GabrielCremeens
Music Director at St. George, Albuquerque, NM
Hello all,
I recently started on a new composition project that I would like to share in hopes of getting some constructive feedback. I decided to try my hand at adapting the piece Μέγας Κύριος, by Fr. Gregorios of Simonopetra. When I heard it recently, I found it very striking, for two reasons:
1) For its hymnographical content - each of the 10 verses is begins with a psalm verse selection of an Eklogi from a feast of the Theotokos, followed by a two-line quote (in one verse, a three-line quote) from the Akathist hymn, all followed by the refrain, "Rejoice, thou Bride Unwedded."
2) For its musical structure. The piece works as follows: each psalm verse is in plagal fourth mode, but each verse from the Akathist modulates into a different mode (first, fourth legetos, second, varys diatonic, and so on) before returning to plagal fourth for the refrain "Rejoice, thou Bride Unwedded."
Thus far, I have adapted about half of the piece. I'm finding some verses more difficult than others. Any suggestions (how to better preserve the original melody) or corrections (using the wrong verse from the Psalms or the Akathist) would be appreciated.
I have found the following issues with the piece thus far, and would appreciate suggestions:
1) I feel that the melody I have selected for the word "the" on page 1, line 1, puts far too much emphasis on the word. I simply wrote this down without really looking it up, but my gut feeling on singing it is that it doesn't sound quite natural.
2) On page 4 (verse 6), I used a formula similar to the on the words "brought unto Thee", however, it is formulaically incorrect to do so, because it puts the emphasis on "to" in "unto", instead of "un". (I wrote this out hastily, to be used at the end of a service at the school. It is fully my intention to change it. However, I am having trouble getting the line to cadence on Vou before the section "with gladness and rejoicing", which I took directly from the original piece. Any suggestions, again, are appreciated.
3) On page 5, (verse 7), I have found two issues.
a) The section lines 2-3, "of the salvation of our God" seems to put undue emphasis on the word "of". Although the formula is listed as having this syllable as unaccented, it still sounds (to my ears) as though it is getting a great deal of emphasis.
b) While I was able to preserve at least part of the melody of the original on lines 3-4, ("Tree of goodly fruit"), I was not so successful in the rest of the piece. This is quite a shame, because the original melody is so distinct does anyone have suggestions for alternate theseis or melodic movements that preserve more of the "flavor" of the original?
I have attached a pdf of the Greek original, for ease of comparison.
I have one final question: can anyone explain to me the modulation that occurs in verse 9? (Page 6 of the Greek original pdf.) I'm having difficulty understanding exactly what modulation is going on here.
In Christ,
Gabriel
I recently started on a new composition project that I would like to share in hopes of getting some constructive feedback. I decided to try my hand at adapting the piece Μέγας Κύριος, by Fr. Gregorios of Simonopetra. When I heard it recently, I found it very striking, for two reasons:
1) For its hymnographical content - each of the 10 verses is begins with a psalm verse selection of an Eklogi from a feast of the Theotokos, followed by a two-line quote (in one verse, a three-line quote) from the Akathist hymn, all followed by the refrain, "Rejoice, thou Bride Unwedded."
2) For its musical structure. The piece works as follows: each psalm verse is in plagal fourth mode, but each verse from the Akathist modulates into a different mode (first, fourth legetos, second, varys diatonic, and so on) before returning to plagal fourth for the refrain "Rejoice, thou Bride Unwedded."
Thus far, I have adapted about half of the piece. I'm finding some verses more difficult than others. Any suggestions (how to better preserve the original melody) or corrections (using the wrong verse from the Psalms or the Akathist) would be appreciated.
I have found the following issues with the piece thus far, and would appreciate suggestions:
1) I feel that the melody I have selected for the word "the" on page 1, line 1, puts far too much emphasis on the word. I simply wrote this down without really looking it up, but my gut feeling on singing it is that it doesn't sound quite natural.
2) On page 4 (verse 6), I used a formula similar to the on the words "brought unto Thee", however, it is formulaically incorrect to do so, because it puts the emphasis on "to" in "unto", instead of "un". (I wrote this out hastily, to be used at the end of a service at the school. It is fully my intention to change it. However, I am having trouble getting the line to cadence on Vou before the section "with gladness and rejoicing", which I took directly from the original piece. Any suggestions, again, are appreciated.
3) On page 5, (verse 7), I have found two issues.
a) The section lines 2-3, "of the salvation of our God" seems to put undue emphasis on the word "of". Although the formula is listed as having this syllable as unaccented, it still sounds (to my ears) as though it is getting a great deal of emphasis.
b) While I was able to preserve at least part of the melody of the original on lines 3-4, ("Tree of goodly fruit"), I was not so successful in the rest of the piece. This is quite a shame, because the original melody is so distinct does anyone have suggestions for alternate theseis or melodic movements that preserve more of the "flavor" of the original?
I have attached a pdf of the Greek original, for ease of comparison.
I have one final question: can anyone explain to me the modulation that occurs in verse 9? (Page 6 of the Greek original pdf.) I'm having difficulty understanding exactly what modulation is going on here.
In Christ,
Gabriel
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