First Counterpoint Attempt (plus score feedback)

This is my first attempt at sustained 4-part counterpoint.  How did I do?

Audio – https://soundcloud.com/guy-shahar/track-16-vocal-quartet-satb?in=guy-shahar/sets/new-compositions-2024&si=d2d57780dc6f4ae7a75b7ea8a5dbdbe3&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Score – https://heartfulhealing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Track-16-Score.pdf

I don’t usually ask for feedback on the score, as I barely read music and tend to just rely on the one Cubase generates.  It’s way out of my comfort zone, but I think it’s probably time for me to get the hang of the basics of scoring, so I’ve got Dorico and have been trying (hard) to get it to help me.  How does this one read?  What adjustments should I bear in mind for scoring my next piece?

Hi @guy500!

Your music is very chromatic and richly tonal!  It visits so many different key centers that they're difficult to count.  Unfortunately, it's because of this that giving you advice about your score would be very difficult, as the constant changes in key make your chromaticism difficult to navigate.  It's hard to give the proper enharmonic spellings of notes specific and unique to each given harmonic situation when the whole system is flawed in the first place.  For example, if your tonal center is C# (as in measure 110) then you should use sharps instead of flats to express all your scale degrees (such as the Eb in measure 110 - should be D#).  If you're in C# minor then this is easier, with only 4 sharps in the key signature (C#, D#, F# and G#), but if you're in the major mode there's 3 more sharps (E#, A# and B#) which is also why your F in measure 111 should be an E#.  This is just a small taste of the meticulousness that it would take to clean up your score and make it readable by an actual choir.

Another musical quirk you seem to have (or perhaps it's a result of working in a DAW/Cubase) is that your phrases are rarely connected and song-like/lyrical.  They are constantly interrupted by what in my opinion are unnecessary rests that break the flow of the music.  Of course, it would also be unusual if the, on the flip side, the choir sang constantly without any room to breathe.

Btw - in order to be able to listen to your music on Soundcloud, I had to go through an annoying process of creating an account, which I never had to do before.  Has Soundcloud recently changed or something?  I think it would be way more convenient if in the future you just uploaded your mp3's here to each post you make.  Thanks for sharing this piece!

14 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @guy500!

Your music is very chromatic and richly tonal!  It visits so many different key centers that they're difficult to count.  Unfortunately, it's because of this that giving you advice about your score would be very difficult, as the constant changes in key make your chromaticism difficult to navigate.  It's hard to give the proper enharmonic spellings of notes specific and unique to each given harmonic situation when the whole system is flawed in the first place.  For example, if your tonal center is C# (as in measure 110) then you should use sharps instead of flats to express all your scale degrees (such as the Eb in measure 110 - should be D#).  If you're in C# minor then this is easier, with only 4 sharps in the key signature (C#, D#, F# and G#), but if you're in the major mode there's 3 more sharps (E#, A# and B#) which is also why your F in measure 111 should be an E#.  This is just a small taste of the meticulousness that it would take to clean up your score and make it readable by an actual choir.

Another musical quirk you seem to have (or perhaps it's a result of working in a DAW/Cubase) is that your phrases are rarely connected and song-like/lyrical.  They are constantly interrupted by what in my opinion are unnecessary rests that break the flow of the music.  Of course, it would also be unusual if the, on the flip side, the choir sang constantly without any room to breathe.

Btw - in order to be able to listen to your music on Soundcloud, I had to go through an annoying process of creating an account, which I never had to do before.  Has Soundcloud recently changed or something?  I think it would be way more convenient if in the future you just uploaded your mp3's here to each post you make.  Thanks for sharing this piece!

 

Thanks - yes I've had feedback like that about the rests and have since tidied it up - consolidated some of the rests and replaced others with breath marks.  I hadn't realised how difficult all these tiny rests would make it for the singers.

It might be a bit harsh to say "the whole system is flawed".  As it's written atonally (as opposed to tonally but constantly switching tonal centres), I understand there are different and much simpler conventions for enharmonics - but I'm using them for the first time so wasn't sure I was getting it right.  It seems that there is no key signature, and the expected enharmonics seem to revolve around ensuring horizontal readability (e.g. avoiding where possible consecutive different notes in the same line).  I understand that if looked at through a tonal lens, it might seem overwhelming, but it's not a tonally written piece.

I could share the web page where the track in embedded so that it's much easier to hear.  I'll bear that in mind for the future, but I'm not sure I'm going to be posting any more music on forums.  While I've had some excellent support and advice that's really thrown light on my blind spots and helped me to move forwards, there's also been (not here) plenty of small-minded, finger-wagging abuse, which is really disheartening and demotivating, and sadly, I don't think it's worth it anymore.  This seems unfortunately to be the norm, and I've come across several composers who've either stopped sharing or given up composing all together because of it.