January 9, 201016 yr Setting of the Christmas prayer, in other news, i believe the words for light ("lux" and "luceat") in Latin are some of the most beautiful words ever conceived for singing O Nata Lux
January 10, 201016 yr What the heck is up with your key sig?? haha. Nice piece, though. It lacked some movement, but I am SURE that would be different wen "conducted".
January 10, 201016 yr Author Sorry about the key signature, those are the pitches I heard in my head when I was writing...It can be easily transposed, but I really liked the warmth that it evoked (if you believe that).
January 10, 201016 yr No no, it's not a problem at all. I just wondered where you came up with using that one. lol.
January 11, 201016 yr And that brings up the question, would it change the psychological deepness of the sound to be a brighter timbre? :hmmm:
January 14, 201016 yr Keys with sharps tend to sound brighter than those with flats... What's the thinking behind this, if I may ask? I like the piece. The text is dear to my heart in Tallis' version. I didn't like the treatment of the subject in the imitation section. In bar 10 the second entry jumps down a 5th and crosses the continuing first entry, making it difficult to follow (if you didn't have the sheet music). The same goes for the tenor entry too.
January 14, 201016 yr Um...sorry no about the key signature..You have written the piece in Cb major...Change to B major. It doesnt really matter for a choir piece that is unaccompanied, however, this is just confusing notation. The thinking behind flat keys being darker than sharp means nothing here..it is the same exact notes as if you write in B.
January 14, 201016 yr What's the thinking behind this, if I may ask? It's a psychological thing. Doesn't happen on instruments, really, but for singers it does occur. It's because of the vocal-muscular process of flatting or sharping a note. Brighter vowel sounds are conducive to keeping notes high, while darker vowel sounds prevent going sharp while lowering a pitch. It doesn't even really have anything to do with the KEY itself, but the key signature will affect it (such as if you took a piece in E major and transposed it to Db - you wouldn't hear the same sort of darkening effect, because the singers would still be reading sharps).
January 14, 201016 yr it's true. Singers WILL sing sharp keys more forward in placement than flat keys. That is why most belter songs for Baritones are in D Major, Tenors in A or B Major.. etc... Most broadway Happy tunes are in sharp keys... I decry you prove me and Chris wrong.
January 17, 201016 yr It's a psychological thing. Doesn't happen on instruments, really, but for singers it does occur. It's because of the vocal-muscular process of flatting or sharping a note. Brighter vowel sounds are conducive to keeping notes high, while darker vowel sounds prevent going sharp while lowering a pitch. It doesn't even really have anything to do with the KEY itself, but the key signature will affect it (such as if you took a piece in E major and transposed it to Db - you wouldn't hear the same sort of darkening effect, because the singers would still be reading sharps). It also goes back to the original temperaments where a flat key would sound VERY different to a sharp one because the intervals between semi-tones were not logarithmically equal. I like the piece; I agree with what you say about 'lux' it does seem to set well... I'm writing vocal music at the moment myself so it's always nice to see what other composers are up to (Morivou, I know we spoke several months ago and you gave me a hand starting a lied and I promise I will post it soon but I can't until September because I have ended up submitting it for my A-level composition).
February 26, 201016 yr It's a beautiful piece. Definitely will sound much better with a real choir than this stupid doo-doo choir on MIDI. I agree, I just heard the whole thing in B major instead of Cflat major. It is rather confusing and it would just make choirs go WUUUT? Since they have to flatten the F and the C too. Other than that, it it indeed a beautiful text. Thanks for this =)
March 3, 201016 yr This is a really beautiful piece- it's always hard to judge choral works on this site because the voice synths never come close to doing a real voice justice. It reminds me quite a bit of something Lauridsen/Part might write (actually Lauridsen did a setting of "O Nata Lux"). To me, it seems to drone a bit, which creates a really cool atmosphere for the piece.
March 3, 201016 yr The voice synths issue is one of the reasons why I sometimes use wind instrument synths instead in my electronic renderings. I really hope Finale/GPO and Sibelius make better vocal/choral samples available.
March 4, 201016 yr It also goes back to the original temperaments where a flat key would sound VERY different to a sharp one because the intervals between semi-tones were not logarithmically equal. THAT is the answer.. The only other effect the key has is completely dependent on the instrument (or voice) you are writing for. Some instruments and voices change tone quality in different ranges. I will bet you any money that if you sing a piece in Bb major it sounds no brighter or darker than when you give that same piece to the singers WRITTEN in E major while still singing in Bb major. That would prove thats its not really psychological to today's singer.
March 10, 201016 yr THAT is the answer.. The only other effect the key has is completely dependent on the instrument (or voice) you are writing for. Some instruments and voices change tone quality in different ranges. I will bet you any money that if you sing a piece in Bb major it sounds no brighter or darker than when you give that same piece to the singers WRITTEN in E major while still singing in Bb major. That would prove thats its not really psychological to today's singer. I tend to agree with this; I don't see how a difference in key signature would have any timbral consequences whatsoever. Singers tend to think more in terms of either intervals or a scale. However, I could see some possible consequences on intonation that notating an accidental as a sharp or flat could have... For some reason the link on this composition is also not working for me...am I missing something?
April 28, 201015 yr Setting of the Christmas prayer, in other news, i believe the words for light ("lux" and "luceat") in Latin are some of the most beautiful words ever conceived for singing O Nata Lux This is quite lovely, and I think you're off to a great start. In particular, the choice of idiom is perfect for the text-- beautiful music for beautiful and profound words. In particular I enjoy the more polyphonic sections-- mm. 9-15 is a good example. I think the overall tone of the piece is nicely broken up by such sections. In fact, I think it could use some more of them, as the block-chordal style, though often gorgeous, does become somewhat less intriguing as the piece moves forward. Likewise, I think sections with more interesting and rich harmonic ideas (see mm. 19-25) would help break up the sweet, but sometimes monotonous nature of the piece. They could even be used to transition to a new key, which I think would really give the piece a nice, arcing structure that will mirror the music quite well. Very nice piece, I'd very much like to hear more.
