
And notice how after some of the other spots in this song, I did put that down beat in. But that's just me not being consistent.

Thank you so much for not posting another list of 115 things wrong with this piece. xD

(yay double post)

This is another piece I wrote this past May. No actual recording though. =[
I just kinda reviewed this one, and I think the syllabic emphasis is a bit better. The only think that might not be true about that, is that there are a lot of entrances on beat two. Anyway, I'll let you guys decide that.

And before you say it, yes I know, not very interesting accompaniment. xD

Generally a better overall result in my opinion, but we still have some issues. First of all, remember that in Latin, each vowel is separately pronounced. Therefore, the word should be "e-le-i-son" (which should be easily fixed considering how you wrote the melody). Besides that be careful in the organ part because generally if you have faster notes/arpeggios, they are much more muddy on the organ than on the piano. Furthermore, remember that Organs don't have sustain pedals like a piano.

Lastly, you still need to learn better voice leading techniques. :)

Who are your greatest choral influences?

1. For the Eleison issue. I have heard it said, and sung, e-lei-son, and E-le-i-son. So I personally think both are correct. But I made sure that the "lei" was mellismatic just in case I had to change it to a 4 syllable word.

My Greatest Choral influences are probably (in no order):
1. Tallis
2. Byrd
3. Mozart
4. Rutter

Ah, so you probably quite liked that Tallis piece that I sent you. :)

You're right about e-lei-son, although it makes more sense to me to have it e-le-i-son the way you have the melody written since that's more technically correct anyway.

Um pretty much everything by Tallis is amazing.
And "Lord make me to know thy ways" by Byrd is divine. xD

Ok, so I tried my hand at writing a fugue a little while back, and decided I should post it.

Its scored for small concert band, which was probably my 1st mistake by not scoring it for piano. xD
Well, I hope you like it.

But first off, Question:
Most fugues usually begin in the middle treble voice, is this a rule, or just a coincidence? If its a rule, i definately didn't follow it. xD.

No, that is not a rule. However, you didn't even wait for the first iteration of the theme to finish before you brought in all 4 parts. THAT is against the rules; you should always expose most or all of the theme before bringing in another part on the theme. As it is, it felt as if you began smack-dab in the middle of the stretto.

Allow me to attempt to add some activity. xD

So I wrote a piece put Robert Frost's "To Earthward" as the lyrics. Its not really all that fancy. I just want some comments on it.

On the score the lyric is only under 1st Soprano or 2nd soprano, because I'm lazy and haven't typed everything in yet. >_<

And I haven't finished the piano accompaniment yet. So I'm gladly taking suggestions on it.

You can find the poem at http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-earthward-2/

Enjoy

Just realize that when it comes to the poem, Robert Frost's estate will not give you permission to use the poem (ask Eric Whitace :P).

As for the song itself, it has some problems. First of all, the chord progression doesn't make a whole lot of sense and seems kind of random/unfocused, especially at cadences. Second of all, you are accenting unimportant words by putting them on strong beats (such as "as", "and", and "that" on the first page), which feels really sloppy and takes away from the flow of the piece.

Hence why i'm never going to publish this. xD

As for the chord progression I'm gonna have to look at that more then. The only issue with the wording was that in the poem itself, those words all come at the beginning of lines and that's just how the flow turned out.

Important question:
Was my voice leading better?

Mostly, although you have a doubled leading tone in the first chord of measure 8 which was blaring when I listened. It would be better if your chord progression were more driving, though. As to the lines of the poem, maybe you should think of those words as a pickup to the line rather than the actual rhythmic start to the line. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that does make sense. I'll try that.
Thanks!

Cool. Good luck.

ahem.
Sorry i've been gone for...8 months?
I've been busy with college stuff. Ithaca 2014! woo!

anyway...
Here is a simple little flute solo. for my friend Kristina (hence the file name Kristina) I hope you enjoy. Its really simple, and it would take you about 2 minutes to analyze the piece from a music theory standpoint, but i figured why not upload it. =]

Hope you enjoy!

makes me wanna do fist pumps. do we have a smiles of fistpumping? no we don't.. but i found something better. :kfreaked::kfreaked::kfreaked:

and then... :ksleep:

now back to... :kfreaked:

haha. it was fun to listen to. pretty nice job.

ahem.
Sorry i've been gone for...8 months?
I've been busy with college stuff. Ithaca 2014! woo!

anyway...
Here is a simple little flute solo. for my friend Kristina (hence the file name Kristina) I hope you enjoy. Its really simple, and it would take you about 2 minutes to analyze the piece from a music theory standpoint, but i figured why not upload it. =]

Hope you enjoy!

