Harmony Grits

2012-01-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

This is the quadranscentennial of the Village Voices, so we will be performing some pieces that we have sung in previous years. Following are collected comments from when we did these before.

Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In – Page turn from Page 5 to Page 6, there is a note change right on the page turn (sadistic publisher) so you may want to write in the new note on Page 5. Pages 10 and 11, everyone sings the melody (ladies’ part) the first time and then sing parts (not the melody for the men) the second time – this was mentioned four times in the comments from the last time so we must have missed it a lot. Where three parts are shown for the men, all tenors take the top note, baritones take the middle note, and basses take the bottom note. Measure 18, ‘stars’ is short. Measure 37/38, ‘bound-‘ is pronounced ‘bou-oun’. Measures 67 to end, baritones plus Bogle, Keith and Kelley sing middle notes. Memorize Measure 61 to end so that we will have our hands free to clap, gesticulate at the audience, hold Alice B. Toklas brownies, and other actions appropriate to the free spirit of the song. When we did this before, we used Measure 61 to the end as an encore, with a quick draw four note introduction.

Can You Read My Mind – watch the eighth and sixteenth notes. Measure 12, don’t linger on ‘star’.

America, the Beautiful – Throughout, ‘beautiful’ should be pronounced ‘byoo-tih-fuhl’. The beginning tempo is about two beats per second, the Army marching pace. WTD at Measure 23, because the pace slows down to whatever Matt feels like on a given day. Measure 24, break between ‘skies’ and ‘for’. Measure 28, no breath between “majesties” and “above”. Measures 31 and 32, break after each “America!” Measure 36, no breath between “brotherhood” and “from”. Measure 53, break between “control” and “Thy”. WTD around Measure 61 and following. Matt may speed up and slow down for dramatic impact. Measure 61, no breath between “proved” and “in”. Measure 63, listen for the tenor part. Measure 65, break between “loved” and “and”. Measures 68 and 69, break after “America!”. Measure 71, break between “refine” and “Till”. Measure 73, break between “nobleness” and “and”. Measure 73, the crescendo starts on ‘and’ and continues throughout Measure 74. Note that the tempo slows down at the page turn from 9 to 10. Measure 81, no breath between “sees” and “beyond”. Also in Measure 81, “be” should be pronounced “bih”. Measure 84, break between “gleam” and “undimmed”. Measure 86, the crescendo covers the whole measure, including the “A-” following the rest. Measures 87 and 88, break after “America!”. Measure 92, no breath between “brotherhood” and “from”.

Another Op’nin’, Another Show – Throughout, ‘an-oth-er’ is pronounced ‘uh-nuh-ther’. Measure 31, men go from melody to harmony. Measure 64, ‘thee’. Measure 115, men go from melody to harmony. Measure 140, ‘thee’. Measures 153 through 156, envision this as waltz time with the words being sung on the ‘oom’ and resting on the ‘pah, pah’. Starting at Measure 157, all tenors take the top note, baritones take the middle note, and basses take the bottom note. The time signature on this piece is 2/2 but Matt has been directing it in 4/4 while we are on the steep part of the learning curve. He has stated that he will at some time start directing in 2/2. To accommodate this, references to beats will be given first in 2/2, followed by 4/4 in square brackets [ ]. In many instances, the last syllable of a phrase is held for one and a half beats [three beats]. However, there are a fair number of cases when the last syllable of a phrase is held for only half a beat [one beat] and it may be followed by a rest of one and a half or two beats [three or four beats]. Do not hold these out but cut them off as written. Specific spots mentioned by our Fearless Leader include in Measures 48 and 80. Measure 136, cut off ‘night’ as though it were a tied half and dotted quarter to allow time to properly attack ‘Out of the hat’ in Measure 137. In beat terms, this is cut off on beat two and three-quarters [four and one-half]. Measures 141 and 142 – the ‘-ture’ in ‘overture’ should be pronounced ‘choor’ where the terminal ‘r’ is soft, somewhat like the French pronunciation of ‘r’ in ‘Charles’.

