NOTES for Week of October 27, 2025

Friends,

We're making good progress and we need to keep it up. Pitches and rhythms should be known. Words should be solid. Our focus should be singing with attention to tone, intonation, blend, balance, and expressiveness of the text and music.

The Angel's Message

• This needs to sound effortless and we're still not there. Drill the Latin diction independent of your pitches until you can do so without feeling like you're reading something aloud for the first time. 
• Overall, sing it lighter--with energy and without force.
• It should always have lilting quality. Make it sound playful joyful.

Jubilate Deo

• It's coming. Work through measures where you have particularly challenging pitches and rhythms.
• As you get more confident, begin expressing the text, moving into strong syllables and away from weak syllables.
• Move lightly and energetically through 1/8th-notes and make half-notes (and longer) more legato.

Frostbound

• ALTOS and TENORS, the first note must be accurately approached, no scooping.
• BASSES make your entrance clean, as well.
• SOPRANOS, sing the opening measures with a warm, fuller tone. 
• Please work on knowing this enough to look up at each phrase-end breath, and at the beginning of each new phrase.  
• The poetry speaks in 1st Person: offering help, comfort, human warmth and encouragement to a loved one in the cold, gray, empty, grieving periods of life. Sing with compassion and with great warmth.

Nutcracker Medley

• BASSES, practice your descending da-va-da-va-da's in mm. 8, 12, 16-19 so they are accurate and in tune. I want them to sound robust, but they have to be accurate, first.
• TENORS and BASSES, make the fanfares (mm. 21-24, etc) strong and sparkly.
• BASSES practice the scales in mm. 25-27 and 33-36 for accuracy, intonation, and even tempo.
• Practice starting the last movement at a brisk tempo and then practice speeding up at the end. 
• MEMORIZE

Witness

• Don't oversing. Sing with energy and fullness, but don't get too brassy or too loud until the end, and even then with power rather than force.
• WOMEN sing your parts with a round mature tone rather than too pop-sounding.
• Final chord = Consonant L should be ff, and the -ord should be pp with a crescendo at my direction.

FOR Tuesday, October 29, 2025

• Gloria (all movements)
• Iesous ahatonnia'
• 30-Second Merry Christmas - memorized

NOTES for Week of October 5, 2025

Dear Friends,

 We're about halfway to our concert weekend. There is still much to do. 

1. Remember that Bel Canto Boot Camp is coming up in two weeks (Saturday, October 18 from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.) Again, it will be at the Rancho de Calistoga Community Club House (2412 Foothill Boulevard, Calistoga). Please plan to bring plenty of water and a sack lunch.
2. Tickets are selling and the 3:00 performance at Mont La Salle is almost sold out. Encourage your family and friends to get tickets for the 6:30 performance as it will be lovely there in the evening.

The Angel's Message

• Many of you are still stumbling over the words. Yes, there is a lot of Latin diction and even if you're familiar with Latin, the complexity of these words and rhythms are slowing you down. Please review the words alone, in rhythm, and then practice the phrasing repeatedly with the pitches. It needs to sounds lilting and graceful.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

• Rehearse using a round, warm, energized tone. This song is all about tone.

Gloria

• Continuing reviewing the sections we've worked through: #'s 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8. We'll go through #11 this Tuesday. 
• There is a pronunciation guide now available on the resources site. 

Iesous ahatonnia'

• Chuck has added a new pronunciation guide to the resources site. It is is clearer and more accurate than mine. The principal differences are in the treatment of the consonants and the nasalized vowels. Please spend some time practicing the words with this guide so that you become more proficient.

Nutcracket Medley

• This is coming along. Please review your parts and work on getting it up to tempo. 
• Contrary to what I said in rehearsal, we will not pause significantly between sections, but instead move seamlessly from one to the next, so...
• Memorize as you practice.

For Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Jubilate Deo: 

• Now that each choir has had a chance to review their respective parts together, we will begin putting it together. 
• Rehearse your part from beginning to page 11, measure 42.

Vivaldi Gloria:

• Rehearse Movement #11 Cum Sancto Spiritu
• Also Movements #6 and 8

Season of Light

African Noel