# Old Hundredth: review of your SATB setting

## Title and instrumentation
*Old Hundredth* (tune from the Genevan Psalter, 1551), in your four-part setting for SATB choir: Soprano, Alto, Tenor (octave treble clef) and Bass. It is in G major and 4/4. This delivery is a review of that file, not a new score.

## Duration and form
- **Length:** eight bars of 4/4, all in equal quarter notes, which is 32 chords and one verse.
- **Form:** four lines of eight notes each (Long Metre, 8.8.8.8). The lines end at bar 2, bar 4, bar 6 and bar 8, each on beat 4. In your harmony:
  - line 1 closes on G major with B on top;
  - line 2 closes on D major (a half close);
  - lines 3 and 4 close on G major (full closes).
- **Duration:** no tempo is marked, so the length isn't fixed. At a moderate hymn pace, a verse takes roughly 20 to 30 seconds.

## Difficulty and playability notes
- Every part is within normal choir range:
  - Soprano: D4–D5.
  - Alto: B3–G4.
  - Tenor: F♯3–D4.
  - Bass: F♯2–G3.
- The bass goes down to F♯2 once (bar 5, beat 2) and returns to G2 at most line starts and cadences. Basses should be comfortable there, but this is the lowest-lying part of the setting.
- No part leaps more than an octave, and no voice crosses another.
- As written, there is no time to breathe between lines: every note is one beat long, with no rests or pause signs. Question A4 in the list asks how you want this handled.

## Performance notes
The file has no words, tempo, dynamics, pause signs or breath marks. Each of these is a question in the list (A3 to A6), not something I decided for you. Until you answer, the score is just pitches and an even rhythm.

## What was done and what was not
Task: existing music with only the requested changes. The music is *Old Hundredth*, in your SATB setting. The only change you asked for was a check, so nothing in your score was altered.

**What was done:**
- Your MusicXML was read as it is: four parts, eight bars, every note.
- I checked it for notation faults: bar lengths, ties, alignment of the parts.
- I checked the vocal ranges and spacing.
- I checked the voice leading in G major: parallel fifths and octaves, overlaps and crossings, leading-note and hidden-fifth motion.
- I checked the key and read every chord beat by beat.
- Every finding was traced to an exact bar, beat, voice and pitch, and written up as a question.

**What the list contains:**
- **A (whole setting):** eight questions that affect the whole setting. These are:
  - the voice-leading standard you want;
  - what a fix may touch;
  - words;
  - line ends and breathing;
  - the final chord;
  - tempo and dynamics;
  - credits;
  - layout.
- **B (bar by bar):** twelve places in the music. There are 13 moves with parallel octaves or fifths in total, including one between the outer voices (bar 4). Also in this part are an overlap between alto and soprano (bar 2), two places where the leading note falls (bars 5–6 and 7–8), a dominant moving back to the supertonic (bars 7–8), and the final-cadence trade-off in the tenor (bar 8).
- **C (checked and clear):** the points I checked that need no decision from you.

**What was not done:**
- **No notes, rhythms, words or markings were changed, added or removed.** As you asked, revisions wait for your answers.
- No score, parts, MIDI or audio were produced. This commission's deliverable is the list only, and it has no recording.
- I checked the soprano tune against the tune as it is commonly printed, not against a particular edition, since none was supplied.
- The findings are my own reading of your file, checked a second time against every bar. No other musician has reviewed them.

## Files in this folder
- `unclear-places.md`: the list of unclear places, with bar and beat references and a question for each, grouped as A (whole setting), B (bar by bar) and C (checked and clear).
- `GUIDE.md`: this guide.