DeLesslin

Solid writing, but I have the same concern as royreintjes- the two movements feel unbalanced. When I hear the word prelude I automatically think that it is building to present something bigger. The length makes the koral feel like an anticlimactic postlude. However, I'm a big fan of boroque music and I liked the piece(s).

Thanks! @Christopher- Ye, I agree with you on adding more textural contrast. Usually, I do have sections with different combinations of voices, but in this piece, I wanted an almost static/immutable feeling, and I wanted to see if I could achieve it with a big block of voices. @jcramer- I'm glad you like it. Nice catch on tollis- I was probably in singing mode when I typed it in, and was thinking about the 'L' comming on the beginning of the second syllable. I'll correct it ASAP.

Score? It's really hard to give critiques from a midi realization. Cheers

Excellent! You took something that I'm not too fond of (really sharp dissonances) and convinced me of them in this piece- good job! I agree with woodruff- it reminded me of Part (my all-time favorite living composer) almost immediately, but you definitely don't sound like a photocopy of him. Keep up the great work!

My short setting of the Agnus Dei that was performed about 2 months ago by the York County Choral Society. The whole piece revolves around the idea in the first measure (all the voices moving out with an inner pedal). It is essentially comprised of 3 phrases and a (sort of) coda. Most of the melodic action in the first phrase happens in the bass while the soprano steadily moves towards a high G. The final cadence is coloured with a Bb.The second phrase begins the same way as the first one, but with a little modification. The altos and tenors hold two pedal points a M2 away from each other. The sopranos take a more interesting/melodic turn, and the basses descend much more swiftly. The basses then branch in two, quickly followed by altos, tenors and sopranos- who now reach a high Ab. The ascent to this climax was too slow and static to be the final one, so after a brief two measure repose the basses and tenors re-enter in a mutated form of the original motive, quickly followed, two beats later, by altos and sopranos who once again reach the Ab but in a fraction of the time. The rest of the phrase is occupied by a movement back toward that original Cadd4 harmony found at the beginning.The coda was essentially an elongation and fugal treatment of that first idea, finally ending on that middle C that the whole piece started with.Live Recording:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QX_dcxHgWo Agnus Dei (SSAATTBB- Live Recording)

First off: I really like it, as a whole. It has really nice moments that choirs will eat up. However,you lost me during the middle section (shift to F#)- it seemed to loose some of the cohesiveness through here. Notation issues- As a singer/chorister here are the things that would confuse me if I was trying to read this score: -Leaving out chunks of staves is really more trouble than it's worth- choir singers like to know where they are in relation to other parts, even when they are resting. -I know lots of composers have done it in vocal scores in the past, but slur markings really do confuse choirs when they sing, since we are accustomed to them indicating melismatic syllables. What exactly are you trying to achieve with the slurs? I really like how you put the time signature above the staves, but you might want to consider removing the bottom part and just indicating how many quarter notes are in each bar. Gorecki did it in his Totus Tuus, and it's really easy to read. I really like the piece, and I would love to hear it by a live choir where they can really shape the phrases. Thanks!

Great topic! Two resources I really like are Latin Vulgate and Thesaurus Precum Latinum (a more specifically catholic and liturgical resource) -DeLesslin

Latin texts come from three places as far as I know: Vulgate Bible Latin Liturgy poems and other texts (sorry, no link) that were written in latin or translated into latin. Hope this helps -DeLesslin

I really enjoyed it alot. Very nice harmonies and good melodies/themes. Nice. -D

I liked it. Obviously very minimalist, Glass-ish, right? I like the themes, but I think it would have worked out better if you had developed them a little more (like you did at the very beginning of the piece). Also I don't know that an exact repetition (starting at mm. 80) is the most effective procedure. The ending isn't very satisfying, but maybe you could try using the sonority from mm. 26 as a segue into an end? However, I do like the piece and think it is a great start, keep it up. -D

Hmm, really? Well, I will try to upload another version onto here when I get back into town. Thanks for attempting, though ;-)

Happy T-Day! Just wanted to show y'all this piece I finished recently. Constructive feedback (especially for the violin part) would be wonderful The piano part is very repetitive throughout the vast majority of the piece, but takes on a huge significance in the C section. Most of the modulations are achieved by melodic instead of harmonic means. I would probably describe it as Romantic in character. Youtube video -DeLesslin P.S. The piano part is played by a harp in the video because I didn't like the sound of the Garritan pianos for this piece (but I do think that an actual human would sound great on the piano part).

I wrote this for a friend of mine. She said "romance, like a princess would have", which I wasn't quite clear on what that meant so i just went for a nice sounding piece. :) The form is basically ABA-C-ABA, but the C section is a minuet so the form is actually like ABA-CCDCDC-ABA. It took me a couple of days of intensive work to write it, but I still see some places where I would like to change it. Helpful comments appreciated. P.S. I just realized that I can't upload the mp3, so hopefully a midi will suffice. Kathleen's Song.pdf kathleens_song.MID

A score would help alot, but it sounds good. :thumbsup: It sounds like the bass has alot of repeated notes, which reminds of some of Yann Tiersen's stuff specifically "Comptine d'une autre ete" (forgive my probably incorrect french spelling. It also reminds of Michael Nyman's "The heart asks the pleasure first". Keep it up and please upload a score if you can.

Wow... I really love this piece. I think the melody is great, and I think you have a great talent at setting words. The piano part isn't very complex, but I think that adds to the character of the piece. Beautiful job. I like the harmonies. At times they are jarring, but in a good way. With a good baritone, I am sure the live recording will be wonderful.