Hello Everyone,
WOW!!!! Hooray for us! It was very exciting to sing all of our concert repertoire tonight. Thank you, Ann, for your wonderful insight as we began our run through. I am fully confident that we can and will work our way out of our dark places! I have faith is us! But it was reassuring to hear Ann say it – so thank you.
Some reflections:
There were some very powerful moments in our rehearsal tonight. I am sure that you could feel it, too! I know how I felt looking at your faces, and hearing your voices when we were singing and there were moments that were incredibly moving and connected. I am also confident (and have faith!) that we can overcome our musical challenges and be in a very good place after we complete our December rehearsals.
I know that most enjoy singing in mixed formation so we will definitely keep this for some of our pieces. Others, however, will sound better if we sing in sections – and this is not because we are not ABLE to sing in mixed formation but that the music will be more powerful when we have strength in sections singing together. At our next rehearsal, we will work through some alternate standing arrangements. I didn’t want us to move around tonight since we had so much to cover, but we will move to different formations during our 3 upcoming December rehearsals.
A Path to Each Other – We still have some tuning challenges but we are getting there. I hope that we can continue to build paths with our words. There is already way too much talk in our world about walls (in my opinion) so let’s focus on the opportunities to build paths instead!
My People Are Rising – We will definitely perform this in voice part sections. I feel sure that we will have a stronger sound and will be able to accomplish cleaner entrances and better intonation if we are positioned in sections. I would encourage everyone to regularly listen to the recording of My People Are Rising performed by Elektra so that the doumbek and violin parts are in our ears well before we meet with our guest musicians in January. Wendy asked me about any tunes I knew that have augmented 2nds in the melody – and I was puzzling over it…but really what we are probably most familiar hearing are minor 3rds which sound like augmented seconds (they are enharmonic intervals – named differently but sound the same). Both intervals are comprised of 3 half steps. Here is a list of songs that may help you to hear various intervals. Interval Song Chart. You probably have your own favorite examples, too! Also, I really like this website: MusicTheory.net. It has both lessons and exercises that can be of help. You can also practice singing this sequence on solfeggi:
Do – Ra (minor second – one half step)
Do – Re (Major second – two half steps)
Do – Ri (Augmented second – three half steps)
Working with a tuner when you are fine tuning intervals is really helpful. I get a lot out of working with my Sing in Tuna app – it keeps me honest!
I appreciate that Cheryl reflected that even with our musical challenges, this piece is VERY powerful.
I Sing That My Voice May Be Heard – We are overall in great shape on this piece – just a few phrasing details to accomplish. It sounded amazing and I was so happy that we could sing it again for Gwen. 🙂
1941 – This piece is also in great shape. We need to be more sensitive to the soft sections and dynamic contrasts overall. We accomplished the tempo changes more accurately tonight but will also work on this a bit more. Our ability to communicate with one another through my conducting will be paramount to our collective success. If you look up, I promise I will do my best to give you something worth watching!
The Peace of Wild Things – Obviously, our biggest challenge in this piece tonight was tuning the opening section – mm. 13-24. After that, I think we need to settle into not oversinging the quieter sections and think through the sections that build to a climax rather than singing them loudly throughout. One example of this is the repetition of the word “free” on pages 12-13. With overall greater sensitivity to dynamic contrast, I think that we can really bring Wendell Berry’s poem to life. And what an amazingly beautiful poem it is!
Swing Low: A Spiritual Medley – Gwen told me that she thinks Rosephanye Powell wrote this piece to be sung with great tenderness and I think that is exactly the right feeling that we need to have in order to make this piece work. We need to think about how we will bring out the melodies without being vocally aggressive and to sing the supporting harmonies with sensitivity. The history behind these three songs is incredibly powerful and I know that we want to share our connection to this deeper meaning. This piece is very close to coming together and it was glorious to hear us sing it through tonight.
Faith is the Bird – Gwen remarked that this had a lot of energy and that she could tell that we had worked through it using our Laban efforts. Yay! We have a short list to accomplish on this piece – including taming the intonation beast in mm. 22-32. I have faith that we will feel the light – but as you have a chance, try to sing your part on this section slowly with a tuner. Don’t forget to transpose up a half step.
