The small group that met early was Pentatonix Silent Night. Those of us who got to hear a sample of this group's work were impressed.
Warm-ups included minor scales which sound spooky, or moody. Minor scales are used for sad, moody, or spooky music. Major scales are what we're more accustomed to. It was difficult to sing those minor scales!
1. Wonderful World: We discovered that we were singing the top of page 7 wrong last week. It's an important part, and getting the notes right is a big part of expressing the meaning of that line. It's like the top of page 5. So, we did page 5 first. "the bright blessed day; the dark sacred night" has a big contrast between the two phrases, which we accomplish by singing the first part louder and the second softer, but the notes also help us create the moody "dark sacred night". The interesting chords and the dynamics underscore the words. On the top of page 7, we have the loud section, "I see friends shaking hands..." It ends with "I love you." --They're really saying, " I love you."-- We put the quotation marks there by singing I love you softly, and the notes really help to add emotion to the words and to set them apart. Let's be sure to hear the altos and the bass especially- they have key notes.
2. River: This is hard now, but will get easier when everyone gets a feel for when to sing, and where to go to repeat. It's also a different format from what we're used to reading. It's the free music-writing software that Joy and I were able to find and learn relatively quickly that looks unusual and that's throwing some of you off too. I'm sorry. Remember that there are 3 verses, so we go back to the beginning twice. There is a first ending and a second ending and a coda. The coda is the ending-ending. We jump to the coda before the third verse is finished. It's like the 3rd verse is a bonus bit and it could be seen as the beginning of the ending. Also, we decided that it was nice for the choir to come in on page 3 and we'll do it on the first verse too. So, you should have a note written in on beat one of bar 23 in the first ending. Soprano=D, Alto=A, Tenor=E, Bass hold your D. If not, write it in.
We sang the third verse up to the beginning of the coda (ie: page 1 to the top of page 2 in bar 8, and then jump to the last page bar 51.) If you don't have the word way written in on beat one of bar 51, please write it in. There should also be a tie/slur to attach the note before "on" to the previous note. You hold "way....."and drop to the next note still on "way" before you sing "on".
3. Hine Ma Tov: sounding good! Don't forget to bounce those lai-lais and smile! You probably want to write the English words in on the second repetition of page 3. Sopranos will notice that there aren't enough notes in the soprano part in bar 39. Repeat the same note, the C, in the same rhythm as the other part has below (which you heard on the top of page 2 bar 21). sing to-ge-ther-in-song.
4. We Rise Again: We learned section E, which is from the pick-up to bar 40 to the first note of bar 43, basically the first system of page 9. It's not very hard, but the Second Sopranos and the Tenors move here, each down a line. Second Sopranos sing with Altos on mostly melody, and Tenors go to the top of the Bass line. Bass gets the bottom. We reviewed section D, where oohs turn to aahs. The altos were getting lost, so if you have some time, practice your alto part on pages 7 and 8.
Next week: Buy tickets! They're beautiful! The posters have a typo in the phone number, so we'll have new ones. Think about where you could post a poster.
6:30 Pentatonix Silent Night small group
- Noel Nouvelet
- River
- Song for Canada
- We Rise Again
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