Ave Maris Stella

Hello ! 

I'm working on a piece for baryton and viola da gamba and I'm thinking of a lot of questions and suggestions : 

1) I wanted to take the traditional  modal gregorian chant of "Ave Maris Stella " and use it by addind a tonal accompaignment realized by the viola da gamba but the questions I would like to have an answer for are : 

- Can we recognize the gregorian chant in the tonal part ? 

- The accompaignment by the viola, isn't it a little bit boring  ? 

- The global structure of the piece, does it have some coherence ? 

- The modulations, aren't they a little abrupt ? 

You can also give all the suggestions and questions you want. I'll read them with pleasure ! 

William. 

I think most of this piece sounds good. The placement of the choir and viola is fine.  I do believe the tempo is too fast. And some of the sustains should be drawn out. Also, I would lower the volume of the viola for most of the piece when the choir is present. The piece itself sounds great if you wanted to leave it as is. 

I agree with atlantis’s points. I think the tempo is too fast and the viola de gamba too loud when with the choir.

Around two minutes in, when the viola was modulating and played the tritones, it was nice, but I feel the sequence repeated a few too many times.

Around five and a half minutes in, the piece becomes more modern in harmony and modulation, almost sounding atonal, which is fine, but makes the piece a little less consistent, since most of it is quite baroque in sound.

That’s about all I have to say.