Dear Friends,
We've been having some good, productive rehearsals. Keep up the work learning your parts so that our times together can be focused on blend, balance, and musical expressiveness.
SINGING TECHNIQUE: Continuing my discussion on tone production. I want you to try a technique this week in your warm-ups and practice. Using a straw, practicing humming scales as well as your parts while holding it with your lips. This is particularly helpful as you transition between registers or sing in higher voice. If done properly, it helps equalize the pressure in your /throat and larynx and relaxs the phonation process in your throat. This can even be done while humming in the car. As our voices become more mature, the vocal folds start thinning and don't function at their peak level. Using a straw focuses on better adduction of the vocal folds and better equalization of pressure on them.
MARKETING: Please help distribute the posters for the concert. You might take a silver Sharpie and neatly write Sold Out over the Sunday date. Also, jotting a personal note and mailing the cards the cards to friends will help fill up and hopefully sell out the Friday evening performance.
Magnificat
- Focus your attention on the correct pitches and intervals so the clusters are clean and accurate.
- Also, remember to sing with a full, resonant, but not forced tone. It should be exciting, but not strident in sound.
- Work on dynamic contrasts and expressiveness.
- The harmonies are coming and you are beginning to sing phrases with expression.
- Note in mm. 15-28 and 34-41, there are dramatic dynamic changes both louder and softer. Please observe with care.
- SING THE WORDS.
- Men continue to work through the sections in mm. 30-41. They need to be strong, independent, and unified.
- Basses tune up the Shalom's.
- Finish memorizing pp. 3-8.
- Sopranos we have agreed that the F-flat in m. 41 will be altered to F-natural.
- Keep in mind that this has a slow, sustained waltz feel in 3/4 time. It will make it easier to feel the rhythm.
- Whenever singing the lyrics, make sure you blend the harmonies with the other sections. They sound a bit disjointed.
- Make sure to recognize and sing the various articulations based on the notation in the fum, fum, fum responses: a) if 1/4 notes (ex. mm. 11-12), make them full value stretching the vowel; b) if 1/8th notes follow by an 1/8 rest (ex. mm. 46-47 woman) make very detached; c) if articulating the parts in mm. 47-48 and following men, make them slightly detached.
- Overall, the piece should have a light, stylized, dancelike, detachment feel throughout.
- Make sure to sing each phrase with a gentle pressure (see above about using a straw) observing the dynamic shifts.
- Sing Cah' - ree - tah-s. NO American r's - ever.
- Keep the syncopated words accurate (no rushing or delaying) WATCH ME!
- Weary should always be light with a slight stretch - tenuto, not accented.
- Back-up sections STB, cut off precisely on beat 4 in mm. 11, 21. Count, you may not be cued.
- Carry the vowel and sing the n of lan' in m. 30 to the downbeat of m. 31 and then quickly breathe to begin the next phrase in syncopation.
- Brian Shaw, the piano accompanist will be at rehearsal. We will be singing through all the accompanied works. Make sure you really know them. This will be an opportunity to work on polishing them.
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