Week of September 29, 2026

Hello friends,

Thank you for continuing to work on your music during the week. It helps us put things together in rehearsals. We're coming up on our 1st Book Camp and I would like to really heighten the ensemble work of blend, balance, and unified expressiveness when we're together then.

In regard to expressiveness, please don't wait for me to instruct it or conduct it. It's written in your music. Highlight and sing dynamic shifts, slurs, and articulation. Express the words. That's why we sing.

REMEMBER to keep energy in your singing so the intonation doesn't suffer, particularly in descending lines/intervals and arriving at cadences. We were having some issues in rehearsal. 

Silent Night

• Keep the energy going through the long, extended lines. 
• Don't be afraid to exaggerate the dynamic changes. 
• Listen to the harmonies and make your part fit the chord, not as an independent line.
• Soprano II, please sing the alto line in mm. 91-96.

Wonder Tidings (Three Nativity Carols)

• Clean up the rather angular melodic lines.
• Keep diction (articulation) clean, particularly when you have 16th-notes.
• Trebles make sure to make the 16th-note pick-ups in mm. 24 and 26 clean and sharp.
• Practice the fp in m. 76, and mark mp at the end of the measure and mf in m. 77.

Awake, Arise!

• Both CHOIRS start with an intense piano. CHOIR I, really observe the rising and falling of the dynamics through page 5.
• In mm. 43 and on, make syncopation accurate, but not accented.
• CHOIR I please listen to the audio clip that Chuck as put on the Resources Site with the rhythm in mm. 87-98. Practice it with the words in your score until you're confident of your rhythmic accuracy.
• EVERYONE practice your parts on pp. 28-32 to make 100% sure of your pitches in those very crunchy chords.

A Choral Christmas Overture

• Review this for varying harmonies and counter melodies.
• Sing it like a choir, not a congregation.

For TUESDAY, October 6, 2026

Patapan

Nino Dios

The Darkest Midnight in December

The Everlasting Flame

Ngothando