Libera Me

I scored a latin text for large chorus. The translation for the text: Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal deathon that awful daywhen the heavens and earth shall be shakenand you shall come to judge the world by fire.I am seized with fear and tremblinguntil the trial is at hand and the wrath to come:when the heavens and earth shall be shaken.

Libera Me

Nice job! Let me provide some small suggestions:

Throughout mm1-10, the soprano line becomes boring, since the pitch is kept higher up and doesn't descend very often. The same occurs with the bassline, for the basses don't descend farther than a#. Go ahead and experiment around with the sopranos and the basses. Let the sopranos ascend when they come to a climatic chord (which should be centered around a meaningful word; i.e. when the heavens and earth shall be shaken...), and let the basses descend as well.

Also throughout mm1-10, you need to expand the chord progressions (actually, throughout most of the piece as well).

I, I, vi, ii^7o, I, vi, VI, V. Cadences aren't the only sounds needed for a piece. On mm11-14, I noticed a change in the mood of the piece, and you'd switched up the progressions (good!), but the soprano and alto line were a little dull. Try trading off the melody among the different parts, and voice out the chords from there.

Keep at it! It's almost there!

Using EWQL Choirs & Worldbulider, you're able to "sing" latin and english words/phrases.

I like your ideas here BUT I think you could go one step further in your setting of this for voice. A few suggestions, overall the work is very monophonic with only 1 notable section that you step (coldly) into light polyphony. While, monophony is good for some things - in this work it loses its effect with the constant stopping and starting in the overall flow. Many composers have faced this obstacle of choral writing by having one voice suspend into the rest - providing interest for the listeners. Take some time and look over your melody - try to construct countermelodies based off of it and place them in the work through out! That will add a lot of interest right there. Thanks for sharing this!

Re-uploaded with a few updates.

@David Volgan:

I actually don't feel the need to descend with the sopranos or basses. It might take the edge of the solemn atmosphere I wanted. I will consider it though.

About chord progressions, I would say that's a question of taste and what you are trying to achieve with you're writing. I did want this piece to be static, solemn.

@nemesis:

I do have EWQL Choirs and Word builder but somehow it didn't want to work when I tried to put it in for this work.

@jawoodruff:

There are some places I might agree with you on the stopping of the overall flow. It serves a dramatic purpose at some spots in the piece though. I do have rhythmic variety in a lot of places where the flow would otherwise stagnate.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen and giving me your opinions, I will listen to your critique and advice and try to improve it further when I get the time.

Re-uploaded with a few updates.

@David Volgan:

I actually don't feel the need to descend with the sopranos or basses. It might take the edge of the solemn atmosphere I wanted. I will consider it though.

About chord progressions, I would say that's a question of taste and what you are trying to achieve with you're writing. I did want this piece to be static, solemn.

Its important to remember that "static" and "solemn" are not the same thing. imo, purposely writing music to be static is nothing more than an artistic statement (like John Cage's 4:33). Writing music to be solemn is a wonderful endeavor that needs to be explored a little more in todays composing society. But again, they are not the same. Eric Whitacre's "Sleep" demonstrates this excellently. Its by far the most soothing, somber, solemn, relaxing piece I know (and, imo, is one of the greatest modern choral works written, though somewhat oversung), but it builds, moves and allows you to feel the tension swell before it is released and you realize you can breathe again. Still solemn, but not static.

I like several of the things you have done with the piece. I enjoyed a lot of the chords and didn't notice any major voice leading issues, which means it should tune pretty nicely. Really the only thing I would suggest (keeping with the solemn feel you are trying to convey) would be to simplify some parts and expand others. I felt like some of the best chords got cut short, I would either put a farmata on some of them, or actually expand the meter to fit a longer note value, just pick your favorites. There are several sections in which you are doubling parts between the men and women: break this down a little (ex, measures 1-10, try having the tenors sing the lower line (E,D,C,B) and the sopranos the upper (on F) while the basses and altos double the root). This will not only make each part clearer, it will actually make things sound MORE somber as well as create a lot more places you can go. Typically, the more you have doubled the less solemn it will feel. I have always been drawn to tight, full harmonies (Whitacre style) and have written choral pieces in 12 part divisi as well as triple choir music (just cause I could! lol), so early in my composing career I had to force myself to write using ONLY 4 part harmonies, no divisi; this caused me to have to consider the movement of the piece a lot more instead of just relying on what sounds kinda cool. There are a lot of tight chords in a row in your piece, followed by a lot of open chords in a row. I'd like to see these intermixed a little more, ie, slightly tightening and releasing several times in a phrase. Like I said, simplify and expand. And try to double notes sparingly and only on the proper note in the chord (ie, root, fifth, third, seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, in that order).

How long have you been writing music?