Vocal composition help

Hi! First of all this is my first post on this forum so sorry if i'm do something i'm not supposed to!

I need to compose a vocal piece by setting words, which have been given to me, to music. (I should explain that this is for my A level comoposition set by the OCR exam board (this is in England btw))

I want to write it in quite a modern style based mainly upon the style of Eric Whitacre, but I have also been listening to works by Morten Lauridsen and Frank Ticheli.

The problem is that i don't really know if there are kind of standards to their type of music which i can imitate as i need to write in a specific kind of style. I have just bought some music by some of those composers mentioned above, and it seems quite hard to make much sense of whats going on.

So i suppose i'm asking if there is anyone here who can give me some advice on how to compose in that kind of style or if that's just not gonna work has anyone got any ideas of any other styles that i could write in?

Thanks very much for any help, sorry that was quite long winded and if you need any more information just ask!

For Eric Whitacre its all about beatiful flowing lines wih incredibly planned voiceings and stacked 2nds. 4ths, and 7ths.

Thats the basics

Hey, thanks for the reply, i had noticed that this seemed to be one of the features of his work its just that sometimes he seems to use 2nds, 4ths, 7ths and many other things all at the same time! In cases like that can it really be analysed as a specific chord or is just a random note cluster?

eric whitacre, for me is hard to analyze compared to Lauridsen. Whitacre just writes out of his heart, then adds ideas and the frame work- so in scores like Water Night, almost every note is a half note and is very thick. Some of his works are just straight major and simple minor chords, no dissonance at all- This Marriage. When I look in depth on whitacre's works I just think what he wanted to say about the text- I too find it hard to see if he uses and real techniques or styles.

i will agree with that. Thats why people love his music, becuase its just from the heart. But he has a "style" you can hear it and see it.

Whitacre's work is always very structured within a given pitch collection (see "Leonardo Dreams" for example). Morten Lauridsen works in traditional tonality, expanding his harmonies to include chords of ninths and more.

Hey, thanks for all your answers!