Friday, February 14, 2020
Rudsambee rehearsal notes 12.2.20
Rudsambee rehearsal notes 12.2.20
Present - Derrick, Niki, Klara, Magen, David, Jeremy,
Ewan, Gordon, Charlie, Denise
Blue
Bird
‘Below the hill’, pulses. Pronounce it ‘buh
low thah hill’, emphasis on ‘low’
Basses, bar 7, the F is not as low as you think
Basses, bar 13, option to miss out the F flat on ‘cold’ if you can’t reach
it, come in an octave up on ‘and’
Basses
and sops, beware allowing your neck to tighten
in low notes for Basses, high notes for Sops. Sing it as if its in your
midrange, relaxed neck
All, bar 14, ‘still’ is 2 beats, then a rest
All, bar 15, ‘flew’ is short consonants, esp the ‘fl’
All, bar 19, shorten the ‘blue’ try to get the ‘bl’ out quickly. The
‘oo’ of ‘blue’ is more like the French ‘bleu’
All,
bar 18, ‘palest blue’ is a diminuendo in 3
stages
Basses
and Tenors, bar 27, ‘blue in blue’ the notes
are like the start of ‘3 blind mice’
Sops, with low notes, try to strengthen them – they sound weak
Basses, bar 30, the F is bright and smiley. Don’t over-anticipate the F
flat in bar 32.
All, bar 43, don’t bother with the ‘ll’ in ‘hill’, just do ‘heh’ and let
it drift off
Weelkes
Sops- at the beginning imagine you’re a wave at the beach, make your
entry with ‘when’ less staccato, slower
Basses, your entry is emphatic.
All, imagine you’re in a conversation, a dialogue, talking with others
about what’s happened
All, bar 4, ‘heard’ is a diminuendo, let it tail off
Sops, ‘that Absalon was slain’ – variableemphasis – ebbing, flowing
Sops, bar 15, less emphasis on the ‘ch’ of ‘chamber’
All, bar 24, ’and thus he said’ – a long phrase, blend it together
Basses, bar 25, emphasise ‘said’
Basses, bars 33 and 36, ‘my son’ is grief stricken, not punchy
Tenors bar 32/33 ‘my son’ same as per basses, above
All, at end of ‘Absalon’, drop the ‘n’
At the end, Derrick may do a sniff of a
rit.
Last note a diminuendo, let it dribble off.
Pats on the back all round. Derrick reports
good progress, coming together nicely
GL 14.2.20
# posted by rudsambass @ 6:24 pm 
