NOTES for Week of October 31, 2022

Dear Friends,

We're counting down the weeks and the rehearsals. We have 5 rehearsals left which includes our dress rehearsal. At this point we need to be focused on singing with the utmost beauty of tone, expressiveness, and musicality.

A few things that will help you prepare:

1. Practice with your recordings for tempo and sense of how you fit into the whole. Always sing musically, listening to the dynamics and tempi of the ensembles.
2. Work on memorization of the specific piece and true knowledge of everything else, which means you are looking up most of the time.
3. If there are sections that cause you pause, really drill them so that they are second nature.
4. Mark anything in your music that will remind you to sing expressively and beautifully.

Continue to spread the word. This is going to be an exciting concert. People need some beauty and joy in their lives. And what better way to receive it than to be part of a thrilled live performance.

FOR TUESDAY

Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day

• Get it up to tempo. It should feel brisk (though unhurried) and dancelike. You need to feel it to sing it. 
• Sing the doo's with a lilt and a joyful freedom. No questions on notes or rhythms as this point.

Enfold Us

• You need to have a sense of the flow and phrasing. Practice with the recording. Your part alone may not give you enough of the musical information to feel the forward movement.
• It should sound like a prayer...a prayer full of awe and wonder. 
• Listen and sing the transposition on page 6 and mm. 29-31 so it doesn't surprise you.

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind

• Make the wind sections (ah's) starting on p. 6, mm. 67 to 95 sound free and effortless, and watch your dynamics. Gregory will you please accompany on this.

Bethlehemu

• Memorized to bottom of p. 6. 
• Watch the performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9gXWuqZcNw

• Practice swaying while singing the instrumental section starting m. 18 and on. Shift weight to the right foot and turn your body a 1/4 turn while looking forward then repeat to the left.

Pat-a-pan

• Keep dynamics on the soft side.
• Continue to emphasize the percussiveness of the pat-a-pan figures
• Sing with the recording and watch the 3/2 measures for accuracy and tempo

Magnificat

• I'd like to go through this a couple of times with the keyboard accompaniment (Gregory) so that you can get used to it being conducted and make the transitions between sections whether or not there are tempo changes.
• Sing along with the recording to get a sense of the mood changes.

The Work of Christmas

• We'll sing through this a couple of times (MEMORIZED)

Have a productive weekend and I'll look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.

T.