Not an essay but feedback (good, bad and indifferent) would be welcome.
This is a link to a working draft (rough recording) of a song I wrote a few years back for an Easter service (when I was attending a United Reformed chapel). It was performed the one time that day and has languished in oblivion until now - As I say this is a work in progress - it will be entirely re-recorded when it gets done as part of a CD collection.
Oh dear - it’s that awful is it 
Just haven’t gotten around to it yet. {g}
This is a really high quality recording, with some very clean guitar - I would say the piece is really well performed. Cool website too 
More variation would help - the dynamics are a solid mp all the way through and there are no changes in key/chord sequence/texture/timbre. I like the vocal line, it’s quite narrative in terms of lyrics - was there are reason you didn’t have a refrain?
Qoh,
Thank you for your kind and helpful comments.
That recording is what I call a guide track (but one that has been given a rough mix for evaluation purposes) - that is, it is the basic track (well 2 tracks - one guitar and one vocal) onto which other voices and instruments will be overlayed (so a work in progress rather than a final piece - for example between verses I am keen to try solo violin). There are vocal harmonies to be applied but I wanted you guys to assess it in its raw and basic form (as even a bad song can be made ok with enough instrumentation and jiggery-pokery 
)
As you say - the piece is driven by the narrative and for a song it is quite wordy, so partly I’m pushing the limits of the listener by making them focus on the (I hope) poetry and the urgency of the journey to the fatal kiss and the narrator’s decision to submit to his father’s will.
In contrast to the anguish are the reflections on happier times (each based on one of the 5 senses). Do you see those as choruses or do you treat them as the second part of the verse? So do you see the structure as ABAB or AAAA?
That is also partly why (as yet) there is no bridge or middle 8 or the like - it would make an already long piece even longer 
I have toyed with the idea of a key change in there somewhere and I agree with you it would be a good variation.
Of course as well this is just one of several dozen songs I have written over the years so the structure of this one is contrasted by many others that do change key, have refrains, go off into different time signatures etc… but it helps so much to get real gut reactions to them from others (as I can spend hours in the studio disappearing up my own backside 
).
Nice. Love when it changes to major and then again when you hit the minor 7th and go back into the main riff.
Cheers Byron,
I’m hoping that the melody and poetic narrative are strong enough to evoke an emotional response without putting my own words into his mouth.