Rudsamblog

Please re-arrange your folders.

You will need:
O Magnum Mysterium - Victoria
O Magnum Mysterium - Lauridsen
Visur Vatnsenda Rosu
Ave Maris Stella
Stray Cat Strut
She Tells Her Love
Hebrew Love Songs
Tormis - Heavenly Suitors
- What Are They Doing
La La La Je Ne L'Ose Dire
The Lamb
Hide and Seek

For the Small Group:
Geographical Fugue
When I Fall In Love
Misere Nostri
By Falsehood

Firstly a big welcome back to Claire! Then a warm up with Kay.

We started to learn a new piece La....je ne l'ose dire. We did it to la then started to fit in the words. The song is about villagers gossiping, we have to get the sense of this over. Things Ollie asked us to remember are;
a) we are aiming for a pure tone, no vibrato, think counter-tenor;
b) create forward vowel sounds

Five Hebrew Love songs - we did this mostly in men and women groups. I don't have many specific notes, sorry.

no.IV) the aim is to invoke the idea of a magical snowstorm. We worked out how to sing the bongs at the beginning. Alison will do the spoken lines. Anna Lauren will sing the sop solo.

Sops go from ooh to mmmm during bar 17, then repeat the process in the later bars.

Words are written phonetically throughout all the songs, as they have been transliterated from Hebrew script into Roman script, so treat pronunciation literally.
Ollie will send round midis with the pronunciation.

Notes
Alison to make copies of the Czech song that we will sing on the trip. The Sušice concert is on the Friday night.

Possible gig at the National Library , to celebrate the music of Carver - pencil in 30 Sept or 1 Oct as possible dates.

AGM is on 14 May, send agenda items to Anne if you have any.

Arno had us ha ha ha-ing up and down scales. Good breathing exercise to practise at home - deep breathe and say 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 2 and two and three and four and 3 and 2 and three and four and 4 and 2 and three and four and...
Do likewise with 6, 8, 10 ...see how far you can get.

Gaelic Set

Sown an ilye At the ends of the verses FIRST time through do a slight crescendo into verse 2nd time through.

Lux

Vair NOT ver lut. and rich sound
Bar 24 - join et canuntetcanuntet NOT et canunt et canunt
DON'T break or breathe or sneeze between et and canunt
Bar 25 Match the 'p' so we're all singing same p (think this is a dynamic not a consonant)
Basses come in in time
Sops at G SHARP come off all together (last page) and Anne heard an F Sharp
Everyone respond on the last page

Otherwise we did a good recording. And if there were any more notes sorry but my music was in a muddle by this time and my notes were in there somewhere and I was plagued by a troll several times.

Next Tuesday, 15th April, 5.30pm, Farewell for International Students,

in the Playfair Library in Old College,
enter from South Bridge, Chamber Street, Warmup 5ish,

• Normal concert dress
• Order of songs not yet clear, but probably not Auld lang syne, not Fhir a bhata

Wednesday, 16th April, 6.30pm!!!

• CD recording in St Peter's Episcopal Church, Lutton Place
• Bring all music we did in Portrait Gallery
• plus Amuworo

Thomas did a warming warm-up with Mammamia, Pappapia and Gloria.

In general:

• look up
• look engaged
• Read ahead then look up
• Smile (imagine Jenny standing next to Ollie!)

Aurora rutilat

• Think of pitch, consonants, dynamics
• p in beginning
• look at crescendo and decrescendo from p to f and back to p
• no pause between bars 32 and 33
• sing legato

Sang

• Ollie gives 6 beats upfront
• bar 9 warmly, not loud
• Ollie checks whether we should record this

Mary's wedding

• Nice solo from Chris
• Note: lyrics differ between 1st and 3rd line
• 4 bar phrases

Mary's song

• As done before: Each verse twice, 1st no soprano, 2nd with soprano,
• Beginning solo quartet (1st time 1st verse), then tutti
• no fermate nor rit. in each first time of the verse

Island spinning song

• Big melodramatic crescendo
• Note (as done before): repeat chorus 1st and last time only

Amazing grace

• Start pp, but full voice
• no pause after lost and sound
• Don't smile in the first verse - look awe-struck!
• Then smile (imagine Jenny standing next to Ollie!)

Ae fond kiss

• Hold end notes!

Preab san ol

• 3 beats upfront

Gaelic Set

• Crisp words
• Articulation

Since there wasn't much to be improved the night before the concert, the notes don't contain much music this time:

Warmup
Claire made us running through the church and doing other crazy stuff ... as usual.

