Gathering to experience excellence in the performing arts.

Dear friends,

What a joyful evening!  Thank you all for your good spirit and your beautiful, expressive singing.  I hope you can sense what a mountaintop experience we will all have together on Friday night and over the weekend.  :)

Please take a moment to check out our new Abendmusik blog to read about another wonderful musician you will meet this weekend.  Thanks to Becky for creating this!  

http://abendmusiklincoln.blogspot.com/


Finally, a reminder that for the concert on Friday we will wear long sleeve, solid color top (bright colors are appreciated!) and black long bottoms.  No ties or coats, please.  No perfumes or colognes either.  Our gathering time Friday is 6:15.  The SING begins at 7:00.

See you tomorrow (Thursday) at 7:15 for more time with Alice Parker.  

Grace and peace,
TT

Abendmusik Midwinter Workshop

Greetings all ye frozen people!

The week feels so bleak without our Wednesday evening together, yet I'm glad we could all be home safe and snug on such a blustery night as yesterday. I look forward to our Plymouth Choir reunion on Sunday morning at 9:30 (we will sing the first verse of MY SOUL TRIUMPHANT and Rutter's BE THOU MY VISION), and then lunch together before our make-up rehearsal with our Abendmusik Chorus friends from 12:15-2:00 p.m.

Please remember that we soon gather for our Abendmusik Midwinter Music Workshop. Of the nearly 100 singers in Plymouth Choir and Abendmusik, we have only 14 registered for the workshops thus far. Registration deadlines is in just a week. Don't you want to join Cindy, Michele, Deanne, Karin, Shaun, Allan, Pat, Peggy, Ann, Doris, Phyllis, Jane, Jim, Enoch, Jeremy and me for an exciting and fun day? Remember, for anyone who expresses a need, we can offer a full scholarship to the event, which includes breakfast and lunch. The voice sessions with Lindsay Kesselman will be absolutely extraordinary-- she is truly a wonder! How exhilarating it will be to listen to the 70 voice children's choir in their afternoon performance! How fun it will be to experience Therees Hibbard's singing and movement session: "Let the Body Sing!" And, of course, you have more time to learn from and experience the legendary Alice Parker in Q and A as well as in a special morning session of melody study. And our own Paula Nicholls is preparing an array of delicious food for us all to enjoy.

I look forward to welcoming your registration soon. This is an important event in the evolution of our choir and the educational outreach of Abendmusik: Lincoln.


Grace and peace,
TT

Singing in the New Year 12.28.2010

Dear friends,

Thank you all once again for a truly beautiful Christmas at First-Plymouth.  I am so thankful to have been here among you to share in the gorgeous worship that was offered to our newborn king.  What a celebration!

Here is a (slightly) updated calendar for our coming semester, and I hope you will do your best to take part in as much of what's coming up for us as possible.  There are many great opportunities this semester-- a visit with the legendary Alice Parker during our Abendmusik-sponsored workshop weekend (including voice class with one of my favorite singers and people in the whole wide world-- Lindsay Kesselman), a performance of the powerful Mozart Requiem and the Nebraska premiere of Ruth Watson Henderson's From Darkness to Lightwith the Doane Choir and orchestra , our extraordinarily glorious Easter, a performance of the awesomeLaudes organi by Kodaly, and on and on and on.  What a joy it will be!

Enjoy your free Wednesday night this week, and use it to get your calendars marked and your spirit recharged for this next leg of our journey.  What a blessing it is to walk with you all in this new year and, with God's grace, for a long time to come.

Grace and peace,
TT

Dawning of another day! 12.21.2010

Dear friends,

Thank you for helping Christmas happen early this year for me and for so many people from our community.  Your engaging, heartfelt singing and sharing helped us all unite around a most compelling and inspiring message.  Your remarkable performance did not happen by accident.  It happened because of the investment that each of you made in the process that enabled us to come together in a healthy and whole way.  Thank you for offering the gift of your body, mind, spirit, and voice to our holy work-- particularly during this busy time of the year.  I want to apologize to two of our tenors whose names I somehow managed to leave out of the program.  Kyle Manley and Mike Prokop-- we are so grateful that you joined us this season, and I hope you will come again in the new year.  (Thank you both for offering me grace for this unfortunate oversight.  As every choir director knows, neglect of tenors is the absolute worst possible error!  ;) )    Notes and cards and e-mails continue to come celebrating what you did on Sunday.  My heart continues to sing as well.  

