Fingers McGillicuddy

As someone mentioned earlier, you'll have to be very specific in your score whether you want divisi or double stops. Some of your indicated notes will be impossible as double (or triple, or quadruple) stops. I'm thinking in particular about the 6th movement where at one point you have the cellos sounding all of their open strings at once. This will have to be divisi because a cellist, and any string player really, can't bow all four strings simultaneously. Good luck with your performance! FMcG

I like it! Did you mean to have the electric guitar sound in your MIDI, though? :D FMcG

Agreed. This is a very pleasant piece. I kept expecting the harmony to go somewhere other than I and IV, but the simplicity goes well with the peaceful mood that you're trying to convey. Your singers did a very nice job as well. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, FMcG

Ahh, everybody wins! This piece is very representative of me (at least right now) in that it's a mix of traditional stuff and a few moments of wackiness. The ending just happens to be not very traditional. Also, in comparison to some of the modern church music that I've sung, this is very tame. Have a good one, guys! FMcG

Totally. Sometimes you just have to follow your gut and do what interests you. I'm a firm believer in keeping a balance between composing for yourself and for your intended audience. Thanks as well for your comments on my piece. I look forward to hearing more of your stuff.

Hmm....I think it just seemed a little plain to me. You had that D maj7 with split thirds thing going on a couple bars before, followed by a wacky quartal chord. The plain D minor seemed like a step backwards, but maybe that's what you wanted. Don't worry though, it's just like the ending chord in my piece that you looked at. Totally a personal judgement call. Sure. If that's the case, I would again double that note, this time by adding another stem. Otherwise, you can just have them rest for two beats and have them come in on the lower E. You're going to have a good choir for this so I'm sure they're capable of a descending minor 7th! I sure hope you can have this performed. I would love to hear a recording some day. FMcG

I like this a lot. I think your setting of the text is very appropriate and it seems pretty cohesive. Cheers: - Good mixture of close and open voicings - Sense of movement. It always seems like choral pieces that make use of extended harmony can be interminably slow. Your piece flows very well and never seems stagnant. - The Fb major 7 chord in measure 21. Magnifico! - Nice use of space. Jeers (if any): - I didn't care for the resolution to D minor in measure 45. Just my opinion, though. - A couple of divisi issues: Measures 35 - 38 could be tightened up a bit. It looks to me that you're having the 1st and 2nd sopranos share the E on "woe" in 36, except the 2nds are holding that note from the previous measure, according to the text. Just to be really specific, I would put another goose egg next to the one in 36 and tie it to the original 2nd soprano note in 35. Also, you might want to insert a quarter rest for the second sopranos in 38 since their D doesn't carry across. I'm assuming you want all parts back together on beat 2, "cold." One other minor thing: I would personally italicize "solo or small group of sopranos" since it's right next to the actual text in the same font. Or use an asterisk. That's awfully nitpicky of me, but your score looks very good overall. I think this piece deserves to be performed. You'd need a good choir, but it's totally do-able. Do you have a performance scheduled for it? Again, great job on this piece. Cheers, FMcG

Thanks for the comments, deathraider. I think I will move that ending piano chord back a couple beats when I do some revisions. I guess it's just a personal preference. The whole piece is very tonal so I don't think it's too out of place. Plus, it's meant to be performed at a church and it's almost always a good idea to end on a major chord in that case. :) Thanks again for the input! Cheers, FMcG

As the others have mentioned, this is a pleasant sounding piece. I don't think anyone can knock you on that. I agree with the comment about the basses singing that high E: just give that to the tenors as a divisi note. Of course, a good bass would know to sing that falsetto, given the context of the song, but you'll save yourself some headaches by just making it simpler and putting the note in a more range appropriate voice. Also, I would personally use a different tempo adjective in the beginning since legato is not exactly indicitave of tempo. Largo, or even an English word/phrase would be appropriate. Then, put in sempre legato to show that the whole piece should be played as such. One other thing, and this is totally a personal preference. I think some of the oboe rhythms are kind of boring. Particularly around 10 - 11. Straight eighths just seem a bit stagnant there. I would suggest adding a little syncopation or an imitation of a previous melody. Good luck and thanks for sharing. FMcG

