Kyrie eleison setting

Hello! I've just realised I've been very absent from here for a few months, so here's a setting of the Kyrie I've done today in a couple of hours. It's very rough at the moment, so please excuse some score presentation issues! I'm regretting writing it as a reduction, and I think I will eventually present it as an open score, given all the different melismata in different voices.

You handle vocal writing very well; each part stays comfortably within a singable range. I am concerned, however, about the harmonies you've used here. For the most part, the harmonies remain contracted, separated by 2nds alone. This is certainly allowable and, at times, effective, but I wonder if using them here muddies up the sound too much... Your harmonic language, too, is a bit confusing. Is there method you use to choose chords?

The rhythms are also problematic, I think. The alternating 5/8 and 6/8 time signatures don't really lend themselves well to the natural cadence of the text, and the truncation of words mid-syllable (eleison --> ...ison, etc.) only adds to the difficulty.

What effect are you trying to achieve with this work? Is it intended to be worshipful and reverent (like the text)? Or is it being written for a professional choir to showcase their abilities to perform music of a more eclectic taste?

Hi @paoscomi,

As @Tónskáld noted what is the purpose of using consistent seconds here? I'm just curious about that since I like its sound.

Will you have the Kyrie Eleison return as in traditional mass setting? A binary setting is  quite different haha! Also Kyrie is known for its melismatic singing since the syllables are too few for an elaborated passage, and I feel like the syllabic setting here undermining the possible development of the piece. 

Thanks for sharing!

Henry