Hi Chris,

Thanks for the welcome and good to meet you. I'll look in the forum for your setting. Happy to answer your question. I assume you're talking about places in which stems are connected to rests instead of pitches. This is simply a notational practice, often called half-stemming, that is used to help the eye more easily sort rhythmic groupings. In measures where there isn't a whole lot going on, there is admittedly little benefit. I'm willing to admit that there are places where this practice turns out to be more of a hindrance than help, but my publisher requested it and wanted consistency throughout the score.

For a more extreme example of half-stemming, which elucidates better why one would do this, see this page from Elliott Carter's fifth string quartet (attached).

Thank you, Ron! It's gratifying and humbling when others spend time listening to my music and enjoy it.

Hi Carol — forgive me but I'm not following. What "little reminders in the boxes" do you mean?

welcome.

Do you have an official website where we can see/hear more music, especially for use in liturgy with a church choir?

@francis

I do. It's
http://www.timothyroymusic.com/
Though you really won't find anything there composed for liturgical use, I'm afraid. The bulk of my work is chamber, electroacoustic, and experimental works. I haven't actually done much writing expressly for liturgical use.

However, I do have a setting of the Ordinary in English using the revised ICEL text. I've just finished revising it. (I should note that I obtained permission from ICEL back in 2011 for this). It's scored for SATB and organ and is intended for use during Lent. It originally had a Gloria, but I recently determined that this jubilant, major-key Gloria and its Sanctus should be separated from the other movements, which are in minor keys and brooding. I provided a new Sanctus for the minor-key movements and have collected them as a cycle for Lent. The orphaned Gloria and Sanctus will receive new counterparts and be collected as a cycle for Easter.

In any case, I'd be happy to preview the Lenten Mass if you like. It's traditional sounding — 18th-century with some modal inflection probably describes it. The melodies are (in my experience) quickly picked up by the congregation.

@Schönbergian

Thanks for checking it out! Were the score dimensions larger, they could've fit several systems per page. Not with the size they produced.

I do greatly admire Penderecki's body of work. He, as well as Ligeti and Lutoslawski, were so very important for their explorations in timbre, texture, and time, and the techniques they developed to leverage these parameters! Many modernists wrote off Penderecki when his language shifted in the 80s, but I view his later works as clearly being informed by the earlier ones.

Same can be said of Ligeti's final compositional period, returning to his Hungarian roots while exploring African rhythmic patterns and utilizing the most fruitful aspects of his sound mass period.

Pages 2–4 of my score are a subtle nod to Ligeti…

My experiences working in the electroacoustic arena have definitely led me to think about all musical parameters in a more expanded way. Working very directly with sound always reminds me that the notated score should be in service to the sonic result, not limiting the possibilities of the piece. I've noticed that my students' compositional imagination is often limited by the constraints of the notation. If it's prohibitively difficult to notate an idea in traditional notation, then they're less likely to consider it or even think of it in the first place. But having that experience of carving out sound in real time does wonders for one's imagination. Pp. 31–37 of my score present a non-traditional method of handling time that is really common for me these days, but I only started doing things like this after cutting my teeth in the studio.

I'm curious as to who your composer friend is? Wondering if I might know him. The world of EA music is small…

Hi Richard --- Thanks for taking a look and for your kind words! I've been collecting errata myself, and these are on my list. Always good to get another set of eyes on things.

I don't know the Sibelius piece, but I'll check it out. He's one of those composers I've never really dug into. Of his generation, Strauss was the one who really hooked me when I was younger (although it was the Strauss of Salome and Elektra that I was fondest of...)

Hello all,

I'm still doing a bit of editing on the engraving of my Lenten Mass cycle. Here is a link to listen to a demo. Please pardon the low-quality iPhone recording and not-so-stellar singing. My breath support wasn't great while trying to also accompany myself…
https://soundcloud.com/timroycomposer/sets/mass-of-saint-monica/s-qp4YT
FYI, the full scoring is SATB + organ with descants. There is also a Gospel Acclamation (not in the above Soundcloud playlist) with through-composed settings of each verse, utilizing similar music for each verse.

I'm currently in the negotiation stage with a publisher for this, so while I'm not prohibited at this time from using or sharing it, I'd rather make the a PDF score available to those who inquire directly rather than posting it here. If you like what you hear, please private message me. Thanks in advance!

Fixed link: https://soundcloud.com/timroycomposer/sets/mass-of-saint-monica/s-qp4YT

Just copy and paste the text of the URL directly into the text box where you compose your message. Don't click the little chain-link/hyperlink thing. Should work like a charm!

You can also go back and edit links in the old posts.