A New Composition: Nunc Dimittis

All right, so the past few days I've taken some suggestions from people on this forum and really tried to write something new for me, while still remaining true to the music-writing that I feel best suits me. I spent all day yesterday working on this piece that I've had in my head for a long time. I'd been doing sketches on this work for over a year, with bits and pieces coming and going. I finally figured out a way to bring them together, by using a completely different style to me. This is my light experimentation with tintinnabulation, Arvo Part's compositional style. Now I didn't use it throughout, since I don't think I could write an entire piece in that style without is becoming too derivative. What I tried to do was use the style as best I could and fit it into the overall landscape of the piece. I think the result is pretty interesting. Once again I welcome all comments and criticism.

nunc1.MID

nuncdimittisScore.pdf

Gratuitous bump since it's been a day with no replies...

Pretty nice score. Good overall sound.

I am not really sure about cutting of word to syllables when it comes to voice leading, but I like the thinness of sound - just wanna suggest to have more variation on SATB parts.

I think you have an interesting piece so far. I'm not too fluid on this particular technique, nor do I think its one that is really interesting for vocal - especially when used solely. Perhaps you could combine other compositional techniques to this, to provide more interest?

I think you have an interesting piece so far. I'm not too fluid on this particular technique, nor do I think its one that is really interesting for vocal - especially when used solely. Perhaps you could combine other compositional techniques to this, to provide more interest?

That's exactly what I was trying to do...separating the single lines from the more choral sections, playing two voices off each other before either thinning lines out or thickening them. The tintinnabula lines where the voices overlap was interesting to write...what I tried to do was write out a singular melody and then use it as the idea that's shared between the voices.

My favorite aspect of this piece is how the overlaping lines infer certain harmonies even though there are only two notes sounding at once. It adds very much to the flow. However, this flow is almost too slow. The beginning actually reminded me of Brian Eno's "Music for Airports". Some of the dissonences (and even consoences) didn't work in the context of the line. One major example is bar 32 where the 7th followed by the fourth just sounds bad to my ears. Personal taste though, so don't go changing that unless you don't like it. I liked the end and the beginning. There's this middle part that needs to be developed more. I think there should be either an arc or a gradual intensification of excitement towards the end. This started at bar 89, but felt like an awkward transition because of nothing leading up to it. One thing about dynamics too, there seemed to be little range. There were a few high points, but too much low stuff. I'd vary the dynamics more: more pianos and especially more fortes.

Notational things: Why aren't the swells in the midi indicated in the score? No chorus would do this by default unless told so. Make the effort for a few more dynamics; it seems rather sparse. The rehersal piano part didn't always line up with the choral parts. Some ties are broke, for example. I, personally, find rehersal piano parts superfluous if your dealing with a simple four voice texture (as you have here). Be that as it may, if you do have one, it should be written in smaller notation, i.e. a "small stave" size also used for ossias. Nitpicking, there are bar numbers on top (and between ??) the piano staff that are clashing with the left barline.

I too enjoyed the clear and thin sound you created with your voice leading. To me the most interesting parts of the piece were the overlapping entrances. In fact, I like it a lot. The rest of the piece for me is kind of "middle of the road", but that's just my personal feeling.

:thumbsup:

Well, there's really not much I can say about this piece...

if you were aiming to create a minimalist perspective, then you've succeeded pretty well. If not, then I'd suggest more chorale study. Some harmony/counterpoint study would help too.

The material in this piece, though, definitely does not support how long you've prolonged it for. A literal repeat of the first section definitely took away from the momentum that the middle section built up. I'd suggest shortening it a lot.

Was definitely aiming for a minimalist perspective...I didn't just lift and repeat the beginning in the middle, although it does sound similar (I was trying to imply wholly different chords). They do reach the same conclusion from different areas...maybe therein lies the confusion. It took so long because I'd been toying with so many different ideas and could never settle on a single one. I really think the tempo does drag the piece down a lot though, the two-voice texture is a very deliberate idea of what I was going for.

I think there's a lot of interest in this, and it's a nice concept - the thin, pure, personal texture etc is especially fitting for the Nunc Dimittis text - but personally I think it lacks the direction that Part's music usually provides. One of the main reasons his harmonically and melodically repetitive church music manages to be so arresting is that it's all going towards a very spiritual climax, that uses all the simplicity of the musical idea / texture but weaves them into an all-encompassing expression of the 'message' of the text as a whole. In 'The Beatitudes', for example, the whole piece crescendos towards the final section: "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Amen." These phrases are set in the same technique as all the previous, but new dissonances, pauses, and one spine-chilling extra melodic line (on "for so persecuted...") are introduced here. This coupled with the crescendo gives the whole piece a climactic section of direction and meaning which makes it more than the sum of its previous parts.

I felt this slightly in your piece at your 'Domine' and 'Israel' climaxes, but I think if the last one (Israel) more elaborately summed up the harmonic ideas in the piece, we would get the cohesive direction needed here and the piece would be more communicative.

Overall though, things to work on, but a nice piece. Well done.