A Clear Midnight (Final Version)

Hello all!

This is my first submission to Major Works. Because of that, I am equally nervous as I am excited. It is honestly a privilege for this to be approved (if you are reading this, you can assume it has) and I cannot wait to get back the professional criticism of Young Composers best. :w00t:

NOW to the piece itself. A Clear Midnight is a Three Movement choral work. It's premise is a poetic setting of an idea. It's a thing I am trying that my English teacher came up with.. she will give us an idea in class, and we must: Give a time that evokes the idea, Give a place that evokes the idea, and give an abstract representation of the idea. So, I came up with the idea of setting three pre-written poems to music using these parameters. I have chosen: Peace. Now, this really isn't for the audience to "know" per se, but I want them to get the general feel from the three pieces. I hope they and you do as well. BUT, that is not to say that these pieces "go together". They can be performed together or separately without a problem.

Unfortunately, the Hughes setting is copy-written, so I cannot publish these as a set. But, I hope to publish the first or second. However, I wonder if anybody knows a choir that would read and send me a recording! Just a shameless plug. haha.

I. A Clear Midnight by Whitman

A Slow ballad that takes on some Whitacre-esque harmonies. It's built on the text, as all my works are. The oo's at the end are an echo of the beginning and I feel set the mood for the second movement. This is the Time of the idea of peace. Midnight is often heralded as the time of supreme peace and the deepest of night is a wonderful time for all. A great way to begin.

II. The Lake Isle of Innisfree by Yeats

It's almost wistful. The text of this poem is the place setting of the idea of Peace. It's a tale of a man who wants to leave it all behind and go to Innisfree, a peaceful island which is said to be the best place on Earth. In the text, it also makes a reference to the time: "Midnight's all a glitter..."

The music is a relaxing mixture of country setting with my own personal harmonic flair that is characteristic of my music.

III. Luck by Langston Hughes

A VERY meditative piece, this is the abstract idea of Peace. I tried to make the piece itself sound meditative. Sort of a longing for better times... but without WHINING musically. This isn't Wagner or anything...

I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed writing it. :D

-Morivou

Hey morivou, I was looking through the score first, and when I went backwards all of the pages were gone. I don't know what happened, but it's probably just my computer.

I will now attempt to review without the score. The first part was very moving, I like the fast part that led to the loud tutti part, sounded heavenly. Then everything disapeared and kept getting softer and softer until it was held rest, held note over and over. That was a great way of conveying emotion. I also like the sounds of the strings instead of voices, it sounded great, but you should try and get a recording, as I'm sure with lyrics it would sound much better!

The bass solo in part two was very lovely. The best part about this whole piece is how smooth, melodic and moving it is, great work!

That's all I have time for, tell me if you get a recording!

Why thank you! I don't get why my scores ALWAYS get messed up. But, if anybody else has this problem, I will upload the Finale Files.

Why thank you! I don't get why my scores ALWAYS get messed up. But, if anybody else has this problem, I will upload the Finale Files.

Yeah it happened on a few pages to me too. But man Innisfree was a bona fide knockout, well done. There's absolute magic in those notes.

Why thank you! I REALLY hope to get this full cycle recorded, cause it would do wonders for publicity in my public area. I really want some commissions from local churches and organizations as such. A lot of them have told me they want to consider me, but they need a live recording to justify it. I think since these are my best works to date, i need to have SOMEBODY record them... Now to find a choir. *runs off*

Agree with Dev. Innisfree is absolutely beautiful. I love the chorale sections, in the "like bowing to a king" and "nationalistic" sections. After all the motion of this piece, (not that it's bad motion), but I was pleasantly caught off guard every time all that motion stopped and everything was perfectly together, even if just for a second, before going off in its own directions again. Loved it. Great work by you. PS-the score is fine for me.

I THINK that's the key... In order for the stillness to be welcome, one must FIRST induce movement. Eh? Any thoughts?

Congratulations! Very moving... I really savoured it...

Bravo!

Why thank you! I appreciate the listen.

I thought this was beautiful and I enjoyed every minute of listening to it.

Wow! Thank you all so very much! I am pleased that this has some great following. Does anybody find anything wrong with the piece? Criticism? PLEASE. I am always trying to get better.

I think you've done a great job with this. But, since you asked for criticism...

I still think your text and music can be a) closer-knit, and b) more independent. I know that sounds contradictory but:

a) Right now your text and music, while certainly connected by the use of your text painting, are effectively functioning as two separate layers. While this is certainly not a problem (since it's been the practice of choral composers for pretty much EVER), it would be nice to see a little more bond between the two aspects. I believe this feeling is exacerbated by the fact that while I understand your reasons for putting the poems together, I don't hear the connection simply through the "peaceful" nature of the music. Just because the songs of a song cycle can be performed separately, it does not mean they need to be completely musically unrelated (see Lauridsen's Chansons des Roses for an example). An easy fix for this one is to tack on a fourth poem in a fourth setting that mirrors or recalls the harmonic and motivic language of the first one. A less-quick fix, probably something to do in future projects, is to do a close analysis of the text AS a musical device. Find the motifs in the text, the repeated words, the important phrases, the prominent scansion, and compose for each of those micro-elements. This will also allow you to avoid being bullied by the text, since you will have material for the smallest elements of it, and can undermine it.

b) You have some beautiful text painting here. What I'm feeling from it though (not in the entire work, but in a few places) is that the text is dictating the course of your music. One way of overcoming this is to consider the text either micro-analytically (what I wrote about above) or as a whole, without taking into consideration the individual steps of the poetic progression. I feel you've successfully done this with the final setting of the cycle - but not at all with Innisfree (though AMAZING job cutting up the text in your own order). Composers who successfully divorce their music from the dictation of the text: Robert Shaw, in his strophic hymn settings, and Randall Thompson in Frostiana. They are extreme cases, but their techniques bear some closer looks.

