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Writing a song not sure if the choruses sound too empty? it's like chorus 1 connected to 2.

This is a Christmas carol for SATB chorus, based on William Shakespeare's poem "Song of the Holly"

I just finished up my Christmas composition project. Here's a two minute piece on the topic of "you need to define a thing to be able to think about a thing, so that you have a word to attach your thoughts to." Apparently blue is the last color to gain a word in any language. There are still languages that haven't evolved a word for the concept of "blueness" yet. One theory is that color words appear as we need to be able to distinguish between things that we want to buy, sell, or trade: "Yeah, I can make you a new deer skinning knife. What color do you want the handle to be?" "Blue." Because blue paints and dyes are relatively difficult to produce, compared with other colors, cultures don't develop a word for "blue" until they are pretty advanced. The cultures that don't have a word for it, interestingly have a hard time seeing and thinking about it as well. Scientists have done experiments where they have say, three green squares and one blue one, and ask these language users to pick out the square that is not like the others, and people have a very difficult time with the task. It seems that our brains need a word to attach a concept to in order to think about the concept. We need to think using our interior monologue. Actual language has to be running inside or outside of our heads in order for us to think in any meaningful way. It's an explanation for why you can't do basic math and listen to someone having a conversation involving numbers at the same time. So get out there and learn the names of things, any kinds of things, and your basic thought processes will deepen. I'd suggest that you open the score while you listen so you can see how the text fits the notes, or click the youtube link below. It has the score scrolling along behind the music. And I used a harp sound instead of piano, because all the piano sound fonts that come with my composition software are pretty clunky, but I do intend this to be piano accompaniment. Thanks for listening and I'd love to hear any thoughts about this piece! Furtak-Semantic.mid

A couple of friends asked me to combine the choral harmonization that one had created with a bass solo section for the other to sing and add an accompaniment for "O Holy Night." Here's what I came up with. I don't usually do arrangements, but it was kind of fun to have an assignment: use these choral parts, use this solo, put it all in this key, I like the accompaniment from this other arrangement, can you do something like that? But fancier? It feels a little plain... Hopefully to be sung at a couple of Christmas concerts by the group that the choral parts harmonizer guy directs and the other guy is doing the solo. (: Oh Holy Night.mid

A buddy of mine (Gareth Hearne) wrote this microtonal Sanctus in what's called "porcupine temperament", and I finally got around to making a recording of it: Similarly to how western music has a circle of fifths, Porcupine Temperament has a circle of small major seconds (approximately 160 cents wide). It approximates many intervals of the harmonic series as well or better than standard western tuning, especially the 11th harmonic. (Kind of like how barbershop singers sing their minor sevenths or augmented sixths flat to be in tune with the 7th note in the harmonic series, porcupine has a "fourth"-ish thing that lines up with the 11th note in the harmonic series and it, I think, blends very nicely!) If you have any questions on the theory I'd be happy to talk about it, thanks for listening =)

Hi everyone. This is a famous chord progression used in the chorus in pop songs, in the key of C major: F - G - Em - Am - Dm - G - C :|| However, there is a variation of this chord progression. After the repeat, the bass goes as: F# - F - E - Eb - D - G - C Can anyone figure out what are these chords? I'm assuming that they are: F#dim or F#m7-5 - Fm7 - C/E - Ebdim - Dm - G - C Here is an example of the chord progression: Thank you very much!

I love this text from Pliny the Elder's "Natural History," and I think it suits itself particularly well to text painting as a choral piece. I'd love any feedback, but particularly if you notice problems with my use of the latin (I never studied latin), or can think of any changes I should make to the piano reduction (I'm not a pianist.) Thanks! sed turrigeros elephantiorum miramur umeros taurorumque colla et truces in sublime iactus, tigrium rapinas, leonum iubas, cum rerum natura nusquam magis quam in minimis tota sit. ...cum in contemplatione naturae nihil possit videri supervacuum. We marvel at the shoulders of elephants carrying turrets, and bulls tossing aside whatever stands in their way with their strong necks, at the ravening of tigers, at lions' manes, but Nature is nowhere greater than in her smallest works… in the study of the natural world, nothing is superfluous. Here is a youtube of the music with the score rolling by. You may need headphones to hear the bass part clearly because of the midi sound quality. Sorry about that.