Hello Everyone,
Such fun at rehearsal! Thank you for the beautiful flowers and birthday song – it was the loveliest rendition I heard, for sure!
I think our sectionals paid off – we accomplished a great deal tonight. I did want to pass on Gwen Hall’s compliments. She said that she was thrilled when she watched our video of I Sing That My Voice May Be Heard. Gwen really appreciated our phrasing, dynamics, intonation…all of it. Sean Ivory, composer of The Peace of Wild Things, was the first to write us a nice compliment regarding our Youtube post. Also, people wrote very nice comments on the concert videos I shared on social media. Some of my friends who couldn’t travel to see the concert in person were thrilled with the opportunity to hear us sing (especially my sister and my mother). I hope that if you are on social media, you will also consider sharing – it helps us to share with a wider audience the music we are making.
Below is information on tuners. Let me know if you have questions.
Here are the rehearsal notes from tonight’s rehearsal. if you missed (we missed you!), this is what we worked on. I told you that I had a list of consonants for us to think about – we will work on unifying vowels together. It will be very helpful for you to note these consonants in your scores. For example, in my score I will have written a capital F before the word “for.” Even though the F is obviously already there, it reminds me to start that air early and clearly sound the F before I start the pitch for the vowel. The vowel should start as the rhythm is notated in the score but the initial consonants have to sound early. If they are voiced consonants, they have to start on the same pitch as the vowel. Interior consonants often get lost – I pencil those in, too, but have to put them either above or below the word in my score. Ending consonants are usually easy but I think one of the most challenging is the final P as in the word “up.” Ending consonants belong on the rest that follows if at the end of a phrase. The tricky consonants are the ones at the end of a word, connected to the next word – now they act as interior consonants. And they always have to be connected forward, never backward. An example would be “out-singing.” We need to sing it as “ou-tsinging.” Anyway, as you have time, practice reading through the list and then practice reading the text in rhythm so you can work on all of the sounds. When you think you have it, sing the phrase!
Thanks everyone – see you next week!
LJ
I Started Out Singing – Jocelyn Hagen/Naomi Shihab Nye
Mm. 1-61
Diction
- Begin phrases with mouth in the shape of the vowel (rehearse audiating the first note). Keep audiating (stay engaged with the music) so that first notes of all of the phrases are accurate, especially after measures that you don’t sing.
- Final consonants on the rests.
- D and T “started out”
- Shadow vowel end of M on “dime”
- Each consonant distinctly sounded but connected forward “as far as the wind…the sea.”
- “smiling” sustain an AH vowel w/ a very fast vanishing vowel.
- H “halo”
- Gs “giggles”
- T and D “tied”
Articulation and Phrasing
- Second eighth note in a pair has less weight (press and release)
- Carry less weight on notes higher on the staff.
- Don’t overemphasize the pickup words.
- Legato but with clean releases for the rests – glide!
Dynamics and Tempo
- Follow what is written in the score.
In the Lavender Stillness of Dawn – Jocelyn Hagen
Mm. 1-3
Diction
- D and FT “drifting” “dream” “dancing” – bring out the alliteration
- T “tail”
- V and T “violet”
- TS “violet-soft”
- FTK “soft clouds”
- V “lavender”
- AH inside the hum.
- K and T “quiet.
- AH inside the hum.
- K “wake”
- F “first” “from” “for”
- H and P “hop”
- K “sparkle”
- VD “of-day”
- K “make”
Dynamics
- Follow what is written in the score.
Some Glad Morning – Carolyn Jennings/Joyce Sutphen
Mm. 1-59
Diction
- DH “old happened”
- G “green”
- B and K “back”
- F “leafy”
- T and GS “twigs”
- GR and D “ground”
- BR and K “broke”
- D and K “dark”
- K “coffee” and “clouds”
Articulation
- Keep the vocal weight appropriate to the text – careful to not overemphasize beginning words that are not textually important.
Dynamics
- Follow what is written in the score.
Moon Goddess – Jocelyn Hagen/Enheduanna
Mm. 1-75
Diction
- Breathe in the shape of the vowels at the beginning of phases. Audiate before you phonate!