A lot of that was just thoughts and impressions, so if they're ramble-y or difficult to understand, sorry. You can totally get in touch with me if you want more clarification.

Now, with all that out of the way - this cycle has a lot of potential. I do feel that if you do anything else with it before releasing it out into the world, you should write a final movement - a sort of "concluding statement" - that sums up the entire cycle; it'll make it much more cohesive, without sacrificing the individuality of your movements. Your harmonic language in this song cycle is so much more mature than I've seen from you before, and you're taking risks with the poem settings which I think are paying off.

perfect! Just what I am looking for. I need to FIND a fourth movement now. I think I will take your suggestion, but put it off for a while. What I will probably do is try to get a recording of one of the movements for now, but I am going to put off writing or changing anything about it until AFTER my Opera is done. I think if I approach it after finishing another project, my vision will be MUCH clearer, I can be more objective, and I can add a fourth movement in context.

Thanks!

I didn't have time to listen to the last movement.. first two were very good.. I like these a lot! I hope you'll write some more of this stuff :D

I listened to the last movement...

Morivou, you are awesome! Keep it up!

I was incredibly moved by this cycle. The emotional response to this was something on par with what happens when I listen to Copland's "Appalachian Spring" (which is a hefty response, let me tell you). I'm not comparing this structurally or melodically to Copland, mind you, but the power is there. Excellent, excellent work Morivou!

Why thank you very much!

Morivou what can I say?

That was awsome as I was hearing the piece I was dreaming how would sound live.

I have a question which choral work that you know has the most voices (male female or children) and how many???

The biggest that I know is Spen In Alium by Thomas Tallis 40 voices.

Congratulations once more!!!

Oh lordy! If ONLY I could hear it live, it would make my LIFE complete.

And, as for your question...I don't REALLY know. I do know the Tallis piece for 40 voices, but I don't think I have ever heard of "more" than that. Why do you ask?

The question has nothing to do with the Clear Midnight but I asked you cause your subject is choral music.

I am planning to write a choral work and I was inspired by an idea that I have.

Imagine a concert with 1000 or more voices to sing...pianissimo.

In fact this is very very hard I know but I will write this.

And yes i mean ''more'' :D

The question has nothing to do with the Clear Midnight but I asked you cause your subject is choral music.

I am planning to write a choral work and I was inspired by an idea that I have.

Imagine a concert with 1000 or more voices to sing...pianissimo.

In fact this is very very hard I know but I will write this.

And yes i mean ''more'' :D

mhmm. It's very possible to get ANY number of voices to sing at ANY volume.

mhmm. It's very possible to get ANY number of voices to sing at ANY volume.

When I said to sing pianissimo I don't mean that the 1000 voices will sing pianissimo for 10 minutes the same note.This is only the idea.

And I can't find very possible to find 1000 voices...anyway.

But, it's a great concept. There's never any harm in experimenting.

It sounds wonderful! It sounds like an instrumental work. Won't those 2nds and leaps be difficult for the singers? The harmony is wonderful don't get me wrong, I can just foresee the singers stumbling on a couple of sections. There also seems to be a lack of breathing places. 72-100 I think, basses don't get a chance to breath once. Then again, I'm not a choral writer :)

LUSH chords ... I could sleep in your harmony it's so heavenly.

It sounds wonderful! It sounds like an instrumental work. Won't those 2nds and leaps be difficult for the singers? The harmony is wonderful don't get me wrong, I can just foresee the singers stumbling on a couple of sections. There also seems to be a lack of breathing places. 72-100 I think, basses don't get a chance to breath once. Then again, I'm not a choral writer :)

LUSH chords ... I could sleep in your harmony it's so heavenly.

I write my choral works as if they were an orchestra. I don't know why, it's just habit. HOWEVER, it works for me, so there's no point in not doing it that way. This is especially true because it adds a little originality to me!

And, 2nds and leaps are ONLY issues for non-professional choirs. Like, high school choirs would have trouble with this (I hope to GOD a high school choir doesn't do this...), but my (Grammy award winning, no joke) High School Choir performed one of my pieces not too long ago, and they had no trouble with the dissonance after two or three rehearsals.

Dissonance for Non-Experienced choirs is all a matter of rehearsal time. In terms of breathing? Choirs have the special ability (especially in HIGH numbers) to breathe independently of other voices. It's interesting because the NOTE might be held for a long time, but your basses could be breathing ever 2 seconds if they felt like it. Nobody would notice because NONE of them breathe at exactly the same time. However, it IS something that should be brought to the attention of the choir. Telling them in the score to stagger breathe is always nice, but since in MY pieces it's used ALLLLLL the time, the conductor will recognize that and just tell them to stagger breathe.

Thanks for the compliments!