Rudsamblog

Kay, April and Rachael did a great job, however.

Oro 

Coming on. More work on the words needed (and not only from the new people!). 

Men, at the beginning note the accents and give it more laldy. In fact do that whenever you have the same eg bars 17 and 35.

Bar 25 lower parts more p than sopranos.

Bar 43 needs dynamics and shape.

Bar 72, note that we go down to mp from f and then cresc to ff.

Last three notes staccato.

Non Nobis Domine

Rhythm needs work.

'Domine' is speeding up, it is slower than you think.

Watch dynamics at 'Sed gloria...'

Stop cutting off the longer notes eg '..da' bar 68. We do this a lot. Keep a flow; there should be no break between '-da' and 'gloriam'.

Bar 101 top parts sing out - should be f. Also bridge the gaps between 'Domine..' and '-tu' ( I think people are breathing inappropriately here maybe).

Bar 139 note the contrast in rhythm between the sops and altos.

The upbeat to the last bar is a bit soupy. A conductor may help! 

Se del tuo corpo 

This was blobby with no sense of phrase. Back off on the long notes, sing out if it's interesting, if your line is going up sing louder, if down softer.

Ténors you need to have the note in your head before you sing it. Make sure you all come in together and don't force it or it sounds strangled.

We should mix up to sing it next week so have a look at it with this in mind.

Second time of singing we took it faster, this helped a bit.

Note page 5 sfz in bar 61-63 and down to p in 64. Huge contrast.

At 'subito lento' it is a bit slower. There's a surprise.

Bars 68/69 need attention. Know what is coming over the page. This improved with practise but keep working on it.
In general know when and what you should be singing with other parts. This will help and don't breathe in the middle of words.

Envoi

Not enough of us present to sing it but please practise at home so we can give it a good go next week.

Dreams (On the Underground)

We listened to a recording first, a couple of times.

Worked in parts bar 7 onwards ('by night..). It was improving. But there is still a delay on the page turn which I think is partly caused by fear. Know what's there and go for it!

Remember pp start, consonants very important, COUNT.

Piranhas

Wasn't too bad.

Where to go with this...it's all in the expression. Sing it as if you're telling a bedtime story - lots of face. Think about the atmosphere. Eg in the 'la la' bits the music goes from quite light-hearted to, suddenly, rather more threatening so go with it vocally.

This doesn't need to be madly fast but good enunciation is paramount to make it appear so.

Try and get it off the page as much as possible as this will really help with performance.

Gondoliera 

We sang the second verse, going through the words, in rhythm, with Kirsty first.

Bar 13 through to the end was a bit dodgy tuning-wise but we worked on it and it improved.

There is a diminuendo at the end.

Kirsty noted that this is a restrained, romantic text.

Daniel

Jeremy is going to take the tenor solo. He did it extremely well.

Altogether not bad. Basses need to work on each of their 'That-a Hebrew Daniel' bars 14 and 34.

Charlie sang for Gordon and we have a fine substitute if required.

Everyone needs to relax and forget to sing beautifully (!!??).

Hope this all makes sense. I was so cold my brain stopped functioning at about 8 o' clock.

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad