The song feels hard to sing, but I like the concept of using monophony to lead into it. I’m not sure what makes it hard to sing, but I think the harmonic rhythm and timing don’t feel intuitive.

‘Hosannah’ is typically spelled with two n‘s.

Overall, nice work. You have a fine skill at avoiding parallel intervals by inverting chords. ‘Corinthians’ is misspelled in the subtitle.

All following comments come from a bass’s perspective.

Basses will appreciate a slightly lower tessitura throughout this piece. Here are four places that could be modified to suit that goal:

1. In the…

Read more

Hi Benjamin,

On the matter of harmony changing once or twice a measure, I don’t intend any prohibitions on switching between five and one chords. Harmonic rhythm, or harmonic tempo, is the rate at which chords change in a musical composition. Harmonic rhythm can be slow or fast. For example, “Eternal Father, When to Thee” has a fast…

Read more

Nice choice of text, Ben.

There are two things I notice initially.

One, you might determine how you want your 6/4 meter to be divided. 6/4 is a sort of ambiguous meter; it can be felt as being in 2, or in 3. Some of the measures in this piece have 3 half notes, meaning they feel like they’re in 3. Other measures, the last three measures…

Read more

The second system with its eight bars seems like it could be cut down to a six that fits with the rest of the piece, without much effort.

Perhaps you mentioned those open fifths before, Vincent. I didn’t see them at the time. I added a sol in the tenor to address the first instance; I feel the second instance, however, is best interpreted as a 4-3 suspension rather than as an inverted open fifth.

As to whether they should be used, probably not. Open fifths are associated with a loud, primitive sound that is very clear, satisfying to shout, and hard to tune. I don’t think that fits a sunset well, although I’ve been mistaken about this kind of thing before.

Sure, Evan. A standard chord has three notes: a root, a third, and a fifth. Some solfege examples are do-mi-so, or so-ti-re.

A chord that is missing a third, having a root and a fifth, is called an open fifth. An example of an open fifth is a chord with do and so, with no mi.

If you are writing in standard counterpoint (which is…

Read more

Have you tried using it in a reading of Psalm 136?

This is an arrangement of a song written by G. Michael Eldridge (Acapeldridge on YouTube). His transcription had a lot of parallel fifths between tenor and bass, so I rewrote the voicings and altered some harmonies. I have tried this version with five or six groups, and people seem to like it. I’m a little concerned about copyright when it…

Read more

Thank you all for your astute notes. I don’t know when, but sometime I will get around to another edit of this.

A work this long must have taken some time. Kudos. It’s on the long side for a hymn, but could work for an extended choral piece. Your best quatrains are the fifth and the last.

A few notes of critique.

• There is some rhythmic irregularity. Much of this could be corrected by modernizing the language. I am not a supporter of modernization, I…

Read more

Of course. I’ve sent it to your email, since I haven’t been able to post it here.

Speaking as a singer, I find this piece difficult. The chord changes aren’t intuitive for congregational singing, although I’d be game to learn.

Speaking as a listener, I like the piece; it’s very harmonically interesting. I agree with Lynn’s implication that a stronger melody could help the piece.

This is a work from 2020. I’m still learning the intricacies of counterpoint, so please point out forbidden things. I believe the strength of this arrangement is its melody. That’s not to say it can’t use work. My ear is so used to this hymn now that I can’t find the errors myself. I would appreciate any help (pun intended, I suppose).