I found the old post on our arrangement of We Rise Again with my notes on who sings what that I was talking about. Click on that link, if you like, but I'll redo it here and now.
Our version starts with a solo, which Marlene has agreed to sing for us. I'm looking for a back-up for that solo and for help with the First Soprano part. (Sop1 is a challenging descant part. Preview it if you can).
The Second Sopranos and the Tenors move a bit, from their usual lines- down to the Alto line for the Second Sopranos and down to the Bass line for the Tenors. Make notes and draw arrows or lines where you move down and back up.
I have assigned letter names to the sections of the song so we can refer to them easily.
Section A: The beginning up to bar 13 is section A. Solo (Marlene) alone
Section B: bars 13-19: Solo on the top line, the solo line. Everyone else sings mm, oo, ah, SATB in the choir bracket, as usual, except Tenors move to sing the top part of the Bass line at bar 16 (nobody will sing the tenor line there-it's boring and useless) and Basses are on the bottom. (Bass is the bottom throughout- easy, also Altos are in their usual home throughout- easy.)
Section C: bars 19-27: No solo. Soloist moves down to the Soprano line with the First Sopranos. This is a descant part. Second Sopranos move down to the Alto line to sing the melody with the Altos. This is a very high Alto part, so I'm not taking away the Alto's special moment, I'm giving them a hand. Tenor and Bass each in your own line. Watch out for bar 22 beat 2 (come in nice and strong before the melody) and we moved the Basses beat 2 of bar 25 to beat 3, so you're together with the Tenors on the word ocean for a strong beat 3. Let the Tenors and Basses shine in this section, and let the melody of the chorus be softest (all sopranos and altos soft). (like Hallelujah, we want to hold back with the melody of the chorus for extra drama, but here we also have the extra drama of the T&B parts)
Section D: bars 28-39: Like Section B, the solo, plus choir oohs (and ahs!) SATB, as usual. The oos change to ahs after "we look to" in bar 33: at the pick-up to 34 for SAT on beat 3 or 4, and in bar 34 for Bass. (so, it's: oooo we look to aaahh)
Section E: bars 39-43: No solo. Like Section C, Soprano 1 is on the Soprano line, Soprano 2 and Alto sing the Alto line. Bass divides here, so Tenor takes the top and Bass the bottom. Nobody sings the tenor line in section E. (I've got pencil scratches completely obliterating the tenor line- I don't like reading the Tenor clef)
Section F: bars 43-51: No solo. This is where Alto, Tenor and Bass have melody! Everyone is in unison, except First Soprano. So, the Tenor line can be scratched out again. Bass clef is easier to read, right?
Section G: bars 51- end. No solo. Almost exactly like Section F, but higher and louder. Scratch out that Tenor clef line again. There are a couple special Tenor bits but we're not using them. First Sopranos have a special bit in bar 58 (watch-it's lower than you expect), and then there's the ending. Bars 62-65: Second Sopranos move up to the Soprano line where they're supposed to be, the lower part there. Altos are alone on the Alto line, Tenors sing the top of the Bass Line, and Bass sings the bottom of the Bass line. Nobody on the tenor line.
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