Sunday, April 28, 2019
choir practice notes weds 24th
Daniel. contrasting dynamics. sound should be gospelly. remember start is mp, currently sounding forte. some time spent on the humming parts (leaving out bass solo) from bar 40 (open mouthed 'hung'). bar 46 at the end of 'Lord' make the 'd' audible. note rhythm of 'servant of the lord'. sops/tenors went over bar 59 - some homework required to confirm we're on the right notes. all did bar 56 to end. tenors at end of bar 60 check your entry note. remember to look up at bar 65 for Derrick to give us the pace. tenors 'not in agreement' over notes bar 65 - check at home. sounding good after this work
Dreams. in long notes, sing actively. emphasise words/story. keep it moving. broke it down to individual parts, S->A->T->B, helped by piano confirming the notes. then put it together and sounding good
Peacock. debate over whether to include it in our program. David keen. suggestion to listen to it at home. we may add it after the first concert
Piranhas. done slowly with Denise emphasising the beat. then we spoke it through. pronounce 'fed' as 'fedh'. NB starts pianissimo. Jeremy sending out recordings
Non nobis. let the sops sing the melody, lower parts quieter. check your notes at bar 57,58. bar 65 softly, piano. bar 81 crescendo. bass entry bar 85 emphatic. 'Domineh' (?ay) and 'Nominee'. no firmata at the end
Gondoliera. Kirsty read through the German pronunciation, followed by the rather raunchy translation. starts softly
Dream Angus. give altos their space bar 35. chords sounding better
Lumen After Jeremy's pep talk to the men to be Leaders not Followers, men invited (politely) to leave
Oro. after we broke up, John gave a pronunciation masterclass to Gordon and Charlie. Susan has a sheet with phonetic spelling
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Rehearsal Notes 17 April (Douglas)
DUM SPIRO
Rhythm for this piece can be tricky.
Make a difference between the SPIRO and the SPERO. The SPIRO should sound
like SPEARO.
Male voices should not throw away the last note of their phrases- sing the full
note value.
BAR 5/6 Basses should make sure that the ends of bars are in tune. Basses
clapped the rhythm of bars 21-25.
BAR 37 onwards; Splits are Ewan and Gordon on the TB line and Charlie and
John on T2B2 line. We all fade over 4 repeats. Make the “S” short.
DREAM ANGUS
IMPORTANT; Melody parts(especially) and accompaniment should be SHAPED.
Smooth line from HUSH to YOUR please.
SELL should be sung SARL to avoid unpleasant E sound.
BAR 31 Basses should EMERGE from the Background!
BARS 45/6 is a major third.
Accompaniment ; don’t switch off on long notes, make intervals brighter than
they are and SHAPE the long notes so there is a sense of direction.
GONDOLIERA
We had a general work through this but will return to it in more detail later.
Make the long notes interesting (again ). The volume is always Rising and
Falling. The “S’s” should be light.
ABENDFEIER IN VENEDIG
AVE should be sung “Ah” “ve”.
BAR 6 Tenors are the leading voice.
Der and Se have the same sound. Remember that in the 2nd verse there is a rest
after “Klingt”.
BAR 39 The Eflat from the Tenors is v important.
SE DE TUO
Try to shape every note/phrase. Tenors and others should put energy into the
short runs. Derrick may change the tempo at the bottom of P5 so watch out.
“Che” is like Choo Choo, and Ce is like KAY.
Derrick will return May 18th!
Douglas
Rhythm for this piece can be tricky.
Make a difference between the SPIRO and the SPERO. The SPIRO should sound
like SPEARO.
Male voices should not throw away the last note of their phrases- sing the full
note value.
BAR 5/6 Basses should make sure that the ends of bars are in tune. Basses
clapped the rhythm of bars 21-25.
BAR 37 onwards; Splits are Ewan and Gordon on the TB line and Charlie and
John on T2B2 line. We all fade over 4 repeats. Make the “S” short.
DREAM ANGUS
IMPORTANT; Melody parts(especially) and accompaniment should be SHAPED.
Smooth line from HUSH to YOUR please.
SELL should be sung SARL to avoid unpleasant E sound.
BAR 31 Basses should EMERGE from the Background!
BARS 45/6 is a major third.
Accompaniment ; don’t switch off on long notes, make intervals brighter than
they are and SHAPE the long notes so there is a sense of direction.
GONDOLIERA
We had a general work through this but will return to it in more detail later.
