Rudsamblog

Hi All

Very brief note from last night's rehearsal. First we looked at two new pieces and made a good start on both of these:

Kyrie from Missa Iste Sanctus by Francisco Guerrero
Derrick mentioned this is in the Dorian mode. 4 minums to the bar throughout. Count carefully and keep a steady beat; watch for dotted minums. Sing any upward run of crotchets as one phrase, moving forward into the next bar, e.g. tenors bar 7 into 8, altos bar 23 into 24, sopranos bar 36 into 37. Bases have something similar with minums bar 30 into 31. Bring out any E flats and ensure distinguish between when it's an E and when it's an E flat.

All to ensure they pronounce both of the 'e's in 'Ky-ri-e e' and also to pronounce the 'i' of the 'lei' after the 'e' of this word, so that you can hear both vowals separately. The 'i' comes just before 'son' of Ky-ri-e e-lei-son'

Gloria
Again, 4 minums to the bar throughout. We sight read the first page and a bit. and also joined in initially with singing the tenor and bass lines as our numbers were reduced in these sections to one person per line. We then all sang our own parts. 'A-gi-mus pronounced with a soft g, like the Italian g.

We will sing all of the Mass but Derrick's intention is for us to sing the Mass in such a way that the parts of the Mass are divided up and interspersed with other pieces of music.

We then looked at a piece we have sung before:

Soneta de la noche from Nocturnes by Morten Lauridsen
This was familiar to many who have sung it in a previous concert and began to come back to us as we sang. The words and pronunciation was not bad, but the dynamics needed attention so we worked on these. The section marked 'Joyously' Bar 38 onwards needs to be sung more staccato. Also pay attention to the 'melismas'. Melisma is 'the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession'. These should be rhythmic and have a light, dancing quality. In the ff Appassionata, pesante section Bar 63 onwards, some of the notes have accents underneath them. They should be leaned into and accentuated, but with a little separation between each note. Pay attention to these and sing these notes differently from sections which do not have these accents.

Kirsty.

# posted by rudsambass @ 11:02 pm