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Greeting, singers,
So last Tuesday was THE rehearsal, the occasion when everything clicked, and a corner was turned. Funny to think that we weren't even doing a full run of everything, but all night there was electricity in the air as everyone locked in with a sense of purpose! It was truly palpable.
Not that everything is perfect—we still have places to clean up—but the musicality is growing and we'll be ready when it's time to combine with the orchestra for the first time. (I really shouldn't assure you of that: overconfidence can be fatal!)
As a matter of fact, I'll be targeting these places for special attention next Tuesday:
BACH
We need to untangle the parts on p.28. As always happens when other parts are singing higher notes than first sopranos, the firsts fall apart. We'll be combining in several ways so everyone is confident on THEIR OWN notes, not someone else's! Also on that page, let's drill the moment of release of the fermata plus the resumption. You can't miss, if you're watching!
Pronunciation is generally quite good, except for some holdouts among the altos and 2nd sopranos. It's almost impossible to believe that there are still some who pronounce the letter "i" as "ih" instead of "ee". Shall I go down the rows and make everyone sing the word "anima" or some other example? It's AH-nee-mah, and many other instances. I've said it before: if you sit next to someone who is still oblivious, tell that neighbor! That mispronunciation is really audible. Surely you'll want to know if you're one of those who continually mispronounces, right? We're all friends here and are striving for the best sound we can produce.
Another consistent problem among the sopranos is the need for cleaner leaps in wide or odd intervals. If you know you have problems negotiating accurately, please do some serious work on that at home, being very very conscious of them as we rehearse. In rehearsal, once you're reminded, you're clean as a whistle, which shows that you need to really focus the first time: there won't be a re-do in performance!
RUTTER
In general, we really need everyone to pay close attention to dynamic shifts, since that's one of the key characteristics of this composition. The markings are on the page, and I'll show them as much as possible, but since the orchestra only has two rehearsals on the piece I really must give them a lot of attention. We've worked hard on the dynamics, so please do them without reminder!
Sopranos, I'm told that many of you struggle with the rhythm on p.49. Please note that the second syllable of the word "kindness" is held for two beats, tying across the barline. Mark that in your scores...repeat it aloud several times at home...and we'll check that place on Tuesday.
Also sopranos, on p.62, please circle the E in m.126. We'll check for agreement there.
Altos, it seems that many of you believe that the English pronounce the word "lamb" as "lahm." They don't. Just sing it the way we speak it, or you'll come off as affected!
We gained a lot more clarity in the Rutter last week, but some of those tonality shifts (check p.44 m.41: you've got to nail the D-flat, having heard D-natural from the soloist in the previous measure) are really tricky.
Overall, we are doing really well, so I can nit-pick now!
We'll sing through the works in performance order next Tuesday, so have a good dinner, please.
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