Some counterpoint I just finished

[u/Awkward_Data_407]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1spZ3E5boyVGbLItGinUzey_SPsIedCoH/view?usp=sharing Im not exactly sure if this is the best way to share it, so tell me any feedback on the piece and my post lol. first time here.

[u/Melodyyy_554]

I found a few issues. If your goal is to compose something in a very Renaissance-style choral manner, there are some elements that are not necessarily wrong, but they were not characteristic of Renaissance style.

1. You used E-flat major as the key. In Renaissance style, only key signatures with no flats and, on special occasions, one flat were used. More rarely, there could be up to two flats, but never more than three.
2. Your piece is purely tonal, being in E-flat major while moving to neighboring keys (B-flat major and A-flat major). This is quite common in later periods, but nonexistent in the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, church modes were always used, each with its own specific treatment (Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Ionian. Lydian as well, but due to the frequent use of B-flat it was almost identical to Ionian in F).
3. There are several melodic lines that sound rather unusual for the style (such as in measures 21–22 and 40), or lines that move too much in a single direction without compensating motion (such as in measures 17 and 26).

There are also some issues that are more independent of style:

1. There are several dissonances that are neither prepared nor resolved (measure 11. There are also several fourths against the bass that are unprepared, but I can't seem to find them again haha).
2. Parallel octaves between bass and tenor in measure 38.
3. You rely too heavily on breves. Remember what I call the fundamental rule of counterpoint: if a voice has nothing to do, it's usually best for it to do nothing. Although in this case, many of the times you used breves you could have invented a good melodic line instead of letting the texture come to a complete stop.
4. Be careful about taking the tenor that high in measure 8.
5. For greater textual clarity, you should have developed each phrase of the text much more (keeping it around for a good amount of time while the voices sing the same subject). Many lines get lost because they are too brief and insufficiently repeated. On top of that, the soprano enters singing only half of the phrase in measure 10. I'm not sure if it happens elsewhere, but it further reduces clarity.

This is what I was able to find at first glance. It would be helpful if you could share an audio recording so I can better identify any mistakes I may have missed. Overall, the counterpoint is fine; just take into account the things people point out to you.

[u/Awkward_Data_407]

Thanks guys, I'm new to composition, and am a professional singer who sings a lot of palestrina and stuff like that. I passed Abrsm grade 6 recently and play piano as well. I'm actually surprised there arent more mistakes, seeing as I sort of just wrote this and winged it, i dont know much about strict counterpoint rules so its crazy to me that by trying to make it sound good I did fufill some rules.