Practice

Afternoon one and all!

Ann is still rough and we send our warmest wishes to her. In the meantime you will all be relieved to know that, after this missive, you will get a well-earned break from me for three weeks.

We had a visit from the team at Reading and West Berkshire Motor Neurone Disease Association to receive their cheque for over £2000. How totally wonderful to know what a difference that money will make to local families living with this terrible disease. Well done all, and especially to Liz who nominated the charity and also worked so hard to help it all come together. Thanks also to Jane for the fabulous selection of cakes - I had the flapjack which was absolutely delicious.

I do not think there is very much to say this week - we are obviously making progress. I think we went through everything on the programme but I am sat here looking at all the music and I genuinely cannot remember. When I was doing my A levels, I handed in a physics assignment and, when it came back I was delighted to see that there was not a single red mark across the whole piece. However, when I turned to the back page to see what mark I had got I saw just one word, in capitals … PIFFLE!  There is every chance that the following notes could be similarly marked as I am going to put down what I think we sang (ie. all of it) and what I think Ian said about our efforts, whilst accepting that I could simply be making it all up!

We started with a warm-up and boy, can we sing our Beats. You want three beats in a bar? You got it! Oh, you want another now? Four, you say? Okie dokie, here you go! Blimey … FIVE beats in a bar? You having a laugh, mate? No? OK, have it! You just say how many beats you want and the Vivace Voices ladies will serve them in in a veritable Beat Smorgasbord whilst clapping at the same time - no end to our talents.

The music, in no particular order:

• Easter Cannon

  • We sing this through twice and must be careful to come straight in for the second time. There is no pause until the very end.

  • There was a discussion about whether we are singing the last line together and harmonising the last note or just holding our last note until the other parts have joined us. We are combining both those ideas now. So, when we reach our final note, it should be sung at the correct harmony - altos on a G, second sopranos on a B and first sopranos on (I think) a D. We then hold that note until everyone is there creating a nice, bright chord.

• The New Day (no link for this)

  • The lyrics are now mostly secure although I know that a number of us, including me, couldn’t remember if hills and mountains were were ringing or singing with tunes or songs or something else. I can confirm that it is ‘tunes’ and they are ‘ringing’.

  • There is a tendency to speed up even though it is already quite a quick song. Ian will keep us steady.

  • We all come in for the very last line and sing it together. We do not harmonise the last note in this one.

• Ave Maria (Michael Head)

• • This was a whole heap better than last week but still needs work.

  • Ian reminded us that it is in minims throughout and, because of the way it moves from 3:2 into 2:2 and 4:2 and back again, the phrasing becomes more natural - giving it a feeling of plainsong. So we need to keep the whole piece gentle and serene as if we are nuns - personally I have always rather fancied wearing a wimple but I have never been invited to that sort of party!

  • The words - we still need to polish up our Latin a little more.

  • The dynamics all need to be kept gentle - even when we reach the giddy heights of forte at the top of page 5 we should hold back.

  • Talking about dynamics, a reminder that, at the bottom of page 4 on the words ’Sancta Maria’ we drop from p to pp on a rising interval that feels like it should be a crescendo. Also, we can use the ’S’ of ’Sancta Maria’ to bring a little atmosphere.

  • Page 7, second system the top line is a solo, so first sopranos should drop down to the second line.

  • The three parts step out the rhythm whilst the solo glides over the top and then the last note is held for EVER, and very quietly, then even quieter until it is gone! Stagger your breathing.

  • Apologies from me - frankly, as is my wont, I was so busy enjoying the harmonies underneath that I totally forgot that I probably ought to pay attention to and count my own part! So I completely failed to sing my last note until the very last bar, at which point I woke up and remembered what I should be doing. I promise not to be such a muppet next time!

• So Fair And Bright

  • Wow - the second sopranos (who have a complete mare in this piece) were almost there! I did a little happy dance with a smug look on my face. We can do this …

  • The part that we all struggle with is from the top of page 5 to the middle of page 6. The lower two parts start by copying the top two parts for two bars but then it all goes a bit pear-shaped as syncopation kicks in. We must keep our syncopation together - the top two parts have a looooong sustained note over the top so any irregularities in the syncopation will stand out. I find it easiest to slow it all down and count in quavers to get the rhythm right, and then go back to full speed. See what works for you. The recording is nice and clear so we can all get our copies out over half term and practice with that.