Oh magnum Mysterium
round vowels, prepare oh-s

Envoi
Small decrescendo around bar 51

Hide & Seek
a very legato, non-hectic where are we and similar bits
at [E] (page 9) speed changes
sing spinnnnn me round rather than spiiiiiiiiiin me round

Tormises
ok

Chanson des roses
ok

Lux
If in doubt sing vählut rather then way-lut

Sanctus
ok

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Next week bring along the things for the University gig. For those who haven't got the program: Aurora Rutilat, Ae Fond Kiss, Depairte Depairte, Gaelic Set, Sang (Hairst the Licht o' the Mune), Amazing Graze, Island Spinning Song, Fhir a Bhata, Preab san Ol, Auld Lang Syne, Mary's Song, Mhairis Wedding.

P.S. My friends who were at the concert confirmed the overall impression everyone had: we did really well. People were impressed by the niveau of our music and how much we advanced and improved since last year. The words came over very clear, my friend said. They enjoyed both the variety and the quality of the music, and of course the wonderful acoustics.

Small Group:

Geographical Fugue – still haven't really nailed this but it's improving. Remember to look ahead to prepare for what's coming.
If I fall in love … need to be absolutely precise in middle section.

Main Rehearsal:

Douglas did the warming up tonight. I think he was right - Hey Mr Miller was good fun but not EVERY week!

Hide and Seek:
Page 12: quartet is Kay, Susan, Natasha and Chris.
Jenny and Natalie should both learn the alto solo.
AnnaLauren and Claire1 are the sop soloists. They know who does which bit – I don't!

Ollie will give us ONE bar in.
(Very) Odd notes I took at the time:
Bring out the melody – "melody" is written in tiny letters above the part who has it.
Make the vowel sound in "where" rounder, not as in "lair".
Sing through the phrases. Not too "poppy".
Again, try to look ahead, legato where it should be, don't be put off by syncopation.

Tormis pieces:
We're singing them in this order –
7. Kiisu-miisu (Pussy-cat)
8. Laulda teile lauluke (To sing you a little song)
3. Taevased kosilased (The Heavenly Suitors)
9. Mis teil tehakse? (What are they doing?)

We practised gluing them together;
7 and 8 no problem (leave it to Anne!)
8 and 3: practised the join without the fermatas – wasn't as tricky as…..
3 and 10: where 2nd Sops need to make their C very clear as this is the note Tenors and Basses need. Sops and Altos need to pick their notes up from the T and B's Cs – sounds easier than it was.
Sops : I have made a version of no.3 on just two pages which means you don't have to turn over at all. I'll bring them along on Wednesday if anyone's interested.

O Magnum Mysterium - Victoria
It's the counting that gives us the most trouble.
Remember the dynamics – not too loud at the beginning.
Always prepare your Os in advance.
Alleluia is Ahlehluia, not Allayluia.
My notes just say "rah". I think this must be the "rah" in admirahbile and sacrahmentum (not ra as in rat).
Remember to aim for "ster" in mysterium.
Bar 53 (first 3/2 bar): cut "stum" a bit short and LOOK UP to get the new brisker speed from Ollie which starts at the beginning of that bar.

Envoi
("Well done, you're doing fine". Well, that's what he said).

Sops – look up at bar 37 so that it doesn't drag.
Bar 45 – f then decrescendo until it's p at bar 49.
It is starting to sound "amazing" – Robin wants to release clouds of butterflies.

En une seule fleur
"good …. not bad"
Homework – keep on working at the words so that we can sing them up to speed.
Bar 19 – "exuberantly" is what it says – needs to be legato but keep the speed up – this section should be faster but it tends to drag.

Dowland Psalm 38:
Ollie will give us D and 2 bars in.
V3 quartet: Susan, Anne, Chris and John
V8 quartet: AnnaLauren, Natalie, Ollie and Sebastian.
We sang the words to all the verses this week and it became very obvious that we must all learn the tune so that we don't have to read the notes as well as the words!
My notes say "round vowels" and then it's illegible.

Dowland Psalm 100 version 2:
2 bars in.
Tenors have the tune.
V3 quartet is Claire1, Anne, Robin and Thomas.

Notices:
Ollie will be at no.16 from 7pm on Monday for anyone who wants an extra sing.

Wednesday 2nd April: Anne has now confirmed we'll be at St Peter's Lutton Place – small group at 7, everyone else ready to sing at 7.45.
There won't be any break for refreshments - bring your own water and whatever else you want.

Thursday 3rd April: Portrait Gallery concert

Wednesday 9th April: this will be (mostly) a rehearsal of the Scottish pieces for the University gig.

Czech Visit:
Anne now has a note of all accommodation preferences so that's it! Travel to Susice on Thursday: the 4pm and 4.40pm buses go straight through with no changes so it would be better to wait for one of those and use the opportunity for a quick look at the sights of Prague if you're not going to get a chance on the way back. Otherwise it's the train and we don't need to book tickets. (Hope I've got that right Anne!)