The Tree of Peace – We are very close on this piece – what we mostly need to do now is to move from one section to another with fluidity, recognizing how the sections propel us musically forward into the next phrase before eventually returning us to an earlier phrase at the end, “listen, listen to one another.” We have quite a story to tell with this piece. It will be important that everyone watches closely so that we can accomplish the tempo shifts together. I will do my best to consistently use the same conducting gestures (unless something isn’t working!!!!!) so that you will know what to expect to see at our performance. Of course, this is somewhat of an organic process but we will grow together so that you will feel supported with consistent visual communication as we sing to reinforce what you already know as we move together as an ensemble. A few told me that it was helpful for me to mouth the words when I conduct – which I am happy to continue doing but please know that I am NOT singing – just mouthing. (I am pretty sure I was a mouthy kid so here I am, still being mouthy!). I will try to keep this from being in any way distracting to our audience so that they look at your faces when they listen to you sing – so be sure to give them something expressive to look at!
Now Let Me Fly – I hope that I did not make you want to “fly away” with the faster tempo but I did want you to feel the performance tempo. This will be another piece that will benefit from us singing in sections as opposed to a mixed formation. We will go through page 15 again so that everyone is aware of the changes, but here they are for anyone who missed rehearsal:
A2 Lowers (PLUS ADD A2 Uppers!!!) will sing mm. 85-86 and keep repeating that pattern until the S1s sing their part – then sing m. 88 when the S1s get there. After that everyone repeats mm. 85-88.
A2 Uppers – start with the A2 Lowers and then jump up to your own part when it is time. Sing mm. 85-87 and then repeat back to m. 85 and sing mm. 85-87 again until the S1s sing their part – then sing m. 88 when the S1s get there. After that everyone repeats mm. 85-88.
A1 Uppers and Lowers – At your entrance, sing mm. 85-87 and then repeat back to m. 85 and sing mm. 85-87 again until the S1s sing their part – then sing m. 88 when the S1s get there. After that everyone repeats mm. 85-88.
S2 Uppers and Lowers – At your entrance, sing mm. 85-87 and then repeat back to m. 85 and sing mm. 85-87 again until the S1s sing their part – then sing m. 88 when the S1s get there. After that everyone repeats mm. 85-88.
Another change is that A1s and A2s will not sing page 16, m. 90. A2s will sing “fly” in m. 89 down an octave from where it is written.
Especially since we are working toward 12/2/19 memorization on this piece, please practice with this recording as your guide: Now Let Me Fly. I also hope that you will consider my previous notes on this piece – I want to be absolutely respectful of the origin of this music and the power of these words. I would never want us to sing it as a concert finale because it is a “showstopper” but rather that its message is a culmination of all of our preceding musical and lyrical thoughts. This piece completes our thematic journey before we circle home with The Valley.
The Valley – This is the one that brought tears to my eyes tonight – so many lovely moments. I sensed a much greater confidence in accomplishing all of the tricky rhythms. Now, the real trick will be to make these rhythms flow out of us as though they are second nature! Let’s make sure that everyone is confident in mm. 76-80 so that we can sing this section at a mezzo piano but with great energy and intensity.
For our upcoming December rehearsals, I would like for us to aim for the following:
12/2/19
The Tree of Peace
Now Let Me Fly
The Valley
My People Are Rising – pages 4-11, mm. 4-58
12/9/19
1941
The Peace of Wild Things
Swing Low
Faith is the Bird
My People Are Rising – pages 11-18, mm. 60-119
Now Let Me FLy (sing through at the end of the rehearsal if time allows)
12/16/19
A Path to Each Other
My People Are Rising – pages 18-23, mm. 121-174 (Sing through all as time allows)
I Sing That My Voice May Be Heard
Now Let My Fly
The Valley
January rehearsals:
1/6/20
We will sing through our concert in order and cover any remaining details as time allows. I hope that everyone will take time over our break to sing through the repertoire enough to keep it fresh.
1/13/20
We will have our tech rehearsal at UUMC from 7-10 PM with our guest instrumentalists and guest chorus. The priorities for this rehearsal will be to accomplish all of our logistical details, to rehearse with our guest chorus, and to rehearse with our guest instrumentalists.
1/16/20
We will have our final rehearsal in our regular location from 7-10 PM to finetune any remaining details as we sing through all of our music one final time before our performance. I hope that at this rehearsal we will feel prepared, confident, and ready to share our music with our community. I hope that our final rehearsal of the season will be an affirmation of all that we have learned together on our musical journey.
Stay tuned for solo audition information.
Thank you, one and all, for the work you are doing individually and collectively to prepare for our rehearsals. I look forward to seeing you on Monday.
I wish you safe travels if you will be on the road (or in the air!).
Happy Thanksgiving,
Laura
PS Please forgive any typos – it is late (or early, however you look at it!) but I wanted to get these notes out before I set off on my travels tomorrow).