Thursday, June 29, 2017
Weds 28th
Firstly, we ALL (this includes me) need to do some serious work on our own at home, particularly on the Thea Musgrave pieces. Derrick suggests not getting in a tizzy about them but spending 5 minutes a day on 5 bars or so and learning a little bit at a time but learning it well. We decided it would be good if we could manage at least Subway Piranhas by heart so...
get studying!
- Scotland at Night.
Lullaby.
I have no musical notes for this one (quite literally so in certain places, as far as I'm concerned) but one or two concerning diction:
Make the 'f' on 'folded' more like a 'v' so it really comes across - bars 12/13.
And sing 'lov-with' so the 'v' doesn't get lost in bars 16-19.
Altos, sing out in bar 25. Make sure to get a good 't' on 'tears'.
Everyone, sing through 'anent', 'anent-our hopes'. If you are a soprano or a tenor with three notes to fit in on the second syllable you can afford to ignore the second 'n' pretty much. I'm not sure there's a good excuse for the rest of us to do it!
Bars 16-19, don't be scared of them.
- On the Underground
Look for moments of unison. Slurs on long notes that go over the bar line e.g. in Dreams bar 12-13 (sops and altos) and Subway Piranhas bars 21-22 (tenors and basses) are there to encourage you to sing through to the bar line and should not be held on too long.
Wherever it is helpful (everywhere) at the last bar/page turn, write in your next note (i.e. first note on following page), e.g. Dreams page 1, sopranos write in the F# of page 2.
Dreams.
We spent quite some time on bars 9-12 - again! Probably worth looking at just a tad more??
Second sops don't hold on too long to the 2nd G in bar 10. Because the firsts have a dotted minim there is a tendency to think your note is longer than it is.
Subway Piranhas.
DICTION!! This is going to be really important so practise exaggerating your consonants. It feels silly but it won't sound it.
Page 12 - 'fish', bar 13 and 'fed', bar 17, give both these their full value, don't sing as if they are quavers. Elsewhere, rather than cut crotchets off short try and have a lightness of sound on the vowel and a clear consonant. Often the end of one word can be linked to the beginning of the next, 'tanKof' 'anDunderneath', for example.
Altos, bar 26, 'the fish' - agh! Practise.
Bar 28, accent on the 'a' of agitated.
Bar 29, soprano/tenor and alto/bass, unison. For two whole bars.
Bars 32-34, everyone - UNISON. Yey.
Bar 35, altos - from the Bb to the F#. Chromatic. Watch the E natural in bar 37.
Bar 36, sops watch your 2nd triplet, Bb.
Bar 41-44 sops and basses in unison ( what, again??). Everyone should be on a Bb in bar 42.
Bar 47, do not treat the quaver rest as a rest, it really isn't one.
Bar 52, don't hold on too long to the last note, on '-tive'.
Bar 57, altos - A (bar 56) to C lah-doh. With the sops on the C. Then semi-tone, tone, semi-tone, tone (an oft-used octatonic scale, watch for it).
Bar 61, 'me-di-cal' even length of note, don't hold on to the '-cal'.
Bar 66, altos - Bb maj scale starting on 'me'.
Bar 74, this note is a quaver!
Bar 75, altos - the C is in the tenor part.
Sleep Weel My Bairnie.
Sopranos, more commitment on 2nd notes of first two bars.
There is no long pause at end of bar 7.
Bar 8, 'Lang, lang', don't rush, these notes are longer/slower.
Page 2, bars 16-18, watch the intervals, it is easy to go flat.
That's all, Folks.
If there are any glaring errors, which is perfectly possible, please correct them or let me know and I'll do it.
Sent from my iPad
get studying!
- Scotland at Night.
Lullaby.
I have no musical notes for this one (quite literally so in certain places, as far as I'm concerned) but one or two concerning diction:
Make the 'f' on 'folded' more like a 'v' so it really comes across - bars 12/13.
And sing 'lov-with' so the 'v' doesn't get lost in bars 16-19.
Altos, sing out in bar 25. Make sure to get a good 't' on 'tears'.
Everyone, sing through 'anent', 'anent-our hopes'. If you are a soprano or a tenor with three notes to fit in on the second syllable you can afford to ignore the second 'n' pretty much. I'm not sure there's a good excuse for the rest of us to do it!
Bars 16-19, don't be scared of them.
- On the Underground
Look for moments of unison. Slurs on long notes that go over the bar line e.g. in Dreams bar 12-13 (sops and altos) and Subway Piranhas bars 21-22 (tenors and basses) are there to encourage you to sing through to the bar line and should not be held on too long.
Wherever it is helpful (everywhere) at the last bar/page turn, write in your next note (i.e. first note on following page), e.g. Dreams page 1, sopranos write in the F# of page 2.
Dreams.
We spent quite some time on bars 9-12 - again! Probably worth looking at just a tad more??
Second sops don't hold on too long to the 2nd G in bar 10. Because the firsts have a dotted minim there is a tendency to think your note is longer than it is.
