Fantastic rehearsal! We really got a lot done.
At 6:30, the Anthem small group started, and got to the end of the song. I've adapted the SATB score that Blair gave us to TTBB and to provide solos for the two people who came to me to offer this song as a solo, and to take advantage of our bass voices. There are 3 solos. Everything up to page 6 is solos. From page 6 on, I've created a new 4-part arrangement which you have on a one-sheet copy. You should not need to use both the score and that 1-page. I hope the soloists can memorize their parts.
We did a brief physical warm-up and a little vocal warm-up before singing Hallelujah as our main vocal warm-up.
1. City of Stars was great! We looked at the swing notation and talked about how that gives the song its jazzy bum-ba-bum-ba feel. The moody/wistful/dreamy quality is there too, but comes more from the slowish tempo and the soft low voices at the beginning. At 29, we brighten up with the treble clef voices on "It's love" and then at 35 when we're all together it's big and swinging and positive culminating in the "rat-tat-tat" on our hearts, the crazy feeling of love. Remember, you're watching at the bottom of page 7 (bass clef voices) and at the end (treble clef voices) where we slow down dramatically.
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| Swing Notation on City of Stars |
3. Rewrite the Stars: We slowed this down, not only for the soloists, but also for everyone when your eighth note rhythms change depending on the words, so you can pay attention to that. For example: "It's up to you, and it's up to me" changes to "It's not up to you. It's not up to me". "When everyone tells us what we can be" and "No one can say what we get to be" is even harder. Soloists did a great job! I put you on the spot at the front, but hearing the other soloists was effective. Eventually, I have to pick a soloist for each part and choose a back-up for each as well, so there will be 4 of you. And, we have to think about logistics, where will you stand in the concert, and whetger or not we use microphones (I'm thinking not- you can stand in the front row or first step up?).
4. Nella Fantasia: We slowed this down too. Sopranos, when Donna starts playing, start singing in your head "io ve-e-do un mo-on-do giusto" or "li tu-ut-ti vi-i-vo no" or even just ba-ba-bas on quarter notes to make sure you're ready to sing those triplets and can come in confidently. We sang aahs instead of ohs, and it sounded stronger. We reviewed the alto ahs. We reviewed the special soprano part at the top of page 7. I love this song, and it's sounding beautiful. We talked about the recordings on the website. The ones where you hear Richard singing are really very helpful, except for his "nella fantasias" all the way through, even though it's all English. It was really nice to sing it that way at the time. Please take advantage of this excellent resource to help you if you're feeling unsure of your part.
5. Joseph Medley: We sang to the end of the Elvis song. We were meant to focus on the first two songs today. The first was excellent, Jacob and Sons.We added a cut-off with the fermata in Donna's intro to move to a sudden change of tempo. The intro is big and showy, broad, and grand. Then, when we come in, we move with a driving energy. You'll see that the notation is for a broad, slow (92) intro which speeds up "accel." to (138) "with energy". Much better when we sing as written (haha). I'm still not hearing enough tenor on Ja-cob. I'm thinking of adding some altos there. Otherwise, this is perfect. Any Dream Will Do has one little thing. The beginning is medium loud, with just the sopranos and tenors, no altos and no basses. This is important because it makes bar 47 more dramatic, and louder, when we're all together at medium loud. We kept going, with One More Angel in Heaven, where we had a little issue in the bass clef with timing at bar 96/97. "Well now that's--not quite true" is 1-2-3-4-1-2- 3 and-a-1. You'll get it if you start on beat 4, stress that's and keep it short to observe that rest. Not quite is the second two notes of a half-note triplet. So, the rest is the first part of a half-note triplet, which is not quite a full beat. Sopranos, try to come in on beat one on page 14. It's a page turn, so maybe you need to write it in on the bottom of page 13? It's your second aah phrase. 123a41. Song of the King is fun, except the basses have very little to do for the first 3 pages. There's the solo, which is Colby (and we'll need a back-up, so it's not horrible that you've been singing it), and the sopranos, altos, and tenors sing the bop-shu-wah parts. Basses only come in at bar150 with "hum-uh-hum-uh-hum-uh-hum-uh" I want to hear all the basses there except Colby.
We talked about:
The Choir!Choir!Choir! concert (excellent-highly recommended) and what I learned about my own conducting and talking and chorister sitting and standing. I don't think I'll use their "try harder" strategy.
Bloomington Cove Seniors: we can't sing there in the evening, so we'll try to do an afternoon, a Tuesday in May around 2/3:00 so we can go home and have dinner before our evening seniors' performance. A show of hands looked promising. We need at least one person from each part, 2 or 3 sopranos, so even 10 people would work well. We would sing a half hour of our music and a half hour of sing-alongs. Jane is working on the schedule for May and June, and it will be up soon. I've already set up a peformance order on the website. Log in and click on Members to find "Seniors' Performance Orders" in the left menu. The order can change depending on who is there, what parts we have and how I'm feeling ;-)
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| Log in, click on Members Next week, Tuesday, March 19 6:30 Anthem
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