Domine Iesu Christe

This is a short composition I am writing for a school assignment - the task was to compose a piece of music which focuses on "divine inspiration", drawn from an extract of sacred text.

It's my first time writing any type of choral work, so ANY constructive criticism will be most welcome!

I have tried to imitate some of the Renaissance styles of sacred music, and incorporating slight elements of Gregorian chant. There is no specific structure - the setting of this piece would most likely be in some sort of chapel or nice echoey acoustic-al (I'm making up words) place, where the harmonies can clash in a nice way :P

I apologise for the horrible sound of Sibelius singing! It's horrible =(

Edit: I just realised that the midi file does not include my a tempo instruction; the majority of the piece should be played at the beginning tempo.

Divine Inspiration Composition.sib

Divine Inspiration Composition.mid

Divine Inspiration Composition.pdf

I'm sad...nothing? You can tell me it's horrible if you like, but it'd be nice to get some sort of feedback >_> It's been a week since I posted it now...

Ok, let me have the honor of being the first one:

1) It's clear that this is just an exercise in something. This is music that has not yet matured into something complete and presentable.

2) I can't quite read the painfully small scorch score. But it's obvious there are some inappropriate points in there.

3) You have some nice points, for example the climax at m.17, but there's no development...

Keep writing! That was far from horrible. Just not there...yet.

The scorch score's painfully small? I'm very sorry :blink:

Thank you so much for the feedback! Yeah, it's not something I spent a lot of time on, just trying out some new things here and there, really. Thank you thank you :D

unfortunately, I don't have sibelius, and scorch doesn't seem to like Mozilla. I'd listen to the MIDI, but since it's vocal music I don't really see the point of listening to the music without the text setting itself.

Awww thank you for ...attempting to look at it anyway! :P

is there no way to perhaps make a PDF file?

Airewindel, the top and bottom parts are beautiful and fit together excellently, but your middle soprano part seems a little haphazard. Just out of interest, was this an exercise of some sort, or did you write the whole thing?

is there no way to perhaps make a PDF file?

Okay, got it! :D Took me a while to figure out how to do, but yeah it works now *___*

Zetetic: Oooh you feel that the top and bottom fit really nicely? ;) Thanks! I'm not sure about the middle part - what exactly do you mean by "haphazard"? If you mean the clashes, I did it on purpose. Of course, I've never written for voice before, so I don't really know whether those clashes will sound nice - call this an experimental composition, maybe >_>;;

And yep, I wrote the entire thing.

Okay, got it! :D Took me a while to figure out how to do, but yeah it works now *___*

Zetetic: Oooh you feel that the top and bottom fit really nicely? :) Thanks! I'm not sure about the middle part - what exactly do you mean by "haphazard"? If you mean the clashes, I did it on purpose. Of course, I've never written for voice before, so I don't really know whether those clashes will sound nice - call this an experimental composition, maybe >_>;;

And yep, I wrote the entire thing.

the clashes will be beautiful, actually, much nicer than with the synthetic "voices".

they're not necessarily EASY to sing though hehehe

unfortunately, my Latin isn't very good, but I suspect that there are a few spots where the prosody isn't quite "on".

I really liked this, it had an ALMOST but-not-quite Gregorian feel to it (nice use of parallel 5ths there). you certainly brought out a strong devotional feel to the music.

the clashes will be beautiful, actually, much nicer than with the synthetic "voices".

they're not necessarily EASY to sing though hehehe

Thank you *___* you just made me happy! :toothygrin:

But lol, yep you're right, I didn't pay a single bit of attention as to how easy it would be to sing, except for just making sure that the parts were generally going to the next-closest note...

Yeah I wasn't too sure about the latin either. I did ask a friend to help me with the grammar, but I'm sure there's still little bits that are wonky. This piece does have a Gregorian-type feel doesn't it? It reminds me of fusing old and new stuff together :D Whether it works is another issue >_>;;

Why is it Iesu instead of Jesu?

Kind of reminds me of Eric Whitacre because of the clashes. It also reminds me of the piece called "Patronus Light" (by John Williams) from the third Harry Potter movie. Even with the midi, I think it sounds beautiful. Some more dynamics would do it wonders, though.

It's Iesu because I took the text from a french-latin source, according to some of the latin experts I went to. I myself have absolutely no idea about things latin :happy:

Thank you, the link to Patronus Light makes me feel immensely honoured! Dynamics would be useful, yes...I'm trying to get a group at school to perform it, and it'll be easier doing expression then ;) Thank you for commenting!

I liked it, and you should keep it as it is.

However, next time try this:

I liked the introduction of some chromaticism towards the end of the piece, but I felt like perhaps there could have been more earlier (this coming from a highly chromatic composer, i acknowledge). The same pitch material tends to get a little tiresome after a little while, especially at such a slow tempo. Otherwise, I like the overall conception of the piece. Maybe if you looked into the Latin language just a little bit before the next time you make a setting, you'll be able to accentuate every word appropriately (which is important to do when setting a language that barely anyone will immediately understand).

Thank you for your suggestions :happy: I agree, the same pitch material did get a bit boring after a while, although I didn't have much idea of how to change it but not change it at the same time...does that make sense? As in, I didn't know how to change it that it sounded better yet conveyed the same general feeling.

About the latin...haha, I think that's the last time I'm setting Latin text to music! I'm so horribly hopeless at other languages that I think I'll stick to English...