Hello Everyone,

I enjoyed our rehearsal last night. I am hopeful that everyone got home safely in that downpour. Thank you for leading the All Hands Meeting, Kay. It is wonderful to think about how many members are working and have worked in the past on behalf of WVC. Yay us!

A reminder that the Sibelius practice files on our website are currently not working – Karla will see what’s up when she is back in town. In the meantime, you can use the MP3 and YouTube links.

If you have not already, consider using Amazon Smile with WVC as your designated contribution recipient for your online shopping (and encourage your family and friends to do so, as well). And, I recently asked two people if they would like to be sustaining donors or make a donation to WVC and they both said yes. Never hurts to ask!

Rehearsal Focus:

Rise Up mm. 87-end
– pitches and rhythms
– transition from page 15-16
– ending consonants on the rests (note these in your score, please)
– ensemble breath on the rests
– note all of the accents!

Nothing Short of Grace mm. 35-50
– review of pitches and rhythms for this section, especially for the mezzo sopranos – most important part here.

Storm Comin’ mm. 43-end
– pitches and rhythms
– mezzo soprano rhythms in mm. 43, 45, 48 should match the soprano rhythm with a sixteenth note filled by an eighth note for the ‘comin’

Sing My Child mm. 75-end
– note that this section has the same pitches and rhythms as mm. 39-53, but at mm. 90 the musical phrase is extended as it moves to the ending of the piece.
– mm. 90-end pitches and rhythms
– transition from page 5 to page 6

Looking Ahead to 11/8/21

Richer for Her mm. 1-33
 shaping phrases with dynamics and syllabic emphasis
– unifying vowels

She Who Makes Her Meaning Clear mm. 29-58
– review pitches
– pitches and rhythms small group part mm. 31-41
– shaping phrases with dynamics

How Can I Keep From Singing mm. 1-42
– YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsKD7ZYrtgo

– pitches and rhythms
– mm. 13-19 we may sing this section with all voices instead of altos then sopranos. If so, in m. 19, altos will sing ‘in my soul’ and then not sing ‘how can I’ and then in m. 20 return to the alto part
– there were a lot of markings in my score from the previous time this was sung, crossing out notes in some places and adding notes in others. We will sing as originally written so I erased all of those markings – you may need to do the same.
– we do not plan on having practice files for this piece but will work through challenges together in rehearsal. The YouTube recording (link above) is excellent – you can definitely accomplish a good practice session using it.

O Sister mm. 1-end – I’m not sure how far we will get before our 50 minutes are up, but we will work on:
– shaping phrases with dynamics and syllabic emphasis
– unifying vowels

I will miss seeing you on 11/1 but look forward to seeing and hearing you on 11/8. I will have been at the NC Honors Chorus (turning pages for accompanist Gwen Hall) that weekend and am hopeful that I will have ideas to share. I look forward to this each year at the NCMEA conference – it is wonderful to sit a few feet away from accomplished and inspiring conductor/clinicians, soaking it all in. The conductor/clinician for this year is Dr. Julie Yu and I have not yet seen her work so I am extra excited.

https://sites.google.com/view/ncmea-hs-honors-chorus/home

Hugs,
Laura