Hello Everyone,
Thanks for your dedicated work last night – we accomplished a great deal. I hope you feel accomplished!
Please inventory your music for your problem spots and get those worked out with the practice files this week, or if needed, bring your questions to the retreat. As we rehearse each piece we will have time to address concerns.
Rehearsal Reflection:
Below are the specific points we addressed for each piece. We still have much polishing to do but we obviously can’t address all points at once. I will listen to the recordings I made and create a to-do list for Saturday.
Concert order:
Swifter Than Flame
– clarity of consonants
– clean rests (no one carrying over)
– long dynamic arcs: mm. 7-24, mm. 30-44, mm. 59-end
– mezzos mm. 34-35 sing with more clarity to enhance the storytelling
– mezzos and altos mm. 47-48 marked pp to give aural space for the featured soprano line (remember, they have full capacity to enact ‘revenge’ and cover your beautiful lines but so far, they are ‘playing well with others!’ 🙂
Flying
– woot woot! Everyone returned to the Eb Dining Room for the closing section. That’s not easy to do!
– m. 7 note that the violin enters on beat 3 and singers on beat 4. I don’t want you to be confused by my gesture there.
– pages 8-10 needs some pitch clean up…there were many wrong notes in this section.
Flying
– Hwere (where), From, uP, o-vuh, Fir (clarity of consonants!)
– S2s release ‘throat’ on the and of beat 4 mm. 30 and 34. Altos, breathe with the S2s.
Flight Song
– mm. 32, 34 have 4 beats (especially note m. 34 so that you don’t move early)
– mm. 43 and 53 have 3 beats. S1 be mindful in m. 43 that you do not move in that measure while everyone else does, especially the A part who moves on beat 3 while you sustain
– m. 34 lift after ‘broken’
– mm. 36-39 ‘music’s inner voice…’ sing this phrase softly (Joey says…woof)
– mm. 54-55 S1 and S2 should remove the breath I originally asked for
Now Let Me Fly
– we will sing this at a faster tempo. Please ensure verses 1 and 2 don’t slow down
– intonation continues to be our biggest hurdle – we will work on it together!
Be Like the Bird
– Beautiful phrasing!
– audiate F4 while we sing (that’s the F above middle C). It is our anchor note for tuning
Koowu
– Yay! m. 3 was a beautiful unison G
– note the doumbek entrances so that you are not confused by my gestures in mm. 13 (drum enters on beat 1, sopranos release on beat 2), 49, and 61
– note the melodic/harmonic contour on page 6: mm. 32-C, 33-B-natural, 34-C, 35-D, 36-Eb to C, 37-B-natural, 38-C, 39-D, 40-Eb, 41-C
Jump!
– Saturday we will work on the glissandos and also the small group part (3-part chords mm. 88 & 89)
Flight
– mm. 37-40 the rhythm is inaccurate. I will rethink my conducting there and do my best to be clear. The issue is a late entrance in 37 that throws off the subsequent syncopation
– m. 41 ‘flyin” (not fly-ING)
– ‘wanna’ throughout
– m. 116 ‘rollin”
– mm. 49-56 please write in your counting because you may be moving or sustaining in comparison to your neighbor
– mm. 59-60 have a tricky rhythm and a rit. so please watch carefully there and I will do my best to keep us together
– mm. 79-80 syncopation is not clear and there is also a rit.
– mm. 119-123 solid intonation so that we are accurate with the G4 when the strings come back in at m. 121
Your World
– we have made great progress on this piece but we still have gaps in our knowledge of pitches. Please review your part when you have time this week. We will work on this together on Saturday.
Chamber Choir:
Bumble Bee
– it’s easier to sing at the faster tempo! Yay! I appreciate sections working through challenges. I know there was a flurry of conversation without us being able to sing through again at the end.
– here is the interesting link about bees and rhythm that Virginia shared:
Some things that fly there be
– note the accented notes/words
– mm. 3 and 34 sopranos have a duple for ‘hours’ that should sound 2 against 3
– review practice files for pitches in m. 8, pg 3 ‘can I expound the skies’ three iterations are all different, m. 39
– remember the first page repeats
– I will consider/reconsider the phrase releases on page 3 – it will perhaps be clearest and also most sensible if we release on the beat instead of on the final 3rd of the beat which is a hair’s breadth difference at the performance tempo.
I do think our reference recording is lovely and they release on the beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI4hqYU6c9M
– Here is a link to SixMinuteScholar talking about the poem – I think it’s an interesting perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lZ8qncAXO0&t=14s
I’m looking forward to our music-making on Saturday – see you then!
Laura