AD Music Notes
This is where you’ll find notes from Laura Sam about the pieces we’re singing each semester.
January 28, 2025, Music Notes
Good morning,
What a fun listening party! I enjoyed the good food, good company, and EXCEPTIONAL music!
Here is the link to the recording – please don’t share it on social media.
The videos will be delivered to us in a few weeks and then I will need to do some editing – I will let you know when they are posted to YouTube.
See you Monday for the start of our next grand adventure!
Laura
January 14, 2025, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for a lovely rehearsal last night – especially your positive spirits and attention to detail. It was a long rehearsal but I think we made the most of our time together. I also appreciate your thoughtful observations at the end of the rehearsal.
January 7, 2025, AD Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a fun and very productive rehearsal last night – so many wonderful aspects of our singing to celebrate and significant progress made regarding our challenges.
December 17, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for an outstanding rehearsal last night! It was such a treat to hear all of our music sung (and played – thank you, Deb!) with such sensitivity and expression.
Over the next few weeks, please take time to sing through your music so that we remember all that we have learned. Everyone should be individually secure on all parts so that we can make the most of our few remaining rehearsals in January – so please use your practice tracks as needed. The New Year is always a great time to reflect and set goals – as you have time, please review the personal goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the semester using our self-assessment tool and think about your personal growth this semester.
I have not yet planned the rehearsal for 1/6 but it is highly likely that we will focus on some and not all of our pieces, so plan to not sing through everything. Please don’t let this throw you! If we sing everything we run out of time to truly work on specific issues. We will use our next rehearsal to iron out our last (and few!) remaining challenges. Then for our tech rehearsals, we will certainly sing through everything.
I heard positive reviews of the ginger cookies I brought (glad you enjoyed them!). It was my first time making that recipe and I think it is a keeper. Here is the link if you are interested in making some for yourself – Ina Garten’s Ultimate Ginger Cookies. (I got the candied ginger at Whole Foods but you can probably find it in other places, as well).
As we approach the longest night of the year, I am grateful for the light and love that I experience with the music-making and friendships of WVC. Wishing everyone Joy in the New Year!
Laura
November 27, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for a wonderful rehearsal last night. I know it felt like an odd seating arrangement, but you all handled it with flexibility and good grace – thank you! We will continue to tweak the arrangement (thank you, Kinley!) but I am so appreciative that we are approximating our performance set up early so that everyone can get used to the voices around them and be confident in our upcoming performance.
November 19, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I loved hearing our music last night – wonderful music making!
I think you will enjoy the recording Kelly made of Here in My Heart. I have listened several times and really loved hearing it – makes me feel so joyful!
Here is the link – see what you think! (let me know if you have trouble accessing the recording – I uploaded it to Google Drive). Thank you, Marley for including us in your journey – we all wish you the best and are glad that you are singing with WVC.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15ASqvzGwlzkQ4m4TVALdVXHYu4Rxc-2P/view?usp=share_link
(PS: If you were unable to access the Drive link for Here in My Heart, I uploaded it (unlisted) to the WVC YouTube channel. You can view it here: https://youtu.be/VwylQ2Nn054)
Thank you, Leandra, for your guidance on overtone singing. I have had the most fun working on it – I continue to drive Joey nuts but he is tolerating it. Attached is my overtone singing progress – haha – hope y’all are having fun practicing, too! I have discovered that in addition to making a voice memo to better hear my progress, I can also hear the overtones better if I put my finger(s) in one or both ears. Also attached is our rehearsal of overtone singing – you can really hear some of the harmonics popping out once we get going – yay!
Consider the following opportunities:
We need a narrator for the opening of Honour the Earth (inside cover of your music). If you would like to audition, please email a voice memo by Sunday, November 24th.
You can refer to this performance for review:
We will have singers play the 5 harmonic whirlie parts – we can see who is interested at rehearsal and take turns. They are fun, but it can be tiring after an extended time of twirling…so let’s see who is interested and go from there.
