I have resolved to endeavor to write a choral work for tenor voices alongside my symphony as a sort of light, peripheral project.

At this point I'm searching for a text that would lend itself to musical depiction. As I pore through hundreds upon hundreds of lines of poems and religious liturgy, I've found that there are good (and bad) founts from which one can extract text for a choral piece. Here are my top three sources, conveniently placed under bolded headings below.

Poems

Pros: Poetry is an excellent source of material, for the plain fact that it is almost custom-built to be set to music. Most of it already possesses a built-in rhythm that eradicates the need to adjust syllables or use outrageously long melismas.

Cons: There is really no more good poetry/literature being written, so to find any suitable works, one needs to look back to the ridiculously antedeluvian works written in Latin or Middle English. Also, poetry is generally not for the individual looking to create a cutting, harsh mood. Poetry tends to stick to what it does best: sappy, overly expressive, flowery and unrealistic musings.

The Bible

Pros: The Bible, as lengthy as it is, provides a built-in storyline that can aid in the sequencing of cantatas, oratorios or operas. It is especially ideal for pieces requiring that regal, holy air that comes with inspired text.

Cons: There are just too many English translations of the Bible, so a piece using the New International Version will come across much more differently than one using the King James Version. Also, Scripture is fairly limited in its scope of themes appropriate for a choral piece. One would usually tend to stick to key events such as the annunciation, assumption, birth of Christ, and various Old Testament prophecies depicting one of the aforementioned events.

The Composer

Pros: As the composer, one is in full control of the flow of the text, and can custom fit the syllables to fit with the music being written. It is also more conducive to the creative process, since the text can be written alongside the score to fit much better than a prefabricated text.

Cons: The composer may not be all that tactful with words, and that can make for some very feeble libretto. He may also be rather scatterbrained and thus the musicality of the work will suffer as a result of too much attention to the text, or vice-versa.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.