Rudsamblog

After a funky warm-up from Claire_2 (wala wala bing-bang so so saroooso lickety split), boys and girls separated for some notebashing.

Lauridsen - En une seule fleur:
Tenors:

• bar 5: resist the tendency to go up to the B instead of getting the B flat, don't let the 'crunch' of the Bflat with the A flat from the basses put you off your note.
• watch the transition between bars 9 and 10, make sure you get that crunchy Dflat + Eflat in bar 10.

Both tenors and basses 'may' want to go home and imprint onto the inside of their skulls the notes that fall on [...] ton calice (bars 2 and 11) and [...] l'avait osé (bars 5 and 14).

Victoria - Magnum Mysterium:

• Pretty straightforward, just watch out for the occasional accidentals - keep a sharp eye out for the sharps.
• Be prepared for the time signature change in bar 53.
• Tenors: bar 64: make sure you go for the G, not the Gsharp.
• Tenors: bar 30: in your descending-ascending phrase, make sure you go down all the way to the A (i.e. don't make up a phrase).
• Sopranos: think 'high' on the very first note, it was going flat and the rest of us with it - "The Rudsambee Sink".

Ollie says (partially paraphrased): in general,

• We're aiming for a pure and warm sound. Pure meaning: get rid of extraneous noise / hiss / breathiness in your tone.
  
• Keep your phrasing in mind, make your runs clear and make them stand out (slightly louder).
  
• When we change to 3/2 time in bar 53, make it lively and bouncy.
  
• Throughout, keep up the tempo - we tend to drag (almost rightaway in the beginning).
  
• Just as in Lauridsen's Magnum Mysterium, always place the emphasis as follows: "Oh Magnum mysterium", instead of "Oooooooooooh Magnum mysterium".
  
• Make a conscious effort to look ahead (helps with the accidentals and just generally a good idea, means you can concentrate on generating that warm sound instead of panicking about your next note).

We also did some work on dynamics:

• More volume desired on the low bass notes G and A whenever they appear. Whenever your part goes up high, not so loud.
• Starting from the beginning, the entry of each additional voice is an event that should clearly come out, i.e. come in securely and confidently (but don't shout), and the voices already present tone it down a bit to leave room for the increased density of sound.
• Start of the piece: p, tenderly. Check that you're still p or at most mp in bars 16 / 17.
• [CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG]. Between there and bar 39 things have been tending to get a bit louder, I assume this is ok with Ollie.
• Switch gears mentally between bars 39 and 40, come into bar 40 pp, with great stillness and pure tenderness ('O beata Virgo').

We'll work more on the dynamics.

Betinis - Envoi:
We all went home humming this, sounded pretty good.
After the first two or three pages we have to make sure we're all keeping the same beat otherwise the train derails --> look at Ollie!
This is especially critical moving into bar 27.
The tenor and alto whispers towards the end should be loud whispers.
Basses: the two note ascending 'Fly' motif that starts in bar 45 and carries on until the end of the piece should be legato and the two notes connected.
A general instruction: sing beautifully!

Some dynamics:

• bars 22 - 23 should be a decrescendo
• same in the first half of bar 26 for the basses, before they crescendo down into the mf B of bar 27.
• also, I've got marked a decrescendo in bar 53, basically when the tenors start whispering.

Concerning the 'Dolby digital DTS surround sound' effect in the last two bars of the piece (needs a lot more work), it's important that

• we all start sliding up at the same time (on the 2nd beat of bar 60? look at Ollie!)
• we actually do the < f > and
• really make sure we decrescendo into a pp, keeping the tone very pure to construct that crystalline final chord.

Anouncement at the end:

We may have found a venue to record, though if I understand correctly it may be too expensive.