The (finished) first movement of my requiem

I finished this today and am thus moving on to the next; any and all comments are appreciated.

1. Techniques used

- I tried to keep to a somewhat classical style in my composing and usually would use the vocal part to create the accompaniment.

2. How long it took to compose the piece

- This particular piece probably took around 6-7 days to finish but could be a different number.

3. Structure of your piece

- I tried to make the piece somewhat secular in that it is a religious; I used the standard Catholic Requiem libretto for this which is:

Requiem aeternam, Grant them eternal

dona eis Domine; rest, Lord.

et lux perpetua And also grant them

dona eis, Domine. eternal light.

Te decet hymnus Deus, A hymn in your honor, God.

ad te omnis caro veniet unto you shall all man come.

4. Obstacles when composing

- Harmony, not being my strongest of points, was rather difficult in that I several times came upon a point in which I struggled to correct it but was often due to trivialities.

5. Summary of overall piece

- I am rather proud of this piece as it has probably been my best as of yet.

Requiem_1_.MUS

Any chance of a sib or mid? :)

Here's the actual full MIDI (thanks to Marius).

Requiem_Mass.MID

You're welcome ;) Very nice piece you've got here Austin, I love it so far. Keep this up for the rest of the movements and you'll have yourself a very impressive work! :wacko:

I just hope I can continue my "success".

This is very good music. Not a bad section in it! Your best work yet: congratulations on a job very well done.

Cool piece. Very nice harmonies on a very large scale, which (while I've never tried it) definately poses a firm challenge.

I'm not necessarily a religious kind of guy, but this was a very strong piece, harmonically and structurally. I thought your harmonies were great, in fact, although not terribly prominent melodies grew out of them. Melodies, however, don't seem to be a really big thing in religious music. Furthermore, definately something you could hear with about 6 seconds of reverb, which is good for a Catholic organ piece! :)

Great piece. I'm curious to hear the rest.

Evan

I agree with cavatina, this probably is your best work yet! I really really like it, very nice job! Even the midi, as horrible as they are, is great! Very nice ending. I am looking foward to hearing the other movements when you finish them.

- Jen

Hmmm...I felt like some of the harmonies in it were a little boring, and could have been expanded upon. Sometimes it made me feel like the melody didn't follow through. I liked the piece overall, and that was my only problem with it. I liked the ending.

Thank you for the comment but I must retort toward you harmonies comment by telling you that secular music is not supposed to be extravagant but instead humble.

Ok, but I didn't say anything about extravagence. I don't think that's what it needs. It's just that in a couple places I didn't feel like the harmony and melody didn't quite follow through. That just sort of threw me off.

I finished my second movement finally and here's the results!

1. Techniques used

I did this in the same style as the first movement.

2. How long it took to compose the piece

Just less than 2 weeks I think.

3. Structure of your piece

The same as the first movement but with less organ.

4. Obstacles when composing

Harmony, and finishing it as it was rather frustrating.

5. Summary of overall piece

I think this is not quite as good as the first but it'll provide a good contrast to the slow first movement.

Requiem_2_.mid

It is quite interesting but I thought the second movment was much slower than you have it. Overall it is every good. :happy:

The second movement is much faster than the first movement.

Requiem #1: I definitely like the beginning and the part around 1:40. I think that it is indeed a strong work. I think it may have endeed a little bit too soon but that may just mean I wanted to listen to more of it.

Requiem #2: Also starts very strongly. It has a nice beat to it and again I wish I could see the Finale file... I am very curious about the harmonization on both pieces, and specially your chorale choices. I wouldn't go as far as saying it is not as good as the first movement, but it is definetely faster. It seems to me almost to be an extension of movement #1.

Very nice work you have here, I can't wait to hear the rest of it. Good job!

Thanks for the comments; I actually intended to put the two pieces in close succession as to tie them together better (although that's precisely what Mozart did).

Comment

Oh, thank you Evan. You've made my day by commenting on my piece!

hahah, no problem man. I'll post a real comment tommorow.... im just too tired right now.

Yeah, I commented on your symphony. I'll look forward to your comment.

Thanks for the comment, I just would like to know how you find my piece is unorganized?

That's Nico for you. Blatantly honest.

Is it supposed to go somewhere? Vocal music (or at least religious kind) doesn't often lead like orchestral music.

This 2nd movement is nice Austin :D I love the ending. I agree with Nico that it doesn't really seem to go anywhere with the theme, but the music is great anyways. You write very well for strings, I really like what you did with them, especially the violin/viola sections. Very dramatic :D

Your Requiem so far is beautiful! Keep it up!

- Jen :)

very nice!

the first piece has great passages, with a majestic and noble feel. the texture is dense and strong, fit to this kind of text, and the harmony is good and effective

the second is great too and for me is more beautiful. the contrast with the first section is quite effective. lovely writing for strings! just the end is a bit strange when it suddenly slow down, maybe a subtler transition could work better, but i guess that with the meaning of the words that could make a good sense (i didn't see the score). anyway both are very fine pieces, congrats!