Not bad at all. :) A few suggestions (of opinion):

1) The constant use of triads seems to, at least for me, drain a bit of the momentum that your piece has.
2) I would desire to hear the time signatures to be more obvious - accents, change in rhythm, etc. - there are many ways you could do that.
3) Try to vary the harmony every time similar fragments appear.

Nice job.

Thanks everyone for the criticism!

In any case.

Below is my piece "Paradise Lost" Based on John Milton's Epic of the same name. The first movement is Pandemonium which describes Satan's journey to Paradise which takes place early in the poem. The 2nd movement is the Garden, which the describes the events of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Adam and Eve are represented by the flute and the clarinet duet. The snake like runs in the woodwinds represent Satan as a serpent. This modulations in this piece reflect how Adams and Eve's knowledge changes after they eat the apple. and the 3rd movement is The Gates. The first gate, being the gate to hell, the 2nd being the gate to heaven. The piece ends with Adam and Eve leaving paradise in tears. Which is how the book ends.

In any case, I hope you enjoy! This piece was premiered on Thursday May 13th 2010, by the Waccamaw High School Concert Band, with myself conducting. I apologize for some small errors in the woodwinds, and the percussion parts, or lack there of. And I apologize for the score looking weird in places.

Sorry i had to separate the files too. It wouldn't upload as just one. =[

so pardies lost 1 and paradise lost 2 and 3 are the actual recording?

Yes. Sorry i made a typo! xD

it's actually very nice. and yes... you made a typo.

Thanks!

Double Post

Here is my Piece No Eye Hath Seen, as performed by my school choir. The recorder messed up, and it didn't get the first half of measure 1. =[

anyway, I hope you enjoy!

=]

Not bad! :) You were pretty mean to the sopranos, though. Was this a high school choir?

Also, one tiny nit-picky thing: on page 4 in the bass part, for some reason there is no hyphenation. That's the only thing that I really noticed.

Yes it was a high school choir. And I absolutely love high soprano singing. Well, when its good at least.

And I didn't even notice the hyphen thing. Thats a quick fix though so I'll get right on that.

and thanks. =]

Nice!

My only comment, what deathraider said, is that high C in the soprano part. I'd just drop the C all together and leave it to the Ab.

Well, I would actually say that the High C is OK, but the problem is that there are a LOT of high notes, which A ) is really hard to keep together depending on what types of sopranos you have (and will probably cause them to complain...I know this from experience) and B ) cheapens the effect a little bit. If you save the high note(s) for really climactic moments then it often makes the moment all the more beautiful.

Well I did save the C for the climax. Its just that there are Ab's and G's before hand that are making it an issue right?

Right. The C is nice at the climax, but it's lessened a little bit by the fact that there are so many other high notes throughout the rest of the piece, so it doesn't stand out as much. Anyway, no biggie. I wouldn't change this piece; just keep this in mind next time you write for choir. :)

Thanks! I'm glad you guys liked it!

Ok, well this is just a little piano piece.
Tell me if you like it, There are parts that I think sound kinda like shrek to me, but maybe thats just me. xD

Enjoy!
And if anyone wants/needs PDF/Mp3 let me know

Triple post ( =[ )

Anyway, attached is a piece entitled "O Praise the Mighty Lord" For two sopranos and piano.

Its a very quasi baroque piece. So I hope you enjoy. I personally think this is kinda boring dynamically, but the melismas make up for it I think, you be the judge.

And Yes, I love high notes. =]

I enjoyed it. Only thing is that my mind was wanting to hear a modulation, lol. But I like the song. :)

Well, Everyone else is posting their woodwind quintets, so I thought I'd post mine.

This piece is called The Brookegreen, and is about our towns local Sculpture Garden, Brookgreen Gardens.

Enjoy. =]

cool it sounds quite different from the rest of your compositions. i really like the whole companions of the instruments. i especially like around 2:44. i was slouching but when that part came up, my body kinda erected... lol. the brookegreen.

@Ander- Thanks! 2:44 is my favorite part as well actually. xD

anyway

I had my big composition Recital sunday! Yay! So i'm going to upload some stuff from it.

Now, please note that the performers were all volunteers, and there were not many of them, and we only had about 6 hours total of rehearsal. Balance was also an issue. Especially in the choir (4 sops, 5 altos, 3 basses, and ONE tenor)

But anyway attached below is:

Praise the Lord All You Nations, For SATB Choir, and small wind ensemble. I hope you enjoy!