All are welcome to sing with us for the 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. Christmas Eve worship services of Lessons and Carols here at First-Plymouth.  Rehearsal is this Wednesday, beginning at 7:00 p.m. (please note the time!).  This rehearsal will include a complete run through of the service in the sanctuary so that the TV broadcast can be timed and rehearsed effectively.  Call time on Christmas Eve will be (robed and ready) at 6:15 p.m. in the Choir Room.  We will have a beautiful evening together (and, by the way, my mom and dad will be here, so we have to sing really well!).  Soup will be served between services.  If you are in Abendmusik Chorus and would like to join for Christmas Eve, please send me a quick e-mail so I can prepare a spot for you.  If you are in Plymouth Choir, please let us know if you will NOT be here, if you have not already communicated that.    

Grace and peace, and many thanks for all you do to make it feel like Christmas in Lincoln and at First-Plymouth.
TT

An Abendmusik Christmas Greeting 12.16.2010

Dear family and friends,

Our 2009 Abendmusik: Lincoln Christmas Concert, Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room, will be broadcast on NET Radio 91.1-- available to stream online at http://netnebraska.org/radio/  -- this Sunday, December 19 at 1:00 p.m. (central time zone) and again on Christmas Day at 11:00 a.m. (central time zone)  The program includes beloved carols as well as beautiful choral, brass, and organ music for the season offered by the Abendmusik Chorus, the Plymouth Brass, and the Plymouth Ringers -- all recorded together with 600 plus carol-singers and the majestic Lied Organ in the sanctuary of First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska.

To hear this year's program, Dawn of Redeeming Grace, join us in person this Sunday, December 19 at 4:00 p.m.  Tickets are available online at www.abendmusik.org or by calling our office, 402.476.9933.  To learn more about this program, please listen to my colleague Jeremy Bankson and me on the LIVE AT THE MILL broadcast tomorrow morning (Friday, December 17) during the 9:00 hour on NET Radio 91.1 orhttp://netnebraska.org/radio/

Grace and peace, and blessings to you all in this holiday season and in the new year coming!
TT

Rounding third and heading for home! 12.18.2010

Dear friends,

Thanks once again for the extra time and energy you are pouring into your commitment to the choir this week.  We will have a radiant celebration tomorrow-- to be sure!  Last night's rehearsal brought us miraculously closer towards our desired sound.  Simply by rehearsing the music, we are becoming more familiar with the text, the meaning, and message so that we will be in a better space to communicate through and connect with our singing tomorrow.  

Three overall thoughts:
1.  Remember that keeping your body free and loose, and in gentle motion will enable you to more successfully engage in rhythm and phrasing as an individual singer and, even more, as an ensemble.  To sing something like WE THREE KINGS or MARY BOYCHILD, or the last section of O DAY FULL OF GRACE, or p. 9 of LIGHT OF A CLEAR BLUE or really almost any song ever with the immovable posture of a statue is counterproductive.  Music is movement.  Singing is movement.  If we remember the montre: body, mind, spirit, voice and the essential truth of its order, then if the body is not moving, the mind is not moving, the spirit is not moving, and the voice is not moving!  Movement is the opposite of tension.  Flowing is the opposite of stiff.  Freedom is the opposite of rigidness.  

2.  We are singing a ton of music tomorrow.  I was thinking about the wonderful performance I heard the Doane Choir give on Sunday at their concert.  They sang 4 pieces.  They were extraordinarily beautiful.  Other choirs from Doane sang or played the rest of the program.  They practice 4 times a week all semester to get ready for those 4 pieces.  We have practice for about 4 weeks week usually once a week.  What you are doing is extraordinary!  It is possible because of all the time that you have invested outside of our rehearsals to do the part of the work that you can on your own so that the time we are together can be spent to become whole, united, and inspired to our message.  We have entrusted you with a lot of opportunity and responsibility, and we will have much to celebrate on Sunday!   

