Dear friends,
Your spirits were beginning to inhabit our music making today, and what an inspiration that is! : ) Our ongoing challenge (and opportunity!) is to stay within the ensemble and to allow the energy of our singing to emerge from within. As you practice in these final hours, reflect mostly on the spirit of each movement and what the chorus is called to convey and communicate. Allow your imagination to inspire your body to inspire your spirit to sound these wildly contrasting and meaningful phrases. Think about all the scope and sequence of this drama we enact through the colour of the vocal and spiritual space we paint:
Domine Jesu Christe...REX GLORIAE
Libera eas... DE ORE LEONIS
exAUdi
osanna eeen eckshelsis!
LacrymAWsah...qua..re...sur...get...
ad vi-----tam
quantus tremor est futurus (I'll get you my pretty....)
salva me!
CONFUTATIS.... voca me cum benedictis
TIBI... dawmeeneh
A few general housekeeping items:
1. Concert dress is ALL black from horn to hoof. LONGsleeve. No gawdy, distracting jewelry. Please do not smell fragrant or bad...just be clean.
2. Please do not turn pages as you listen to the solo movements. Allow the audience to stay focused on the action in front of you.
3. We will meet downstairs in Mayflower Hall at 3:00 p.m. Please be on time so that we can make the most of our final preparation and focusing time.
A few musical ideas to process in your personal practice:
REQUIEM movement 1:
1. around letter C-- the consonants of Caro and Veniet are invisible so far. Can you share them with conviction and intention?
2. At the KYRIE (Allegro), please know that when you concentrate on projecting your beginning Ks and CRs and your concluding N's, it is SUPER EXCITING and AWESOME! Other entrances are ordinary, so let's accept the opportunity to make them all extraordinary. These are the ones I had trouble hearing today: Altos at F, tenors at 4 after F, sopranos 4 after G, tenors at H, Altos 1 after K, altos 3 after M
3. Altos and tenors-- please bring out your Ks and your dotted rhythms (sing like brass instruments with incisive energy) 2 before M and 4 after N)-- TURBO altos and tenors here, please! These must be dynamic and fully- engaged. GO FOR IT! PUT IT ALL OUT THERE!
DIES IRAE movement 2
1. saecluMIH-- capital M! Just DO IT!
2. At O, tenors, can you sing out more with solo colour (remember when I asked you to be real tenors later in the rehearsal?-- well, like that!) in the melodies you have here (when you are singing in canon with the sopranos) TURBO TENORS!
3. sopranos-- 3 before R, STRicte-- be careful not to have a bright, puny vowel. Have a deep, rich, full EEEEE.
4. ALL-- your consonants in this movement are close to AWESOME... Let's get there tomorrow! An example of something improvable-- Quantus or Quando-- the KW at the start is often invisible.
5. Football cheer between S and T is JUST RIGHT!
REX TREMENDAE movement 4
1. PLEASE do not underestimate the power of an intense RRRRRRRRR at the beginning of each REX--- particularly when you have them in ms. 15 (3 before W) and tenors and basses in the section at V, sopranos and altos in the section at U-- we miss them most when we have them on our individual SATB lines. ALWAYS do more than you think is enough. Be generous! Gracious! Overflow with consonants!
2. In the last 3 measures-- use more air for the consonant F-- "fons", then more P (the f-sounding p) for the consonant to start "pietatis"-- this phrase wants to sound desperate, pathetic...
CONFUTATIS movement 6
1. Women at A and C, your Vs are invisible. Sing them beautifully and simply to begin the flowing lines.
2. Men at the beginning and at B-- please feed your small notes. Be sure they have sonic space and generous tone.
DOMINE JESU, movement 8
1. Hooray for the Turbo tenors at M-- sing on your hind legs here. Then come the turbo Altos AWESOME! Great Ts in the section at N-- thank you!
2. Practice your dynamics in the "quam olim abrahae" fugue.
HOSTIAS movement 9:
1. Practice your vowels-- the most gorgeous imaginable tone. Practice your phrasing and expression of each and every phrase. It's all there for you. Make those markings come to life. Be willing to sing true-- not just loud.
2. Sopranos and tenors-- 4 after Z, please start your pitch softer, and let it grow over the barline, beginning on beat 3. We need to hear the moving lines in the alto and bass beneath you more here.