I Got Rhythm – Note that this is to have a lively swing feel, so that two consecutive eighth notes will have a long/short feel. Every place that there are three male parts, all tenors take the top note, all baritones take the middle note and all basses take the bottom note. Measure 10 – there are only two beats for the glissando so do it quickly. After Measure 19 at the top of Page 5, only the women sing for the rest of the page, so men can turn the page early to be prepared for the quarter note, quarter rest combo at the start of Measure 28. The same combo starts Measure 32. Note that the rhythm changes on the page turn from Page 9 to Page 10. Measure 34 – WTD for the slowdown and for the increase in speed in Measure 36.

Stars I Shall Find – Measures 76 & 77 – T1 take the top note, T2 take the middle note; ignore the bottom note in the tenor clef; baritones sort out who will take the top and middle notes here plus on ‘shall’ in Measure 75.

2011-09-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

Collected comments on music, first three rehearsals

General information – when our Fearless Leader calls for a break, he means that we should cut half a beat off of the note which the break follows. For example, in Measure 2 of Bashana Haba’ah, there is a break after ‘-ah’. In practice, this means that instead of singing ‘-ah’ as a dotted half note, it would be sung as a tied half note and eighth note.

Bashana Haba’ah – In the pronunciation guide inside the front cover, ‘ch’ is shown as sounding like ‘hh’; this should be pronounced somewhat like the German pronunciation of ‘ch’ in Bach, or the pronunciation of the Cyrillic letter ‘X’ [k’ha]. Also in the pronunciation guide, last line, ‘tir-e’ should sound like ‘teer-eh’. Measure 2, break after ‘-ah’. Measure 4, break after ‘-ah’. Measure 8, break after ‘oo’. Measure 9 break after ‘-ah’. Measure 12, break after ‘dot’. Measures 17 through 19, swell just before moving to a new note. Measure 20, men sing ‘ah’ like the women; break after last note of ‘-ah’. Measure 21, no break after either ‘tir-e’. Measure 22, break after ‘-ye’. Measures 28 through 31, the cresc. shown in Measure 28 actually extends all the way through Measure 31. Measure 31, cut off the ‘oh’ on beat four and a half so the sopranos don’t get drowned out. Measure 33, break after ‘-ah’. Measure 35, cut off ‘dot’ on beat three and a half. Measure 39, break after ‘dot’. Measure 50 to end, WTD for rit e dim and last note timing.

Carols Around (And a Round) – this starts out with women only and the men don’t come in until the bottom of Page 3. ‘Pacem’ is pronounced ‘pah – chim’. Measure 33, key change. Starting in Measure 34, other carols are being sung so those singing ‘dona nobis pacem’ should not overpower the other melodies. Measure 71, key change.

Christmas Lullaby – the layout of this music is user-apathetic at best, verging on user-hostile. The piece starts out with two verses using sort of a repeat. On the first verse, the women sing in unison [men are silent] from Measure 5 through Measure 12 and the men sing in unison [women are silent] from Measure 13 through Measure 20. In Measures 21 through 25, we split into four parts but on two lines – S & A and T & B. In Measures 26 through 35, we split into four lines, one each for S, A, T and B. Tenors should note that their part is written in the bass clef when the tenor and bass parts are shown on the same line, but the tenor part is written in the tenor clef when the tenor and bass parts are on different lines. Note that in Measure 26, ‘the’ should be pronounced ‘thee’. In Measures 36 through 40, we go back to two lines. At the end of Measure 40, we go back to what was originally Measure 5 for the second verse – in the second verse, the measure numbers are given in parentheses so what was Measure 5 is now Measure (41). On the second verse, the men sing in unison [women are silent] from Measure (41) through Measure (48). Also, there are some timing changes in Measures (46) and (47) as indicated by the smaller notes with the downward pointing stems. In Measures (49) through (56), the women sing in unison [men are silent]. Then we go back to shifting back and forth between four parts on two lines and four parts on four lines. From Measure (71) – end of top system on Page 5, we jump to the second ending at the top of Page 6. The third verse has some shifting between two lines and four lines, but nothing too complicated. In Measure 98, ‘the’ should be pronounced ‘thee’. In Measures 108 and 109, the B’s split into two parts.

