The Bells

Hello folks! My first posted piece was heavily criticised and that's exactly what I'm looking for in my second posted piece. In July I have to give it to the Western Australia Youth Chorale, after editing it with an Australian composer, Iain Grandage. But since I have little to no experience in choral writing, perhaps someone here could help me fix it up before it gets anywhere near performance. Part III is unwritten. Also, I'm aware that Rachmaninoff used the same text for a choral symphony so try and ignore that when judging my piece... please.

Regards,
Daniel Wong

This is a very nice piece. I especially like the poem, Poe? The piece is very readable, but I would caution against giving an A to a tenor, depending on the group for whom this was written. One must remember when writing for choirs that they are often very humble and untrained singers. Did you have a specific group in mind for this piece?

Also, I enjoyed your counterpoint quite a bit. I'm looking forward to part three!

Hey, sorry for the slow reply but I'm in thailand right now. yes, edgar Allen poe is the poet; he's great because his songs are so singable. I haven't got the music with me but as far as I can remember the high A's for teh tenors isn't held very long and isn't meant to be loud or beautiful so I think they'll be okay. the choir that will sing it is the Western Australia Youth Chorale. Aged 16 - 25, they are well-trained singers, I presume, since they came 3rd in the Australia-wide choir competition that was quite a big event.
Thanks for your comments. I'll hopefully have part three done shortly when i get back.

In that case, the A's should be fine. The high A was always the bane of my choir tenor days, so I try to avoid it as much as possible when composing; but it should be fine for a choir of higher caliber as this one.