Frat Song: O Mu Tau

Composed by yours truly. Lyrics by YCers NeuroTechnics and Elizabeth. Composed for the Mu Tau chapter of the Kappa Kappa Psi band fraternity. Final Version posted! All comments on score appearance and music (including lyrics) are welcome. This is going to likely be published and ratified as the chapter song in question, so any scrutiny before that (coming up in a week or so) is appreciated.Don't mind the one measure of the rendering being buggy (all voices cut out for a measure).Compositional notes:this piece was written in the key of A, which is an important note/letter in the fraternity. It's very, very tonal with much emphasis on the keynote for ease of singing, because it's a band fraternity, not a singing fraternity. Despite that I feel the parts are quite interesting while being easy to sing with basic aural skills, even the extended chords. Also note: m.38 is shouted.The lyrics were written with the values of the fraternity in mind: excellence, service, brotherhood, etc.Thanks! Enjoy.-P

Frat Song: O Mu Tau

Sounds good! The final chord surprised me, but why not?

Notational stuff... There's no need to use a slur with notes that cover one word split into multiple syllables (like allegiance in mm. 2-3). That's an old chorale-style/religious thing, but you can keep it if you want as long as you're consistent. Now for specifics:

1) m. 4: double breath mark in left hand of piano

2) m. 5: spi-rit should be spir-it; pass-ion is pas-sion

3) m. 13 (and 28 and 36): bro-thers should be broth-ers

4) m. 19: where ev-er should be where-ev-er, I think

5) m. 23 (and 26): mus-ic should be mu-sic

6) m. 24: To Coda is nearly touching the fermata; if you plan on having the pianist read full score, you might as well put things like "To Coda" and the D.S. above the piano part along with tempo indications

7) m. 30: ser-ving is serv-ing

8) m. 32: ac-ross is a-cross

9) m. 33, soprano and piano: place parenthesis after second C# for consistency (notice how the bass in the same measure doesn't have a parenthesis until after the second A)

10) m. 38: sometimes spoken words are in italics. it's sort of redundant since you have x-noteheads, but it's not uncommon. your call

"Brothers" appears a lot in the piece, but it is a frat song so it makes sense. Anyway, hope that helps!

Well I just find the section We Strive ... a bit more like Southern harmony while the rest seems to be more traditional hymn like (as in older hymns with one or two exceptions). The midi makes it sound jarring - in performance it may not.

The only performance concern I'd have is the bass line stays rather low - definitely singable but sometimes the notes don't project well - depends on the basses you have.

Question - have you tried just keeping everything at one tempo? Maybe Moderato or Andante? That may be why I sounds a little out of character the We Strive - for a piece of such short duration, I wonder if it would benefit from one uniform tempo throughout.

hi,

lots of stuff going on, some classical trend and some more march like style, they weren't merged but rather played consequently, the writing in itself is good. it actually sounds like a fraternity song so you did a pretty good job.

aea :)

aea :)

Werd up, Brother. ;)

J: Thanks! That's the idea. :)

Boston: suggestions noted and addressed. Will post update shortly.

CO: You know, that'd probably be wise. I guess I heard in the lyrics a shift of attitude from hymnsong to kind of a march-like cadence. Hence the tempo change. I guess it's not really necessary?