Rehearsal Reflection
Here in My Heart – We spent some time singing Here in My Heart for Marley’s video. Have a listen and see what you hear – obviously, we are hearing the singers closest to Kelly the loudest (y’all sounded great!) but especially listen for those consonants we are working on. Dynamics and phrasing are really coming along.
Honour the Earth – overtone singing work with Leandra – thank you! So much fun to try something different and/or different. Our voices can do amazing things!
I Am – I’m thrilled with the progress we have made on this wonderful piece – I hope that you are, too. Please review the performance recording – we need to progress to a much faster tempo and I think we are ready to do that. If you have time, please sing with and/or listen to the recording to internalize that faster tempo. https://graphitepublishing.com/product/i-am/ Listen to how exciting the ’round the wind’ is – we can do that! Thanks to both Darcy and Shira who did some expert sleuthing and found that Catherine deVink’s poem, Woman Singing, is from the collection God of a Thousand Names, published in 1993. I knew if I asked the chorus someone could help me find that information – thank you Darcy and Shira!
I Love You/What a Wonderful World – Great work on this – we cleared up some mystery notes and improved the ensemble cohesion at the tempo changes page 16-end. We will definitely need to work throughout on balance and make sure that we can clearly hear all parts.
Sing Wearing the Sky – Great review m. 87 to the end. The portamentos sound terrific. We will review all of this piece at our next rehearsal.
Chamber Choir
Sing, My Child – opening solo and duet – sing either part or both parts with the practice file in the background. Please email me a voice memo by Sunday, November 24th.
Earth Song info link – interview with composer/lyricist Frank Ticheli
Looking Ahead to 11/25/24
Honour the Earth – add harmonic whirlies (yay!), review overtone singing, sing through all
I Am – review all and rehearse at a faster tempo, building up to the performance tempo
Sing, Wearing the Sky! – review all (especially opening section)
Measure Me, Sky! – review all
Nigra Sum – review all
Sky Dances – review all
Some Glad Morning – review all
I Love You/What a Wonderful World – review as time allows
Chamber Choir
We will sing in mixed formation…stay tuned (haha – pun intended)
See you next week!
Laura
November 13, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Apologies for not sending this yesterday! I got busy with Governor’s School work (and walking in the woods!) and woke up this morning realizing that I had not sent rehearsal notes!
Let me know if the mixed formation is not working for you and I will make adjustments, as needed. If you are worried about hearing your part, try to give it a few rehearsals to get used to the sound. But if it’s really not working or there is another factor that is problematic, let me know and I will see how I can best make adjustments so that everyone feels comfortable and fully enjoys rehearsal.
October 29, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
It was so much fun hearing our music last night – thanks so much for your attention to detail and focus on expressiveness.
I meant to share with you what Jennifer Stasack emailed after the retreat:
I think I floated home! The demeanor of your group was so welcoming and enthusiastic, your artistry as their director truly beautiful…. I am honored to have a place in the community and camaraderie of Women’s Voices Chorus.
October 22, 2024, Music Notes
Hello,
Thank you for your dedicated work at rehearsal last night – so fun! So challenging (I Am)! And always so joyful and fulfilling.
This is the link for Sing 4 Joy, the service project undertaken by the youth chorus, Voices in the Laurel (our outreach focus). The area school principals have identified up to 90 students who would be appropriate recipients for this helping hand as they have lost their homes and belongings to Helene.
WVC is assisting in providing $100 to the general fund of Voices in the Laurel (specifically helping Legacy – their adult women’s chorus, as well as the youth) through our outreach. If you would like to make additional contributions, you can do that through the WVC website and earmark your donation to Voices in the Laurel. Thank you to our diversity committee for your leadership and to Karla for organizing the donations. And on behalf of Martha Brown, Artistic Director of Voices in the Laurel, thanks to everyone for your receptiveness regarding this project.
October 15, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Beautiful work at rehearsal last night! We sang with a very high level of musicianship and are making wonderful progress on all of our music.
Thank you for giving Sky Dances such attention so that we are ready for Jennifer Stasack’s visit at our Retreat.
