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Old Apr 6 2008, 4:38 AM
J. Lee Graham J. Lee Graham is offline

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It's late, and I've only had time to listen to the Credo, but I'm very glad I did!

Congratulations on a rather unique setting of the old Gloria warhorse. The MIDI wasn't very kind to you, but following along with the score I could see and hear in my mind how it would sound in actual performance, and I enjoyed what I heard.

I appreciated and was impressed by the fact that you made a good effort to integrate both the Latin text and the English translation into your setting. Kudos that you managed to do it while keeping the piece concise. I was mildly disappointed that you left out sections of the English; in my humble opinion, if you're going to do it, you might as well have gone all the way, but I do understand why you might have felt you had to do so.

There were several things you did that I especially liked: the meditative recitative in the altos richest register at "and on earth peace..."; the random chanting of the building clusters/chords in the women at the "laudamus" is a wonderful idea, punctuated by the men in English; the alternating divisi ostinato on "gloria," first in the tenors then the altos, as a kind of accompaniment to the melody in other parts; the climactic Aflat9 chord at 61 on "have mercy on us" - what a cry that would be! All these among others.

I would have advised a less accomplished composer against the high B-flats in the soprano part, but it's fairly obvious you know how to handle your forces and what kind of ensemble this is meant for. I mention it more for the benefit of others - I would point out that you do take the sopranos quite high, but you don't leave them there long, and the overall tessitura is quite singable.

The few things I didn't agree with are really almost trivial, born mostly of my personal Roman Catholic sensiblities and my traditional bent: I thought perhaps the beginning was a bit introspective considering the text (Glory to God in the highest!), as well as the end (you alone are the most high...in the glory of God the Father). Also, the fragmented English text in the alto at the end at measure 73 I found a little distasteful (where you paraphrase "art most high" as if apropos of nothing, then immediately skip to "in the glory..."). As I say, these are highly subjective, running afoul only of my personal belief and taste.

My sincere compliments on an effective work.
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