Work is now complete on this project, a short choral suite for four-part a capella chamber chorale . There are 5 movements in a variety of styles and subjects. I wrote all the lyrics, inspired by the challenges of the year of the pandemic from my personal perspective.

The tonalities and harmonic structures continue in the style of my String Quartet #1 (see that page for details), though, since vocalists are less confident than instruments in handling difficult harmonic contexts and intervals, the tonal approach is somewhat more simplified, with lines more singable. Movement forms primarily reflect the dictates of the lyrics — see individual movement notes for more on that.

Technical note: In the absence of a recording with real human voices, expect playback of this work to sound much more mechanical than other compositions delivered here — there isn’t a way to render a realistic vocal performance with lyrics using electronic tools. When the work is complete, I’ll be leveraging real vocalists for a recorded performance, and will post the results.

Go to 1: Alone