I love you, for SSAATTBB Choir

A piece I've had in my back pocket for a while, that I finally am posting because of Cantai. I wrote this piece because I was having a tough time connecting to poems, and after years of not writing for voice I wanted to just do something. So I wrote the words myself, as if it was for my fiancée.

I love you.pdf

I listened a few times to this piece and I like it. I for instance really appreciate the planing harmonies constructed by the voices. I love the structure of the piece with the charming central section.

If you are planning to have it sung by a real choir, I have a few doubts about the choice of vocal ranges. You are asking your sopranos to reach a low A in bar 14 and to reach a high B in bars 45-46, that is an extension over two octaves. While there are certainly sopranos comfortable with a high B natural, they may not be very happy (or expressive) while singing in the very low register two octaves lower, even if doubled by the altos.

The tenors, even when divided, often sing in a medium register, more fit to baritones (especially T2). Especially in the more expressive parts of the piece, you may ask T1 to sing higher for a longer moment and reach a high G# that remains comfortable and sure and keep the T2 in the register that you are currently using for T1.

Beware of the deep registers for the basses that may sound cavernous and give results that are not what I think you would expect. If you are not lucky, a low E may not sound tender and elegantly controlled, as required by the piece.

Concerning the writing style, for instance in bar 51 the following bars, how is the divisi expected to work with T1/T2? If the quarter notes have to be sung by both tenors, I would put a second stem oriented downwards.

I spotted a few parallel octaves between the parts, such as in bar 13 between the S/A (that are singing together given the very low register of the S) and the B1. If it is intentional I am not shocked by it 😊

I wonder if the triple divisi in the basses is really required for the last note.

7 hours ago, DarwinNE said:

I listened a few times to this piece and I like it. I for instance really appreciate the planing harmonies constructed by the voices. I love the structure of the piece with the charming central section.

If you are planning to have it sung by a real choir, I have a few doubts about the choice of vocal ranges. You are asking your sopranos to reach a low A in bar 14 and to reach a high B in bars 45-46, that is an extension over two octaves. While there are certainly sopranos comfortable with a high B natural, they may not be very happy (or expressive) while singing in the very low register two octaves lower, even if doubled by the altos.

The tenors, even when divided, often sing in a medium register, more fit to baritones (especially T2). Especially in the more expressive parts of the piece, you may ask T1 to sing higher for a longer moment and reach a high G# that remains comfortable and sure and keep the T2 in the register that you are currently using for T1.

Beware of the deep registers for the basses that may sound cavernous and give results that are not what I think you would expect. If you are not lucky, a low E may not sound tender and elegantly controlled, as required by the piece.

Concerning the writing style, for instance in bar 51 the following bars, how is the divisi expected to work with T1/T2? If the quarter notes have to be sung by both tenors, I would put a second stem oriented downwards.

I spotted a few parallel octaves between the parts, such as in bar 13 between the S/A (that are singing together given the very low register of the S) and the B1. If it is intentional I am not shocked by it 😊

I wonder if the triple divisi in the basses is really required for the last note.

wonderful feedback! I appreciate the fact you've listened to it multiple times. Thank you for the corrections, I'm going to fix the stems on 51 (and the same thing in the altos in the beginning). I have accepted the parallel octaves, wait until you find all the 5ths in the innervoices. I do agree that the tenor 2s are a little low at times, but I'm not sure if I could do much to fix that at this point.

I wrote this with a specific 40 person choir in mind https://open.spotify.com/track/63UKqUzlYZmKgsIu8UEw0F?si=7c7f696d83dd4501.

I understand the range of sopranos is a little crazy, but I don't intend all the sopranos to sing every note. Especially on their low notes, I kept the sopranos in on measure 14, I felt as though the sopranos should know that the [e] on pickup to 15 is not an entrance, but the continuation of the phrase. I don't even care if the sopranos sing the low notes, but I do care that they not "come in". I'm not sure how else I could make this clarification without it becoming an unnecessary burden to the eyes.

For the low bass low notes, that is my voice part so I felt comfortable with what I wrote. I do sort of wonder if m. 6 will work out how it sounds right now, since it is not a very harmonically anchored chord. I can see how the 3 way split could be overkill, I think that last chord could be a little more balanced, especially with the tenors and sopranos being tutti while the basses and altos are divsi.