Practice

We had a good rehearsal on Wednesday, helped by some delicious chocolate shortbread and cheese straws from Valerie. Thank you Valerie.

• Alleluia (apologies - no link but we know it by heart anyway!)

  • Ian seemed to be generally pleased with this but we sing the unison verse with gusto but fade off a bit when we go into a round. He needs us to keep the same energy flowing throughout.

  • He likens it to us having imaginary words in front of us and trying to read them. We all know this well so don't lose confidence when someone is singing something different to you.

• As Long As I Have Music

  • Ian mentioned that he is considering this as an encore. He would prefer that we sing it off by heart as we can better connect with the audience that way.

  • Please read the words through so that you can get a sense of the phrasing. There are several places where the phrases are quite long - for example in the second bar of the third stave on page 2 , don't breathe between 'me' and 'and'. If you are likely to run out of breath, choose a place to take a quick top up breath - preferably where your neighbour isn't doing exactly the same.the same. It's important to mark it in your score so that you won't forget in the heat of the concert. I draw a line between the two notes and write 'no breath' over it. 

  • The same applies to the third bar of page 3 between 'empty' and 'and' and the second bar of page 4 between 'me' and 'reach'. 

  • Look for the others in the piece and mark them in. Ian said that long notes can become dull. Use them to keep the music buoyant, as if it's going somewhere. He demonstrated by putting a slight crescendo and singing it with more emotion.

  • Please stop singing when your note ends. Rests are as important as the notes in music.

  • Make sure the consonants are sounded as the words need to be clear - e.g. put a 'K' on the end of music.

  • Whenever you see and 'oh' in the music, please change it to 'ah'.

  • Three bars from the end , take a big breath before the ff 'set it free'. 

  • Seconds sing the C in the final chord.

• Simple Gifts (P 8 in O Shenandoah)

  • There are still some problems with the counting in this piece: when the time signature changes from 4 to 6 beats and then back to 4. Mark in the beats above the stave1, 2, 3, 4, in the 4/4 bars and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in the 6/4 bars. Don't forget to include the rests in the count - bar 12 for example is 1, 2, 3, 4, rest 'and delight'.

  • From bar 21, seconds sing with the altos until bar 25, when they revert to the higher line. 

  • In bar 32/33, the note is held on for a count of 6.

  • From bar 37, seconds sing the top notes to the end.

  • From bar 50, we begin quietly (mp) and crescendo gradually  to bar 57, when we drop back to (mp) and then down to p.

  • 'Right' in the final two staves needs to be pronounced with the 'ri' sounding almost as if it's 'rah.......yt'. The 'yt' needs to be 'rah....yt' at the end of the bar. 

  • WATCH IAN Altos - when you sing 'To turn', you're an important part of the tapestry of sound. Be confident and sound excited.

• Stabat Mater

  • Several phrases end with 'filius'. Please make the final 'S' unimportant - almost throw it away, otherwise it is the main thing that the audience hears. Snakes are still hibernating. Please leave them to enjoy their sleep and don't bring them to the choir.

  • 'Lacrimosa' is pronounced 'lahchrimosa'. 'Crucem' = 'cruchem'.

  • The altos have a tricky phrase in the first two bars of the second system on page 2. They need a breath before coming in with 'dum pendebat'. Would the sopranos please listen to the altos and sing the alto part in their heads so they can come in at exactly the same time as the altos with 'dum'.

  • In the first bar of the second system on page 3, ignore the trill. The bar is to be sung as three even crotchets so for the top line it's Bb, Ab, G, and for the altos it's three even crotchets: G, F and E natural.

  • In the first bar of the third system on page 3, sing the Bb to G (sops) or G to F (altos) as two even quavers.

  • When you get a tiny quaver just before a note, it's a full quaver length but it needs to be emphasised - not loudly but with feeling. Bar 3 in the second system on page 3 for example is 'du-u-um pen de-e-e bat fi-i-i- li us'. 

  • I'm sure he said more than that but I was in that auditory Faraday cage called the kitchen.

• Jesus Christ is risen today

  • I also missed the beginning of this for the same reason but there appeared to be a lot of time spent on getting the alleluias right, so make sure you have got them sorted by next week or Ian will think you weren't listening.😀

  • There are lots of changes of time signature in this one so it can be a bit confusing. I find the easiest way if faced with tricky time changes is to go to the smallest note - in this case a quaver. I then go through it slowly, counting in quavers - all quavers are the same length. In this way, the vocal part on the first page from bar 10 goes (hyphens denote end of bar)  1,2,3,4- 1,2,3,4- 1,2,3- 1,2,3,4- 1,2,3- 1,2,3 - 1 rest- 1,2,3,4- 1,2,3,4- 1,2,3- 1,2,3,4- 1,2,3- 1,2,3- 1, rest-  etc Write the numbers above the bars if it helps. Go through it several times until it's glued in. Remember, all the quavers are the same length. Then add the words and the tune. I hope that helps if you're finding that rhythm tricky. It's just counting with all numbers of equal length.

  • At the bottom of Page 5, Ian suggested that the seconds sing the alto part in their heads so that they can easily find the D in bar 115.

Have a lovely week. See you on Wednesday (with the promise of more cake.)

Ann