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*whispers* Howwwward.... Shhhhore... He merits a place, I think. Also Edward MacDowell.

Sing every line yourself, in your own octave, to be sure it will work. Can you make it to the next rest without needing a breath? (For large choirs, they can stagger breathe, so this doesn't matter, but for chamber groups it's important.) Does the way the stresses of the text line up with the strong beats in the music feel sensible? As for voice crossing, the timbre between the male and female voices is pretty different, so crossing between the alto and tenor lines is common and can be a nice effect. Since the altos will be at the low part of their range, and the tenors will be in the high part of their range when that happens, the audience can usually hear through the timbre difference that you have crossed the parts, and finds it fun. As opposed to crossing an alto and soprano line, or tenor with bass, where there isn't enough timbre difference to hear clearly that one line is diving while another is climbing past it. It sounds more stagnant. The listener is more likely to hear it as two parts just staying consistently in a certain range and not realize the parts have flip-flopped. The sense of motion is gone. Try to move the singers around in their ranges throughout the piece. Singing in the high part of your range for an extended period is straining to the voice, and you will hear the strain. Singing low for an extended period is also straining. As is singing on your "break," the transition between head voice and chest voice. (Regular register vs falsetto if you're talking about men.) But all of these things are perfectly comfortable as long as you are moving around occasionally. You just don't want to ask anyone to stay within the same three note range for a whole piece. And remember that the posted ranges for the different voice parts you see a lot of places are ranges for professional soloists. Not the average choral singer. (Soloists tend to become soloists because they have naturally wide ranges anyway and have done years of training to learn to use their range without damaging their vocal chords.) You can find ranges for choral singers listed on the internets as well if you know to look for them. (:

Preliminary results so far (22 responses total, though not everyone exercised all their 7 votes). 1. Bach (J.S.) 2. Beethoven 3. Mozart 4. Tchaikovsky 5 (tied). Debussy, Mahler, Stravinsky, Wagner 9 (tied). Dvorak, Schubert Other interesting tidbits: People are modest (vast majority consider themselves beginner or intermediate level composers). So far, 52 different composers got at least 1 vote, with 14 write-in's. Howard Shore is the only write in with more than 1 vote. One respondent voted for him/herself all 7 times. Sadly, I cannot count this unless that person is willing to come forward and identify him/herself ;)

Do you have experience in writing for choir? Well, if not, it would be of great help to look for choir compositions throughout history, from Palestrina and Bach to Beethoven and Bruckner. Then, when you get into the modern era, look for Morten Lauridsen, Bartók, Poulenc, Samuel Barber amongst others... You must be conscious about some things, like: - The total extention of each voice, as well as their comfortable register. Do not surpass the limit; try to remain most of the time on the comfortable register; - Each voice section has a characteristic timbre that may be well used. Crossing voices may have its good result, but keep in mind that it's a risky move. - It's very important to try to make the text understandable. Don't go crazy with the voices so that nobody understands the lyrics. - Singers need to breath!!!! This is one of the most important thing to have in mind. Put rests or places where they can breath with not much trouble. That's it. I believe other fellows can give you more advice on this. I hope I helped^^

Done! And it's full of composers not picked from the list! ^^ o/