Despite a number of us being unavailable due to illness and other things, last night was a fantastic step towards what is going to be a brilliant evening next month. We bounced through a lot of music, and we are close to being note perfect. Maybe not word perfect, the German is still a struggle in places, but the sound was excellent.
A chunk of credit for that goes to Sue, who suggested that we should pull the lower parts to the front. That definitely seemed to help and the balance from the podium was good, even with just two basses. We will experiment further with how we lay ourselves out, so please be as open to being moved and placed next to unfamiliar voices as you were last night.
Here is what we sang through this week:
Haydn – we covered 5 of the 8 choruses. In our scores, movements 2, 4, 13, 18 and 27. We spent the most time on 13, Die Himmel Erzahlen, ending up by rollicking through at concert speed, even with the step up in tempo midway through. The to do for this now, and for quite a few other movements too, is to work on being perfectly together. You know the notes. You mostly know the words. So where the music has parts, or sometimes all 4 parts and all 3 soloists singing exactly the same words in exactly the same rhythm, our goal is for every singer to hit those notes at the same precise moment.
Brahms – getting closer, but still more security on your notes when you come in. It’s the slight hesitancy that is holding this back from excellence.
Va Pensiero – just get familiar with the words. Knowing what you are singing will allow you to relax and enjoy it. And remember to keep the dotted rhythms sharp. As in, the first two syllables, Va pens-, hold the Va longer than you dare, and make the pens really late and short.
Habanera – just like for the Haydn, those punchy rhythms have to be simultaneous. The second and fourth lines of the chorus are especially relevant, but throughout the sound should be one voice with two or four harmonies.
Upcoming rehearsals – we have four more rehearsals. I will circulate a post with those details once I get confirmation from our guest conductor.
Have a good week, see you next Tuesday.
Chris
Practice Pack
Brahms – anything to get 100% confident on the lovely notes. Practice tracks or singing with the Youtube recording recommended.
Habanera, Va Pensiero, Zorongo, everything really – words, words, words. Say the words to yourself over and again to get them familiarised. Work on getting them in the rhythms. If you reach a point of feeling you know the words, and given you now know the notes, then we are close to being performance ready.
Creation – focus on being bang on the beat when you are practising. Any movements you like. The harder ones are 13 and parts of 29. The ‘angry’ entries in 2 are a great example of where everyone in each part needs to be spot on together.