Ave Maria - SSAATTBB [Now complete!]

Edit: I finished the piece. If you want to check it out, it's in the link below. I also uploaded the PDF to the site and made the MP3 streamable.

The fastest piece I've ever written, and for me, one of my strongest.

I couldn't go to sleep a couple nights ago and took a shower. While I was showering, I just noticed how beautiful the human body was and how fascinating God made it. Instead of going back to sleep, I had the urge to start writing, and in the past three days I was able to produce a rough sketch. As far as the song goes, I'd say the first half is set in stone, and the second half is almost there. All that's left are the dynamics and some polish.

MP3 of Ave Maria here

Hope you enjoy it!

Ave Maria.pdf

Wow Hazzard, once again I can get lost in the "pretty" of all those clusters. You've got a knack for this sort of thing. Some parts reminded me of Palestrina for whatever reason, and a big hell yeah to that cluster at the end, the C pentascale. Fantastic stuff. Hopefully Bara will put on another "World Premieres" concert so you can get this read and recorded. AND IF HE DOES PUT IT ON THEN NOTIFY ME OKAY! I HAVE SO MANY THINGS FOR THEM TO READ! But enough about that. Good work.

This piece is beautiful, again I'm jealous with how effortless you can make things sound. You perfectly capture a lot of the sounds I try to search for in my music. When the dynamics are set and everything is in the place where you want it I think this piece will be incredible, it's already amazing. Your sense of mood was impeccable, and i really noted how the small shifts in tonality made big differences. Very strong effort. Really lovely.

Wow Hazzard, once again I can get lost in the "pretty" of all those clusters. You've got a knack for this sort of thing. Some parts reminded me of Palestrina for whatever reason, and a big hell yeah to that cluster at the end, the C pentascale. Fantastic stuff. Hopefully Bara will put on another "World Premieres" concert so you can get this read and recorded. AND IF HE DOES PUT IT ON THEN NOTIFY ME OKAY! I HAVE SO MANY THINGS FOR THEM TO READ! But enough about that. Good work.

Thanks Matt!

Also, the World Premiere concert is totally on every year, just give him any piece you want sung in the winter. I really had St. Paul's in mind for this song, I don't think I'd want it any other way.

Much appreciated mon hombre.

This piece is beautiful, again I'm jealous with how effortless you can make things sound. You perfectly capture a lot of the sounds I try to search for in my music. When the dynamics are set and everything is in the place where you want it I think this piece will be incredible, it's already amazing. Your sense of mood was impeccable, and i really noted how the small shifts in tonality made big differences. Very strong effort. Really lovely.

Gosh, you're making me blush.

It's really uplifting to hear it from you too, because I wanted to go for a touch more of the sound you made with "Set me as a Seal" for the first half of the song. A more grounded tonality, but flirting with chromaticism as it develops.

Thanks!

Yay, another Ave maria (I just wrote one for SSAA choir, and it would be great if you could see it... lol).

Anyway, my favourite is the E natural at bar 51. The whole piece is really well crafted and beautiful. And I think what makes the piece suddenly sound even more beautiful is that chord at bar 51 =P

I have to say this is one of the few pieces here that I feel like I want to listen till the end (I have a really short attention span), and yeah it's great :D

Would be good to hear it performed.

i'd just like to continue the kudos...

it was well written, i started singing along with the bass 2 part... it was very singable and all those Eb's will make any bassist smile.

just put in the dynamic markings and i think you're close to all set... great piece

Glad you enjoyed the "Set Me as a Seal"! I think you accomplished that feat very well...it unfolded beautifully.

Is there a way to hear this piece without having to download and save it to my computer? Most sites let you hear mp3s by just opening them. When I tried to play your piece I got this message:

"Reported Attack Site!

This web site at platinumtvonline.com has been reported as an attack site and has been blocked based on your security preferences.

Attack sites try to install programs that steal private information, use your computer to attack others, or damage your system.

Some attack sites intentionally distribute harmful software, but many are compromised without the knowledge or permission of their owners."

Alerts like that are usually triggered by advertisements, not the actual website. I'll try to find a place to stream it for you though.

Edit #2 - Sorry, posted a broken link the first time around: this one should work.

When I click on the link I get this message:

Broken Link

The link you clicked on is not complete.

If you clicked a link within an e-mail message, please verify that the link was not broken in the middle.

If it is broken, copy and paste the entire link into your browser.

When I click on the link I get this message:

Broken Link

The link you clicked on is not complete.

If you clicked a link within an e-mail message, please verify that the link was not broken in the middle.

If it is broken, copy and paste the entire link into your browser.

It's fixed now I promise!

It sounds beautiful. I'm glad your posted the mp3 at the other site. I still can't open the pdf; I'd love to see the score. Can you attach it to your original post? The forum allows pdf attachments.

Got it up!

Even better! Remember to get it recorded yeah? =P I wanna hear it live!

Thanks for posting the MP3 and PDF. It's a beautiful piece and I'm glad I was able to hear it and read the score.

Nice job, I really like it, the first phrases are very whitacre-ish. You said it is a rough sketch, so I will assume you will re notate the piano reduction?

Nice job, I really like it, the first phrases are very whitacre-ish. You said it is a rough sketch, so I will assume you will re notate the piano reduction?

Thanks!

Well, it was a rough sketch at first, but the PDF that's up now is the complete score. For the piano reduction, I just used the Piano Reduction plug-in in Finale 2009, so I assumed it was correct. Are there any problems with it?

A couple. Check out measures 29 and 40. There's probably more, but I just took a quick glance. Part of the problem may be that you've got everything reduced to a voice per staff. I don't know if finale can do this, but if you can use two voices per staff if will help correct some of the problems with sustained notes.

Also, check measure 18. You have a B natural and a C flat in the same chord. You probably want to change the bass to B natural.

Thanks. I fixed a couple errors I found, including the one in mm.18. I also redid the piano reduction, but couldn't find any option that would help with sustained notes. Since it's just a reduction though, I think that it would be more trouble than it's worth and too much room for error to go in and attempt to fix it by hand.

I appreciate it. This is my sixth time re-uploading the PDF since I labelled it complete, and I think it's finally getting there.

Do you want a B flat or a B natural in the B2 in measure 18?

Do you want a B flat or a B natural in the B2 in measure 18?

Drat the luck.

Okay, now it's fixed fo sho. Thanks, that was really careless.

This is lovely =). Which programme are you using for this? The voices are incredibly smooth - the version of sibelius I use has a tendency to butcher most sounds...

I used Finale 2009 with Garritan Instruments. If you give each voice a channel and enable Human Playback, you can get it to read the dynamics and breathmarks as well.

woah this makes me want to make choral music too. Good stuff