If you would like to audition for the I Love You/What a Wonderful World solo, please email a voice memo to me by 10/25. Play the practice file in the background and sing along. Be sure that I can hear your singing louder than the practice file. I’m looking forward to hearing your submissions!
October 8, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a wonderful rehearsal – great work, everyone!
This is going to be a bit short because I need to get ready to head up to Boone to help clear out some flooded houses.
Rehearsal Reflection:
Here in My Heart mm. 103-152
– mm 115-116 stagger breathing
– take breaths at the end of mm. 128, 136, 144
– note the S1/S2 part crossings on pages 11 and 12
– minimize the final R in lingers, brighter
– the syncopations are much improved – we will target some that are still problematic next time we rehearse this piece.
I Love You/What a Wonderful World mm. 79-end
– we covered a lot of ground tonight, adding the ensemble part (staves 5&6). Nice job with that! I would like for everyone to know both parts – the Chorus part and the Ensemble part so that we have the greatest flexibility in what we ultimately decide for the performance. Thank you for learning both parts!
– note the tempo changes
– m. 55, S1 sing F# – E (half notes). It is what is written on the 5th staff for the S1s.
– go ahead and practice the solo part if you are interested in auditioning. I will want to choose a soloist before November 4th – more info to come.
Measure Me, Sky! mm. 56-69
– Epic! Love hearing you sing this piece.
– when we reviewed from the beginning we had difficulty with page 9 – we will review that together but please have a look at that individually when you are practicing on your own.
– We will want to find the quieter parts of this song and also work to shape the phrases throughout.
Nigra Sum mm. mm. 83-end
– page 9 change the text ‘terrat’ to ‘terra’
– we will need to work through the cadences on this piece so that we stay together! There were a few places that we rushed through the breaths, especially mm. 64, 69, 74, 82
– we needed to explore our quietest singing on this piece! I don’t think that we have yet found it – but we will!
Sky Dances mm. 67-end
– this piece is really coming along – sounds magical!
– we lost our way a bit on page 6 so let’s take a look at that section
– tricky rhythms are sounding much more confident – still need to work on ‘bears.’
– we need to be very gentle about singing the 64th notes. Listen to the MUSE recording for inspiration – they sing this aspect so well!
Some Glad Morning mm. 60-101
– we will spend time on this next rehearsal and work out the questions on pitches/rhythms
Looking Ahead to 10/14/24:
Some Glad Morning mm. 60-101
Honour the Earth mm. 119-147 (end)
I Am mm. 68-105
Sing Wearing the Sky mm. 68-82
We will review any and all other pieces as time allows.
Chamber Choir
We will work through questions/challenges that I heard on both pieces. Let me know where you are having troubles!
We will also work on unifying our tone, especially on Earth Song.
Already looking forward to our next rehearsal!
Laura
October 1, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Special thanks to Kay for leading the alto sectional. I appreciate everyone’s work! It was wonderful to have Deb back – yay!
I will attend the NC American Choral Directors Conference in Charlotte this weekend – I am looking forward to hearing new perspectives, listening to lots of wonderful choral music, and connecting/networking with my colleagues/friends.
September 24, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Rehearsal was so wonderful – thanks for the focused work from everyone. We got so much accomplished! I did realize on the drive home, however, that we reviewed everything except Some Glad Morning (I neglected to turn the page on my notepad; I was so excited about Sky Dances!). We will catch up on it next week.
I hope that you enjoyed our circle-singing review. I look forward to walking around and hearing the various circles when I’m not playing the piano! (Also very much looking forward to Deb’s return!)
We gave our circles flower names (I think I remembered them all – correct me if I did not!):
A – Azalea
B – Bluebells
C – Cosmos
D – Daisy Dames
E – Elderberry
F – Forget-Me-Nots
Rehearsal Reflection:
Here in My Heart. mm. 55-102 (reviewed mm. 1-54)
– Altos have a skip down of a 5th from m. 65-66 – it is an unexpected leap but you handled it well
– m. 79 new material and the crescendo was ah-mazing!
