Young Composers' Chorale Challenge

I decided to try and stay "in the idiom" on this one - having not listened to anyone elses. I put more than a few hours of work into it - probably three or four. The last two hours spent just being nit-picky about voiceings and such. And there are still a few that I'm not real happy with. Of course I had to check other's before posting and I have to say that that it sounds like I stole J. Lee's in a few places. Hey, great minds...

Anyways, I have to say that I my faves are Caltech's and C Dunn's.

Caltech's for its ingenuity within the idiom, although both the tenor and the alto rising above the soprano at the end mask the melody. - I had a tough time avoiding this myself because of the range of the tune - I have to admit that originally I actually changed the key to D major just to ease my mind.

..and C Dunn's (edited) for creativity outside the idiom (but within the rules) although it seems that things might be a bit easier when you're allowed to use any harmonic devices and not just seventh chords and certain suspended sequences. And even he admitted that having license to use chromatic lines opens up things quite a bit. But then I haven't tried it myself - and his is definately successful.

I'd vote for yours, J. Lee, but then I'd have to vote for mine too. ;)

leightwing_von_himmel.MID

OK, here's my attempt. Pretty tame harmonically. I would've tried more, but I really struggle with the melody. For one thing, it would help if it were higher. The range became very limiting. Also I don't particularly like the melody. It seems to wander about aimlessly with uninteresting skips. Nonetheless, I restrained myself from altering the tune.

1.MID

1.MUS

cmajor, I chose this tune precisely because it's challenging. You and everyone else have risen to the challenge handily. The variety here is astonishing. Good work, you guys. :D

Well thank you for the compliment.

I would not mind at all doin this exercise again, maybe with a different melody, with the goal of harmonic experimentation.

By the way, it is So hard o not not get carried away with nonharmonic tomes. Whenever I do a chorale setting like this, I always have the tendency to turn all notes into eitghth notes. Also it takes restraint to keep the harmonic rhythm relaxed as opposed to a new chord every beat.

Bump!

I'm surprised that you haven't had any more of these challanges J. Lee! There sure was some great chorale settings here.

I just remembered this today, and had the urge to write one again; it was inspired by the Pastor Ted Haggard. He sure is one hell of a fellow! :P

/Bojan

Vom_Himmel_Hoch.MID