• Stabat Mater

  • Full disclosure here - I am almost 100% certain that we ran through this but I genuinely might’ve just dreamt it. Everything is therefore to be taken in that context!

  • Top of page 2 where the sopranos come in on F for ‘jux-ta cru-cem’ we must come in cleanly with no swooping.

  • That’s all I can pull to mind - sorry. Either it really was one of my dreams or there was nothing much to say.

• Ave Maria (Fauré)

  • Another in the ‘was it just a dream?’ category! I can offer nothing except - brush up ya Latin, kids!

• The Conspiracy (In Windsor Forest)

  • The final one in my dream sequence - did we? Didn’t we? I suspect we did and I was just running very short on sugar and needed that flapjack. This is why I really should not be trusted with this job.

• Three Hungarian Folk Songs

  • We only did the last one which encourages a touch of Granny abuse.

  • This was all good but … it WILL be unaccompanied on the day. Eek!

• Riversong

  • The opening phrase from the altos needs to be sung mp but will confidence.

  • Bar 45 on page 6 Hazel and I both routinely sing ‘Man-ly’ miles which sounds like a whole lot more fun TBH. I think it is the ‘-‘ that trips me up. I have no idea what Hazel’s excuse is but I am still very much here for it.

  • There should be no pause in between 'many miles’ and ’tho the journey will be long.’

  • Just a reminder for those who find the very last note tricky to find - it is identical to the starting note for each verse. SO simply imagine you are starting another verse and you will be sorted.

• Dry Bones

  • We definitely did this one and it went pretty well.

  • The syncopated rhythm is carried throughout and is central to the character of the piece and so really needs to be brought out. All those little quaver rests need to be popped in.

  • Especially from page 10, bar 70 onwards starting ’The toe bone connected to the (rest) foot bone (rest)’ and so one ad infinitum. Again, slow it right down, practice counting it out in quavers, shoving those rests in, and then speed it up once you have the feel of the syncopation. 

  • We get fff at the end - yey!

• Fly Me To The Moon

  • Another ditty that is all tickety boo to start with and then has a tendancy to all go a bit Pete Tong in the middle.

  • Bar 58 onwards (page 48) we all start coming in at different points and we simply have to watch and count like crazy. Watch, yet again, for those syncopations that can trip us up and get messy.

  • We need to memorise the last page and a half of repeated ‘I love you’ and remember to watch and get gradually quieter.

• Chicken Tikka

  • Just to really put the cat amongst the pigeons, it transpires that, not only does absolutely everyone sing "Chicken Tikka" but half the population also starts the song with "Take you teeth out, tell me what’s wrong!”.

  • Nothing much to say here except that we should try to learn the last phrase from bar 63 (and this is from my pencilled notes) ‘from memory …ish’! Make of that what you will.

Have a fab weekend.

Bye for now and I will see you on 11th March when I am back from my holiday.

Rach x

Poor Ann is still not back in her rightful place here - we are all thinking of you, Ann, and sending ‘Get well soon’ wishes. So it falls to me, once again, to do the deed with the practice notes. 

Happily, so far as I am aware, there wasn’t much in the way of new notes to make but it is always possible that I was too busy thinking about what delights there would be in the ‘cake break’ (Thanks, Stella) that I may have missed some vital bits of information. Apologies in advance!

We started with a warm up during which we increased our ‘Beats in a Bar’ up to 5. I had a good hunt around and found it HERE. You will notice from the video that it does get more complicated so I suspect we have that joy to look forward to in the coming weeks.

• Ave Maria (Michael Head)

When you are in the middle of this piece it can be really hard to appreciate the harmonies and how it all hangs together, so I urge you to listen to the piece by clicking the link. Rather like some paintings, when you stand back from it, you can really see the full picture. Listening to the recording feel how they settle together. I think that it’s beautiful and I would be interested to know what you think.

Now then … full disclosure: I was so busy playing musical chairs and swapping music copies with various people that I have only a very few notes for this that Yvonne very kindly penciled in for me, so am relying solely on my very unreliable memory. Added to this that there are many times when I look as if I am paying attention but my brain is very much in another place, and I apologise for the nonsense that may well appear below!

• We are in minims throughout this piece but the number of minims in a bar changes quite a lot so we will need to pay particular attention to Ian.

• We are also in Latin throughout so we need to keep nice, clean vowels (wow - my spell checker wanted to change that to something quite different!!). 

• First sopranos lead in quietly (pp) but we still need to be confident.

