It was so good! We had a couple new members and discovered a couple of new soloists among us. We had fun visualizing the way we want to sound when we're singing loudly and confidently but sweetly. Also, the opposite. When we're singing sweet words loudly and confidently, it can sound creepy-agressive.
6:30 the small group singing Night of Stars made huge progress. We slowed the tempo down to feel the strong and slow rhythm of the oars of a gondola in Venice. By the end, it was sounding sweet and maybe a little coquettish and maybe a little wistful. We were sure to stress and enunciate clearly the words that are loaded with meaning: Night of Stars, gently, love, floating, light, sing, etc. Watch for the pronunciation of cadenced: kay-dinst, meaning rhythmical, so the cadenced oar is rowing with a musical rhythm. We changed the dynamics to add a few crescendos before the important melodies: Page 5, last bar of the second system (sopranos get louder singing ah over the altos getting louder over Till the dawn and then Night of stars is loud, not soft; and, top of page 6 on the word shore which is marked as a sforzando diminuendo (we want a sforzando crescendo to the soprano run "Night of stars and of love" because those are the most important words and the altos repeat them right after.) Strong, please, so we're moving the forte up a few bars. This was fun!
1. All I Have to Do is Dream was our vocal warm-up, after a brief stretching and breathing exercise, and a vocal fry and some rollercoaster trills. We spent a little time on parts, going through the whole song on the baritone part and then the alto part. We talked about the same kind of challenge with Night of Stars, that the words are sweet and light but we need to sing strongly. So, we want soft sound but not soft volume. It was actually a very clear concept when the men needed to sing loudly and confidently the words "I can make you mine". We don't want that to sound creepy/threatening, so you need to play with your voice to sound wistful/dreamy instead. If you need to review your part, head over to the website and log in. The accompaniment and parts recordings are there.
2. Nella Fantasia is coming along really well. This is our most difficult piece this season, and you're doing great! The sopranos are becoming more comfortable with the Italian in the first verse and the Oos are getting better too. I'm thinking of changing them to ahs, though, because thy're maybe a little too soft. We reviewed the soprano part at the top of page 7, and all the parts at the top of page 9. If you feel a little lost or behind on this piece, you can find your part on the website to listen to. I have posted the other set of recordings, the ones with the words from Richard Heinzle. And now you'll see why I keep singing Nella Fantasia and pronounce it nella instead of nail-la. Please take advantage of this excellent resource.
3. Joseph Medly: Benjamin Calypso review and Go, Go, Go all the way to the end! We sang the whole medley from the beginning to the end! With Benjamin Calypso, we found our soloists, but we will need back-ups, so please consider letting me know you'd like to have a go at it. Winston gave it a shot and we were all so happy he did! We discovered that he's been blessed with a strong and beautiful voice. Carol sang the second solo wonderfully, but we were not surprised. We've known about Carol's superlative expressive, storytelling singing forever.
4. Rewrite the Stars: We discovered a super soloist on this too. Nadine gave the second solo a shot and nailed it! Winston tried the first and did a pretty good job too. We're getting closer with these. We'll try out different soloists still though, because both of these are super-hard and some folks will want a second shot, or want to try the other solo. There are still some timing issues all the way through, which is understandable; it's got unusual timing. Next time we sing this, we'll slow it down a bit. I maybe speed up on this because I love its energy; there's a drive, a push, that the timing gives it that I love.
5. The Power of the Dream: I just realized that the pdf on the website, which Peggy used to print the working copies, is the problem, is missing pages 2 and 3. I'll fix that. We took a quick look at the changes I've made to remove gender-specific language. On page 3, we'll sing "And since time began", on page 6, "Every one of you, as you come into this world, you bring the gift of hope and inspiration."And, on page 8, "There's so much strength in all of us. It's time that we began. It's the moment that you think you can't, you'll discover that you can. Feel the flame..."
Next week, Tuesday, March 12th
6:30 Anthem from Chess Small Group (all men, please)
- City of Stars
- Joseph Medly: review ending, and first two songs
- Nella Fantasia
- Power of the Dream
- Rewrite the Stars
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