Turba choruses for St. John Passion--3 part, work in progress
  • Heath
    Posts: 934
    Strange, I know, but I wrote some settings of the St. John Passion "turba" choruses the days following Christmas. I've done the Victoria and Byrd choruses the past few years in the midst of the sung Passion (we do it every Good Friday), and, despite the fact that they're *wonderful*, they took a little more time to prepare than I could spare, and some of them got a little long. Anyway, decided to write my own. And so...

    --I meant for these to have minimal ranges so as to be potentially sung by a variation of voice parts on the three lines. Could be SAB, STB, ATB, AAB, AAT, etc. Anyway, *what do you think I should put as the voice "labels"? Voice 1, Voice 2, Voice 3? Soprano/Alto, Tenor/Alto, Tenor/Bass? I could also put out and edition with the middle line in treble clef, so an alto could easily read it.

    --I wanted these to be a) easily-learned, b) brief, c) mostly tonal, but with a little Lydian flavor (the Passion tones, use lots of A naturals, if you recall), d) reflective of the text in the more dramatic ones. Do they meet these goals, in your opinion?

    Thanks in advance for your comments! I'll make modifications, if necessary, and re-post a bit closer to Lent, if anyone would like to make use of them.
  • Heath
    Posts: 934
    Bumping, if I may . . . still love to hear any thoughts for improvement!