Do not stand at my grave and weep

I decided to go onto cpdl.org today for the first time, I was so overwhelmed by shear amount of texts available, which was nice since I had been struggling to find a text to write for. Well I found this one, and it was pleasing to read so I decided to make a (hopefully) pleasing to listen to piece. Its a pretty simple melody, but the harmonies get a little interesting at times.

When judging my piece, if you could have a focus on, my harmonies and how effective they are, whether or not my bass part at 22-25 is too difficult for such a simple piece, if the tenor and bass crossing on measure 7 is acceptable and also if my piano reduction is good the way it is rn. Feel free to mention anything else you feel like, I wanted to set a guide on things I'm not certain about in this piece. 

Edited January 27, 20197 yr by Some Guy That writes Music

Because of its length it works fine. I don't think the bass at bar 22 is difficult. I wasn't sure what you meant about bar 9 - what you meant about crossing. I was expecting to see the tenor taking the lower part but it didn't....so? From a cursory glance the piano reduction follows the 4 parts but I notice you slip in an extra part here and there and it doesn't - e.g. bar 36 not too happy with that. At that point is there any reason why it shouldn't keep to the voice harmony?

All in all, good amateur singers should manage it. 

Naturally the text calls for the minor key so in a concert of part songs/madrigals it would need contrast with something "happier."

7 hours ago, Quinn said:

I wasn't sure what you meant about bar 9 - what you meant about crossing. I was expecting to see the tenor taking the lower part but it didn't....so? From a cursory glance the piano reduction follows the 4 parts but I notice you slip in an extra part here and there

 

I mistyped and actually meant m. 7. And those extra part in the piano were also errors. I guess I didn’t notice them. Thanks for your time

This has an almost early-American feel to it that I like very much.  

I'm curious:  why did you place the quarter notes on the downbeat instead of making them pickups?  Having them on the third beat of the measure and the half notes on the downbeat would match the metric accent of the poem better, it seems to me.  Was there a particular reason?  

10 hours ago, J. Lee Graham said:

This has an almost early-American feel to it that I like very much.  

I'm curious:  why did you place the quarter notes on the downbeat instead of making them pickups?  Having them on the third beat of the measure and the half notes on the downbeat would match the metric accent of the poem better, it seems to me.  Was there a particular reason?  

 

There was two reason, I wanted both the first and second beat to be nearly equal, and second, I wanted beat 3 to lead into beat one, sort’of like a cresc on each measure. I felt like if I notated it otherwise it wouldn’t send the same message, and choir directors would assume it’s a bit more boring that it is.

3 hours ago, Some Guy That writes Music said:

13 hours ago, J. Lee Graham said:

 

There was two reason, I wanted both the first and second beat to be nearly equal, and second, I wanted beat 3 to lead into beat one, sort’of like a cresc on each measure. I felt like if I notated it otherwise it wouldn’t send the same message, and choir directors would assume it’s a bit more boring that it is.

Ah, I can see what you were going for.  This not something a machine can adequately convey.  Makes sense.  It's a nice piece!  I just didn't understand what you were doing.  

It's an interesting feel with the quarter note on beat one. I'd like to hear an actual human performance of this as I feel that they'd get the point across better than midi. Good work!