As the final project for Choral Composition, my assignment was to write an original choral work. The choice of text was mine, so I decided to pick a little known Latin plainchant and use the text as the basis for my work. It turns out that “little known” happens to only apply to me in this case… Anyway, I found this awesome text called “Victimae paschali laudes”, and decided to write a setting for it.
The piece begins with the tenors and basses singing the original plainchant. The sopranos and altos take over using two part first species counterpoint, appropriate considering the style. Yes, I broke rules, it sounds better that way. The first stanza ends with all four voices, still using my sudo-first species counterpoint. After this, everything outside of the text is original.
I was going to end the work with a fugue using the text “Amen, Alleluia” on a fragment of the original plainchant, but ran out of time and only finished the exposition. The version attached below is the one I submitted, without the fugue.
Victimae Paschali – The full score with piano reduction
Victimae Paschali – piano – A sound file containing the voice parts played by Finale on piano
Victimae Paschali – synth voice – A synthed voice version. It sounds horrible, which I dearly hope is the fault of Finale and not myself.
Love it!
Thanks!