Hello Everyone,
Thanks for your work at rehearsal last night. I loved hearing you sing (as always).
Special thanks to Kay and Deb for helping lead our November sectionals. You are greatly appreciated. We have a sectional scheduled for December 5th from 6:45-7:25. Please let your section leader know if you have specific areas of concern, or bring your questions to the sectional and we will answer them next Monday. I need to think about that sectional a bit more and will send another email later this week with what I plan to cover.
There are several solos in our repertoire. If you would like to audition for a solo (you can audition for as many as you want), here is the information:
– By Saturday, December 10th, submit your audition recording(s).
– A simple voice memo recorded on your phone will suffice. Singing along to the practice files with all of the parts will be best. You don’t need to sing with earbuds/headphones, but please do make sure that I can hear your voice louder than the practice file (fine for me to hear it in the background).
– Email your audition recordings directly to me before midnight 12/10/22.
Solos:
Bright Morning Stars (Solo 1, Solo 2, Solo 3) mm. 1-9 (I don’t need to also hear mm. 31-40 since it is essentially the same with just a minor rhythm change)
My Lord, What a Morning mm. 41-44
The Dawn is Not Distant mm. 14-25
I Got the Sun in the Morning mm. 2-16, 54-69
I have pondered all day today what advice to give regarding our intonation challenges and have these ideas. Please know that I am thrilled with the progress we have made thus far and am optimistic that in the coming weeks we will not only work on expressive elements of our music but will also improve our intonation.
- Listen louder than you sing – that is advice I have given choruses for about 40 years. (I had hoped the mixed formation would help and I still think that it will!). Listening implies action – hearing is passively receiving the sound but listening means that you react to what you hear and adjust accordingly.
- Sing with appropriate breath energy that begins with our best posture. (Prep the body!)
- Understand the ‘big picture.’ Know what the harmonic progression sounds like so that you are not singing your part out of context – you have to know where the cadence should land in order to arrive there in the correct key! Singing note to note will not get us where we need to be. In order to accomplish this, I think that it will help for you to listen to AND sing our repertoire with the YouTube recordings (not the practice files) so that you hear the big picture with text – you know harmonically where the piece is going and how your part works within that harmonic context. Definitely use the practice files to work out your part when you have pitch and rhythm questions and definitely use the practice files labeled ALL to sing your part while also hearing the other parts.
- Solfege always informs – the scale degrees give context to the function the note plays in the chord and that is valuable knowledge in tuning. I think it is hard to avoid pitch drift if every singer doesn’t know where the tonal center of the piece or section of the piece lies. As an example, using solfege, we were able to tune Lakutshon ‘Illanga two weeks ago – so we know that we can do it (but some pieces are definitely more complex).
- Sing in tempo! So much of our repertoire is under tempo and draggy because singers are not watching to see the beat, or are individually hesitant about what comes next and so are waiting to hear their pitch before joining in. Sometimes we intentionally sing under tempo (Moon Goddess last night) – not to be confused with pieces lacking rhythmic vitality.
And HOORAY for Moon Goddess. It has come a very long way from our retreat. Thank you for your hard work on that awesome piece.
Rehearsal Reflection
Two Eastern Pictures
– we reviewed m. 78 to the end – good job with this!
– our biggest challenge is tuning the short a cappella sections and I hope that the following advice will be of help:
– sing with the recording that scrolls the music – the tempo is closer to the one we will use.
– I believe that tuning the a cappella sections is dependent on being able to accurately sing the half steps in the alto part. If you are able to work with a tuner, work on singing these pitches in tune in order: C, B, A#, B, A#, B, C.
– Then sing the alto part with the text.
– Then sing your part with the text.
– Sopranos and mezzos, It may be helpful for you to use the alto practice file while you sing your part and be sure that you are listening and tuning as you go.
Song to the Moon
– we reviewed pages 12 and 14 but did not have time to sing this through as I had hoped – next rehearsal.
My Lord, What a Morning
– We worked on page 5 (G major) leading to page 6 (e minor) and then back to D major – A being our ‘pivot pitch’ as we sing at the bottom of page 6.
– If you listen to the YouTube recording several times, I think it will help you hear the big picture of this piece (which I know is a challenge!). Even if you are not up on the theory in terms of keys and modulations you can get it all by ear by listening to the recordings. I really do think that it will help.
Sectionals:
Izar Ederrek
Par’ O Era Estrellero
When You Wish Upon a Star
Izar Ederrek
– Again, we don’t have the big picture of this piece yet – and again, I think listening to the YouTube recording will be super helpful.
– Read through the text and then read through the translation. If you have not already, write the translation in your music so that you know what you are singing when you sing it. The story is so lovely!
– Work for tempo integrity so that this piece doesn’t drag. It isn’t a fast piece but it needs to have energy and passion in the sound.
– Listen to the other parts and work for balance so that we can hear all of the notes in the chord.
Par’ O Era Estrellero
– The YouTube recording (there are a few mistakes which I pointed out in rehearsal) and the pronunciation practice files are on the website. I recorded speaking the text in rhythm of all three parts – if you have a text question, please use the resources on our website.
– We definitely experienced pitch drift in this piece…we will continue to work on it!
When You Wish Upon a Star
– We sang through this (under tempo) and have made such great progress. Hooray! This one has come a long way!
– We will sing some sections a bit faster and work on some of the expressive elements but it is really beautiful!
– One dream….no S on ‘dream.’
Looking Ahead to 12/5/22
My Lord, What a Morning
Izar Ederrak
Mēnestinis Naki Brauca
Song to the Moon
The Dawn is Not Distant
I Got the Sun in the Morning
Bright Morning Stars
Lakutshon ‘Illanga
Looking Ahead to 12/12/22
My Lord, What a Morning
Izar Ederrak
Menestinis Naki Brauca
Song to the Moon
Moon Goddess
Two Eastern Pictures II. Summer
Par’O Era Estrellero
When You Wish Upon a Star
Looking Ahead to 12/19/22
Sing through our concert! Woohoo!
Holiday social – bring a treat to share.
I am already looking forward to next Monday’s rehearsal. December is our month to dig deeper and to polish, polish, polish!
I am also looking forward to those of you who are singing in Hillsborough on December 2nd. I hope that we have a wonderful time singing holiday songs. If you have any questions, Janet, Kay, or I can probably answer them. And if you want to review, I made recordings of all of the pieces (posted on our website!).
See you soon – either Friday or Monday (or both!).
Hugs,
Laura