Music Notes from November 30

The following notes come primarily from Jane Bloodworth who was on Zoom Wednesday night and really listening to our vocal production carefully. In addition, Jan Elicker added some observations (many thanks to you both!).

In general Jane and Jane noticed some “spread” in the soprano section–middle range and toward the break (D-E-F at the top of the staff). The alto sound was also spread in the range of middle C to about F. As Jane mentioned before, we should work toward taller vowels. Taller vowels will help with blend within the sections. The tenor and bass sections generally had better blend (Tenors be careful, occasionally some individual voices pop out).

Please – before Sunday – read ALL of the music notes – not just these, but review earlier notes and mark your music or cheat cheats accordingly so your final memorization before tech week includes proper cutoffs, text adjustments, and correct notes.

Star of the East

“Brightest and best OF the sons of the morning”
Really lock in on the tempo – use the 8th notes to listen and be sure we’re together.

Sopranos and tenors: some of the higher notes are sounding tight and not in tune– work on tall, relaxed tone.
Letter A – Sopranos and Altos: Vowel on “Bright” is very spread – needs to be more open (tall “AH” vowel). There is some scooping on the intervals – they should be clean. Final “d” on cutoffs need to be stronger. Lighter on the eighth notes. End of verse – 2 beats and off.
Letter C – Tenors and Basses: Final “d” on cutoffs at ends of verse. FInal “d” on “guide.”
Letter E – ALL: Measure 43 first note – chord is a bit fuzzy – some Basses may be missing the “D”. Cutoffs – “d” at end of phrases. Final measure 2 beats and off.

New Britain

We are trying this –> No repeat of measures 9 through 15.
Tenors: a couple voices are not blending

Promised Land

This song should be “sturdy” / Over-pronounce words on the refrain
Measure 1 – Vowel on “On” is not blended – lots of different vowels. Need more crescendo on first measure.
Measure 5 – Crescendo on the dotted quarter note in measure 5.
Measure 10 and 19 – Add a bit of crescendo on the dotted quarter, ie, the “I” of “I am”
Measure 12 – put “d” on “land” before the word “I’m” to make rhythm clearer and more precise
Measure 18 – “land” 2 beats on, 2 beats off. (Cut off on beat 3)
Measure 7 – possessions – sing whole word.
Verse 2 Altos, measure 7 – line goes up to A on “living green” – this is different than other verses that have an F
Final chorus – we are losing the Treble line – descant is overpowering it; we may need some sopranos to move down to melody.
Descant – notes on m. 21 are not correct from everyone

Rorate

We worked on keeping a steady beat by feeling the internal eighth note pulse (in practice, tap 1/8 notes to feel the pulse)
Chorus entrance, letter A: the vowel on “SEH” of Celestial very spread particularly in altos
Verse 2: heighT, mighT, nightT, righT
Sopranos – on longer notes (dotted 1/4s) be careful not to close dipthong too soon ie, measure 23 “mirth”, measure 38 “gions”
Measure 26 – cut off for “night” is on beat 3
Measure 30 – hold “light” out 2 full beats.
Measure 45/46 – lift between “ven” and “earth” and “bird” and “beast”

Wexford

Take the band’s tempo. Listen to band for pitch/tuning (this will be easier when we have all musicians back)
Band and brass need to tune to each other (there was a noticeable difference when they went back and forth) – note from last weekend
Measure 42 (SSA entrance) – This sounded tentative. Altos were not secure on first note – F natural – of entrance at “Prepare and go…”.
Measure 45 (Altos) – the word “be” comes right on on beat 4, not with 2 top parts
Measure 64 (Altos) – need to come in more strongly on “who”, beat 4. You are the only ones on the beat there.
All verses – emphasis and separation at end of phrases ie, “and her guide”, “in the town”, “back alas” etc.

Kentucky Wassail

Make sure rhythm is precise on the Refrain for better understanding of words.
“Our” cup is white and “our” ale. NOW CHANGED – “Our” cup is made from the old oak tree and “our” ale is made in …
Make sure “our” is not “rrr”
Watch cutoffs – ending notes are always 2 beats (one full measure)
Verses – The melody is slightly different at the ends of measures 19 and 33 and measures 21 and 35. Some people are going up to a B on the second beat of measure 29 in verse 2; the melody stays on the A in the second verse
Final refrain – we could use more higher harmonies on the very last repeat of “So it’s joy be to you…”
From Jane – “I thought the diction on the verses was quite good, particularly on the phrases that have lots of percussive consonants ie: “And a lit-tle bit o li-quor won’t do no harm” was excellent. Add more consonants and keep in rhythm, for “pray lift”, and “stove” etc. which were not as clear.

Deck the Hall

Sounded good. There were no “Halls” and altos got their starting interval correct!

Peace Round

Audience and chorus on stage in corresponding sections of stage front will be divided into parts 1, 2 and 3 of the round.
People on the back of the stage will be the 4th part (no audience included in 4th part)

Alleluia

Sounded really good.
Measures 6 to 8 – Sopranos – listen to each other and match vowels. The first time through started out with several different vowels and got better as you heard each other. The second time through was much better blend right from the start.
Final Alleluia of each section: In measures 14, 22 and 30 where the whole chorus cuts off together, basses were holding the last “-ia” longer than the rest of the chorus – I couldn’t tell if the basses were holding it a little too long, or if the rest of the chorus was not holding it long enough.
Final Cut off will be with bells after they shake the final chord.

While By My Sheep

Opening unison measures 1 and 2, all verses – Tall vowels and listen to neighbors for blend and intonation
Consonants at end of lines – nighT, brighT. etc.
Didn’t hear a lot of difference between in volume between full and echo sections in any of the verses. This may have been the effect of listening via Zoom.

Auld Lang Syne

Measure 3 – “a richt guid williewaught” not “a cup of williewaught”

Wayfaring Stranger

Chorus: No scooping, and “go-ing” not “go-in”
Altos – Measure 22 – pitch on first “Hm” was not secure. It is an octave below Matt’s “roam”, “go-” and “-ly” near the end of the opening solo.
Chorus: Listen to Matt for timing/placement of entrances on measures 26, and 29
Matt – keep tempo straight measures 29 and 30.
Measure 31 to 35 – drop/modify guitar part under chorus
Altos: Measure 34 – check your pitch on “me”
Altos, Tenors, Basses: Measure 35 – do not move to the “m” of “come” too early, wait until you move to the “mm” on the first beat of measure 36.