Hello Everyone,
Thank you for such a wonderful and fulfilling rehearsal. Our music is really coming together with not only technical accuracy but most importantly, expressiveness. Such lovely moments throughout!
How Can I Keep from Singing?
– Great job keeping the slower sections moving.
– Dynamic contrasts are wonderful
– Really nice balance of all of the parts
Big Dogs, Music, and Wild, Wild Women
– Lots of fun in this piece!
– As much as you can look up from your music and let your face and bodies express this piece, our audience will really enjoy it.
– Be sure to look up at the tempo changes
– Love the Deb piano feature!
You’ve Got a Friend in Me
– We haven’t sung this one in a bit and we had a rough start. It would be very helpful if you could please sing with the Julie Gault YouTube file that is posted on our website for a review before Monday.
– We will need to give this piece some extra attention but hopefully, it will come back together quickly.
Mah Dodech Midod
– Nice job with the dynamics and diction especially.
– This is a piece we could sing with a bit less weight in our voices so that we have an overall lighter sound. The ‘lala’ sections were lovely.
– S1s be careful to not oversing at the top of the staff – it gets a bit soprano heavy on the Es, Fs, and Gs, especially when it is marked forte. It’s just a bit too forte!
Gloria
– Interesting what we have going on mm. 48-67. We need to tighten up that section. I will work on being more clear.
– We also need to work on the separation/breath mm. 18-21 and similar sections
Spes
– This piece has come so far!
– We need to work on balance – in general, S1s and S2s are too loud when the A1s and A2s have the melody – ex. mm. 27-42. The S1 and S2 parts are marked pp and should be very light and rhythmic.
– The intonation has improved but we are still a bit flat, not quite a quarter tone but enough to keep us from sparkling.
Sparks of Divinity
– Thank you, Susan, for sharing your inspiration for this text and other background information – I think it is so helpful to understand more fully what we are communicating.
– This piece is really pulling together. We are going to focus on getting the ‘sparks’ where they belong. If you are a Sparkette, please review your part with the practice tracks. I know it is not easy
Looking Ahead to 1/22/24
Please remember that our rehearsal is from 7-10pm. I will plan for us to rehearse in the pews for the first part of rehearsal and then run our concert straight through in our formation. We will have some logistics to work out as we learn how to best move through and use the space. Please be ready to be flexible if we need to make any adjustments to our performance formation.
We will not have our guest instrumentalists (strings and percussion) on Monday but they will be with us on Thursday (except for Salomé, our guitarist, who will join us for a run through of Gloria before our concert on Saturday).
We have a very busy and fun time ahead – I am enjoying all of our music-making and am so looking forward to sharing it all with our family, friends, and community. Thank you for each of your many contributions!
Best,
Laura