The Starry Sky

So, this is my first choral piece that I'm posting up here - it's really the first one that I'm particularly happy with. My choir teacher said that with a little tweaking (which I've done a bit of) she'd give it to our Chamber Choir to sing, so that was quite a nice compliment.

Anyhow, this is an acappella piece for SATB choir. The text is a Requiem, by Robert Louis Stevenson:

UNDER the wide and starry sky

Dig the grave and let me lie:

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you 'grave for me:

Here he lies where he long'd to be;

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

Anyhow, I'd love any and all comments, critiques, and suggestions.

Thanks,

~Christian

The Starry Sky.mid

The Starry Sky.pdf

Dude, I have to say it's a pretty nice piece.

But I cannot tolerate the midi sound at all. Is that the saxophone patch?

Anyway. Your piece is really quite good. I like the text you chose, it fits the music well.

I think a little tweaking could be done with the tempo...it's a bit fast, right now, but it's a stylistic thing, so it's up to you. Otherwise, I have no critique. Good job!

Thanks. It's actually the oboe - I can't stand the Finale 'Vocal Ah' sound, and the oboe pitch is what my choir director recommends.

And you think it's fast? I was afraid that at some points it would be a bit too slow. Maybe it's just my perspective on the piece. Thanks for the compliments.

~Christian

I also have problems with midi, but went thru it a few times anyway.

I have never been a fan of vocals, so keep that in mind.

The one thing that seemed odd to me, is that in the entire piece, there is one and only one eighth note. That kind of makes it stick out. The melody is fine and the harmonies work well.

Ron

You need to be schooled in text-setting, my friend. While there is nothing egregious musically going on (though nothing particularly exciting either), the text in the score irks me quite a bit.

First, and this is a rampant and common error, monosyllabic words don't need to be hiephenated! Ex: m39-40, simply write "hill" under the first half note, and slur the rest of the notes that include that syllable. Also, an unrelated error, there seem to be no words for the basses and tenors in the same area.

A more stylistic problem is the placement of stresses within the music - generally, think of strong beats (1 and 3) as equal to a stress in spoken language, and weak beats as non-stresses. Ex: m20, bass: if I spoke it it would sound like THIS be THE verse YOU 'grave FOR ME. I think a better distribution of the text would be something like THIS (half note) BE the VERSE you 'GRAVE for ME (all quarters).

The two areas I pointed out are just examples of recurring issues I had with the piece. I'm hoping some of these were the "tweaks" your instructor pointed out, though their presence suggests that's not the case.