Love Came Down at Christmas

Hello all,

Here is my submission for the Christmas music event. It's a simple SATB + Organ carol setting Christina Rossetti's poem 'Love Came Down at Christmas.' Made using the new MuseScore 4 with Muse Sounds choir sounding great! The organ is Jeux 1.4 soundfont. As such, the dynamics are not terrible balanced (I started this on MS3) but hopefully you can see past that for now.

I did end up writing this quite quickly so it's not very polished. In particular, I know the organ interludes need work although I'm quite happy with the chorale itself. I'd be grateful for any thoughts and comments anyway.

This is great. Delicate and beautiful. I like the organ part... This really too me to a christmas mood.

Great sound and 4 part harmony! I can imagine how great the organ and choir will sound if performed in live. I love the mixolydian touch of the opening section! Nice catchy syncopation and melody! The organ interludes are great as well! I love that harmonic change in b.47! The ending sounds gorgeous for me!

The only thing I can think of to polish is that the tempo marking in b.29 is almost out of sight, which is a really minor issue though.

Great job! This definitely gives me the joy of Christmas!

Henry

@Luis Hernández - So happy you enjoyed it, thank for for your comments!

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu - Thanks for your reply! I would of course love a live choir to sing it (I do have some in my area that I could ask very nicely ) but musescore is doing a pretty good job of it these days.

Thanks for catching that tempo marking - I'll pop that bar on a new line.

Another big thanks to you both for the feedback!

The score is quite sloppy in spots, lol. I'm glad you mentioned it. I'm not the best at making scores -so I'll refrain from commenting further on this.

My main critique is that your part writing features a lot of parallel motion -save for the a few measures here and there. While this is fine, it's not very idiomatic of vocal writing. One of the nice things about voice (and strings) is the lushness of parallel motion and taking advantage of the timbres resulting from range manipulation (having the voices sing closer in range and farther in rage). I did like the imitation at measure 39, but I felt an opportunity was missed to bring in a little more complexity to the work. But, that's subjective. 

All in all good work!

@jawoodruff - thanks so much for your feedback! I can agree with you that the score is rough. I did actually change the sizing of everything just before posting so I could get two systems on one page but clearly I should have gone through it again to check formatting!

Regarding the part writing, I did feel there was a lot more counterpoint and 'guideline-following' than in some of my other choral pieces. Little steps in the right direction, I suppose. I hadn't even considered range manipulation in favour of creating a chorale which followed more rules. I think with this piece I really struck a ground somewhere between a simple carol and an exciting choral work ... and managed to create something that isn't really suitable as either.

Thank you for you comments - I think we agree that this piece needs further development.

I like how you followed your own advice that you gave me for my song. I think giving space between the vocal sections and letting the organ have it's solo parts sounded great. Personally, I would have made those sections a bit shorter, but then again, I know next to nothing about the SATB choir styles. 

Even though you say this needs refinement, I think you captured the Christmas spirit very well, and that's the true goal isn't it!

I wish I had more to say, but like I said, I just don't know enough about vocal music. I did enjoy your piece though, and I'm glad I gave this one a few listens. I'll keep an ear out for your future compositions, thanks for sharing!

@Thatguy v2.0 - thank you so much for the comment, glad you enjoyed it!

For some reason I thought I had given a brief comment here, but it seems not. I have not much to say, your character indications for the organ summarize what I think this piece is: 

I would also add "peaceful". Organ pieces, at least the ones I lately listen, give me much peace, and despite this work is different from them it gives me the same feeling.

My only criticism: the organ pales against the absurd strength SATB has in the final sections. It is kinda abrupt, there's too much strength in my opinion, and that destroys the calm, delicate ambient crafted in the rest of the piece. It's probably due to the Muse sounds vs. the soundfont you used though, but still I'm not sure whether the fortissimo was the best choice.

Apart from that, I very much enjoyed your piece!

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.
 

I played this piece during and before my family's and friends Christmas dinner and they loved it!  This was perhaps the favorite of all the Christmas Music Event pieces!  I think it really captures the Christmas spirit the best!  Btw - how's the Muse Sounds church organ?  Did you not like it and so decided to use a different soundfont?  Thanks for sharing!

@Thatguy v2.0 - thank you so much for the comment, glad you enjoyed it!

@Omicronrg9 - thank you for your feedback! I actually kept turning the organ down because I felt it was overpowering. On another listen though, you're right that especially in the finale the chorus becomes to strong. I'll probably just get rid of the last ff and leave the whole of the third verse as forte. (An aside - have you heard this wonderfully beautiful work for organ?   https://youtu.be/84rEAAzU968)

@PeterthePapercomPoser - so pleased you and your guests enjoyed it! Happy to hear it puts you in the Christmas mood! I haven't actually tested the Muse Sounds organ (I'm sure it's fantastic) as I always prefer to use this soundfont as it gives me complete freedom of registration rather than just a full/flute/reed selection. As Omicron said above, it doesn't balance terribly easily with Muse Sounds but that's something that could be ironed out with more mixing.

Thank you all again for the comments!