Dear Friends,
We had a good and productive rehearsal this last Tuesday. I was hearing some really lovely singing. Keep up the good work!
A few housekeeping items.
- Like we did for our holiday concert, please get out there and really encourage your friends, family, and acquaintances to purchase tickets. Although it's customary to have a lull in attendance for the spring concert, I think this is a concert people will really enjoy with the piano, cello, and percussion added. PLUS, it's a benefit concert to help out Napa Land Trust. Their webpage states: Celebrating 47 years of preservation in Napa. All these trees, woodlands, birds, and mosquitoes we're singing about (well, maybe not mosquitoes) are being helped through the NLT. Chuck will be setting up the online ticket sales this weekend.
- Start thinking about sending out handwritten invitation poster cards. When Hunter is able to get posters and poster cards printed, we can begin getting those out into the community.
From last Tuesday's rehearsal:
The Bird's Lullaby
- Make sure the rhythm in the syncopated sections (pp. 5-7) are precise.
- Sopranos and Tenors really make sure that your solo sections are rhythmically clean, in tune, and enunciated. They need to sound smooth and effortless.
- These pieces (along with Woodpecker) are meant to be vocally evocative of nature. Trees is reminiscent of the rhythm of wind in the branches of trees. The 1st 14 measures are pianissimo. The words need to be a unified tone and timbre sung on the breath.
- Mosquitoes is to be playful. Practice the staccato section (pp. 41 43) with initial b on bz. However, I'm much more interested in the pitch accuracy and vocal flexibility than each note sounding a distinct b, particularly when the pitches are high.
- Slowly, practice the portamento/glissandos on pp. 44 - 46, so that we hear a real slide to the pitches.
Away in the Woods
- Practice going through the key changes so you really hear where you've been and where you're going (ex. mm. 26-27, 48-49)
- Express the words, i.e., make love, death, fragrant sound meaningful.
- WOMEN: As you're learning and memorizing, practice the difference between the even entrance after an 8th-rest and the syncopation after a 16th-rest (starting mm. 70).
- TENORS practice your solo entrances starting at m. 91 and following. Make them clean, clear, and rhythmically accurate.
- I want to sing this with spirit, but don't over sing.
Woodpecker
Brahms
The Willow Song
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