3.  Allow yourselves some physical and vocal rest today.  Tons of it!  However, promise to spend at least a few minutes mentally engaged in your scores, perhaps focused on the following concepts:


Some specifics (in program order. though skipping several):

1.  Creator of the Stars of Night-- softest, sweetest, warmest, most beautiful still works when we process.  YAY!  : )   Based on your excellent suggestion, I will cue the beginning of the second and third stanza from up near the front of the chancel-- this will help us feel more connected between verses.  We will practice this tomorrow before the concert.

2.  Lost in the Night-- read the words sometime today.  Be the most expressive singer you can be.  

3. Light of a Clear Blue Morning-- Altos and Tenors-- please look over the last page of this piece-- tenors: Remember the page starts with a G# rather than a G natural. Altos and Tenors-- please check the inteveral between "morning" and "blue" in the last line of the piece.  Altos and tenors: the last three notes of "blue' in the last measure are all a half step from one another.  We will work on this tomorrow, but practice on your own producing these in beautiful, spacious, soaring tune and tone.

4.  O Day Full of Grace-- basses and tenors, Jeremy will play your pitches on the organ before we begin.  It is best for us to be totally confident so that we can settle into the sonority rather than be worried about where to plant our feet.  How joyful can we be in the last verse, p 10-- think champagne, bubbles, effervescence, splashing cool water in your face.  Do not think steak dinner, potatoes.  This piece can paint so descriptively each and every image of the text-- if we focus on the meaning and inspire the breath and space that it takes to make our imagination sound!  : )  As varied as the color and text, the whole must be HOLY-- reverent, grounded, awe-filled.

5. In Terra Pax-  GLAWree!  : )    and on earth peace


6.  Lux aurumque-- think about angel wings. Think about the most gorgeously fragrant incense.  Think about translucent glass.  That should be the mysterious, mystic, illusive colour of the sound.  How holy can this sound?   Basses-- please take the time to review your pitches from measure 18-19 (from low F# to higher A-- note you can hear that A in the soprano in ms. 18) and at the bottom of p. 5 in your descending intervals. 


7.  Mary Boychild-- how much fun can you allow yourself to have?  Choices: none.  a little.  mediocre.  fair.  THE MOST EVER!
Christmas is a totally awesome, amazing, fun event, right?  Love that baby!  Move those hips!  Let that body sing!  Picture Jesse Norman or your favorite opera singer having the absolute most fun musical time an opera singer could have while being an evangelist at Christmas on a cruise ship!  FUN!  How much fun can you allow yourself to have?  If you are shy: sing as if no one were watching!   If you live for the limelight: Sing as if EVERYONE is watching!

8.  This Christmastide- Two questions: 1.  Where do you choose to buy your vowels-- Super Saver or Tiffany?   2.   Who has the melody now?  If the answer is "not me" then I should be listening more to find out!  : )

9.  We Three Kings-- we can begin the joyful, robust procession immediately after Maribel takes off down the center aisle, and we should be sure our faces are beaming, our eyes are as bright as the stars, and our consonants and energy radiate through the whole wide world!  

10.  O Morning Star-- please draw an arrow up (higher, not louder) next to each F sharp and C-sharp you have in your part.  Continually work toward tuning those.  Underline the consonants throughout that you particularly need to communicate-- for example, SHine BRight, etc.  Also, take a look where the crescendos and diminuendos are printed, and be certain to draw a picture to help notice them.  It is starting to have a lot of textual exctiment and sparkle.   Why not make it sparkle and shine more brightly (that does not mean louder!)!   The Amen's are GLORIOUS!  : )

11. Joy to the World-- if you sing this more with your body, mind and spirit than your voice, you will have it just right!  : )