Make the long notes interesting (again ). The volume is always Rising and
Falling. The “S’s” should be light.
ABENDFEIER IN VENEDIG
AVE should be sung “Ah” “ve”.
BAR 6 Tenors are the leading voice.
Der and Se have the same sound. Remember that in the 2nd verse there is a rest
after “Klingt”.
BAR 39 The Eflat from the Tenors is v important.
SE DE TUO
Try to shape every note/phrase. Tenors and others should put energy into the
short runs. Derrick may change the tempo at the bottom of P5 so watch out.
“Che” is like Choo Choo, and Ce is like KAY.
Derrick will return May 18th!
Douglas
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Notes for April 10th
It was good to have Derrick back. We had a productive session, and went in-depth on a few pieces.
All:
- Consonants come too early ('Hush', 'Sell')
- Work on notes at the entrance in bar 35, use a rounder 'ah' vowel for 'angus.'
Men:
- Stagger breathe, no gaps between bars 8 and 9
Women:
- Work on line continuation, phrasing. Spin the melody, don't rush consonants.
- Watch tuning at bars 18 and 26
Basses:
- Take care with entrances and the B flat at bars 19 and 31
- Review notes at bars 64 and 65,
Non Nobis Domine
All:
- Note diminuendo at 57
Basses:
- Intervals for 'Gloriam' should be checked
Tenors:
- Sing less 'nicely' and with more emphasis
Sopranos:
- Keep to tempo at bar 29
- Keep altos in mind for key change at bar 59
Im Wald
All:
- Don't rush consonants, keep to end of note.
- Note Diminuendo at bar 37 to piano
- Consider phrases, don't focus on bar lines
- Note crescendo from page 2 to 3
- Watch at end
- Be prepared for the time signature changes.
- 'Pretend we're enjoying some of it.'
Sopranos:
- Don't strain the high notes; keep energy and dynamic levels
Basses:
- Keep pitch up. Last notes of phrases should not change tone. Controlled.
Se del tuo corpo...
Tenors:
- Can start falsetto
Sopranos:
- B flats at top of page 3
Basses:
- Less woofy/barky at bar 59, more connected
Daniel
All:
- Quiet entrances at 54, 55, 56
- Watch 4/4 conducting at 59, 66
Tenors and Basses:
- Watch fermata at bar 46
Altos:
- Sing tenor line during tenor solo
Sopranos and Altos:
- Diminuendo from 47 to 48, then enter at forte at 49
Thursday, April 04, 2019
notes from rehearsal on 3.4.19
We worked hard this evening on:
-Abendfeier in Venedig. We focussed especially on bar 26 to the end, working on individual parts and the tuning of chords at cadences. We agreed to work more on the words and pronunciation in future rehearsals, but the point was made tonight that we shouldn't be breathing in the middle of any words!
- Gondoliera. We worked in individual parts on page 3, then page 2. Page 2 is tricky with all the changes of key (if anyone would find this helpful, a rough sketch of the key changes is something like: from A-flat to F, to G, to E-flat, A-flat, C-flat (that's B) to F-flat (that's E), to B-flat, E-flat and finally at the top of the next page back to A-flat - wow - no wonder it's tricky!!). There are places where layout is not helpful, so if counting is difficult for anyone then do write in the beats for each bar. We will need to work on dynamics also in future.
Daniel. We sang this through and worked mainly on bar 45 to the end. We should aim to sing this off-copy. Men please note the crotchet rest in bar 51.
Oro. Despite having planned to work on this and look at the words tonight, we agreed instead to wait until more of the newer members are present.
Se del tuo corpo. We worked especially on page 5 to the end. The rhythm seemed to need more work, so we clapped it once. In general, moving parts should sing out and other parts should be quieter. We then sung it through again and were pleased when it held together.
Musgrave pieces. There was some discussion about which of these we should sing in the concerts. We looked briefly at 'Dreams' (all together, and in individual parts) and some people would like also to include the Peacock one. All would require individual practice at home. We concentrated on 'Subway' and sang it through several times. Points made from last time were: bring out consonants and finish them tidily on rests (eg b.17, b. 13). On page 15, bottom, A and T are less important than S and B. In general, we should try to memorise so that we can look up lots. We should work on acting it, hamming it up and bringing out important words ('snuggling', 'schools', 'fish').
The rehearsal on Saturday is from 11-4. Susan is to send out an email again with information.