Christmas Welcome – the measures are all numbered, but the numbers are shown below the piano music. You may want to add measure numbers in a more readily visible location. Throughout, the dotted slur marks indicate no break, connect the notes. Measure 19, connect ‘stars’ and ‘for’. Measure 30, note that ‘low-‘ is a quarter note; no break after ‘-ly’. Measure 36, ‘-ger’ is pronounced ‘-juhr’ with the ‘r’ sound de-emphasized. Measure 40, cut off on beat 3. Measure 47, cut off on beat 1 of the following measure. Measure 49, T have the upper note and B have the lower note on ‘-come’. Measure 64, cut off on beat 3. Measure 66, no break after ‘welcome’. Measure 68, cut off on beat 3. Measure 70, connect ‘candles’ and ‘shining’. Measure 72, cut off on beat 1 of the following measure. Measure 80, no break between ‘cheer and ‘welcome’. Measure 84, take the ending that is on the bottom of Page 7 and the top of Page 8. Measure 86, break after ‘hear’. Measure 88, break after ‘near’.

Glad Noel – this is another of those pieces that bounces back and forth so much that it should be printed on a Mobius strip. Tenors should note that their part is written in the bass clef when the tenor and bass parts are shown on the same line, but the tenor part is written in the tenor clef when the tenor and bass parts are on different lines. This begins with a staggered start. Altos sing Measures 2 and 3; altos and tenors sing Measures 4 and 5; and all sing starting at Measure 6. From the first ending at the bottom of Page 3, we go back to Measure 2 at the top of Page 2 [no page flipping] and stagger into the second verse. In the second ending at the bottom of Page 3, ‘el’ receives three beats, half the time it receives in the first ending. After the page turn, women only sing in Measure 14 and the first three beats of Measure 15. Tenors join in on the last beat of Measure 15, while basses remain silent. Basses only sing in Measure 18 and the first three beats of Measure 19; all voices sing the last beat of Measure 19 and Measures 20 and 21. Altos only sing Measures 22 and 23, altos and tenors sing Measures 24 and 25, and all parts sing starting in Measure 26. At Measure 33, on the page turn from Page 6 to Page 7, there are both key and time signature changes. Women only sing Measure 33, tenors join in on Measure 34, and basses remain silent for two pages. There is a key change on the page turn from Page 8 to Page 9. There is a time signature change in the middle of the bottom system on Page 9. After the page turn from Page 9 to Page 10,altos only sing in Measures 51 and 52, altos and tenors sing in Measures 53 and 54, and all sing starting in Measure 55. From the first ending on the bottom of Page 11, we go back to Measure 51 at the top of page 10 [no page flipping]. The second time through, ‘the’ should be pronounced ‘thee’ in Measures 52, 54 and 56. In the second ending at the bottom of Page 11, ‘el’ receives three beats, half the time it receives in the first ending. From the second ending at the bottom of page 11 we go back to Measure 14 at the top of Page 4. Once again, women only sing in Measure 14 and the first three beats of Measure 15. Tenors join in on the last beat of Measure 15, while basses remain silent. We sing to the last measure on Page 5 and then go to the Coda, which begins at the top of the last page.

Let It Snow – all men sing Part III; where ‘baby’ notes are shown, sing them. Measure 17, decresc. Measure 20, cut off on beat 3.

Peace Has Come Down Tonight – throughout, ‘gloria’ is pronounced ‘glaw-rdree-ah’; ‘rdr’ is a ‘flipped r’, produced by quickly touching the tip of your tongue to the top of your mouth [‘d’ sound] while saying ‘r’; if you can’t make the ‘flipped r’ sound, say ‘d’ instead. Measure 30, connect ‘hills’ and ‘the’. Measure 32, break after ‘abiding’. Measure 36, break after ‘fall’. Measure 37, use a lighter tone. In Measure 37, “heaven’s” should have a minimal ‘n’ sound, almost ‘heh-vuhs’. Measure 38, ‘angel’ should be pronounced ‘ain-juhl’; don’t gel it. Measure 40, break after ‘tidings’. Measure 42, ‘comfort’ should be pronounced ‘com-fert’. Measure 59, ‘behold’ should be pronounced ‘bih-hold’. Measure 60, the dim extends all the way through Measure 62. Measure 99, no break after ‘will’. Measure 108, break after ‘kneeling’. Measure 120, connect ‘down’ and ‘to’.

