AD Music Notes
This is where you’ll find notes from Laura Sam about the pieces we’re singing each semester.
April 4, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for all of your hard work at rehearsal last night – so much accomplished!
We spent most of the evening on Sing, Wearing the Sky and I think that we made great progress. If you have time to review your own part this week, that would be super helpful – especially if you can sing along with the YouTube recording so that you are getting used to the percussion and violin parts. Deb helped Amy and me with the rhythm question in the soprano part m. 11 (thanks, Deb!) and we will make that correction next week.
March 28, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
GREAT job at rehearsal last night! So many moments to celebrate! Hooray!
Thanks for your wonderful accompaniment, Deb! It was really fun to hear everything coming together so nicely.
March 21, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful spring day.
Welcome back, Deb! It is so wonderful to have your musical support and beautiful accompaniment – we missed you!
Please let me know if you would like to be a part of the WVC 30th Anniversary Celebration planning committee. Board members Janet Huebner and Anne Menkens have already volunteered (thanks!) to work with me on celebration plans for next fall.
March 7, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I thoroughly enjoyed rehearsal tonight (but I missed Deb playing the piano!). Thanks, everyone for your focus and wonderful work.
I think Jamie would be thrilled at all the takeaways from our retreat that we reviewed at rehearsal. So much to think about! I heard increased vibrancy in our ensemble sound – especially on Luminous Awakening in spite of a zillion Fs to sing in Mixolydian and Lydian – NOT EASY! Hooray! And I could definitely hear it in our rehearsal that we are reminding ourselves to prep the breath (tubes open – backs of necks tall), breathe with energy and intnetion (below the collar bones), create space for resonance, energy through the passagio F4 and F5 (for sopranos), put those low notes on a platter to maintain resonance and vibrancy, etc.
February 28, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a wonderful rehearsal! I really enjoyed our energy and music-making.
I am so looking forward to our upcoming retreat.
Retreat Schedule:
9-9:30 AM Social gathering with coffee and breakfast nibbles
9:30-9:45 AM Community building
9:45 AM-12 PM Workshop with Dr. Jami Rhodes from East Carolina University
12-1 PM Lunch
1-2:30 PM Rehearse repertoire
2:30-3:30 Ireland Tour Meeting with Nathan Bramhall (Music Contact International representative) and Jackie Walters (WVC Tour Committee Chair)
February 21, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I thoroughly enjoyed our rehearsal tonight – hope you did, too!
This is going to be super short because I have to be up at 4 AM to get to the airport to leave for the national American Choral Directors Association conference in Cincinnati, OH and this is my only opportunity to write rehearsal notes! I have never been there and I am really looking forward to exploring a new place. I am so excited to be going and hope to learn a lot. Kay is going, too, so I am sure we will get to have some fun times together experiencing wonderful performances and sessions.
February 14, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Happy Valentine’s Day! I love making music with you all!
Please check your copy of Luminous Awakening – if you have #38, please let me know at rehearsal next week.
Overtone singing for Sing, Wearing the Sky:
You will sing the note written in the score – that is the fundamental. The whistle tones you will produce above the fundamental are the overtones. Overtones are always present when we sing with a resonant, energized, and supported tone – that’s what we mean when we lock in a chord (overtones locking together like magnets!) or creating a gorgeous unison. Singing on the E vowel results in the most present overtones, which is why I often ask us to sing pieces on ‘Dee’ as we are learning them, rather than the text. Once we start singing on the text and vowels change every beat or so, it is exponentially more challenging to achieve the vibrant, pingy sound that we are aiming for.
February 7, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I had such a fun time with you all at our last rehearsal. Wonderful singing! Woohoo!
I recommend that you write in all of your measure numbers on all of our pieces – very helpful in quickly finding a starting point in rehearsal.
Please also write the text translation in your score for any piece written in a language in which you are not fluent. You should be able to quickly reference the meaning of the text as you are singing, rather than it just being printed on the front or back cover.