The intro sounds like could be the opening of an important event. I like the trumpet and the choirs singing with vibrato at 1:40. Deathraider and you are very good writing for Choirs! :)

The intro sounds like could be the opening of an important event. I like the trumpet and the choirs singing with vibrato at 1:40. Deathraider and you are very good writing for Choirs! :)

YES! I'M BEING COMPARED TO DEATHRAIDER.

But seriously, thanks Nyu! =] I'm glad you liked it.

YES! I'M BEING COMPARED TO DEATHRAIDER.

Bahahahaha! That just made my night.

I'd love to see the sheet music so I could understand what's going on a little better. It's kind of hard to hear the choir in this recording, especially where the text is concerned.

You've clearly been listening to John Rutter's Gloria... :P

John Rutter is what I listen to while I'm driving. lol. He's probably my favorite composer ever.

And yeah, balance was a big issues. Especially when we almost had more people on the accompaniment, then in the choir. But all things considered, I thought for the most part, it turned out pretty well.


BTW. We didn't have a tuba. and the oboe part is played by another clarinet.

Here's the score:

John Rutter is what I listen to while I'm driving. lol. He's probably my favorite composer ever.

And yeah, balance was a big issues. Especially when we almost had more people on the accompaniment, then in the choir. But all things considered, I thought for the most part, it turned out pretty well.


Yeah, actually the recording was a lot better than I expected from what you had said. It's just really hard to understand the choir.

In mm. 9, why do you change key signature for only 4 measures? It would probably be less confusing to just write in the accidentals for those 4 measures.

In mm. 13, it suddenly feels like the bottom has just dropped out from under everything which makes it feel like a bunch of the momentum was lost; I would suggest you add a cool tuba counterpoint to keep the momentum going (maybe even in another key so as to make it sound like John Williams! lol).

In that same section, why does Horn 1 end up going back up to the C in mm. 19 and 23? That makes it in parallel octaves with Trumpet 2 and is boring. This piece could also really use some percussion...

The big sections at mm. 37-44 seems a little premature; it feels like you just brought the choir in, and already there's this big instrumental interlude.

Were you the one directing? If so, I would suggest you are a little more aware of your unaccented syllables, such as in "NA-tion"; the second syllable needs to use the unaccented "schwa" vowel (which is REALLY hard to describe without saying it for you...).

In mm. 64, why does every instrument but the flute suddenly drop out? Again, it feels like the engine of the song has suddenly shut off and you're losing all momentum.

The quartal harmony that builds at mm. 97 seems kind of unoriginal because of the way it's used in John Rutter's Gloria, and it seems a little bit out of place in any case.

The plagal ending seems SOOOOO cliche! Maybe find a way to spice it up a little?

All that being said, the piece turned out quite nice, and I'm excited you were able to get it performed! Congrats!

The biggest reason for no percussion was lack of competent percussionists to work with. lol. There are times where I would have loved percussion but alas.

About they horn and trumpet. They are unison there. And The reason why i wanted the bottom to drop out there was to make there impact on beat 3 a bit earlier more "explosive" for lack of a better term. Needless to say, that did not happen as I had intended it. But I see your point.

As for the engine thing, the instrumental interludes were supposed to act as a way to bring everything down in dynamic to the quieter sections. But thinking back, if probably would've been more effective if instead of just doing dotted half notes, I put some rhythm behind it to keep it moving.

oh, and PLAGAL CADENCES FTW! Cliche all the way.

But seriously, yeah, Cliche, but my only answer to that, why fix something that isn't broken? Yeah to make it better, but the ending was just supposed to be quiet and simple. But execution was the biggest issue I think.

But i'm glad you liked it. =]

But seriously, yeah, Cliche, but my only answer to that, why fix something that isn't broken? Yeah to make it better, but the ending was just supposed to be quiet and simple. But execution was the biggest issue I think.


Simple and cliche are not the same thing! :P Anyway, if you want an example of an "amen" that is still simple but also quite original, listen to Javier Busto's Ave Maria.

Well, Everyone else is posting their woodwind quintets, so I thought I'd post mine.

This piece is called The Brookegreen, and is about our towns local Sculpture Garden, Brookgreen Gardens.

Enjoy. =]

Sounds like a pretty neat sort of piece, but the excessive reverb kind of ruined it. Made the ostinato patterns in particular very in-articulate sounding. Though maybe it's an unfair bias due to the production limitations - I just like my chamber pieces very crisp sounding :P.

Yeah, I just use finale, and use the standard reverb. Its not the best thing in the world. xD

But I see what you mean.