Perfect Christmas Night – Measures 13 through 28 are repeated with different words the second time. The different words also include eighth rests in places where there are eighth notes the first time. This occurs in Measures 14, 18, 22, 24 and 25. Measure 23, first time through, 'log' should be singular. Measure 37, B sing the T part on “I’ve got the” and then go into the scat continuo part. In the B scat continuo part, our Fearless Leader suggests circling each instance of ‘shoobie’ to help keep the lyrics straight – this is very useful when there are quick reiterations of ‘shoobie’.

Sing For Joy – throughout, use your diaphragm to separate sixteenth notes to give the proper Baroque sound; ‘forevermore’ should be pronounced ‘for-ev-eh-more’. SILTMS.

Throw Open Your Shutters – Measure 4, slide on beat 3.

Winter Wind – Measure 6, expand and then dim on ‘roam’. Measure 25, basses will probably NOT sing the low note, but will instead sing the high note. Measure 52, WTD for the fermata and break. Measure 53, our Fearless Leader is strongly considering the idea of everyone singing an A on ‘home’.

2011-08-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

Pro forma comments on music before first rehearsal, Fall 2011
Bashana Haba’ah – there is a pronunciation guide inside the front cover. Note that when an apostrophe follows a consonant, the apostrophe is pronounced like “ih” so that d’ becomes dih. Based on several YouTube videos, “to” is pronounced “toe” and “dot” is pronounced “dote”.

Carols Around (And a Round) – this starts out with women only and the men don’t come in until the bottom of Page 3. ‘Pacem’ is pronounced ‘pah – chim’. Measure 33, key change. Starting in Measure 34, other carols are being sung so those singing ‘dona nobis pacem’ should not overpower the other melodies. Measure 71, key change.

Christmas Lullaby – the layout of this music is user-apathetic at best, verging on user-hostile. The piece starts out with two verses using sort of a repeat. On the first verse, the women sing in unison [men are silent] from Measure 5 through Measure 12 and the men sing in unison [women are silent] from Measure 13 through Measure 20. In Measures 21 through 25, we split into four parts but on two lines – S & A and T & B. In Measures 26 through 35, we split into four lines, one each for S, A, T and B. Tenors should note that their part is written in the bass clef when the tenor and bass parts are shown on the same line, but the tenor part is written in the tenor clef when the tenor and bass parts are on different lines. Note that in Measure 26, ‘the’ should be pronounced ‘thee’. In Measures 36 through 40, we go back to two lines. At the end of Measure 40, we go back to what was originally Measure 5 for the second verse – in the second verse, the measure numbers are given in parentheses so what was Measure 5 is now Measure (41). On the second verse, the men sing in unison [women are silent] from Measure (41) through Measure (48). Also, there are some timing changes in Measures (46) and (47) as indicated by the smaller notes with the downward pointing stems. In Measures (49) through (56), the women sing in unison [men are silent]. Then we go back to shifting back and forth between four parts on two lines and four parts on four lines. From Measure (71) – end of top system on Page 5, we jump to the second ending at the top of Page 6. The third verse has some shifting between two lines and four lines, but nothing too complicated. In Measure 98, ‘the’ should be pronounced ‘thee’. In Measures 108 and 109, the B’s split into two parts.

Christmas Welcome – the measures are all numbered, but the numbers are shown below the piano music. We start out in unison, and divide into parts in Measure 25. In three places on Page 3 there are slur markings except with dashed lines. Our Fearless Leader will need to clarify this, but a possible meaning is that we should connect words where we would normally expect a break. Measure 49, key change. At Measure 84, historical markings on the copy of music that I have indicate that, when this piece was performed in the past, we used the alternate ending that starts in the second system on Page 8 – our Fearless Leader will need to clarify this.

