Inspired by a brief chat I had with John Driscoll (but not linked to or aimed accusingly at his own recent post), here's something I do as standard: write the range at the start of choral works. I started merely because some other scores I studied did it, and multiple directors/conductors have appreciated it in the years since. I assume it allows an immediate assessment of suitability for any given choir without needing to trawl through a piece, and makes the task of vetting and rejecting the slush pile easier.
My current approach attached, I'm assuming the site code will do something awful to the formatting.
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Have never come across this and it seems quite a good idea.
This particular piece is clearly not going to challenge the singers' range for the most part --- A soprano should be able to sing down to roughly a B, an Alto up to an E and down to an F, a tenor up to at least an A and down to around a Bb and a Bass up to around an E. Myself I can sing just about anything from Bass F up to a soprano G on a good day but you wouldn't necessarily want to hear the result....
I have indeed written much higher and lower and checked appropriately whilst doing so... You can hear this one performed, should you care :)
https://on.soundcloud.com/9Agn7
Dave that Frost setting is f***'in' gorgeous and right up my16thC inspired avatars alley. In the last few days, you've taken me from Nashville to Elizabeth the Firsts court...excellent.
My instinct is to defend my own piece against praise - I don’t think it merits such a response, especially since you know my preferred choral lads are right in that era and are truly untouchable - but I’ll just say thanks very much. Nashville, though? I’d be eaten alive in Nashville!
yes, it's a very nicely written piece and beautifully sung too-- you're lucky to have such a choir at your disposal. Unfortunately Tudor English style (or anything much in the English choral tradition for that matter) doesn't do much for me -- my tastes are much more in the direction of 20th century Central or indeed Eastern Europe. My ancestry has also given me a love of some Swedish choral or folk music.
Well then you're not going to like any of my choral works, since I more or less think music peaked - at least in terms of beauty - in that era :) thank you though. Btw, that choir wasn't at my disposal. I wish! I wrote the piece for them in a contest and then they performed it some time later.
you're probably right -- our tastes in that department seem very different although I may be the odd one out here. Some of your chamber music I've listened to seems more promising -- I'll let you know if I find anything which for me particularly works. At any rate, everything I've heard is most tastefully written.
The last thing I'd want to seem is promising, so here's a jingle I did for an American car dealership. https://on.soundcloud.com/sGsC9
And it was fun!
now excuse my naivety but I thought advertising was all about promising? Fun piece anyway!
What a lush and beatiful choral piece, Dave! (I think I remember hearing a version you posted quite a while back, unless it was another choral work, but I remember liking it very much.)
This is a very sensitive and dramatic performance! Fantastic!
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