Pie Jesu from Deathraider's Requiem

1. Technique? What technique?!

2. 4-5 Hours to compose this piece.

3. Ternary

4. Using the timbre of the organ without conflicts with the other instruments (I probably failed at this still).

5. Soprano Solo with accompaniment by Flute, French Horn, Harp, Organ, and String Ensemble, a movement of the Requiem I am working on currently.

PDF and MIDI please, try to figure it out.

Edit: It has come to my attention that these things are not required to post compositions; however, my copy of Sibelius is not compatable with .mus files, and I would appreciate some other type of file a great deal. I did not mean to sound rude in this request, I am just very interested in seeing this composition; especially given the other feedback.

Well, I think this is a lovely setting of this text. It is perfectly set with harp, flute, strings and organ (though the organ can be overpowering at times) though I don't really feel the horn in this setting. Perhaps it is something that might grow on me, but for now it is almost intrusive.

You should look into some of your voice leading and identify any awkward jumps in the soprano line. The highest note you have written is a Bb, and it should be approached well in order for it to sound perfect. I think, if sung by a talented soprano, you'll so alright here, but you should write in more phrase markings and slurring for the melismas to fully understand what you're looking for.

I think an addition of the chorus during certain interludes would be very effective. It seems at the moment that you are merely taking up time from one section to the next. If you have the chorus come in, it will give them something to do through that movement, as well as support the soloist line.

Your sense of prosidy concerns me slightly. You should go through and speak the text once, then speak the text on the rhythms you've established. If there are any serious differences, you should rethink some of the word stresses and rhythms so you have the most effective text setting. In a piece like this, text is the most important part. Read through and translate every word, then underline the important words. Those will be the words you want to lean into or accent. Also, I don't think, in any edition I've ever seen, anyone has ever used the text "O Requiem" and I don't think you should either.

Writing a requiem is a very ambicious project. I hope you are prepared to throw away a lot of clever writing for the sake of the text. I also hope you have done a fair amount of research on the text itself. It can never be too important.

OK, I'm posting mp3 and pdf (I can't get the midi to work, really):

pie jesu.mp3 - 4.10MB

pie jesu.pdf - 0.14MB

About the horn, what could I do to fix it.

I definitely know what your talking about with word emphasis. I'll work on that some more.

Not sure about adding the chorus, because I wanted this to be a solo movement. Is there anything else I might do to make those parts better?

Thank you for uploading those, I really appreciate it. The piece is very nice, you really captured the text. I also think you did a great job with orchestration, I really liked the flutes. I don't think the organ clashed at all with the other instruments, it was all very smoothly done. You should be proud of this piece.

"Deathraider's Requiem". hahahaha. sorry have to laugh at that title.

True story :P

Well yeah, it'll really be my name, but... Deathraider was too fitting. Don't suppose you'd actually like to comment Canzano?

it really is a fantastic name

The instruments sit admirably in your hands! I'm a little doubtful about the placing of some of the syllables, and a few melisma notes are possibly too long for the high pitch. It would have been nice to hear, as well, more of a recapitulation rather than restatement in the last "Pie Jesu" section, with more of the orchestra returning, a la Faure?

But lovely, by all means. The "pie jesu" motif fits perfectly.

Thanks, and I know I need to rework it a little. What brought you to this ancient thread, though?