Thanks, Hornet! In addition to studying trumpet and playing bass in the pop music world, I've been singing hymns my whole life, and more recently, singing in a choir. I think by now, knowing which syllables to emphasize is second nature. I'm glad you caught that. Yes, I tried to make the harmonic content of this piece intriguing but also comprehendable enough for our (mostly amateur) choir to learn in four rehearsals. The main reason for keeping the Gloria Patri sections identical is just historical precedent. All of the Mag and Nuncs that I've ever seen or sung have identical endings, although I like your idea of altering the accompaniment. That might be worth looking into if I do a revision or a different setting of the same text some day. Thanks again for your comments and I'll be sure to post my setting of that Whitman poem in the next week. Looking forward to hearing more of your work as well. Cheers! FMcG

Well done! I wish I had more time to go through these (perhaps soon), but I really enjoyed both. Silence and whirling winds was well set. I'm glad you came back with the initial A section of the ascending and descending sextuplets. Pleasing melodic figures and I enjoyed the imitation as well. I'm very partial to the Whitman setting and I will definitely have to listen to it some more. I actually did a setting of the same poem for an a capella choir. I will post it soon and I'm pretty sure another member did the same one as well not too long ago (Morivou, perhaps?). That's interesting that we all picked the same one. Anyway, I think the octatonic leanings are very appropriate for this poem since it's very ethereal. It's a good balance of some very unsettling and at the same time, ear-catching harmonies. I will go back and analyze it some more later. Are you studying or teaching composition? It's obvious that you know what you're doing. If you have a moment, please take a look/listen to my latest work also in this forum. It's a setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. I could always use some more feedback. Cheers! FMcG

It's interesting. It has almost a pop song feel to it, albeit a pop song featuring a huge choir and interesting chord progressions. I suppose that could be because of all the block chords, too. Something about the G chord with suspensions in measure 37 reminds me of a song I've heard before. Constructive criticism: Nothing huge. I'd say if you were going for a more traditional choral piece, you'd need some voice leading work. But, I don't think you were going for that sort of style here so the block chords work. I'm not too keen on the tempo change (quarter = 300) bits, either. For one, I don't think you'd ever see that fast of a tempo marking in all of western music (anyone?). Second, that would be impossible to do during a read through. I suggest making it easier for the would-be performers: keep the tempo the same, diminish the note values, and change the meter if you need to. Again, you have some interesting sounds. Keep it up. Cheers, FMcG

Pianoman, Thanks for the feedback. It is much appreciated. I had previously thought about some of what you said concerning the duration of those alto notes. I think I was ambivelent so I just went with the quarter note since it's a slow enough tempo. We'll see how it goes - rehearsal begins tomorrow, so we'll see if I feel like making any adjustments after hearing it for real. Forefathers plural is correct. I had to doublecheck just now though - I was freaking out for a second! The text is: "...as He promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed forever." It's a misleading comma, I guess. Good eye, though! I chose to end that last chord with the sopranos on the third because I like the leap of a 6th from their previous note, plus it fits the upward movement from the last two Amens. Starting on the 5th, then to 6, 7, 9, and finally resting on the third. Personal preference, I suppose. Good call on the ending. I'm still kind of wondering about that. The only reason why I'm keeping it like that for now is that up until that measure, both Gloria Patri sections are essentially identical, but those last piano notes are from the opening section. Hopefully someone in the audience will remember that part and go, "Oh yeah, that bit." We'll see. Again, I might change my mind after we start rehearsing. Thanks again for your comments! Cheers.

Hey all, I joined this site a while back but I've yet to post anything until now. So, for your consideration is a setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis that I finished recently for the choir that I sing in. About the piece: In writing this, I tried to find a balance between sections that are harmonically interesting (to me, at least) and material that is fairly straight forward. It will be performed early next month so the choir doesn't have a whole lot of time to work on it. I'm not much of a contrapuntalist, so I tried to vary the texture by having some unison parts and soli sections by the different voices. Any and all feedback is welcome. Cheers! FMcG mp3 can be found on my myspace page - bottom of the list Justin Mann on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads Mag and Nunc 09.pdf