How to write a catch

The title says it, how does one go about this, anyone have any experience?

Is it as simple as having the right syllables as top notes?

For those that never heard of the form: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_%28music%29

"In a catch, the lines of lyrics interact so that a word or phrase is produced that does not appear if sung by only one voice"

I'm trying to figure out some scores I found but none specify what the result will be so I don't really know what to look for.

-Bob

Glad to see you are interested in this most subversive of forms. Don't think your task is going to be easy though!

Basically you need to 'reverse engineer' the lyrics and melody. What hidden phrase is the ensemble going to reveal when the catch is performed? You need to image how this will sound and then find other words which contain the exact syllables of the hidden words and then strategically position them so that they are spoken in the right places when the catch is sung as a round. At the same time, you have to ensure another syllable in a different part will not spoil the effect and provide the rest of the lyrics which much make at least some sense. And set it all to music which is singable as a round. Phew!

In the example on the Wikipedia page, the word 'Michigan' is formed from the 'mish' of 'omission' and the word 'again'. The word 'university' comes from the 'you' of 'tell you who we are'; the 'i' in 'beautiful'; the 'ver' of 'never'; and the word 'city' which is pronounced the same as 'sity'.

Glad to see you are interested in this most subversive of forms. Don't think your task is going to be easy though!

Basically you need to 'reverse engineer' the lyrics and melody. What hidden phrase is the ensemble going to reveal when the catch is performed? You need to image how this will sound and then find other words which contain the exact syllables of the hidden words and then strategically position them so that they are spoken in the right places when the catch is sung as a round. At the same time, you have to ensure another syllable in a different part will not spoil the effect and provide the rest of the lyrics which much make at least some sense. And set it all to music which is singable as a round. Phew!

In the example on the Wikipedia page, the word 'Michigan' is formed from the 'mish' of 'omission' and the word 'again'. The word 'university' comes from the 'you' of 'tell you who we are'; the 'i' in 'beautiful'; the 'ver' of 'never'; and the word 'city' which is pronounced the same as 'sity'.

Ok here a little attempt, don't mind the lyrics too much, it's just a first try:

HOmage to The lAguage in PIECE

fOLDing worDs inTo MY Point

focus YOUR EARS on the whole

OR:

hold your tears at my peace

Which I set to this music:

The bottom part should be a soprano too...

I really hope I can get this to work, perhaps I can try it out with speech synthesis or something.

Anyway thanks for this, got me thinking again, I really think a catch is a great way to let ideas and lyrics come together and pull a larger piece in on itself so to speak, as is with many contrapuntal forms I guess.

edit: made it a tad better