• Last bar of the first page and over into the first bar of the second page, first sopranos get six notes on the trot that are the same and this can be tricky. Ian suggested that we focus on keeping the tuning very level - one long note simply chopped into words.

• There is a gentle crescendo followed by a diminuendo over the whole of page 2 and the vocal lines stay smooth.

• Bottom of page 3 there is a triplet - 3 notes equally spaced over the count of a minim. Watch Ian for the rhythm so that all parts stay precisely together.

• The page turn from page 3 to 4 there is the repeat of those 6 identical notes in the first soprano part.

• 3rd bar page 4 the musical term ’subito’ means ‘quickly’ or ’suddenly’ so we need to crescendo over the first 2 bars of the page and then suddenly drop to mp.

• At the bottom of page 4 on the words ’Sancta Maria’ we drop from p to pp on an rising interval that feels like it should be a crescendo.

• Just across onto page 5 in the very first bar, there is a delicious clash - the first sopranos on a top F natural and the altos an F#. There is also a ‘tenuto’ which means we should give the note its full length and a tad more. Watch Ian and enjoy that crunchy sound!

• Page 6, the altos have some very low notes which we will all feel rumbling in our bones and then, at the end of that 2nd bar we must all put some jolly big double lines so that we STOP!

• KEY CHANGE. Whoopee - in a bit of a Whitney Houston moment, in the 3rd bar of page 6 we move into C major. We also head back to the original tempo whilst maintaining a quiet and sweet tone.

• At the bottom of page 6 in the last bar the first sopranos split with the back row singing the top G and the rest singing the E.

• At the bottom of page 7 the parts move down a stave to offer support under the soprano solo right through to the end of the piece. 

• In the last bar of page 9 we move back into the minor key and get to slam up to a forte - fill ya boots, kids because it doesn't last long!

• The last page, bottom system … oof! Is that 12 whole beats I see? All going from pp to ppp and all in one breath? Surely not without an oxygen cylinder handy. As it happens ’smorzando’ means ‘extinguishing’. How true!!

• So Fair And Bright

  • This makes me cry and not in a good way because I sing second soprano and whoever did the print setting for this piece obviously hates us. There is little anyone can offer in the way of advice when it comes to picking out the notes squished in the middle there except maybe to learn the notes, then learn the words, and then attempt to marry the whole shebang up magnificently. Good luck!

  • First page, bar 6 we are to recognise the comma after the word ‘bright’ but then to sing straight through with no breath. It is quite fast so breath control should not be too much of an issue.

  • The long chord from bar 8-10 we should diminuendo but then ...

  • Page 3 bar 15 in contrast we crescendo right through that long chord.

  • Remember all those little accents over the notes help to give the piece the right rhythm so we should make sure to push them a little.

  • Page 4 bars 23-24 that long note is shorter than it looks so watch Ian who will ensure we all come off cleanly together.

  • Page 5 we split with first sopranos and first altos at the top and second sopranos and second altos at the bottom. 

  • The bottom voices from bar 34-37 have a dancing rhythm and have all the marked accents to help achieve that.

  • From bar 37 along to bar 44 we have nice old crescendo up to forte.

  • Page 7 bar 57 Ian reminded us tho ensure we sing ’This world’ and not ’This sworld’ which is an entirely different thing.

  • Page 10 bars 91-95 we need to keep the forte going nice and powerfully.

  • Then we gradually ease off the volume more and more until, by the end we are right down to piano.

  • Any second sopranos who made it through to the end without joining me in ‘blub corner’ deserve extra cake.

• Ave Maria (Faure)

  • We ran through this without much problem at all although I confess that I had only just found the right page by the time everyone else was singing the last note, so what do I know?

• The New Day (apologies - simply no link for this)

  • Ooh, so very nearly there with singing this by heart. Next week we will be perfect.

• Three Hungarian Folk Songs 

  • This was all pretty much ticketty boo.

  • Finding the starting note for the second song: the second sopranos have it easy as they stay on the G. First altos have a nice easy hop up a third. The poor first sopranos and second altos have to pitch up a 6th so remember that the first two notes of the song ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’ makes a 6th so have that in your head. I know this song like the back of my hand as I sing it to soothe Louis and his younger cousin, Finn off to sleep when they have Mompa and Bompa days. Sometimes I sing it on repeat for up to 20 minutes whilst waiting for them to get so sick of hearing it that they doze off just to escape!

Have a fab weekend 

Bye for now

Rach x