12.  This little light of mine-- let's sing the first section under Jay's beautiful solo as 'nnnn' instead of 'oooo.'  We do this not only for balance, but also to enable us to have a more resonant sound to try to help us stay more engaged with the tonality and pitch center.  Sopranos and tenors, it may be easier to sing 'ng' as you move upwards in your range, and that is totally fine.  This all also ties in sonically with the nnnnn sounds we make on SHinnnnnnnnne at the end of the piece.  Always picture the nnnns coming from your forehead, or behind the eyes with tons of space above and in front-- similar to a unicorn's horn.  The humming consonants are beautiful when we let them have ring instead of swallow them in our throat.  How intimate and personal can your singing be in this piece-- both in the introverted and extroverted sections.

13.  O Come all ye Faithful-- the simple yet profound holiness that you find and share in verse 3 is exactly what we hope to hear in most every other piece we ever sing.  This is beautiful.  : )



Grace and peace, and many thanks for caring so deeply about what we do together and with whom we share it!  Dawn is on the horizon.  Let's let the sun come up and bathe us is grace.

TT

Our rehearsal plans ahead - 12.17.2010

Dear friends,

For those of you who like to plan ahead and to be especially organized and prepared, I share our rehearsal schedule for tonight and this weekend.  We will generally go in program order tonight, though we will skip many of the pieces we have spent a lot of time on the last few days.  We will spend most time tonight on the pieces on which we collaborate with the Plymouth Brass and Plymouth Ringers to make most efficient use of our collective resources!  : )  We begin rehearsal, oddly, though, with the second half of the program.  That is because our narrator, Suzanne, is not able to arrive by 7:30, and we want to be sure we have a chance to practice some of the first-half segues with her later in the evening.  


Tonight:

7:15 warm-up in choir room (including stanza 1 and p. 15 of O Day Full of Grace)
7:35 Begin second half of program:  We Three Kings procession 
7:50 Mendelssohn recit and trio (soloists only)
7:55 O Morning Star
8:00 O Glorious Light/ Joy to the World
8:10 This Little Light 
8:20 O Come All Ye Faithful
8:30 break
8:40 Begin first half of program:  opening procession: Creator of the Stars 
8:47.5 segue into Light of a Clear Blue/ O Day Full of Grace
8:55 Come Thou Redeemer
9:05 Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light
9:15 segue into In terra pax
9:25 segue into Lux aurumque
9:30 segue into Mary Boychild 


Sunday morning: (all Abendmusik Chorus singers are invited and encouraged to join us!)

9:45 warm-up in choir room
9:55  O Little Town of Bethlehem (with harp and organ-- vs. 3 for prayer through music)
10:00 This Christmastide (with harp and organ)
10:15 back to choir room: Hark the Herald Angels Sing


Sunday afternoon: (please remember we will wear solid bright color, longsleeve top, and long black bottoms, no intensive smells)

2:45 warm-up in choir room
3:00 move to sanctuary, practicing processional, make sure everyone has a seat and space to stand in loft
3:05 O little Town of Bethlehem then This Christmastide (excerpt) with harp
3:15 In Terra Pax with organ
3:20 return to choir room: final break, so please make all necessary personal adjustments
3:30 O Morning Star
3:35 Lux
3:40 Mary Boychild
3:45 Light of a Clear/ O Day Full of Grace
3:50 Lost in the Night
3:55 prayer and silent break
4:00 move to sanctuary: DAWN OF REDEEMING GRACE



Thanks for all your are contributing to our exciting week!
TT

What the pipes want to do.... 12.17.2010

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for allowing us to have 3 Wednesday nights this week to prepare more fully for our DAWN OF REDEEMING GRACE on Sunday.  While tonight's rehearsal did not sweep us away as yesterday's did, we all remained calm and focused, and continued to do everything we could to grow and build.  I am inspired by your discipline and commitment to our choir, even in this very hectic and busy season.  By the time dinner on Sunday comes along, I hope that we will all feel that every second we have spent together (even the challenging ones) will have been totally worth it, and then some.

