Talk:Richard Hundley

Peer Review by Young-Jin "YJ"
Good start overall! I think this is a very interesting article which would make many people wonder about who the composer Richard Hundley is. I think the layout of the overall article followed the Wikipedia’s standard format which devotes each section with its own headings and sub-headings. While I was reading through your article, I came up with handful of suggestions that can improve your article.

1. Biography

1) Early Years

In the article, you mentioned that Hundley was inspired by Il Trovastore by the composer Guiseppe Verdi. Instead of saying that this piece made him impressed with its expressiveness of voice, you could further elaborate the significance of this piece and how this piece had impacted Hundley's style of composition style. This would provide the readers more information about how his early life was able to capture the spark of his interest in music and made him to become a successful composer. In addition, there is a typing error in this section, it's not 'cincinnati Symphony,' it's supposed to be 'Cincinnati Symphony.'

2) Mid Years

As this section further explains Hundley's career as a composer specifically, I think you can combine Early Years and Mid Years together as Career. The strengths of this section is that it explains the development of Hundley's musical interest through Manhattan School of Music where he attended for a year but stopped being educated due to financial crisis. When explaining a turning point in his musical career, it says he was selected by the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, where he was not only educated but also adapted his musical style. I think this could be further elaborated by providing some background information of how this induced his musical career.

When explaining how Bel Canto had influenced Hundley by shaping his composition style of vocal music, you didn't elaborate much of how Bel Canto influenced Hundley's composition style other than stating a generalized fact, so it would be helpful if you could actually find a piece where Hundley adapted Bel Canto's style in his piece. Also, ‘Bel Canto’ should be capitalized. In the article, you mentioned that his songs were performed by some singers on their concerts with the list of singers, but Annaliese Rothenberger was misspelled, it was supposed to be Annaliese Rothenberger, and other names could have been cited internally via Wikipedia which enables readers to go on to their individual pages within Wikipedia to browse any additional information.

You did a good job in explaining how the incident in 1962 impacted Hundley's composition style, but I think you can further explain the situation as it was a big turning point in his musical career.

In explaining his recognition and awards, I think it is unnecessary to insert the statement, "In the 1980s, Hundley finally received the recognition he deserved." This statement is biased and makes the article unreliable as a source because it contains the editor’s opinion.

2. Compositions

1) Solos, Duet, Choral

Under compositions, you did well with gathering the list of both solos and duet songs which he composed. It helps the readers to grasp all the pieces at glance. I think this can be improved if you briefly describe the theme and significance of each piece and also who sang this piece first and how it was performed.

3. Reference

The format of reference that you used was a MLA style but I believe we have to use a different citation for Wikipedia articles. Especially, if you want to put the reference for any of the sources that you cited, go to edit page on Wikipedia and click on reference and you will see ref/ with 'Insert Footnote', it will show up as a number which directs your article to that page if it links to a certain website. Here are some handful of sources that I found on internet:


 * Life and Work of Richard Hudley: I think you already put this source as your reference, but it would be helpful to revisit the section, Style of Composition.
 * Richard Hundley, Composer: This source can give you some songs that you can put in your article for explaining the individual song.

Overall, I think it is a good start of your article. Just make sure that you make those above changes that I suggested and it will make your article a bit more polished. Hopefully my review helps in finalizing your article. Keep up with your work!

-YJ- Yjchang86 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 17:31, 8 April 2009 (UTC).

Removed un-sourced text
I have removed the following text which sounds like personal opinion. If an editor can find reliable sources for this text it can be re-added to the article.
 * Hundley's composition style is influenced by many factors including his love of poetry, musical training, and his vocal experiences. His attention to the text is one of the most important elements in his songs. Hundley memorizes the poem first and then sets it to music. Based on his own feelings about the text, Hundley combines rhythm and melodic phrasing to convey the emotional meaning.

Another factor is Hundley's vocal training. He knows the potential and limits of the voice and composes accordingly. However, his gift for melody is still apparent in his lyric, flowing vocal lines that are highly expressive emotionally. His attention to the vocal line and textual clarity is a result of his appreciation for the bel canto vocal style. This influence is a result of his experience with Metropolitan Opera Chorus. His training as a pianist is also very influential in his compositions. Hundley writes difficult accompaniments that are of equal importance with the vocal line in crystallizing the text's emotion. The piano part usually has a light texture to give the illusion of independence to the voice. Hundley's songs are usually tonal, but always with a twist on the conventional harmonies. He often uses unconventional chord progressions such as approaching a Neapolitan chord in root position from a III chord and resolving it to a I6/4 instead of to the dominant. This is a classic example Hundley keeping traditional harmonic elements, but incorporating his own ideas. Other common characteristics of Hundley's accompaniments are ornamented chords and ending his songs with chords that have a suspended tone. -- — Kbob • Talk  • 22:21, 23 October 2009 (UTC)