If I can stop one heart from breaking (SSAATTBB Ch

Yes, okay, let me confirm every stereotype of choral writers ever: I'm setting Emily Dickinson. So sue me. Anyway.

So I'm rather proud of myself for just finishing this thing. Sibelius is absurd so the formatting took me a while, and the edits, but the music of it was done in about two weeks. I don't have too much posted on here, but I'll just say that this is pretty damn different from my usual style (which is clean-cut traditional tonality). That said, I like it, and I'm happy that I left my comfort zone.

Also, I never thought I'd actually have to say this, but I received some pretty nasty comments on a piece that seem to be mostly provoked by midi playback, so: please take the midi of this with a grain of salt. It's a computer, it can only do so much, choir ah's sound bizarre, low altos are rendered sounding like gravel... gross stuff. So... yeah. Salt. Many grains of it.

Annnd... here ends the preamble, I guess. Any feedback at all would be greatly, greatly appreciated--I'm especially curious if anyone has any notes about singability that I missed. Also, I'm curious to know people's opinions on the layout. But... I'm eager to revise this and get it read by my group. Anything you care t'share, I'd love to hear it!

If I can stop one heart from breaking.mid

If I can stop one heart from breaking.pdf

If I can stop one heart from breaking.sib

In m 25-6, there seems to be no real reason to split up the 8 eighth notes into 3/8 and 5/8 rather than just keep the 4/4 you already have, except to maybe "look" interesting.

At the end, you have the basses holding B2 and C#3 - this seems to be a common stylistic mistake for people trying to write in this "dissonant-yet-consonant" choral style that's fairly prevalent right now. Dissonance works best when there's a strong, open interval in the bass and shiny, shimmery clusters on top. Seriously, experiment with this - go lay your forearm on the upper white keys of a piano, and then do it again holding F2 and C3 in the bass - now it sounds like some well-crafted cluster! The converse of this is that any sort of close harmony - hell, even major thirds - sound muddy in the lowest register, so unless you're trying to achieve some ugly, dense white noise instead of a final cluster-chord, keep the bass open and opt for the dissonance in the top.

In m 25-6, there seems to be no real reason to split up the 8 eighth notes into 3/8 and 5/8 rather than just keep the 4/4 you already have, except to maybe "look" interesting.

Yeah, I was wondering about that... It's just that, in my experience, a 5/8 bar will be conducted a bit more forcefully, and I didn't really want to put an accent on every note... but thinking about that now, it does seem a bit unnecessary to split the bar like that.

At the end, you have the basses holding B2 and C#3 - this seems to be a common stylistic mistake for people trying to write in this "dissonant-yet-consonant" choral style that's fairly prevalent right now. Dissonance works best when there's a strong, open interval in the bass and shiny, shimmery clusters on top. Seriously, experiment with this - go lay your forearm on the upper white keys of a piano, and then do it again holding F2 and C3 in the bass - now it sounds like some well-crafted cluster! The converse of this is that any sort of close harmony - hell, even major thirds - sound muddy in the lowest register, so unless you're trying to achieve some ugly, dense white noise instead of a final cluster-chord, keep the bass open and opt for the dissonance in the top.

I was wondering what to do with that ending chord, because it never sat quite right at me, but I never knew how to go about it... I'll try opening up the bass, thanks for the tip! I'll look over this more closely for low stuff that might end up sounding fuzzy, too...

Score/MIDI/Sib File updated: I cleaned up the layout a little, rewrote the ending some, and fixed up some of the close clustering. Any feedback at all is greatly appreciated, seeing as I'm going to attempt to get this read soon... thanks!!

What have to say on one part of the piece is to omit the basses from singing that high d mainly because your trying to make the part of the piece piano. A lot of basses would have a hard time with it unless you would like a more head voice sound in that section.

One other thing it seems like the modulation to D major in E major sounds really forced in measure how about eliminate the D# and just make that measure A Major instead.

Overall a nice piece in dissonance and the way you used rhythm and style to emulate Emily Dickinson piece of literature.

Overall it's very nice! Me likely even though I don't like Eric Whitacre.

I think less "everyone together" would be nice. Have certain sections come out with soloistic sections. Have only half of each section sing a line while the other half rests. Stuff like that. Vary it up a bit in terms of orchestration (voicestration?).

The last chord was an utter disappointment!! AHH! You were in a solid D major mode throughout and you ended on the dominant. WHY? I would keep it as is, but then add two or three extra bars having a nice thick D major chord (with subtle extensions) intoning the last words sung by the Tenors "I shall not live in vain." That way, you have musical and textual closure.

Some of the expression marking were odd. e.g. "Still" (m. 12, 26), "molto rubato" for single sections. They aren't soloists, so how can an effective rubato be achieved with a section of singers? How would you assume this to be accomplished? Perhaps more explanation?

Again well done and happy composing! :)

I'm going to disagree with JT on the final chord...I love the ambiguity you give to it and leaving it open. I think it works PERFECTLY with what you're trying to accomplish. I think that rubato can absolutely be achieved by an entire section if the group is alert enough.

You do some very beautiful things, the piece as a whole reminded me a lot of Frank Ticheli's "There Will Be Rest." The way you use added tones and move harmonically is very reminiscent of that piece. If you haven't heard it you should! It's beautiful. I think that the fact I can really compare the two is a great compliment to your piece!

I will agree that I'd like to hear some individual sections come out more. There is some definite possibilities for some brilliant fugal opens leading to great clusters. I felt the key change at m. 6 was a little off, it just felt a little awkward...maybe with real voices it won't feel so jarring. Those are really just little things. I really enjoyed listening to the piece. Good Work!

a quick suggestion, for prosody's sake.

In ms 11, instead of saying, "if I one heart from breaking"

consider repeating "one heart", so that it reads "one heart, one heart from breaking"

I think that's nicer.

Every time I just glance at the title, I read "Stop one heart from beating"! That cracks me up.