Hello Everyone,
Thank you for a very productive “nuts and bolts” sectional rehearsal last night. Many thanks to Laura D. and Debbie H. (Happy Birthday!) for helping to lead us as we jumped through the mud puddles.
Let’s have Let Me Fly memorized by our 12/2/19 rehearsal. Please remember that the refrains are similar but not always exactly the same.
Let’s have The Valley memorized by our 12/9/19 rehearsal.
I would like for you to listen to the recording of Let Me Fly on the JW Pepper website – it is a very musical rendition. This performance is transposed up a half step (as we are performing), tempos, articulations, phrasing, dynamics are all spot on. I also really like how they have altered page 15 with the entrances and repetitions of the voice parts. We will give it a try and see how we like it! Another change that I think we should adopt is on page 16, m. 89 – A2s stay on your middle C# from “me” to “fly” – although you accomplished the octave leap beautifully last night! Boo! Boo! :). A1s and A2s drop out in m. 90 and rejoin in m. 91 for an accented “yes.”
Let Me Fly (click on the sound button)
Stacey V. Gibbs (short bio)
In my collection of choral music texts, I have a thoughtful and informative text by André J. Thomas, well known in the choral world as wonderful conductor, composer, and choral music educator. In Way Over in Beulah Lan’: Understanding and Performing the Negro Spiritual, Thomas writes:
Gibbs in unique among contemporary arrangers (1959-present) in that his full-time employment is not in music; he has been a manager in the hospitality industry for over fifteen years (this book was published in 2007). As a young man in Flint, Michigan, he was active in music and attended Beecher High School. He later attended Kentucky State University where he met the legendary William Dawson, a man whose compositions he had long admired. At this meeting, Mr. Dawson said to Gibbs, “always embrace the spiritual with pride and humility.” These words stayed with Gibbs and are a profound influence on his arrangements.
In the preface to Way Over in Beulah Lan’: Understanding and Performing the Negro Spiritual, Thomas writes:
It is not enough to know simply the music. One must know the culture of that folk music as well as the history of its people, but most importantly, the music must be sung with the respect of that culture. it is my hope that this book will provide for the choral conductor, singer, and interested person an historical background of this great music, performance considerations, a selected discussion of arrangers, and a look at how I approach several spiritual arrangements. I hope that it will assist choral conductors in reaching an informed performance of the music and hopefully create within their experience an experience for their African American singers that is an ennobling one, and, for their non-African American singers, one that cultivates a respect and appreciation of the music of the slave. It is said that it is amazing that out of man’s inhumanity to man should come forth America’s greatest art form – the Negro spiritual.
I have thought a lot about Gibbs’ juxtaposition of I’ll Fly Away and Let Me Fly, especially in the context of our concert theme which includes connections. There is an interesting article in the Library of Congress regarding African American spirituals which includes a paragraph regarding I’ll Fly Away, from the “white spiritual” genre.
Arican American Spirituals – Library of Congress (article)
At the end of our rehearsal we worked on some of the finer details of the beginning and end of Let Me Fly. Below are the specifics.
Let Me Fly – Stacey V. Gibbs
- m. 1 – Some – close immediately to a resonant M.
- mm. 1-4 and mm. 16-19 A2 move from pitch to pitch without sliding.
- ah vowels – some, life, fly, a, on, now.
- oh vowels – over, home.
- sustain the primary diphthong vowels – life, over, fly, now, away, home.
- minimize the R in over, shore.
- percussive and quick S beginning of some.
- percussive and quick SH of shore.
- emphasize the F of fly every time.
- emphasize the voiced consonants: G and D of glad (Including shadow vowels that follow the consonant) and V of over.
- m. 3 decrescendo on “ing” and m. 4 crescendo on “ing.”
- m. 7 A decrescendo over, m. 8 crescendo over.
- m. 92 we should begin that phrase softer as we crescendo to the end. We need room to grow.
Looking Ahead to 11-11-19
We will rehearse our 3/6 part divisi in sectionals at the beginning of our rehearsal.
Faith is the Bird – Elizabeth Alexander
1941- Andrea Ramsey
The Imaginary Garden (page 1) – Marie-Claire Saindon
Swing Low – arr. Rosephanye Powell
When we come back together, we will use this time to work on polishing details of Let My Fly and The Valley. Because I know you are working on memorization, it would be best to memorize the polishing details as youbuild muscle memory, rather than adding these elements after you have the pieces memorized.
Thanks to everyone for your continued dedicated and passionate work.
Chers!
Laura
PS I received information regarding an upcoming performance on Nov 17th presented by the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. Attached is their flyer.