what's your "style"?
I like choirs. I have sung in choirs my entire life, and the sound of voices together will always make me happier than anything else in the world. As I said I haven't written much to date, but what I have written has been a capella, mostly SATB but a few instances of divisi. I prefer to do 'more with less' as it were, to keep my music accessible to choirs that can't do 13 part chords (although I sing with one of those choirs and must confess that that music is some of my favorite)
I think a small but real part of the reason I prefer a capella is that I have limited keyboard ability and don't feel at all confident in my ability to write a respectable accompaniment. But I also just always prefer choral music a capella in general.
Your favorite choral work you know? (if any)
Contemporary classical, drawing inspiration from the standards, whitacre, lauridsen, clausen, some eclectics like joshua shank, eric william barnum, etc. I'm also a fan or Russian orthodox music, and I have an old unlabeled CD of Russian liturgical chants that I just find to be one of the most beautiful things ever.
I also listen to and study Bach, and recently took a class in Bach style counterpoint (I had a 2-part invention I just LOVED that I wrote for this class, but lost it in a harddrive crash) ((incidently, I also lost my wonderful tonal 12-tone minuet and trio from theory class with a tone row that modulated from C to F# with tritone substitution, my teacher found it snarky))
My single favorite piece is harder to nail down, as it generally changes every month. Right now I'm particularly fond of Josh Shank's Color Madrigals, Gretchaninov's Otche Nash, and Part's Bogoroditse Devo.
What would you like to FOCUS on?
I'm really very open. As I've said, I have an extensive theory knowledge, I can read the old clefs, I know my key signatures and can sight-sign confidently, I can voice and resolve french italian german and neapolitan sixths and use a 12-tone matrix to construct a tonal piece. What I lack is practical writing experience. I want to write, and I want to see what I'm capable of, and have someone look at what I've written and offer advice on what to do next. I sort of feel that my brain has left the rest of my body behind, as I know so much but can't do a lot with it. I suppose I'm open to learning whatever you think you can teach me!
Anything else I should know?
I'm starting school on Tuesday, so I will be busy, but I have scheduled time to compose every day. I sing in half a dozen choirs, and conduct two small unauditioned choirs. I have about half a dozen private voice students. I have Finale 2008 and Sibelius 4 and am far more comfortable using the latter. I am happy to answer questions. I am smart and take criticism well and a very hard worker, but my teachers will tell you I have little patience for 'busy work' as I have so many responsibilities and demands on my time that I want to make everything I do worthwhile.
The big thing I want to let you know is that I'm excited to work with you!
My Work
I've attached PDFs of an arrangement of the spiritual deep river that I wrote for one of the choirs I conduct and they will premiere it this semester, it was the first piece I ever really wrote. I also attached several pieces from a collection I'm working on based on short poems of Anthony Silvestri. There are 10 so far but I don't much like the last 2 so I'll upload the others. Would MIDIs be helpful?
PS you'll notice that deep river lists the composer as Stephen Erik Horec, this is an anagram for Christopher Keene and I'm using it to get the opinions of the choir without the bias of them knowing it's my arrangement. I assure you it is my own :)
Deep River.pdf
Aug9th-Cicadas.pdf