Glad Noel – this is another of those pieces that bounces back and forth so much that it should be printed on a Mobius strip. Tenors should note that their part is written in the bass clef when the tenor and bass parts are shown on the same line, but the tenor part is written in the tenor clef when the tenor and bass parts are on different lines. This begins with a staggered start. Altos sing Measures 2 and 3; altos and tenors sing Measures 4 and 5; and all sing starting at Measure 6. From the first ending at the bottom of Page 3, we go back to Measure 2 at the top of Page 2 [no page flipping] and stagger into the second verse. In the second ending at the bottom of Page 3, ‘el’ receives three beats, half the time it receives in the first ending. After the page turn, women only sing in Measure 14 and the first three beats of Measure 15. Tenors join in on the last beat of Measure 15, while basses remain silent. Basses only sing in Measure 18 and the first three beats of Measure 19; all voices sing the last beat of Measure 19 and Measures 20 and 21. Altos only sing Measures 22 and 23, altos and tenors sing Measures 24 and 25, and all parts sing starting in Measure 26. At Measure 33, on the page turn from Page 6 to Page 7, there are both key and time signature changes. Women only sing Measure 33, tenors join in on Measure 34, and basses remain silent for two pages. There is a key change on the page turn from Page 8 to Page 9. There is a time signature change in the middle of the bottom system on Page 9. After the page turn from Page 9 to Page 10,altos only sing in Measures 51 and 52, altos and tenors sing in Measures 53 and 54, and all sing starting in Measure 55. From the first ending on the bottom of Page 11, we go back to Measure 51 at the top of page 10 [no page flipping]. The second time through, ‘the’ should be pronounced ‘thee’ in Measures 52, 54 and 56. In the second ending at the bottom of Page 11, ‘el’ receives three beats, half the time it receives in the first ending. From the second ending at the bottom of page 11 we go back to Measure 14 at the top of Page 4. Once again, women only sing in Measure 14 and the first three beats of Measure 15. Tenors join in on the last beat of Measure 15, while basses remain silent. We sing to the last measure on Page 5 and then go to the Coda, which begins at the top of the last page.

Let It Snow! – this is three parts, so probably all the men will sing Part III. Part III divides in two places, the last measure at the top of Page 6 and the last two measures in the piece. Our Fearless Leader will tell us how to divide, but my guess is that at least some of the baritones may be asked to take the top note.

Peace Has Come Down Tonight – only the women sing for the first two and a half pages. The men start singing in Measure 29, bottom of Page 4, and sing in unison through Measure 46 on Page 6, splitting into parts in Measure 47. In Measure 49, ‘the’ should be pronounced ‘thee’.

Perfect Christmas Night – Measures 13 through 28 are repeated with different words the second time. The different words also include eighth rests in places where there are eighth notes the first time. This occurs in Measures 14, 18, 22, 24 and 25. At the end of the second ending [top of Page 6 going into Measure 34], there is a key change. On the page turn from Page 6 to Page 7 [Measure 37 to Measure 38], the tenor part and the bass part split into separate lines – sopranos and altos stay together, so tenors take the second line. The tenor part goes from being written in the bass clef to being written in the tenor clef. From Measure 38 on, the basses serve as sort of a scat singing continuo while the tenors sing with the ladies. In the last measure of the piece, note the droop on the last note.

Sing For Joy – this is in two parts for male voices, so our Fearless Leader may want some of the baritones to sing the tenor part. Overall, this looks to be pretty straight forward, so SILTMS.

Throw Open Your Shutters! – this appears to be usable for either Hannukah or Christmas, so our Fearless leader will have to tell whether we sing ‘festive’ or ‘Christmas’ in a couple of places. “Psalt’ry” is pronounced “sawl – tree”; the ‘p’ is silent, like p in swimming. This piece is full of repeats, starting at Measure 31; it looks like the purpose is to provide a drawn out crescendo. Note that the second time through each of these repeats is about one notch higher in volume than the first time.

Winter Wind – tenors on the top line, baritones and basses on the second line. On the last note of the piece, probably low basses will take the bottom note, high basses take the middle note, and baritones take the top note.

2011-08-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

The music for the 2011 holiday concert is listed in the right sidebar. Many of the pieces are recycled from the archives, so we don't have audio files for a lot of the music. Check the 'Links' area for the audio files that are available.