3. Remember how it feels to sing the last two notes as a luminous, glowing phrase.
SANCTUS movement 10
1. 1 bar before F, I will promise not to mess up. I will show you the eighth note release here for your T.
2. At F, can "Pleni sunt coeli et terra" be joyful rather than serious. CELEBRATE-- confetti coming on "GLORIA."
3. Osanna fugue-- sunny vowels-- SAHNNNNNNNNAH. Dance!
AGNUS DEI, movement 12
1. 7 after N-- sopranos and tenors, please hold off on your crescendo until the next measure. Let the altos and basses cresc. first
2. 7 after N- altos and basses, please crescendo more (all the way to mf) in the first measure of your cresc. The sopranos and tenors will crescendo later. Altos bring out your moving notes (G-flat, F- E natural) in the most elegant and glorious way!
3. 4 after O-- Cum sanctis-- the Cs are invisible. Please contribute more generously to our consonant fund drive! : ) Qui-- KW-- consonants!
4. At the fugue-- check your vowel colour on tuis-- tew-ees or TOOOOOOees. You know! : ) Capital C at each entrance. Write them all in! Be your cheerleader!
Thanks again one and all for your extra time and energy which culminates in our program tomorrow. I can't wait to see you soon!
Grace and peace,
TT
Dear friends,
Thank you for all that you contributed to a wonderful gathering with dozens of singers, stringed instruments, winds, brass, timpani, and organ. There is a lot for each of us to adjust, process, and navigate when all the parts finally come together. Know that your focus, presence, stamina, energy are all appreciated. The Mozart excerpts we sang last night were mostly movements we had not rehearsed recently-- they were many of the first things we covered. It was enlightening to see how by the second-time-through we could achieve such a thoughtful and insightful performance. Hopefully we can start with the 'second-time-through' and continue to build upon all that we have experienced with, truly, each and every phrase of the piece. What you see below are mainly suggestions of things that can be improved. Keep in mind that there would be far longer list of things that are already beautifully communicated by our beautiful choir.
Here are a few thoughts for you to consider as you practice today. Please mark these into your scores before our rehearsal on Saturday morning. There are some things we need to address together, but these are suggestions that can be incorporated if all 120-some of us enable them to happen individually.
1. Please take some time to process how you will personally excel in singing the opening pitches for the movements that do not have introductions: Requiem into Dies Irae; Recordare into Confutatis (basses); Lacrymosa into Domine Jesu; Hostias into Sanctus
2. In LACRYMOSA-- take a look at the shape of all the phrases you can sing. Allow your body to sing them-- a lot of flow and shape is needed here.
3. in LACRYMOSA-- Also, please practice snapping on the releases to be sure if the final note in the phrase is an eighth note or a quarter. Please do not guess-- be specific, accurate, and also musical!
4. in LACRYMOSA-- from 2 after I to the end of the movment is a gradual, steady, intensification/crescendo, so please continue to spin the air, feeding the sound all the way to the final M in the 3rd bar to the end. Write some words in these measures to encourage yourself. FEED. SPIN. KEEP GOING. GROW. INTENSIFY. Be a cheerleader for yourself!
5. DOMINE JESU-- the downbeats of measure 9 and 11 are the end of a phrase. THESE NEED TO BE SOFTER, SWEETER, WARMER, AND MORE BEAUTIFUL. We are pouncing on them still. Draw in a slur over the barline, a diminuendo, whatever it takes.
6. DOMINE JESU-- at letter N-- please exaggerate your final "T" consonants at the end of ne cadanT-- imagine projecting these to the back wall of the sanctuary. This will help make the rhythmic energy of this section be even more exciting.
7. DOMINE JESU-- from letter O to the end-- let's be our own cheerleaders again. Give yourself some positive reminders about diction. TEXT! WORDS! CONSONANTS! DICTION! KW! PRRRRRRR! throughout this section-- not just at our opening entrances.
8. DOMINE JESU-- from O to the end-- figure out how you can be more aware of the dynamics from the annotations that are in your vocal line. While maintaining clarity and conviction in the consonants and in the rhythm, can we allow for more dynamic variety?
9. HOSTIAS-- How can you be more rhythmically present in this movement? How can we enable more beautiful and compelling dynamic contrasts? Can we really trust one another to sing piano that is far different from forte? Let's try! Practice this. Here is a place where we can be ordinary or extraordinarily sensitive.