– continue to make sure that you are singing a syncopated rhythm when there is an 8th note at the end of the measure that ties over the barline. We need to make sure we don’t sing those notes on the beat.
– great work on the consonants. Challenge yourself to continue to focus on enunciating a new consonant each run through. The F of ‘fill’ is super clear!
– Wonderful review!
I Love You/What a Wonderful World mm. 60-78 (reviewed mm. 1-59)
– pg. 11 S1 upper/lower divisi
– pg. 12 A1 upper/lower divisi
– pg. 14 S1 stays on the G#, you don’t have the melody here
– pg. 14 A2 has a skip up from B# to E, then you will be in unison with voices above your part
– pg. 15 A2 have the moving notes and we all have a rit. so careful watching there, please
– ‘what a’ is sung ‘wadduh’ – soften the T
– minimize the R and L in ‘world’
– minimize the R in wonderful ‘won-duh-ful’
– great job on the new material and wonderful review!
Measure Me, Sky! mm. 35-55 (reviewed mm. 1-34)
– mm. 50-55 key change, G Major to B Major – EPIC!
– keep the vowel of ‘sky’ open to an AH, the vanishing vowel of the diphthong is sounded at the very, very, very end of the note
– let’s work on really enunciating these consonants – so many opportunities to sing this piece with clarity and bring this poetry to life with expression.
– really exceptional work on this piece
Nigra Sum mm. 23-82 (reviewed mm. 1-22)
– breathe at the end of m. 64, 69, 74, 82
– thanks, Diane, for leading the Latin pronunciation
– let’s continue to see how expressively soft we can sing the soft sections of this piece. mm. 75-79 will be our real challenge, especially for the sopranos!
– wonderful review!
Sky Dances mm. 35-66 (reviewed mm. 1-34)
– notice the new rhythms in m. 56 for the sopranos and new phrasing for the altos on pages 9-10
– wonderful work on this piece!
Some Glad Morning mm. 35-59 (mm. 1-34)
I inadvertently skipped this one – sorry about that!
Honour the Earth mm. 1-48
– Great review
I Am mm. 1-29
– Of everything we are working on, this piece is our biggest challenge. If you have time for individual practice, please spend it on this piece with both the practice files and the reference recording.
Sing, Wearing the Sky mm. 1-39
– Nice work on improving the tuning mm. 19-26.
Looking Ahead to 9/30/24:
If we are able to use the choir room in the new building, Kay and I would like to lead sectionals and focus on a few aspects of our singing that we think would enhance our sound. Alto 1&2 will meet in the regular space, Soprano 1&2 will meet in the new building choir room. If we are not able to have that space next week, I’ll send a follow up email. But, if we can divide for the first section of the rehearsal, this is what we will cover for the 1st half of rehearsal:
A1&A2 with Kay and Deb in the regular rehearsal space
S1&S2 with me in the new building choir room (across the street from where we rehearse)
Honour the Earth mm. 49-115
I Am mm. 30-67 (as time allows, review mm. 1-29)
Sing, Wearing the Sky mm. 40-67
For the second half of the rehearsal the sopranos will rejoin the altos, we will take a short break, then rehearse the 2nd half of rehearsal together in our regular space.
Honour the Earth mm. 1-115
I Am mm. 1-67
Sing, Wearing the Sky mm. 1-67
Some Glad Morning mm. 35-59 (review mm. 1-34)
As we have time, we will review any of the following…but I do want to spend the time we need on I Am so we may not get to these:
Here in My Heart. mm. 1-102
I Love You/What a Wonderful World mm. 1-78
Measure Me, Sky! mm. 1-55
Nigra Sum mm. 1-82
Sky Dances mm. 1-66
Chamber Choir:
Please see the attached for the part assignments (thank you Karla for creating the spreadsheet/PDF and thanks to everyone for your flexibility in switching parts as needed so that we have a balanced ensemble – much appreciated!)
Please also check the divisi on Sing My Child – it is detailed on the PDF.
Sing, My Child mm. 1-74
Earth Song mm. 1-37
See you next week!
