Coventry Carol (Lully Lullay) - arrangement.

[Russell Sansom]

Hi all, 

my first posting on this site, so hold your breath and please forgive any errors of technicality in production, file posting, scoring, etc etc etc.  I'm NOT a professional composer as many of you very talented contributors are, but i'm a keen amateur.  That may inevitably be the extent of my musical career, but i'd thought i'd give it a go and get some feedback.  I'm bracing myself for the harshest and sternest words, but something positive would be good too.

 

This piece has been written for my local church choir to sing over the Christmas period.  It's not rousing, not climatic, not even going very far in its development.  It simply meant to have a lullaby type quality to set the mood in a quiet part of the carol service.  The sound quality is appalling! i'm using the Musescore program which for a beginner i think is a great tool, but the synthesized instrument and vocal sounds are not great.  I don't have a lot of other music technology at my fingertips so I hope a WAV file will suffice? The sounds i have used are not "voices" but woodwind which I think comes through clearer on the Musescore program.  But the PDF file shows how it would be for voice and keyboard.

 

Thanks again.

Russell

 

[Russell Sansom]

ok, tried it as a wave file, but it was too large, had to go for Midi, with even worse sound quality.  if any one can tell me how to save mp3 files from musescore i'd appreciate it!

[Russell Sansom]

thanks for that Jon, i'll look into it

[Russell Sansom]

mp3 file added - i hope!  i'm am absolutely USELESS when it comes to technology, so i never know what something will turn out like!   maybe i should just stick to real, honest-to-goodness instruments

[Russell Sansom]

ok, so i've now learnt how to change a wav into a mp3 - we have progress!  next up, a variation on the above original.  Would appreciate it if folks could feedback if they like one, the other, both, none (etc) of these pieces.  The second version is more closely associated with the traditional Coventry Carol in that it uses accidentals to change the key, giving it a more authentic old skool feel.

[Russell Sansom]

i think you missed the point of my posting Ray - this is all my own composition, it's only the words that i did not write.  The actual musical notes came out of my head, no-one elses, i simply put them to the Coventry Carol words.  Perhaps then, i should have described this as a "setting" and not an "arrangement".  Either way, i found you response rather aggressive and patronizing - but i will give benefit of the doubt that you thought i was using someone else's music and presenting it as my own.

[Russell Sansom]

can you point me to where you feel there is discord when you didn't expect it?  i'll take a look and see if it sounds the same playing it on my piano as it does on the musescore program.  I've quite often found that what i've written at the computer and heard through the speakers, then doesn't sound at all the same when played on a proper piano.  

in my previous comments on this post, i attached two versions of the piece: one very straight forward, the other with accidental notes, referencing the very familiar and traditional version of this carol.  It was an experiment that perhaps didn't come off and my more straightforward version is perhaps the better of the two.  I do enjoy "crunchy" harmonies, but wasn't aiming for a very dissonant sound overall.

[Russell Sansom]

Jon, thank you so much for your feedback, which i took as very constructive.  I think you are right that nothing could match the original setting of this carol, which as you rightly point out is SO beautiful.  I guess i'll put this one down as a learning experience.

[Russell Sansom]

my church choir will be performing this piece at our annual carol service on Sunday - and even though i do say so myself, it sounds lovely.  So very happy with it.  Wish i had recording equipment so i could share with you.