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And..... we're OFF!
What a fine first rehearsal we had! You are all up for a challenge, that's for sure. It's hard to believe, but we really did march our way through a reading of the entire Requiem last Tuesday night! Thanks to those who've performed it before; because of you, we never really hit the wall. And bravo to those of you who are new to this piece, but who jumped in and gave it a try. I can promise that our weekly rehearsals will never contain that level of challenge.
One of the unique characteristics of Festival Chorale is that we are truly a different group every term. Yes, there is a core of singers who've been in FCO for years, but others may be somewhat regular but find that sometimes they can't participate for one reason or another. Every term we form a group that will never sing together again! I find that simultaneously funny, inspiring, and terrifying: rather like life itself. Whoever gets on this particular bus shares the ride.
In this case we've already got a very promising sound, particularly in the soprano section, which on Tuesday demonstrated that there are a number of singers who are quite at home with high A's: nailing them...not merely hoping for the best. I don't think any other section has such an exposed and challenging assignment in this work. (Of course, let's remember that in Mozart's time the sopranos were young boys!)
So now we begin to unpack the movements. Here's next Tuesday's plan:
- Movement 1: (p.4) and its mirror image, Movement 13 (p.65)
- Movement 2: (p.7) and its mirror image, Movement 14 (p.68)
- And if time, Movement 3: (p.13) so that we can let off steam!
As we began to notice this week, punctuation will be one of the keys to clarity of the message, which is in itself the very point of choral music, right? If we didn't have words...we'd be a band, and if we didn't shape our phrases...we'd be robots. The sooner we can put those truths into action, the more musical we will be. Prepare to be reminded of those truths until they become ingrained! Sorry not sorry.
Prepare for next week by searching out all the commas and making them darker on your page, so they'll be obvious. And on the other hand, try even this early in the process to be aware of places where you feel like breathing but there's no comma! We'll discover those together, and please be ready to quickly make a connecting line between words there.
Next week you'll receive an Austro-German Latin pronunciation guide, and we will spend plenty of time making the differences clear between Roman Latin and what we do with Mozart. The pronunciation makes a huge difference, as you'll
see.
I'm so pleased and excited to be preparing this beloved work with you. Please stay healthy, and see you next Tuesday.
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