As much as the amazing acoustics of our sanctuary beautify our singing for the listeners, singing in the sanctuary of First-Plymouth (from the perspective of a singer in the choir) can be a challenge.  It is not possible to hear others-- even those very close by-- as well as one can in our wonderful choir room.   We will begin our rehearsals tomorrow and Sunday in the choir room to help us to establish our singing 'space' as a company of singers.  We have to trust, then, that once we get to the sanctuary we don't have to sing differently in terms of dynamic or production-- in other words, we don't have to sing softer or louder to hear or be heard.  We don't have to sing with less breath energy or space or more tone or less diction.  We keep spinning the tone, moving the air with a quiet confidence, intensifying at every dynamic change, making our vowels taller and taller, sharing the vowels and consonants with every other person in our row and section and zipe code(!), inviting our tone to be richer and warmer, improving our pitch continually.  Pitch in your section will never improve by singing louder or heavier (even on the absolute right pitch).  Pitch will always improve when one is aware of defying gravity on descending lines, continually improving pitch on repeated notes, and uniting in cadences-- settling at a spinning, soft, sweet, warm, beautiful note.  

I once was visiting a church which was doing a major renovation to its organ.  There were pieces and parts all over the place, and just a few of the stops were playing from the console.  One of the organ builders brought a flue pipe up to me and blew on it and said, "I'm still trying to figure out what this pipe wants to do."   That was a very profound statement to me, and it resonates with me on a musical and spiritual level.  He wasn't trying to make the pipe sound the way he wanted it to.  He was trying to figure out what the pipe organically, uniquely, was called to be.  He believed that there was a most amazingly beautiful quality to the pipe he had in his hand, and it was up to him to figure how to get whatever obstructions or distractions or disguises were in the way for it to sound its best.  That's how I think about choir voices too.  Some conductors work hard to take all the colour and uniqueness out of the singers to create unity of sound.  What this does is minimize everyone's voice.  It can work-- sometimes well, at least in particular repertoire.  My idea is that in a choir like ours, the key really is that our 'smaller voices' will sing freely, richly, and warmly to meet the 'bigger voices' so that no one has to shout, no one has to whisper, and no one has to have any tension from being true to the best their instrument can sound.  Everyone gathers then in creating a voluptuos, colorful, unified tone that has many rich waves of beauty inside of it.  Everyone shares in the wholeness of the sound.  Tonight, at one point, I encouraged the middle of the men's section to sing more fully in a unison line of LOST IN THE NIGHT.  It made a huge difference as it gave some of the "smaller" voices some freedom to share their sound, and it also encouraged some of the bigger voices to be more actively aware of the whole  (because they had something richer, warmer, and more beautiful to hear and become a part of!).  WOW!  It is all very magical the way choral sound happens.  Think about it, If EVERYONE honestly sings mf when the composer suggests mf, there will be no big voices, and no small voices.  There will just be beautiful, rich, warm, mf voices.  We all matter!  It takes all of us to make it whole!   It takes all of us being open to the idea that there is a way our pipes should sound, and be open to creating a space inside and around our voice to enable it.  We can't push or project a good sound ever.  We can only invite and enable it by living richly in our space and making anything we contribute our most beautiful possible offering.


Words and images that will help us find what our pipes want to do-- softer, sweeter, warmer, more beautiful, breath, space, openness, wholeness, unity, rich, flowing, spinning, soaring, sighing, sharing, living in the sound, breathing together, creating a space for the spirit, trust, radiate, bodies free, freedom, sparkle, passionate, communicative, gathering in the sound. release, inflate, allow the air in, opera vowels, cleansing breath, listening, chocolate

Words and images that will hold us back-- push, force, louder, aggressive, holding back, tension, shallow, spread, Kmart, dudley-do-right, quick breath, minimize, tight, stiff


What happened Wednesday was we experienced in abundance what our choir as a collective set of beautiful, unique pipes wants to do.  We were free.  We trusted one another.  We found our space.  We stayed within the sound and lived inside the sonorities.  It was magical and inspiring!  If we got in trouble, we tried to fix it-- not by being louder and more "right"-- but by being softer, sweeter, warmer, and more aware of how beautiful it could be if we all did it together.  

