May 30, 20187 yr Hello all! I've been composing for quite some time now, but I'm new to this forum. It seems like a really cool place though. Here's my first Lied I've ever written, a setting of Goethe's Wandrer's Nachtlied. I got a complaint from someone else that the music is "too depressing" for the words, but I disagree with him entirely. What do you guys think? Comments on the music are also encouraged. Thanks in advance. The poem and its translation can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer's_Nightsong Also a quick note, the Gb chord in m16 is meant to function as an F# chord going to the B minor section, I just didn't want to use all those accidentals. Edited May 30, 20187 yr by atrombonist
May 30, 20187 yr It is quite a challenge to compose a write a through-composed song to such an expressive poem. So kudos to you. The low bass in the beginning is real low and together with the block chords a real contrast to the first bars of the singer. (A surprising contrast; I am not quite sure what these chords express.) The singer, however, has to sing rather fast at the beginning, like in a buffo opera; I would give her more time to breathe and phrase the melody. The block chords in m. 34 following could use some arpgeggiando to soften the texture. Overall, you have to be careful that the accompaniment does not drown out the singer as thick chords are wont to do. Your harmonies and progressions are for sure colourful! One last problem I stumbled into myself repeatedly: The volume settings for dynamics in notation software are often too extreme, especially for human voices. So, to get a better impression of how it would sound in real life, you probably have to edit the playback settings.
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