Ave Maria and Adoramus Te, Christe.

The following two compositions can be sung a capella, particulary Adoramus Te, Christe. An organ accompaniment is very possible, but is left up to the organist. I have gone to a great length with Ave Maria in terms of text setting and it is very contrapuntal. I am still struggling with fugal writing and this is one of my attempts at improving my counterpoint. Let me know what you think!

Adoramus Te, Christe.MID

Ave_Maria.MID

Unfortunately, your great time spent on text setting for the Ave Maria will never be fully appreciated unless you post a score!

Your pieces are nice but could use a little work. My commemts are more about the Ave maria. I was just wondering if you've had the chance to study counterpoint? You use a lot of imitation and imitation is just a part of counterpoint. Counterpoint is also more that just various moving parts leading to harmonic situations.

Your pieces are still a good effort. :)

There are threads on the site dealing with couterpoint and fugue. Check them out you will like what they have to offer. I'm sure it will help you with your goals. Also, there are various "teachers" available on this site that could help you out in the "Lessons" section. :)

Here are the scores. Thank you for the replies. To be honest, I have only just gotten through second species counterpoint - and so definately have some studying to do. Ave Maria was a a bit too ambitious in that respect. I have also experimented with polytexture. Any thoughts on that?

Adoramus Te, Christe.MUS

AveMaria1.MUS

Here are the scores. Thank you for the replies. To be honest, I have only just gotten through second species counterpoint - and so definately have some studying to do. Ave Maria was a a bit too ambitious in that respect. I have also experimented with polytexture. Any thoughts on that?

are you using a version of Finale or just NotePad?

You might want to change your lyrics into REAL lyrics, by using the lyrics tool rather than the text tool. The lyrics tool allows text to be attached to specific notes, and will follow those notes if you modify them. Lyrics will also appear in both page view as well as scroll view.

there are some errors in your setting of the latin text:

measure 7: "ple-na" requieres two notes

you are adding syllables that do not exist in the poem "Et benedicta tu..." there is no "et".

"in" is one syllable... not "i----n"

"mu-li-e-ri-bus" is five syllables

I'm not sure which version of the text you are using.

"Ave Mar

Ok... these are good. However... they are both very blocky. There isn't any counterpoint or points of interest in the Adoramus Te until closer to the end. I felt like I could have used a build up. I mean, like, a huge crescendo to a point and then just let it back off; a climax, if you will is what I would have liked to see.

In the Ave Maria, the second measure, the first chord is out of style to my ears. If you are trying to stay relatively classical, I always think that the Major chord with the fourth in the bass is more of a modern chord. I may be wrong however, it just sounds out of place. Moving on to the middle section, I thoroughly enjoyed it. At least until measure 47, I would rather have kept that more thick than just letting it all go off to solo part. I did like when all of the parts started coming back in, though. I also would have liked a larger ending.

All that aside, it was a fairly good piece.

Keep composing

-Morivou-

Qccowboy,

Thank you. Yes, I had problems with text - i'll be using the lyrics tool from now on =). I did add extra "et"s, but you are right it's a bit of a stretch - i'll get rid of it. I have used the first part of the text omitting "Sancta Mar

i wont join the discussion around technicalities as i am not entitled to. but just as listener i think that this is a beautiful and serious effort. simple harmony yet very effective and sensitive, showing beautiful moments and some austere grandeur very fit to text's overall mood. congrats and keep composing!

I like it. Especially the fugue of the Ave Maria. Very good!!!

I won't criticize the counterpoint or text setting in the Ave Maria since I understand you are still in the process of figuring out the techniques. And I probably couldn't do any better.

I really enjoyed the variety of textures you employed, some more contrapuntal than others. "Absolute" counterpoint can make for some very boring choral music in my opinion, so I enjoyed how you alternated between counterpoint and homophony. I think many students of counterpoint today don't realize the subtlety involved in mixing counterpoint and homophony and the various levels of independence and interdependence in between. So even if you're still working out issues in counterpoint and harmony (whether your ultimate goal is Renaissance or common-practice or something modern) I really liked the textures. [Note: All this refers to the Ave Maria.]