10. HOSTIAS-- you have several markings encouraging you to have quiet 's' at the end of phrases. We achieved this in rehearsal by allowing a small space before the soft 's'. Practice this. Here is a place where we can be ordinary or extraordinarily sensitive.
11. HOSTIAS- from Andante con moto to the end: let's be our own cheerleaders again. Give yourself some positive reminders about diction. TEXT! WORDS! CONSONANTS! DICTION! KW! PRRRRRRR! throughout this section-- not just at our opening entrances.
12. your OSANNNA fugue at the end of BENEDICTUS-- AWESOME...just saying... keep thinking sunny, salad, watermelon, gazelle, etc.
13. AGNUS DEI-- can we once again really trust one another to sing piano in the 'dona eis requiem' sections at I, L and N. This will allow us to have room and space to make more beautiful phrases with your expression markings.
14. AGNUS DEI-- at the opening, let's continue to think about intensifying and keeping the center of energy in the tone on our diminuendos in phrasing and shaping the 'agnus dei....qui tollis' sections.
Tomorrow, we will review a few things from these movements, but we will also cover REQUIEM (movement 1), DIES IRAE, REX TREMENDAE, and SANCTUS. YAY!
We will again line up at 9:50 in the chapel (men) and choir room (women) and enter as we did yesterday. Please do your best to come on time so we can have a stress-free, relaxed opening to our day. If anyone would like to have a morning vocal warm-up, I will be in the choir room at 9:30. You do not have to come for this, but if you wish, I would be happy to help get us prepared and focused.
Grace and peace, and ongoing thanks for bringing all that you are to this moment!
TT
Dear friends,
It is such a blessing that we are approaching this long-awaited weekend when we are invited to breathe out together to bring life to some of the world's most elegant, passionate, inspiring music. We will sing side-by-side with a beautiful college choir. We will be accompanied by a colorful orchestra and an awesome organ. We will luxuriate in the acoustics of our holy sanctuary. We will share all of this with hundreds of family, friends, and neighbors. All of our combined hours of preparation-- score study, individual practice, rehearsal, listening, advertising, marking scores, selling tickets, blogging, researching, proofreading programs, stage set-up, enrolling singers, and on and on-- come together in the fleeting moments we share Sunday afternoon. Our time Sunday will be a culmination but also a commencement. It will be the culmination of all that we have been so far. It will be the commencement of everything we can become. WOW!
I mentioned on Sunday morning as I drew your attention to our full schedule of gatherings this week that there is not one single bit of stress involved with any of it. If we had one rehearsal left, we might have a reason to be stressed-- that would not be enough time to be fully immersed in our ensemble or in the wholeness of this experience. We have several rehearsals here in this last week-- not to increase our stress-- but to decrease our tentativeness. Our time together will enable us to become more comfortable and connected with this repertoire so that, come Sunday, we can sing it freely and expressively with our body, mind, spirit, and voice to communicate the message that God has inspired the composers and poets to write for us to share. Mozart is revived by our breath. WOW!
I consider it an honor and privilege to have opportunities like this, and I believe it is a miracle that God has guided us to share in these extraordinary experiences together. Let's spend our extra time together this week with thankful hearts for the patience, grace, joy, hope, and peace that have unified and connected us. Let's spend our extra time together this week with gratitude for the many souls alongside us who have given themselves fully to our process and project. An event exactly like this has never happened before, and one will never happen again. It's God's gift just for us! WOW!
I hope to see you many of these times:
Tuesday: 3:15-4:30 p.m. optional rehearsal in choir room
Tuesday: 7:00-8:30 p.m. class on Mozart's REQUIEM (history, composition, etc.) in choir room
Wednesday, 7:15-9:30 p.m. choral rehearsal in Choir room
Thursday, 7:00- 9:30 p.m. combined choral/orchestral rehearsal in sanctuary (Please plan to come early to find your spots in the loft)
Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.- combined choral/orchestral rehearsal in sanctuary (Please plan to come early to find your spots in the loft)
Sunday, 9:45 a.m.- call for MEN of the Plymouth Choir to sing for 10:30 worship.
Sunday, 3:00 p.m.- call for 4:00 concert
WOW!
Grace and peace,
TT
