Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a fun and productive rehearsal last night. I really enjoyed making music with you all.
Our intonation singing a chromatic scale during warm ups was much improved this week – great job with that!
We did some work singing in circles to reinforce everyone’s understanding of their own part and then some mixed formations to help everyone better hear each other’s parts and how their part fit into the whole.
Before the retreat, please take a few minutes to review and practice the pronunciations for the pieces in our repertoire that are not in English. There are practice guides posted on our website.
If you have not already, please return your copy of Moon of Wintertime to our librarian, Nancy. You can give it to her the next time you are at rehearsal (thanks, Nancy for collecting these!)
Rehearsal Reflection:
Two Eastern Pictures II. Summer mm. 30-40, 67-77, 92-99
– reviewed pitches and rhythms for all parts and sang through the piece
– worked on intonation (still work to be done!)
– note in m. 34 and 71 the two eighth rests so that you don’t make the eighth note longer than it is written
– final consonants on the rests (we will continue to work on interior consonants, as well)
– when a syllable ends in N, sustain the vowel rather than closing to the N early, so that we do not pinch off the sound: gentle, mantle, ankles, tinkle
My Lord, What a Morning mm. 1-8, 33-41
– reviewed pitches and rhythms
– m. 6 A1 note the descending half steps on beats 2-3-4. Those are a challenge to tune!
– m. 33-41 the D-natural was consistently flat throughout the chorus. It is the ‘So’ or 5th scale degree of G-major, which is the key for this section which then cadences on E-minor (G’s relative minor) at m. 41. The D being in tune is so important in our efforts to not have pitch drift occur. In just intonation, tuning the 5th is our key to success. We will continue to work on this!
– throughout this piece, ‘morning’ will be pronounced as ‘mornin’ with the second syllable unaccented. I will let you know if we will alter any other pronunciations. I attended a very interesting session at the NC ACDA conference regarding the use of African American English Dialect in African American Spirituals which will help to inform my decisions about altering pronunciations. It was led by an expert in this area, Dr. Felicia Barber, and I learned a lot! She shared with us concepts from her text, A New Perspective for the Use of African American English Dialect in African American Spirituals: History, Context, and Linguistics
Par’o era Estrellero mm. 41-60
– reviewed pitches and rhythms for the fourth stanza and also sang through all
– worked on intonation
– sopranos, we began our pitch drift when the octave skip up in m. 13 was flat
– we will need to carefully tune the descending F-sharp, E-flat, D pattern that occurs throughout this piece. I have an exercise ready for our next rehearsal to help us with this.
The Dawn is Not Distant mm. 26-34, solo part
– we reviewed pitches and rhythms for everyone and sang through the piece
– we sang through the solo part
– phrase shaping will truly make this piece magical. The end of the phrase almost always tapers, even when the pitch ascends. We will continue to work on this!
When You Wish Upon a Star all
– we sang through the piece in part circles and I asked everyone to note in their music where they were having difficulty and to let their section leader know – so please do email your section leader if there is a part with which you need help. Also, please note that I created recordings of myself singing all of the parts and in various combinations that could be a big help to you in your individual practice – they are posted under our practice files tab on our website
– m. 13 through the first half of m. 16 are in unison! (the melody is harmonized in mm. 29-32)
Mēnestinis Naki Brauca mm. 23-26
– S2 and A2 have the melody in this G-minor section.
– it will be very important for us to tune the B-flat high so that we are able to modulate back to B-flat major in tune. The B-flat is the tonic (Do) in B-flat major but the B-flat is the third (Mi) in G-minor. This is tricky, because natural tuning would have us sing the B-flat slightly lower when it is the third of the scale and not the tonic, but we must not because then we will certainly experience the dreaded pitch drift. Singing with a drone will help us learn to audiate the B-flat as we work through this.
Looking Ahead to the Retreat:
In the morning, we will have fun with some activities and learn from our guest clinician, Dr. Jami Rhodes. After lunch (WVC does the best pot luck win the world!) and meeting, we will rehearse for a bit and then sing through all of our repertoire – looking forward to putting the pieces of the puzzle together!
Looking Ahead to 11/7/22
I will prioritize our musical needs after the retreat and send an email before the 11/7/22 rehearsal so that you know what is in store for that evening. I am very much looking forward to digging into the expressive elements of all of our music with you.
Please note that our January concert is scheduled for:
Saturday, January 21st
3 PM (Call time 1:30 PM)
University United Methodist Church
150 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
I will see you at the retreat! Hooray!
Laura