Requiem in Bb major - Quam Olim II

Yes, do check out my old-school Requiem!  It is not death-obsessed, but rather a hopeful Requiem in a major key.  The Introitus is Romantic, but it goes Neoclassical pretty soon after.  I broke up the text just like Mozart did, and in the manuscript even had a funny where I wrote, in the exact place Mozart croaked, his apparent last written words:  Quam Olim DC...da capo.  

Actually, start here!

Requiem In Bb Major-Quam Olim II Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight

The counterpoint is very impressive, so well done!

I would have liked to see how the lyrics align with the notes, but I'm not sure if note flight is capable of that. I would definitely recommend musescore if you can fit it on your computer. It is free after all.

The main issue is how you're writing for your forces. Violin octaves are a little unreasonable for a tutti section. It's too difficult without a good justification. I would either NOT have the octaves, or have the violins divisi. And the voice ranges are going into risky registers. There's a good short guide "ranges for choral singers: a guide for composers" by Chris Hutchings that's literally just a page and tells you pretty much all you need for writing for choral voices. You can probably find it online.

43 minutes ago, ComposaBoi said:

I would definitely recommend musescore if you can fit it on your computer. It is free after all.

I would second that.

I can't really get a good impression of your piece from Noteflight, the playback is too ropey. (That may be why you're not getting many reviews.)
MuseScore would give a much better rendition of your score, even with no tweaks whatsoever.

Wow!  Some surprisingly good counterpoint, though it's difficult to see how it will all fit together without the text underlay.  Consciously or not, you've taken a cue from Niccolo Jommelli (1714-1774) in scoring your Requiem for voices and strings alone...his Requiem (1756) was the most popular and often requested of its day, until Mozart wrote his in 1791.  The sparing orchestration makes it more likely to get played.  

I agree with ComposaBoi on just about everything he said. 

Measure 11:  The tenor part goes dangerously low, down to B below tenor C; consider a D instead if it won't mess up your counterpoint. 

Measure 17:  Awkward for Violin I - the C on beat 3-1/2 is icky to try to reach down to there, it means shifting a third down the fingerboard for one note, then shifting back up again; consider the G above instead.

Measure 31:  Odd ending, it seems to me.  There is no third in the chord, and while that's not without precedent, I don't feel like it works here.  Consider an E-flat as the final note in the Soprano and Violin I.  

Show us more of this as you have it!  Well done!  

Thanks for the compliments!  I definitely know Noteflight has problems, and one of them is that it does not do well with vocal music!  At age 56, I don't really have the energy to learn a whole new program.  The first half or so of my Requiem was written 2010-2012 or so, then I put it aside for years, finishing this Spring!  Well, the final movement is cyclical, like the part of Mozart's Requiem Süssmayr completed, and I have to transpose a D Minor fugue to Bb Major, write a coda...this Fall has been really crazy, but I'll at least complete the manuscript some day when I have the energy, because it would be pretty weird to die with an unfinished Requiem partially modeled on the Mozart, but really that last movement I could do in a day.

By the way, Noteflight either does not count external views, or doesn't update views.  I get most of my views here, admittedly more for instrumental and piano music than vocal...

On 11/21/2025 at 3:08 AM, ComposaBoi said:

The counterpoint is very impressive, so well done!

I would have liked to see how the lyrics align with the notes, but I'm not sure if note flight is capable of that. I would definitely recommend musescore if you can fit it on your computer. It is free after all.

The main issue is how you're writing for your forces. Violin octaves are a little unreasonable for a tutti section. It's too difficult without a good justification. I would either NOT have the octaves, or have the violins divisi. And the voice ranges are going into risky registers. There's a good short guide "ranges for choral singers: a guide for composers" by Chris Hutchings that's literally just a page and tells you pretty much all you need for writing for choral voices. You can probably find it online.

 

Those octaves ARE divisi; I just don't mess with musical directions or even bowings on Noteflight.  It's hard enough for me to just enter the notes!  My manuscript has everything, though I'm not sure I even messed with that in the ms of this particular number!  Vocally, this is beyond the means of the average church choir, obviously I would think! 😆

On 11/23/2025 at 1:28 AM, J. Lee Graham said:

Wow!  Some surprisingly good counterpoint, though it's difficult to see how it will all fit together without the text underlay.  Consciously or not, you've taken a cue from Niccolo Jommelli (1714-1774) in scoring your Requiem for voices and strings alone...his Requiem (1756) was the most popular and often requested of its day, until Mozart wrote his in 1791.  The sparing orchestration makes it more likely to get played.  

I agree with ComposaBoi on just about everything he said. 

Measure 11:  The tenor part goes dangerously low, down to B below tenor C; consider a D instead if it won't mess up your counterpoint. 

Measure 17:  Awkward for Violin I - the C on beat 3-1/2 is icky to try to reach down to there, it means shifting a third down the fingerboard for one note, then shifting back up again; consider the G above instead.

Measure 31:  Odd ending, it seems to me.  There is no third in the chord, and while that's not without precedent, I don't feel like it works here.  Consider an E-flat as the final note in the Soprano and Violin I.  

Show us more of this as you have it!  Well done!  

 

Measure 11:  low B shouldn't be too much of a problem, for a good tenor!  Measure 17, advice taken!  Yes, the C was awkward and might have been an entry mistake...I like the open fifth ending; reminds me of the Kyrie from the Mozart Requiem.