Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Claire 2's notes, 9th September
Hello, One and All.
I don't know if anyone noticed my magnificent fingernails last night - at the moment they are quite the longest and strongest they've ever been but, oh my word! they make typing difficult; this could take me hours!!
First things first....NB: re absences - ONLY DOUGLAS HAS FILLED IN THE DIARY FOR NEXT WEEK SO EVERYONE ELSE IS EXPECTED AT REHEARSAL UNLESS SUDDEN SERIOUS ILLNESS OR SIMILAR DISASTER PREVENTS IT. If you know you will be unable to make it - and you'd better have a good excuse - let Ollie know NOW.
Jenny led the warm-up and had us exercising our brains as well as our bodies/voices. The threat of Alzheimer's hangs ever lower and darker over Rudsambee....
Dormi Jesu: We mixed up to sing this which put the fear of god into me but proved less difficult than expected. Those who had not sung it before managed very well indeed and it sounded pretty OK for a first
attempt.
2nd time through we thought about dynamics (or were supposed to) and vowel sounds - which should be kept open and blended - and marked difficulties for later, more focussed attention.
Later - in the piano room....
Page 2: Sops wanted to look at bars 9, 10 and 11 - the real problem being the C in bar 10. Keep it sharp - there is a key change underneath so once you have your note hang onto it for dear life and don 't be distracted by other parts. Be aware of the phrase ending on a B, which feels logical and may help.
Bar 20 - basses, think of the the Eflat as a D# if it helps.
Page 5: - 'blandule' - no harsh 'a' sounds, 'blahnduleh'.
Bar 26 - Sops, come in with confidence. Bars 27 and 28 should then be p.
There will be quite a gap after bar 30. Watch and wait for the basses - everyone else comes in on the second beat of the bar.
I don't have many notes for this as mostly we sang it to get the feel of it so if you weren't there have a good look at this section - bars 20-29.
Page 6: Bar 41 - 'cantans' - nasty, terrifying, screechy sound apparently! Bad 'a's again. We want nice vowel sounds here, please... 'cahntahns'
Bar 43 - tenors have a tricky B. Think down to it during the fermata - you will get used to hearing it. You will!
That's it for that one except you must pay attention to the pps when they come. Take note of and think about the dynamics at all times while practising.
Margot: We split into 2 groups to practise this as we will be doing it in quartets eventually. Our challenge was to make it musical. Hmmmm....
In the piano room we found it made a huge difference when we sung the chorus off-by-heart. A much lighter and happier sound. This was proved by the sheer bouncy brilliance of the other group's performance later when they had the first verse and chorus well in their heads and sang it beautifully. Grrr. The best that can be said for us is that Anne and Angus acted indignation quite magnificently when we got to verse 4.
Aside from Angus's disturbing display of camp, I feel that a bit of ham acting would improve this quirky but rather repetitive number beyond belief.
General pronunciation notes: Rachel gave us these last week. This is an olde French song so the usual rules do not apply. 'r's should be rolled, not gutteral. Words with 'ois' in them eg roi, trois are said more like 'rouey' (think debauched old man) and 'trey' - with 'r' nicely rolling, of course. Normal pronunciation for 'fils' (ie 'son') with the 's' on the end but no 'l' - like 'feast' without the 't'.
Lullaby Carol: A bit of sight-reading. (Some people will have sung this before as it was a small group song a few years ago. Please look to see if you have a copy already).
Things to remember:
This is a lullaby!
Tuning is very important.
Counting is very important - the bars are irregular.
It should be legato - watch your breathing.
Think about expression straight away when sight-reading/looking at new pieces. Read the dynamics as well as the notes.
Page 2: Bar 5, tenors and sopranos have 'mm', basses and altos 'oo'. We need to hear both so be aware of the balance. Bar 6 we start singing words - the same words so the same vowels ie 'loolay'. Bar 10 we are all singing words together for the first time - 'mother' should be 'mahther'. Listen and blend.
Bar 9 - tenors, we need to hear you.
Page 3: Get the 'd' on 'child' all together - watch.There will be a long rest after this then think about balancing the melody. The Sop 2s have it first, then the Sop 1s then we are all together bar 19. Anyone singing the chords underneath must listen to the melody.
Rudsambee: Balancers and Blenders Extraordinaire.
Concert - 10th October. Bit fuzzy on the details but I'm sure most people know what's what. 7.30pm, I think - about 1 hour's duration, Falkland Parish church??? Anne knows. Elaine knows. Even Christopher knows, I believe. Ask one of them!!