Subway Piranhas.
DICTION!! This is going to be really important so practise exaggerating your consonants. It feels silly but it won't sound it.
Page 12 - 'fish', bar 13 and 'fed', bar 17, give both these their full value, don't sing as if they are quavers. Elsewhere, rather than cut crotchets off short try and have a lightness of sound on the vowel and a clear consonant. Often the end of one word can be linked to the beginning of the next, 'tanKof' 'anDunderneath', for example.
Altos, bar 26, 'the fish' - agh! Practise.
Bar 28, accent on the 'a' of agitated.
Bar 29, soprano/tenor and alto/bass, unison. For two whole bars.
Bars 32-34, everyone - UNISON. Yey.
Bar 35, altos - from the Bb to the F#. Chromatic. Watch the E natural in bar 37.
Bar 36, sops watch your 2nd triplet, Bb.
Bar 41-44 sops and basses in unison ( what, again??). Everyone should be on a Bb in bar 42.
Bar 47, do not treat the quaver rest as a rest, it really isn't one.
Bar 52, don't hold on too long to the last note, on '-tive'.
Bar 57, altos - A (bar 56) to C lah-doh. With the sops on the C. Then semi-tone, tone, semi-tone, tone (an oft-used octatonic scale, watch for it).
Bar 61, 'me-di-cal' even length of note, don't hold on to the '-cal'.
Bar 66, altos - Bb maj scale starting on 'me'.
Bar 74, this note is a quaver!
Bar 75, altos - the C is in the tenor part.
Sleep Weel My Bairnie.
Sopranos, more commitment on 2nd notes of first two bars.
There is no long pause at end of bar 7.
Bar 8, 'Lang, lang', don't rush, these notes are longer/slower.
Page 2, bars 16-18, watch the intervals, it is easy to go flat.
That's all, Folks.
If there are any glaring errors, which is perfectly possible, please correct them or let me know and I'll do it.
Sent from my iPad
Monday, June 26, 2017
Rehearsal Notes 21st June
Hello!
Apologies for the delay in writing these.
Last Wednesday we worked mainly on the new Thea Musgrave set. It was largely note-bashing done in sectionals but brought together towards the end, with good progress made!
We mainly worked on Dreams and Subway Piranhas, but some of I saw a Peacock with a Fiery Tale too.
Main points are:
1. Some tricky intervals - it's worth sitting down to work out which are semi-tones and which are tones (or use solfa) as lots of accidental!
2. Look for the moments that we all join together and sing in unison.
3. Right from the start with the Piranhas piece, diction needs to be good.
4. In Dreams start to think about dynamics which build the shape of the piece.
We also worked on After Culloden. The key hear is listening to all the parts as each of us have different lines which come and go - so need to let them come through. Timing is difficult sometimes (because of the different tunes being sung) so really need to listen! Blend was sounding really nice though.
Hope that is helpful!
Marie-Claire
Sent from my iPhone
Apologies for the delay in writing these.
Last Wednesday we worked mainly on the new Thea Musgrave set. It was largely note-bashing done in sectionals but brought together towards the end, with good progress made!
We mainly worked on Dreams and Subway Piranhas, but some of I saw a Peacock with a Fiery Tale too.
Main points are:
1. Some tricky intervals - it's worth sitting down to work out which are semi-tones and which are tones (or use solfa) as lots of accidental!
2. Look for the moments that we all join together and sing in unison.
3. Right from the start with the Piranhas piece, diction needs to be good.
4. In Dreams start to think about dynamics which build the shape of the piece.
We also worked on After Culloden. The key hear is listening to all the parts as each of us have different lines which come and go - so need to let them come through. Timing is difficult sometimes (because of the different tunes being sung) so really need to listen! Blend was sounding really nice though.
Hope that is helpful!
Marie-Claire
Sent from my iPhone
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Testing rehearsal notes
This is to test the e-mail address rehearsalnotes@rudsambee.org.uk
The idea is that whoever writes up the rehearsal notes each week can
e-mail them to a single address, and they will then
(a) be forwarded on to Derrick and all of us singers, and
(b) saved at https://rudsamblog.blogspot.co.uk/ so that we can easily
see notes from earlier weeks without having to scan through our old e-mails.
This will work best if we don't do fancy formatting in the notes,
because the formatting may get lost in the "blog". In particular, please
don't use MS Word or any other text processor to write up the notes. Just
write a simple plain text e-mail.
John
The idea is that whoever writes up the rehearsal notes each week can
e-mail them to a single address, and they will then
(a) be forwarded on to Derrick and all of us singers, and
(b) saved at https://rudsamblog.blogspot.co.uk/ so that we can easily
see notes from earlier weeks without having to scan through our old e-mails.
This will work best if we don't do fancy formatting in the notes,
because the formatting may get lost in the "blog". In particular, please
don't use MS Word or any other text processor to write up the notes. Just
write a simple plain text e-mail.
John
