2 Pieces - 'America the Beautiful' and 'The Light of the Locomotive'

• Jun 21, 2010 - 03:13

Hey guys, This is my arrangement of America the Beautiful and my composition from right before, the Light of the Locomotive. Since i am just entering High School, i would love critisism about both so i can grow more in composing.

Thanks :)

Attachment	Size
America The Beautiful.mscz,	15.95 KB
The Light of the Locomotive.mscz,	37.85 KB

Comments

Atomicbob11

• Jun 21, 2010 - 05:14

sorry, i dont know why it's not opening. ill see if these work

Attachment	Size
America The Beautiful.mscz	19.85 KB
The Light of the Locomotive.mscz	40.43 KB

David Bolton

• Jun 22, 2010 - 02:20

I like the arrangements. Just some comments regarding notation in America the Beautiful.

In vocal music slurs are typically used to indicate notes that are sung on the same syllable (see example 1 and example 2 ).

You have several places with old slur usage but particularly on page 5 (see "capture.png" attached below)

You should also read about the difference between a slur and tie .

Another thing to watch out for is overlapping notation (such as articulations or fermatas covering stems, lyrics overlapping stems, etc.)

stewkingjr

• Jun 25, 2010 - 19:56

Did you write it or just arrangement? Couple of comments i noticed on first reading. Many places you have trombones or horns or something high in the range unison, consider octaves.

Plus what david said.

America the beautiful, you have sopranos up to high c. Unless you're talking professional choir, very, very few sopranos can even read that note, let alone hit it. And the tenor part is more in the baritone range, hand us a few A and Bb at least, especially the end. You'll like the sound.

Atomicbob11

• Jul 3, 2010 - 04:42

i arranged america the beautiful. It is meant for a boys choir because i am in the philadelphia boys choir. this is jsut an arrangment just for fun that i made. our director would pry nvr take music that a kid in the choir made. the light of the locomotive i made myself. just out of curiosity. Thanks for the comments. also, the slurs are just places where u would NEVER breath... thats just how ive learned to read choir music.