Requiem - VII. Confutatis Maledictis

This is a repost of the Confutatis movement of a Requiem, I have been working on for quite awhile.  I made some minor changes in the orchestration, mostly in the second half of the piece.

The first half is written as a simple, mournful canon intending to depict those condemned to the "flames of woe" resigned to their fate as their punishment is carried out.  The second half is intended to depict angels descending from heaven, represented by the tremolo strings, to comfort those who have been saved by their contrition.

I'm not normally a canon fan. but this was very well done. Is this a recording or an exported file?? Good quality sound with actual lyrics, thank God. I'm glad it didn't stay on "A" too long, and developed to the subdominant. Some of your parts, especially the strings, might get a little bored sometimes, but I get that sometimes the interest of the piece comes first.

Very good work!

Thanks for listening and commenting Monarcheon.  The strings have some difficult parts in many of the other movements, so I'm sure they won't mind a little break in this one.

I liked this alot!  Although I felt like maybe the main confutatis theme was maybe a bit too triadic like it could have maybe included a few passing tones in between the chord tones.  That didn't detract from its effectiveness however and the harmony was definitely not stale.  I liked when the angels descended from heaven - it's very clear in the music what your intention was - very good use of word painting.  Nice job!  Sounds like it could have been written by Mozart!

How did you get such a good audio quality?

The 1:37-2:20 is really magical, it reminds me a lot of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.

5 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

I liked this alot!  Although I felt like maybe the main confutatis theme was maybe a bit too triadic like it could have maybe included a few passing tones in between the chord tones.  That didn't detract from its effectiveness however and the harmony was definitely not stale.  I liked when the angels descended from heaven - it's very clear in the music what your intention was - very good use of word painting.  Nice job!  Sounds like it could have been written by Mozart!

 

Thank you very much!  I definitely am very much influenced by Mozart's Requiem when I was working on it.  I do think this is one of the better movements in terms of having the music reflect the text.

2 hours ago, Ivan1791 said:

How did you get such a good audio quality?

 

The 1:37-2:20 is really magical, it reminds me a lot of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.

 

Thanks for the kind words!   The vocals are from Symphonic Choirs by East West which has a word builder that allows articulation of words which sounds really great but very tricky to implement properly.  A very kind member here (who unfortunately isn't really active here much any more) who was more experienced with it generously helped me with it for this and the other completed movements. 

5 minutes ago, bkho said:

Thank you very much!  I definitely am very much influenced by Mozart's Requiem when I was working on it.  I do think this is one of the better movements in terms of having the music reflect the text.

Thanks for the kind words!   The vocals are from Symphonic Choirs by East West which has a word builder that allows articulation of words which sounds really great but very tricky to implement properly.  A very kind member here (who unfortunately isn't really active here much any more) who was more experienced with it generously helped me with it for this and the other completed movements. 

 

And can you get it for free or you have to pay to get that quality? 

20 hours ago, Ivan1791 said:

And can you get it for free or you have to pay to get that quality? 

 

Unfortunately, it's not cheap (I think at the time when I bought it was was around $300), though they do have it on sale currently for the holidays at a really nice discount for less than that.

http://www.soundsonline.com/symphonic-choirs

14 hours ago, bkho said:

Unfortunately, it's not cheap (I think at the time when I bought it was was around $300), though they do have it on sale currently for the holidays at a really nice discount for less than that.

http://www.soundsonline.com/symphonic-choirs

 

I don't see the current price. But probably more expensive than what I can get.

Anyways, I guess I will keep using Musescore3 or just have my music inside my mind.

On 12/26/2020 at 2:26 AM, Ivan1791 said:

keep using Musescore3

But Musescore doesn't have the capability to produce the choir singing I guess.

7 hours ago, jianxli said:

But Musescore doesn't have the capability to produce the choir singing I guess.

 

It does, but it doesn't sound too good and there are lots of effects you can't apply.

Hey Bkho!

I liked this piece a lot. Dramatic and pompous, I love this genre and setting and it's really my kind of music.
Something that I heard first time I listened was the bass seemed low, and when I checked I saw that the basses sang the lower D sometimes, the choir register goes from E and upwards, so it's only a few who can sing that low. Other than that I thought it was a really nice piece to listen to. I like the articulation, the staccato notes are interesting, and good instrumentation. The ostinato got stuck in my mind 🙂

1 hour ago, Olov said:

Hey Bkho!

I liked this piece a lot. Dramatic and pompous, I love this genre and setting and it's really my kind of music.
Something that I heard first time I listened was the bass seemed low, and when I checked I saw that the basses sang the lower D sometimes, the choir register goes from E and upwards, so it's only a few who can sing that low. Other than that I thought it was a really nice piece to listen to. I like the articulation, the staccato notes are interesting, and good instrumentation. The ostinato got stuck in my mind 🙂

 

 

 

Thank you very much!  I, unfortunately, being relatively inexperienced composing for voice often push them to the extreme ends of their ranges inadvertently, the downside of composing by computer software.

12 hours ago, bkho said:

Thank you very much!  I, unfortunately, being relatively inexperienced composing for voice often push them to the extreme ends of their ranges inadvertently, the downside of composing by computer software.

 

I kind of wanted to buy the EW choir software because it can emulate really well, vocals are so hard to get and as you say, software can trick you a bit and the diction, phrasing and language are so complex, but looking to the 18th century composers as you do is a good thing because they thought a lot about diction, articulation and lyrics. Sometimes I try to perform some of my own stuff, both to get the most intuitive melodies or lines, but also what is technically possible. Looking forward to hearing more of your vocal stuff, you have a feeling for it.

On 12/24/2020 at 2:33 PM, bkho said:

Symphonic Choirs by East West which has a word builder that allows articulation of words which sounds really great but very tricky to implement properly

Which notation/DAW software did you use for EW Choir? Would you mind to shed some light on which notation/DAW software is easier to work with the EW Choir? Thanks.

Is the EastWest Symphonic Choirs suitable for SATB as well, or are there better alternatives?

16 hours ago, Hymns said:

Which notation/DAW software did you use for EW Choir? Would you mind to shed some light on which notation/DAW software is easier to work with the EW Choir? Thanks.

 

To be honest, though I own symphonic choirs, I never really figured out the word building part but a kind member in this group (who I don't think is active anymore) reached out to me and helped me with it.  You do need a DAW like Kontakt or Cubase (he had used Cubase) to use the Worldbuilder, though you can use the soundfonts within Finale if just using "oohs" (which still sound really good).  Whether there are better options, I can't say.

I had a look at the user manual http://www.soundsonline.com/symphonic-choirs. It requires PLAY 6 installed (WordBuilder runs inside PLAY 6, p30). It will take hours to get familiar with building the words. Not to mention starting using it.

Listening to the samples on their website, I can't hear the lyrics clearly. It is more like mumbling.

A competing product is Requiem Choir from 8Dio, which is $498, and it requires Komtakt 5.8 or later.