Preludio

I’m trying out this software that ‘sings’, and perhaps it’s time to get started on a composition I’ve wanted to write for a long time.

This is a test to see how the orchestra (with its rather unconventional choice of instruments and sections) fits in with the harmonic system I’ve used, the vocals, and the mix of English and Latin.

Is it worth it?

Preludio.pdf

I like your theme here very much. It would give you lots of interesting room for development. As for the voice software, I do think it can really help people understand how a piece will sound all put together. Even among professionals working in the arts, not everyone is good at visualizing a finished product, so anything that pushes a demo towards accurate representation of the performed work can be helpful for people checking out your work.

1. How much work and expense is it to put this extra layer into the recording?

2. For something like this, where you have orchestra plus soloists and choir, it may be more worth it than for smaller works, because if you didn't, it might be hard to choose an instrument to represent the voices that would stand out in the mix, particularly for someone who was trying to read across the full orchestral score and pay attention to everything at once.

Looking forward to seeing the development of this project!

Thank you.

The thing is, I never intended for this to actually be performed. I only do it because I enjoy composing and it feels like a sort of ‘natural compulsion’ to express certain emotions and so on.

But I always try to ensure that what I write is realistic, for any instrument or voice—in other words, playable—and, if I can manage it, idiomatic

The vocals with the lyrics are almost effortless. Thanks to a piece of software called Cantai, with which you simply have to write the notes, add the lyrics and choose the type of singer. It was tricky to set up at first because it’s very new, but now it works really well. In other words, you work in the same notation programme (Dorico in my case) without having to switch to any other. That’s why I decided to give it a go.

This is a project I want to be in several parts (not too long, as I get tired). And it’s a sort of Humanist Requiem, in which there are no religious references but rather references to human beings, nature, destiny, light, etc....

The texts are a mix of Latin classics and phrases drawn from T.S. Eliot, Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, Byron, Keats, Sylvia Plath and... Joni Mitchell!! (because I adore her).

The orchestra is deliberately unusual and sombre (no violins, oboes or high-pitched instruments, but others with great colour such as the celesta, which is rather ethereal).

I am using 20th-century contemporary musical languages.

In fact, this mini-prelude (which I have expanded slightly) is composed entirely using serial atonal technique, specifically Stravinsky’s rotational arrays (who, in turn, composed a Requiem using this technique towards the end of his life).