January 31, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
What fun singing through all of our spring repertoire this evening! So much wonderful material and growth opportunities are in front of us – I’m excited! Thanks, Deb, for helping us with all of our parts tonight – much appreciated!
January 22, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thank you, one and all, for a wonderful concert yesterday afternoon. I loved making music with you all and thoroughly enjoyed sharing our music with our very receptive audience.
I wish you could have all heard what I was hearing from where I was standing – it was divine. I will treasure the experience. I am looking forward to listening with you at our listening party Monday night!
January 15, 2023, Announcements
Dear Singers,
CONCERT WEEK! VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW – PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO READ CAREFULLY.
Due to space constraints, Laura has made a new seating chart for the tech rehearsals and the concert. Please see the attached document to find your placement.
January 10, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a super productive and fun rehearsal last night. We are one giant step closer to a wonderful concert.
Remember, the next rehearsal is at University UMC – Janet has (and will) provide all the necessary details. See you at 7PM.
January 3, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for a beautiful rehearsal last night and for your additional 11 minutes at the end.
I just finished listening to our rehearsal recording and it was a very solid run through of our repertoire – congratulations all for the work we have accomplished together on our music.
I noticed a big improvement in people looking up from their music. When I looked at you, you were almost always looking back at me. 🙂
We have areas of improvement (won’t we always!?!) and we will address these at our next rehearsal.
January 1, 2023, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Happy New Year!
Attached is the seating chart (revised, as in follow-up e-mail) for tomorrow’s rehearsal. I heard from some of you that you would appreciate the support of being able to better hear your part so that you could sing out with more confidence so I have arranged us in small groups of like parts across the rows. I wasn’t always able to achieve neighbors on the 8-part upper/lower divisi but did the best I could. We will still have an overall mixed formation so that hopefully, everyone will still be able to enjoy hearing all of the parts.
In listening to the recording I made of our last rehearsal, I am definitely hearing continued ‘mystery notes’ and I hope that this semi-mixed formation will help get everyone consistently on correct pitches.
I am looking forward to our final rehearsals as we lead up to our concert and plan to focus primarily on expressive elements. Hope everyone has their translations written in their scores!
Thanks for all of your hard work thus far and the work (FUN!) yet to come this month.
Cheers!
Laura
December 13, 2022, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for your attention and energy at last night’s rehearsal! I enjoyed making music with you (as always).
Please work on LOOKING UP from your music – our ensemble cohesiveness really improves. And please enjoy the voices around you and work to actively listen to your neighbors for tuning, balance, and blend.
2022-12-06 Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Please remember that audition recordings are due to me by Saturday, December 10th (send them via email). I look forward to hearing you sing!
I thought that our rehearsal last night was lovely. I hope our music sounded as beautiful from where you were sitting as it did to me up front. We have made great progress on our repertoire and continue to sing more musically each week. Thank you for your attention to detail, for your concentrated efforts, and for your positive spirits. It is a joy to make music with you all. I look forward to digging deeper in the coming weeks.
November 29, 2022, Music Notes
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.
October 25, 2022 Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for a fun and productive rehearsal last night. I really enjoyed making music with you all.
Our intonation singing a chromatic scale during warm ups was much improved this week – great job with that!
We did some work singing in circles to reinforce everyone’s understanding of their own part and then some mixed formations to help everyone better hear each other’s parts and how their part fit into the whole.
October 18, 2022, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Woohoo! Tonight’s rehearsal was what I think of as a ‘cram and jam!’ We didn’t cover many expressive elements but we did make progress on pitches and rhythms, understanding the relationship of one part to another, and working through some intonation challenges. I know it was a bit of a slog, but thank you for hanging in there as we laid the groundwork for all of the expressive singing we will accomplish together in the months to come.
October 3, 2022, Music Notes
Hello Everyone!
Great work at rehearsal everyone! It is thrilling that we are making such great progress on our repertoire so early in our season and that our intonation work is helping us to listen more effectively as we sing (avoiding the dreaded ‘pitch drift’!)