I treasure this opportunity to take such a journey with you-- not only through learning a set of wonderful pieces for a program, but through the evolutional process of finding our voice as a choir.  Everytime we are together, we grow...sometimes it's just harder to hear it.  We are always assured that God is with us on our journey, helping us each and all find out what our pipes want to do.  Let's make every sound we make tomorrow more beautiful than the one before!  

Grace and peace,  
TT  

Being Light - 12.15.2010

Dear friends,

As a church musician, it is not rare to attend a funeral for someone whom you do not know.  Typically, though, I do not sit in the balcony among a congregation full of people I know and love.  I was amazed today by the sanctuary that Kathryn Campbell, Jack Rinke, Zuri, Evan Rail, Karin VanDeun, and John Heineman created for the family and friends of Rick Buss who were gathered.  From my seat in the balcony, Zuri could have sung "Three Blind Mice" and John could have read a Dr. Seuss book and Jack could have played "Chopstix,"
and I still would have received an amazing gift of hope and peace from just their being there, from their spirit shining through their presence alone, from the sincerity of their sharing themselves.   When I say to you sometimes, "Be the vowel.   Be the sound.  Live in the sound.  Let it get all over you." -- it is because of what we all experienced this morning from those whose very presence radiated a profound, transforming message.  Then, everyone else who was here to receive their gift was able to leave, feeling more fully alive.  WOW!  And, afterward, we could hug one another with an intensified sense of compassion and conviction, with magnified gratitude and grace that our time in the shadow helped to enlighten and inspire.  

While experience with death casts a heavy shadow on life, there can only be a shadow because there is a persistent light which is somehow being obstructed.   Many will come to this sanctuary on Sunday at 4:00 (as they do each and every week, by the way), more aware of the obstructions and shadows in the world than the light which seems too distant, too dim, too unapproachable.  We have an opportunity whenever we share music to be light-- not just to sing about it.  We have the opportunity to be the difference between day and night-- not just sing about it.  We have the opportunity to heal-- not just sing about it.  

Come be Christmas this week.  Come be light.  Come be together.  Come be love.  Come be loved.  Come.  Be.  

Grace and peace,
TT

Dawn of Redeeming Grae - 12.13.2010

Dear friends,

Attached to this e-mail you will find a script for this weekend's program.   I hope you will take the time to read it not only so that you get a sense of the logistics that are suggested, but also so that you get a sense of the sweep of the story we tell in scripture, reflection, dance, and song.  While many of the pieces we are singing will each have spiritual meaning to some of you on their own, I  hope that you will find, as I do, that our music takes on a new dimension when we sense its place in communicating our journey.  As we share the story in Dawn of Redeeming Grace, we first are reminded that God is present both in the darkness and the light as we move from our seemingly hopeless night to experience the dawn of God's gracious, clear, blue morning.  Then we gather round the angelic holy light (lux) with Mary's boychild in that little town of Bethlehem.  Then we journey with those three kings (and, metaphorically, with centuries of others!), following that bright morning star.  We are still called to follow God's star and to be open to let its light shine in us-- even from the mountaintops-- to illuminate and radiate God's endless light in this world.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me and with one another.  You are all incredible gifts of light to my life.  Let it shine!

Grace and peace,
TT  

Dawning of Details - 12.7.2010

Dear friends,

We are quickly approaching the time of our Dawn of Redeeming Grace on December 19.  This e-mail offers many details for us all to ponder and process over these next few weeks, so please read it carefully.  


SCHEDULE:

Wednesday, December 8: tenor sectional from 6:35-7:05 p.m.; full rehearsal from 7:15-9:30 p.m.

Wednesday, December 15: rehearsal from 7:15-9:30 p.m.

Thursday, December 16: rehearsal from 7:15-9:30 p.m.

Friday, December 17: rehearsal with brass from 7:15-9:30 p.m.

Sunday, December 19: Concert at 4:00 p.m. (warm-up at 2:45 p.m.)