Laura
September 17, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed our rehearsal and am so pleased with the progress we made on our music. I really appreciate our early attention to dynamics, text expression, vowel shapes, articulating consonants, and phrasing – well beyond learning the notes and rhythms. Yay!
Save the date:
WVC is invited (once again) to participate in Durham Community Sings!
May 31st 10am-4pm
This is a choral festival hosted by the Choral Society of Durham. WVC members participated last year and had a great time. In the morning we rehearse and then after lunch give a concert of the pieces we have worked on. In addition, choral ensembles have the option to sing and if there are enough WVC signed up to participate, we will perform one piece from our spring repertoire. This is an optional activity and we will have members sign up to participate closer to time. Last spring there were several hundred choral singers gathered for the event and it was a lovely time.
Jannifer Stasack will be our retreat clinician. Her focus will be working with us on Sky Dances and singing with expression. I’m really looking forward to her time with us!
September 10, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a lovely rehearsal last night – I enjoyed making music with you all! Welcome back to all of our returning members and welcome to our 5 new members! The beginning of the season is always such a special and exciting time. So much work to get everything ready but then we SING and it is glorious – makes all the work so worth it.
We had many different aspects of the chorus to discuss in addition to rehearsing our music – thanks, Janet for your leadership. I am always inspired by the numerous ways all of the members create such a wonderful chorus, giving so much behind the scenes. There is a way for everyone to contribute in addition to singing. :). I think that is one reason (a big one!) for the strength of our community. 🙂
August 27, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
What a joy to see everyone and to read through our repertoire together – such fun!
A huge thank you to everyone who put in so much work to get us off to such a wonderful start. Thank you, thank you! I’m so excited about our season ahead.
A question was raised regarding the YouTube practice track for Nigra Sum – Karla clarified that it is at the marked tempo, quarter note = 69 beats per minute. The previous WVC performance of Nigra Sum that is posted is considerably faster, about quarter note = 86 beats per minute. My intention will be to conduct this piece closer to the noted tempo marking of 69 with rubato throughout. Thanks for asking, DS!
May 21, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a craic rehearsal last night! We sucked diesel! Delira and excira! (pronunciation of ‘delira and excira’ is at around 2:15 with some other funny Irish slang in this video).
https://www.vanityfair.com/video/watch/slang-school-niall-horan-teaches-you-irish-slang)
I appreciated the update and instructions from Jackie – we are in very capable hands! Now we all need to ‘get our stuff done!’ (if we have not already).
May 15, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone!
Thank you for a lovely rehearsal!
I stated my goals for our tour rehearsals:
1) Thoroughly rehearse our repertoire so that we can sing together with confidence (and without stress) when we are in Ireland. Our tour rehearsals will help us to not only learn our new music, but also help us to be able to best blend and balance our voices, achieving the most musical and lovely sound possible, as we come together as a new and unique ensemble.
2) Include activities that help us to get to know one another better.
3) And through these activities, learn more about Ireland (or share what we already know). Monday, we divided into teams and played Irish Trivia while enjoying cupcakes decorated with a Shamrock – Ireland’s national flower, or Montbretia – also called Crocosmia or Falling Stars. I have learned that although we will probably see this plant with pretty orange flowers along the roadways, it is nonnative and invasive…BOOOOO!) https://www.seasidesquirrel.ie/blogs/news/we-need-to-talk-about-montbretia
April 23, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a lovely rehearsal last night – such fun and significant progress was made. Please remember that our next rehearsal (Monday) is our first tech rehearsal from 7-10pm in our regular rehearsal space.
We will, of course, sing through all of our repertoire and talk through logistics so that we are ready for our 2nd tech rehearsal in our performance space. We will have Christina (percussion) and John (trumpet) join us for our 2nd tech rehearsal at ERUUF.
April 16, 2024, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Woohoo! We made such great progress on A Stór and Now Let Me Fly as we move toward our performance – great effort everyone! After last week’s rehearsal, those were the two pieces in most need of our attention and we accomplished what was needed to bring them up to speed (well, almost with A Stór!).