What a delightful morning and afternoon you gave me on Saturday! Thank you for choosing to be with your singing friends and Brahms, even on such a beautiful day. As we continue our work on this incredible piece, we must continue to challenge ourselves to practice between our gatherings as a group. We will talk more about our collective learning process on Wednesday night when we reassemble, but in the meantime, I wanted to be sure you know what we have recently prepared and what we will be tacking soon so that you can make the most valuable use of your practice time. Remember, the recording is available for streaming above and to the left.
I DON'T encourage you to practice because:
1. You are not good enough.
2. I think you have nothing better to do.
3. I want to look good when we do the concert.
4. I love to be demanding.
I DO encourage you to practice because:
1. Great musicians practice. You are great musicians, and we all have the capacity to grow.
2. The twenty minutes you spend on your own with Brahms will make the two hours you spend with all of us on Brahms that much more valuable.
3. When we all prepare fully, I can be more helpful in making us sound our best as a singing community.
4. We are only able to do this together.
On Saturday, we covered:
1. first movement, p. 1-6 particularly...take special care with p. 1-2-- try to memorize this opening, a cappella section. Markings for this movement were handed out on Saturday, and you should put them in your scores.
2. second movement, p. 15-25. You should have markings copied into your score for this from the original packet.
3. sixth movement p. 71-87. Please get markings from a friend in your section.
4. sixth movement p. 59-65 Again, please get markings from a friend in your section
This Wednesday, we will continue with:
1. first movement-- all (Be sure you have all the markings from the packet copied in)
2. sixth movement- complete (be sure to have all markings from your choir neighbors if you missed Saturday)
3. second movement-- we will review a few sections between pages 15-25
Talk to you later...I have to go practice! : )
TT