SMELL REQUIREMENTS:

Please remember for rehearsal and performance, that a fragrance-free environment is desired.  You should not smell particularly good or bad.  Shower and use deodorant, please.  But please do not use colognes, creams, lotions, perfumes, or other potential allergen-infused substances (shampoos, hairsprays, Miracle Grow, fertilizer, Renuzit roommate, Lysol, eau de toilet, etc.).  



CONCERT DRESS:

We will all wear long sleeve, solid bright color tops; black dress pants or long black skirts;  black dress shoes; fragrance-free, please; subtle jewelry acceptable

TICKETS:

Tickets for Abendmusik concerts make great Christmas gifts!  Please check out our website,www.abendmusik.org for possible 2011 programs to which you could gift a friend r family member.  All tickets can be purchased online or by calling 402.476.9933

As a special treat for our choir members, tickets for our upcoming DAWN OF REDEEMING GRACE which are purchased this Wednesday or next Wednesday will be available to choir members for Buy-one-get-one-free.  Please note this deal is available only in person and only between this Wednesday evening and the following Wednesday.  You can call Becky or Jeremy at 402.476.9933 with any questions.

PROGRAM ORDER:

For those of you who like to be organized, here is the order for our program.  If you do not have one of these pieces, please contact Becky immediately.  For example, many of you turned in THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, so you should come rescue your copy.

Creator of the Stars of Night (pink sheet)

Lost in the Night

Light of a Clear Blue Morning

O Day Full of Grace

Come, Thou Redeemer (White sheet)

O little town of Bethlehem

Break Forth (aka Holy Light)

In Terra Pax by Finzi

Lux aurumque

Mary's Little Boychild

This Christmastide

NOTE: (Hark the Herald Angels Sing will be passed out later...)

We Three kings (orange-ish sheet/ Go Tell it on the Mountain is on the other side)

O Morning Star

O Glorious Light

Joy to the World (Green sheet)

This Little Light of Mine

Go Tell it on the Mountain (orange-ish sheet/We Three Kings is on the other side)

NOTE: (O Come All Ye Faithful will be passed out later...)

PRACTICE SUGGESTIONS:

Some of you have asked me to make some recommendations for how best to use your practice time.  In addition to listening and singing along with the blog streaming recordings, www.firstplymouthchoir,blogspot.com  Here are some initial ideas:

1.  Creator of the Stars of night (pink sheet)- we will be processing as we sing this, so please do your best to memorize, or at least, to become VERY familiar with text and tune.

2.  Lost in the Night-  read the text carefully, underlining meaningful, important syllables that should receive emotional and vocal stress, and find consonants that require particular expressive enunciation.  Tenor 1s, remember that you sing

3.  Light of a Clear Blue Morning- For balance purposes, we will be redistributing the women's divisi on p. 9.  At measure 38, in the three-part women staff near the top ("light of a clear blue...", let's try the following voices:  Please take some time to remark your parts

top: 3rd row of soprano IIs (Jane, Sadie, Karin, Jennifer Brinkman, Kris)

middle: back row of soprano 2s (Meghan, Lisa, Laurel, Cindy, Autumn, Sara) plus Becky

bottom: 2nd row of soprano 2s  (Michelle, Pat, Lori, Shaun) plus Wyn, Susan, Christina, and Peggy

soprano staff ("morning light.."): all remaining sopranos

alto staff ("morning, morning...": all remaining altos

4.  O Day Full of Grace-- remember that we skip from ms. 30 (after the fermata atop p. 6 to the bass pick-up to page 10)--You may wish to paperclip pages 7-10 together to make this transition easier.  Be certain that you have copied all markings carefully from the blog page, www.firstplymouthchoir.blogspot.com.  Particularly practice p. 10-14 in slow motion to get the articulation, text, rhythm, and pitches clearly in your ear.  This is not a section one can sightread well...

5.  Come Thou Redeemer (white sheet)-- remember there is a significant luft-pausa (stop, space, etc) in stanza 2, second line, between "Spirit" and " Thou".  Please take into account the directions printed at the top of the page

6.O little Town of Bethlehem-- no worries here...

