Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a wonderful (looooooong) rehearsal! That was a lot of standing…if you wear an Apple watch I am positive you met your standing goal for the day! Mostly, thank you for your energy, enthusiasm, and passion for the music and your support and encouragement of one another. Love the WVC vibe of getting it done while having fun.
We are beyond fortunate to have such a wonderful accompanist/collaborative pianist with Deb – truly outstanding playing and tremendous support of our music-making.
News on the railings…unfortunately, they WILL be there on Thursday and Sunday so we will work around them to navigate our movement as gracefully as possible. Many, many thanks to Marsha for tending to all of the logistical details and keeping us informed.
Thursday we will add our percussionist (Tim) and violin (Julia) and practice our movement on and off ‘stage.’ 🙂
A few notes from our wonderful rehearsal (I’m listening to the recording as I type – such a treat)
Caritas Abundat
– Such energy and vibrancy – it is magical! Love, love, love the tempo!
– In the canon section that begins on page 14, as you sing the ‘abundant’ text – when you enter, make sure that you actually sing the D high enough. You are skipping up from a G…so all the way up a fourth – and please feel free to sing it on the high side of the note. Because you are singing an AH vowel, it is really easy to let that sound sag – so energize and bring the vowel more forward, bright, and resonant.
– As Jennifer pointed out, the ending has you sing in m. 98 and clap/stomp (no singing) in m. 99. Watch for that phrase release, please.
Luminous Awakening
– Beyond lovely! So sparkly and in tune. Gorgeous phrasing with phrases shaped by beautiful dynamics. Hooray.
– Can’t wait for Elizabeth Alexander (composer) to hear our performance – I will make sure to send her a link to the recording.
Gate Gate
– So ah-mazing. As I said in rehearsal this was the most fun I have ever had conducting this piece (and I have conducted it multiple times with different ensembles).
– Note the unison phrases – the beginning of the chant, m. 81, m.160 especially.
– Love how light you are singing the soft sections – really fun to hear.
– Crescendo mm. 128-131 all the way through the release of ‘light.’
– No breath between mm. 176-177.
– No more Tears, no more Fears (need more Ts and Fs….and less singing about ‘ears’)
I Thank You God
– Intonation is much improved! Thank you for your wonderful work!
– Please have your music turned to page 4 at the beginning so that we are not ‘following along’ with Deb. When she turns her page I will prepare the downbeat of m. 2.
– Thank you for the Ks on Thank You!
– Altos on page 6 – remember at our retreat Jami talked to us about how difficult it is to sing the note F in tune? It is where the note lies in our voices…so please know that the Fs on page 6 need your special attention – they are all flat…which then makes the notes around them also flat. I have an upward arrow in my score! Try to put those ‘notes on the resonance platter.’
– We corrected the tuning on page 22…just make yourself a note there because we were flat until we fixed it.
– The last chord is sooooo amazing! So many overtones ringing!
Tabula Rasa
– Thank you for such wonderful work on this beautiful piece. You truly are singing it with heart and it is lovely. It is incredible how much we have improved on this piece. Brava!
– A million hoorays for the tuning…you nailed it!!!!
Sukkat Shelomekha
– Lovely singing!
– Thank you for working so diligently on the polishing details. This piece sounds great!
Gaudete! Gaudete!
– Wonderful! Loved the slight crescendo on the last note – so subtle yet so dramatic!
Where the Light Begins
– The unison is achingly beautiful at the beginning. If I were listening in the audience my heart would leak out of my eyes and fill a bucket full of wonder.
– m. 37 is unison…a few voices started lower then corrected (thank you!)
– Dynamics are gorgeous!
– More K and T on ‘dark’ and ‘heart.’ When we went back and rehearsed it, the consonants were clear! Yay! We could now use a bit more K at the beginning of ‘crying.’
– Note the final S of ‘begins’ is either on the & of beat 4 OR on the downbeat of the next measure. I will conduct those!
– Watch for the phrase release at the end. Deb ends after the chorus.
A Bell Awakened
– Such progress on this piece. This has been one of my favorite ear worms from this semester’s repertoire and it has truly come together.
– We need to spend a moment on page 10 to unify the four ‘and what I heard.’ It was better the final time we sang it through.
– I guess we can never have enough K on ‘can.’ So I will keep asking for more! (Sue heard it once….but we sing it 6 times!). It was improved the final time.
Sing Wearing the Sky
– Beginning is very cool sounding! Can’t wait to hear it with the violin solo and then with the percussion.
– Beautiful dynamics!
– Great job with the last few corrections.
– Love, love, love how we are performing this piece. It is so much fun!
Chamber Choir
(Please know how much I appreciate your diligent work on this challenging music after already singing for almost 3 hours!)
My Soul is Awakened
– All of the details that we reviewed are much improved! Hooray – you sound amazing.
– Page 7 starting pitch in m. 53 on G and pick up to m. 58 (S1 high F down to Eb)
– Page 13 – m. 97 breathe between the two ‘hear the wild,’ m. 98-100 a rall. but not too slow, but then do keep m. 101 slow…the a tempo is at m. 102
Dechrau Eto
– This has piece has come a million miles – I’m thrilled with the work we have accomplished and hope that you are, too.
– Here are the places I think we need to be especially mindful so that we don’t experience the dreaded pitch drift.
– Sopranos, right at the very beginning you began slightly under pitch.
– When we begin phrases on C#5, as in m. 13, we are not quite high enough (consistently a bit flat every time).
– Altos, when you sing the cadence in mm. 33-34, help us to be in tune on that phrase..
– At letter B, we were also slightly flat…so again, as we start that phrase on C#5, we have to be higher….then we continued to drift a bit.
– Our dramatic pitch drift happened at letter I – altos need to set us up for an A major chord…and then sopranos in on an A and C#5. If you would, please practice your part from mm. 82-102 so that we can more successfully make that transition.
-If you are able, please sing through this whole piece with both the practice file and the performance recording, that would be wonderful. Thank you!
See you on Thursday at 7. Can’t wait!!!!
Hugs,
Laura