Choral Competition

It's at least the second competition Marius wins, right? Congrats!

Wow, thank you!!

Congratulations to all other contestants too - this was a close one - good work!

By special request, I have been asked to post up a link to the Mp3 of the piece, so here it is, for all to listen to!

Mp3 Here

I'm sure we could host the file here for you if you wanted to save bandwidth, Marius. Or are you not bothered?

Anyway, congratulations on winning! It was a good piece - one that has wormed its way into my permanent internal "earworm" jukebox, in fact. Also well done to the other two contestants.

Thanks Mike! I don't mind it on my site's space - it's got plenty of room for now, but you guys can host it on YC as well if you like.

I'm very happy to hear that you enjoyed it

It's only fair that I post these. I've taken out the actual scores for the privacy of the applicants.

Lover and his Lass - Addresses the overall flavor of the text, but in the end, is too versical and repetitious to accurately portray the mood at all points. The vocal lines are well conceived and smooth. This would be easy to sing. The score is marked "Tenor" though this could easily be sung by a high baritone. The verses themselves are quite repetitious, especially in the orchestral lines. I don't understand the final closing - why repeat that so much? It seems unnecessary, unless you're working in a theatrical vein and are going to have, like, salsa dancers going at it during that last section - and even if you do, the sudden drop in texture of the closing phrases quickly loses interest.

Think Not of It - Right off the bat - the score is improperly formatted. Well done with the structure - it matches the text nicely. Text painting suffers due to the restrictively stylistic setting. Harmonies are static in many places and give no sense of motion. Why the triplets at the end? I'm unsure as to what sort of style you're working in here. You could definitely exercise the voice's range more. It looks like you're working with a mezzo voice in mind, which gives you an extra fourth at least to work with in the upper range. Your key changes are smooth.

Tristis Est Anima Mea - wonderful use of dissonance to set text. Nicely updated period style. Text accents are out of place for Latin. When working in the style of Renaissance church music, one does not need to reflect accurate METER, but the accent must be correct (see "et ego vaDAM" versus "et ego VAdam.") Divisi seems to fulfill a text-painting purpose, but lacks any use in ease of singing - bass divisi missing at the low E's on the last page - not all basses can sing that low. Also remember - an 8-voice fortissimo is softer than a 4-voice fortissimo. Watch out for multiple parallel octaves and fifths, because they give a sense of stasis (See mm. 12 - 14 for example).