7.  Break Forth-- see how much textual energy you can bring to these amazing words.  Practice projecting consonants and enunciating rhythm.

8. In Terra Pax-- practice the rhythm of your part-- separate and isolated from the pitches.  Be sure to practice snapping on all releases and rests so that you account for every single beat along the way.  You must develop absolute confidence in the timing of your rhythmic line.  Second idea is to enumerate clearly which staff you sing on between pages 17-20.  Note that there are sometimes two soprano staves and sometimes two tenor staves--  This adds extra confusion unless you practice it out!  : )  For the rhythmic germ that begins on page 17, we must think triplets as we sing quarter notes:  Glaw-aw-aw ree-ee-ee to-oo-oo Gaw-aw-aw Duh-in-the so that our rhythm with the D of GAWD and the triplet that it begins is impeccable and exciting.  Everytime you stay GLAW from GLORY, please do it with utmost, seraphic, angelic celebration.  Then, check out the dynamic s as the diminuendo begins on p. 19, culminating in ppp 'peace' and 'goodwill.'  Think about how powerful that quiet intensification can be and how it relates to the drama of the story in that moment!

9.  Lux aurumque-- listen to blog to get these beautiful, rich, evocative sonorities in your head.  I will ask Becky to post markings on the blog tomorrow in case any of you missed our divisi guide last Wednesday.  

10.  Mary's Little Boychild-- Watch the Little Mermaid, and let Sebastian coach you on " He BAWN on Chris-a-mas dee."  The bounce of that phrase is very different from the super connected, growing, evolution of the previous "mah, MAH, MAH Mary boy chile- which crescendos and swells into "JEEEEEEEsus Christ"  Listen to the blog and check out this fun link on youtube which features a coaching by the composer:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eG58Y4x9xc      Check out how difficult it is for them to get the groove as well.  Don't fight it, let the music sweep you away!  I promise if you jump in, I won't let you drown!

11.  This Christmastide-- check out verse 4 on p. 5-- the altos have the melody!  WOW!  Let us all enjoy that!   Check out verse 5, the tenors have the melody-- WOW!  Let us all enjoy that, then the altos get it AGAIN (spoiled altos!) atop p 8 in the second bar.  Listen for that!  Top of p.9 -- altos be sure to hold onto 'raise' until the downbeat.  

12.  We Three Kings (orange sheet)-- remember in the fourth verse that the basses have an extra measure to hold after each phrase: Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume (HOLD)...etc.  Please practice all of the shapings and articulations given in the markings.  This is joy hidden on a page, and we need you to let it jump off!   Also note that there will always be an eight measure interlude between verses.

13.  O morning star-- here is another one to practice with countsinging and with snapping on releases to be very sure that you totally are intentional about rhythm and never guessing.  Bring rhythmic integrity to your section, even in the tricky places where the meter changes-- the half note always gets one beat.  Also, take some time to process the repeat signs and the various endings so that you are not worried about following the roadmap.

14.  O Glorious Light-- we will only sing pages 2-7 and then segue into JOY TO THE WORLD (green sheet)

15.  Joy to the World-- Be joy!  Exclamation mark!  

16.  This Little Light of Mine-- tenors-- take a few minutes to review your chromatic line near the beginning of the piece.  Everyone-- please remember our strong releases of SHAHee- NIH  on pages 6 (bottom) and 7 (top).  Remember the places we close to humming, spinning 'nnnn' sound.   Always opera vowels in this style-- never pop-ish tone.  Rich, creamy, gold, dark chocolate.

17.  Go Tell it-- More opera vowels and rich colour palette.  Tell the story-- let your light shine from the mountaintop.  Be a light!

WOW!  This is a good day's work for each of us to process this.  I only send this because I value so much your commitment to what we do together, and I want us to all be confident and prepared to share our absolute best as we offer a story of light, hope, and promise on December 19.  People will come from all different places, but we will take them on a single journey, hopefully refreshing their spirits to the grace and love that God sends for each of us.

I can't wait to see you soon! 

Grace and peace,

TT