- “lady” shape the vowel of the second syllable to IH
- DH “sound hills”
- H “hearing”
- F, TL, and DS “flatlands”
- DSB “flatlands bow”
- G ”guardian” and “great”
- “all” – keep the vowel open and minimize the LL.
- VP and KD “have picked”
- P and DTH “picked them”
- P “up”
- H “hung” and “hand”
- FT “lofty”
- “Wide” vowel round (don’t let it spread.)
- ST and K “strike”
- D “down”
- H and CK “hack”
- CH “charge”
- DG “disguised”
- TH “thundering”
- “evil” second syllable shape to IH.
Articulation
- Mm. 14-38 glide
- Mm. 40 – glides with accents interspersed. The contrast of the glides and accents should be dramatic. Give each accented note enough space around it and also don’t just sing ff. The beginning of an accented note is louder than the end of an accented note.
Dynamics
- Follow what is written in the score.
O Ignee Spiritus – Carlotta Ferrari/Hildegard von Bingen (WE DID NOT GET TO THIS – BUT WE WILL!)
Mm. 1-48.
Pitches and rhythms.
Minimize vibrato.
The Birds’ Lullaby – Sarah Quartel/E. Pauline Johnson
Mm. 1-54.
Pitches and rhythms. Sing without the piano.
“doos” are sung as dabs with the exception of the connected notes across the bar lines – those are glides.
Melody is sung as a glide.
Looking ahead to 2/10/20
7:30-8:30 PM Sectionals, 4/8-part divisi. Locations TBD.
- My River Runs to Thee mm. 1-13.
- The Imaginary Garden mm. 1-48, 91-106.
- Joy mm. 1-44.
- Your World mm. 1-45.
- Song of Miriam mm. 1-30.
8:40-9:30 PM All rehearse together, seated in 4/8-part divisi sections.
Announcements.
- The Birds’ Lullaby mm. 55-91.
- O Ignee Spiritus mm. 1-48.
- Sing through all sectional music, focusing on expressive elements.
9:30-10:00 PM Chamber Choir – Read through movements 1, 3, and 5 of Hope is the Thing You will receive your music at rehearsal.
Information on tuners. A free tuner for both iOS and Android is InsTuner. It’s free. The disadvantage of this tuner is that it does not show you notes on the staff. You have to know the letter names of your notes to know what to look for on the tuner. But, it is still a very good tool and WAY better than nothing. The tuner that I use is Sing-inTuna. It is only for iOS devices and is $4.99. There is no comparable tuner for Android devices. The advantage of this tuner is that it has many other setting options and also shows you the note that you are singing on the staff. It is easier to look back and forth in your music to see if you are accurately singing what is in the score. The only thing that may be tricky is if there are accidentals, you have to know your enharmonics – for example D-flat sounds the same as C-sharp (technically they don’t sound the same depending on what tuning system you are using, but for our purposes – close enough for now!). If you get Sing-inTuna, I recommend the following in Settings:
- At the top you can choose either “Chromatic” or “Notes in Key.” If you aren’t sure of your key signatures, set it to Chromatic. Both “just” or “equal” are helpful – start out using “equal” on all of our accompanied pieces and use “just” on our a cappella pieces. More about that later.
- Use Concert A: 440Hz
- Use +-24 (This refers to +- 24 cents. Each interval of a half step is 100 cents).
- Toggle the Spectrogram off (unless you want to see the overtones you are producing – but it may be confusing at first).
- Toggle the Dark Background off (you can’t see the notes on the staff with it on)
- You don’t need to transpose (we will sing all of our pieces in the keys written!)
The first step to improved intonation is self-awareness – and tuners help! If you find that you are not singing in tune – don’t despair! Awareness if the fist big step forward. I would first check your posture and your breath flow and make adjustments (most of the time we need a more energetic flow of air…just the right amount – not too much and not too little). Check the shape of your vowel. OO is one of the easier vowels to tune so you can start there. If you are singing pitches high on the staff and are flat, try carrying less weight in your voice, even if the note you produce is soft (better soft and in tune than loud and out of tune!). If you aren’t able to see improvements on your own – let me know and I can meet with you to assist.