Composing, musicians give me a hand please?!!?

i'm writing a piece of music to desribe an imaginary art gallery containing pictures depicting different times of day (i havent gone mad, im doing it for a school project. it's worth 25 percent of my final music grade for this year and next year) i'd like to write it for a soprano and alto and piano. any ideas for lyrics? and any tips about writing words- i'm using personal composer. my teacher said you have to do certain things to write lyrics to music. help? thanks.xxxx

Oy! Picking a topic, and then looking for a text? That's hard. I would suggest that you repost the question about lyrics to wherever here they do poetry, as "does anyone know some good poems about the times of day"? If it's just for a school project, you probably don't need to be too picky about getting permission to set the words (though if you were doing publication or ASCAP-compensated public performance, you would definitely need to).

It sounds like your lyrics question is actually a technical question about Personal Composer. I can't help you there; I've never used it, and it's considered obsolete. Generally, any music notation program will align text under notes, but there are sometimes spacing issues or other entry issues (earlier versions of Finale were notorious in this respect). I suggest you consult your software manual.

sounds like Mussorgsky's Paintings at an Exhibition.

i recommend writing it for one voice, and have that one voice represent yourself.

Emphasize the most important words in your sentence. Other wise, the word "the" would not be the highest/lowest note. You do it syllabic (1 note per syllable), neumatically (2-4 notes per syllable), or melismatically (5+ notes per syllable).

I'm interested in how this project will turn out. Keep me
posted!

I would avoid lyrics, acutally, but use the voice for its various vowel sounds and both lyric and percusssive qualities.

I hope this is set in a college and not a school. Gosh! Aren't questions so hard sometimes. Shadows can tell you about different times of day as can a sundial. Various animals have habits associated with times of day - like lizards warming up in the morning. Creatures seeking shade in the noon day sun. Maybe then a dip in a pool, then home for tea. The clickety clack of the railway as it takes you to and from work. The 9 0' clock siren to begin work and the 6 0' clock siren to stop work. To write lyrics to music, if they are to be sung the singer has to feel comfortable and so you shouldn't, if you are breaking a word into a sylable to match a note, make the singer sound stupis, and whatever you do, DO NOT LET THE SINGER SING 'I' ON A TOP NOTE. It hurst the throat.

I vaguely remember learning something about a Hindu tradition of observing 12 modes.
The day is divided into 12 2-hour segments and there is one mode for each segment.
I wish I could remember the names for those 12 modes.