I don't know if anyone noticed my magnificent fingernails last night - at the moment they are quite the longest and strongest they've ever been but, oh my word! they make typing difficult; this could take me hours!!
First things first....NB: re absences - ONLY DOUGLAS HAS FILLED IN THE DIARY FOR NEXT WEEK SO EVERYONE ELSE IS EXPECTED AT REHEARSAL UNLESS SUDDEN SERIOUS ILLNESS OR SIMILAR DISASTER PREVENTS IT. If you know you will be unable to make it - and you'd better have a good excuse - let Ollie know NOW.
Jenny led the warm-up and had us exercising our brains as well as our bodies/voices. The threat of Alzheimer's hangs ever lower and darker over Rudsambee....
Dormi Jesu: We mixed up to sing this which put the fear of god into me but proved less difficult than expected. Those who had not sung it before managed very well indeed and it sounded pretty OK for a first
attempt.
2nd time through we thought about dynamics (or were supposed to) and vowel sounds - which should be kept open and blended - and marked difficulties for later, more focussed attention.
Later - in the piano room....
Page 2: Sops wanted to look at bars 9, 10 and 11 - the real problem being the C in bar 10. Keep it sharp - there is a key change underneath so once you have your note hang onto it for dear life and don 't be distracted by other parts. Be aware of the phrase ending on a B, which feels logical and may help.
Bar 20 - basses, think of the the Eflat as a D# if it helps.
Page 5: - 'blandule' - no harsh 'a' sounds, 'blahnduleh'.
Bar 26 - Sops, come in with confidence. Bars 27 and 28 should then be p.
There will be quite a gap after bar 30. Watch and wait for the basses - everyone else comes in on the second beat of the bar.
I don't have many notes for this as mostly we sang it to get the feel of it so if you weren't there have a good look at this section - bars 20-29.
Page 6: Bar 41 - 'cantans' - nasty, terrifying, screechy sound apparently! Bad 'a's again. We want nice vowel sounds here, please... 'cahntahns'
Bar 43 - tenors have a tricky B. Think down to it during the fermata - you will get used to hearing it. You will!
That's it for that one except you must pay attention to the pps when they come. Take note of and think about the dynamics at all times while practising.
Margot: We split into 2 groups to practise this as we will be doing it in quartets eventually. Our challenge was to make it musical. Hmmmm....
In the piano room we found it made a huge difference when we sung the chorus off-by-heart. A much lighter and happier sound. This was proved by the sheer bouncy brilliance of the other group's performance later when they had the first verse and chorus well in their heads and sang it beautifully. Grrr. The best that can be said for us is that Anne and Angus acted indignation quite magnificently when we got to verse 4.
Aside from Angus's disturbing display of camp, I feel that a bit of ham acting would improve this quirky but rather repetitive number beyond belief.
General pronunciation notes: Rachel gave us these last week. This is an olde French song so the usual rules do not apply. 'r's should be rolled, not gutteral. Words with 'ois' in them eg roi, trois are said more like 'rouey' (think debauched old man) and 'trey' - with 'r' nicely rolling, of course. Normal pronunciation for 'fils' (ie 'son') with the 's' on the end but no 'l' - like 'feast' without the 't'.
Lullaby Carol: A bit of sight-reading. (Some people will have sung this before as it was a small group song a few years ago. Please look to see if you have a copy already).
Things to remember:
This is a lullaby!
Tuning is very important.
Counting is very important - the bars are irregular.
It should be legato - watch your breathing.
Think about expression straight away when sight-reading/looking at new pieces. Read the dynamics as well as the notes.
Page 2: Bar 5, tenors and sopranos have 'mm', basses and altos 'oo'. We need to hear both so be aware of the balance. Bar 6 we start singing words - the same words so the same vowels ie 'loolay'. Bar 10 we are all singing words together for the first time - 'mother' should be 'mahther'. Listen and blend.
Bar 9 - tenors, we need to hear you.
Page 3: Get the 'd' on 'child' all together - watch.There will be a long rest after this then think about balancing the melody. The Sop 2s have it first, then the Sop 1s then we are all together bar 19. Anyone singing the chords underneath must listen to the melody.
Rudsambee: Balancers and Blenders Extraordinaire.
Concert - 10th October. Bit fuzzy on the details but I'm sure most people know what's what. 7.30pm, I think - about 1 hour's duration, Falkland Parish church??? Anne knows. Elaine knows. Even Christopher knows, I believe. Ask one of them!!
# posted by rudsambass @ 1:34 pm 
