oratorio
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    For my friends and others here, I have posted several samples from "Moses at the Jordan River", a full length oratorio for chorus, soloists, and orchestra at https://soundcloud.com/williamcopper

    All text from King James version, Genesis through Deuteronomy, telling the story of Moses as reflections back through his long biblical life, ending with Pharoah's daughter naming him, 'because she drew him from the water'.

    Finishing the orchestration and gearing up to find a premiere ... so if you have association with an oratorio society of some sort, and find the music interesting, please contact me! Financial help for a production available...

    William Copper
    Thanked by 1irishtenor
  • francis
    Posts: 10,848
    interesting comps mrcopper

    I listened to everything on your cloud a couple of times.
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Thanks Francis, Several new excerpts posted, most with orchestral score references. All may criticise and propose changes to my notes.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    I didn't see the oratorio but listened to your Magnificat.
    It must be the most curious setting I've ever heard.
    Delightful! Almost enchanting.
    Some of your treatment of rhythm is almost Bachian.
    And certain moments almost have a Stravinskian ethos (as in Symphie des psaumes).
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    MJO, I get some interesting adjectives here ... keeps me on my toes: "curious" hmm.

    But thanks for listening. That Magnificat (you heard, I suppose, movement 1 of 12) was stimulated by a piece of sculpture, Ron Mueck's "Pregnant Woman". It is not so much a religious piece as a humanistic, or better, huwomanistic, piece.

    If you return one day, the Oratorio excerpts all start with "Moses at the Jordan River" ... 36 movements, I'm gradually posting more and more. At first, since recording is so time consuming, just beginnings of movements.

    And Bach, Stravinsky, and Copper all are very rhythm-oriented composers. Rhythm, for me, comes instinctively; I've had to study all my life for harmony.

    The seven pillars of musical wisdom, of course, are melody, rhythm, harmony, form, timbre, texture, and drama.

    William
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Rhythm, for me, comes instinctively; I've had to study all my life for harmony.


    Curious.
  • JPike1028
    Posts: 95
    If you need a tenor soloist and find a place to premiere I would be happy to contribute my talents. Best of luck to you!
    Thanked by 1mrcopper
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Thanks Jpike! I need a actor-singer, a dramatic bass-baritone, for Moses. There is a part for tenor, too, as the "Historian", that nameless scribe who presumably wrote Deuteronomy and possibly other parts of the Pentateuch. I'm debating changing the part to be Aaron, the more eloquent partner of Moses, the tongue-tied leader of Israel and servant of God.

    Update, more excerpts posted at soundcloud.com/williamcopper ... another month or so I should have it all recorded.

    William
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Should anyone be interested, several more movements posted, including most of an aria for tenor and orchestra. I have a question about 'upstaging': I want to have Moses, the principal character, sing a brief echo of the historian's text within the tenor aria. It clearly upstages the Historian, but is that acceptable for dramatic purposes? The reverse, the minor character upstaging the major, would be verbotten, I know.

    https://soundcloud.com/williamcopper

    #5, The bush burned with fire for tenor and upstaging baritone pdf attached of about 3/4 of it

    I present these here not as liturgical music, but: many a small parish cantor or MD will probably be associated with a larger community music group, which perhaps undertakes things like oratorios.

    William
    0565_05_bush.pdf
    1004K
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    I listened to the recording of your Magnificat and a movement from your symphony and really like and admire your writing. Do you have CDs? Should I know more about you than I do. Do you teach? Are you a choirmaster? .....
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Thanks, M Jackson. Not good ones, not really, not now, no. Last time i thought it was time to 'emerge' ca 2004 fate set me back a biblical seven years; one of these days I hope for some yesses. I used the time away to develop the theories I use in composition: theory doesn't replace inspiration, but it supports and occasionally corrects inspired moments, and holds up uninspired moments to a higher standard.

    William
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