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
