Motet "Ave Maria" in F minor.

Following suit after my latest video's warm reception by my dear audience, I have decided to continue composing vocal works and rendering them through means of the choral rendering website Cantāmus.

Interestingly enough (mostly given the fact that I am not that devout myself), religious texts appear to be among my best options when it comes to this kind of contrapunctal vocal works in Latin (though this need not necessarily always be the case, for more secular lyrics might as well be included on one of these compositions of mine later in the future).

Enjoy!

YouTube video link: 

This is wonderful and I love the vocal rendering.  I'll have to check out this website!

Marvelous contrapuntal writing as expected from you. I'm just bugged that the division of the syllables is wrong. It ought to be gra-ti-a, mu-li-e-ri-bus, and de-i, but some of those syllables are combined here. Not really a huge deal, but I studied Latin for 3 years in school and attend a Tridentine Mass, which is all in Latin, (and the choir sings almost exclusively Gregorian Chant and renaissance motets, it's very nice), so for me it's a little awkward hearing the wrong syllables. Again, musically very well done.

edit: upon second listen I have noticed between the tenor and bass voices instances of hidden octaves (such as bar 7-8), and in the latter half of the work the tenor and alto aren’t as independent from each other, with at one point moving down in parallel 4ths to cadence on C major (bar 36-37), (which in this case I believe to be acceptable since they’re not perfect fourths), and at another point moving in parallel 3rds for 2 whole measures. Parallel 3rds and 6ths are of course allowed in voice leading, but for so long they lose independence. Overall it’s fairly solid counterpoint, but as I’ve analyzed your contrapuntal music more, I’ve found they’re voices are often more dependent than they could be, and that applies a little here too.

On 11/17/2023 at 5:00 AM, ComposaBoi said:

[...] I'm just bugged that the division of the syllables is wrong. It ought to be gra-ti-a, mu-li-e-ri-bus, and de-i, but some of those syllables are combined here. Not really a huge deal, [...] for me it's a little awkward hearing the wrong syllables. [...]

I do have to say I was tempted to dismiss this observation as a mere nitpick when I first read your comments, even in my awareness of the relatively limited amount of diphthongs in both Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin. Indeed, in the first two cases, the conjoining of syllables you outright sanctioned as "wrong" could only be feasibly explained by the use of synalephae, though the third one is actually attested in monosyllabic words such as the interjection "hei". Just as you pointed out, it really is no big deal, and in fact, I would like to argue that it looks and sounds better this way, lest the note on which said syllables coalesce require subdivision upon splitting the synalepha. Of course, I may appreciate the aesthetic subjectivity of this matter, but I could not leave my choices on that regard go undefended. I did, however, include a slight modification in bar 22, so as to point out how the otherwise merged syllables remain unlinked, so long as they correspond to different consecutive notes. Happy now?

Regarding the contrapuntal flaws you indicated, the most blatant ones have been accordingly corrected. Thank you for your criticisms.

Beautiful motet and exellent counterpoint 🙂

Oh God, It's absolutely mesmerizing