Comments on music 02/15/24

Matt wants us to achieve proper choral pronunciation. Expect to hear this repeatedly. Following are things to practice. ‘The’ is never pronounced ‘theh’. Before a word beginning with a consonant, it is pronounced ‘thuh’; before a word beginning with a vowel sound, it is pronounced ‘thee’ (note that ‘hour’ begins with a vowel sound). Vowels should be ‘tall’ referring to the shape of your mouth. Drop your jaw and open your mouth to avoid a nasal twang. On longer notes, do not close to an ending consonant until the end of the note. This is particularly important with an ending ‘s’ to avoid the dreaded snake pit sound. In longer notes containing a diphthong (long ‘I’, actually ‘ah-ee’, or ‘ou’ in ‘hour’, pronounced ‘ow-uh’) don’t change to the second vowel sound until the end of the note. Don’t chew ending ‘r’ but just barely pronounce it. Don’t overstress schwa sounds, such as ‘a’ in balloon, 'e' in problem, 'i' in family.

Stand By Me – Page 12, Measure 81, rit. to end, WTD.

Heading Home – ‘the’ is pronounced ‘thee’ at Page 3, Measure 8, Page 5, Measure 33, Page 9, Measure 64.

Blue Moon – Basses, learn the ‘bom, ba ba bom’ string of words starting at Page 4, Measure 11, and at Page 5, Measure 20, and at Page 9, Measure 53; if everyone is not together, it sounds like mush in the mouth singing.

Sunrise, Sunset – the dim. and rit. at Page 7, Measure 69, does not apply to the first time through, only the second time when the end of the song is coming up.

Go in Peace, Walk in Hope, Live in Love – Vera used a very useful technique in our sectionals to help us memorize the words by having us work on the words of the chorus first. A study of how professional musicians memorize music found that about 15 to 20 percent start at the end, and gradually work their way forward. Their rationale is that as they start moving toward the beginning, they are always headed toward something they know. They are less stressed and find it easier to work on memorizing new material because they will be coming to something that is less work. YMMV. I think the sheet Vera handed out is easier to use than the one that was distributed by email. 

Comments on music 2/5/24 and 2/8/24 joint rehearsals

Comments added for 2/8/24 joint rehearsal. New comments are preceded by ETA.

Music is in performance order.

ETA Concentrate on pronunciation. Vowels should be ‘tall’ referring to the shape of your mouth. Drop your jaw and open your mouth to avoid a nasal twang. On longer notes, do not close to an ending consonant until the end of the note. This is particularly important with an ending ‘s’ to avoid the dreaded snake pit sound. In longer notes containing a diphthong (long ‘I’, actually ‘ah-ee’, or ‘ou’ in ‘hour’, pronounced ‘ow-uh’) don’t change to the second vowel sound until the end of the note. Don’t chew ending ‘r’ but just barely pronounce it. Don’t overstress schwa sounds, such as ‘a’ in balloon, 'e' in problem, 'i' in family.

FIRST JOINT SET

At the Hop – Starting at Page 3, Measure 14, sopranos should continue singing f while the other voices should drop to probably mp. The sopranos have the important words and the other voices should not ‘hop’ so loudly that they cannot be heard. If you are not a soprano and you can’t hear the sopranos, you are singing too loudly. However, ‘hop’ should be sung with a sense of excitement and enthusiasm. Page 5, Measure 26, only sopranos say “Let’s go” while at Page 6, Measure 38, everyone says “Let's go.” Starting at Page 7, Measure 50, once again sopranos go loud while everyone else goes soft. Page 9, Measure 62, only sopranos say “Let’s go”.

Forever Young – Lots of syncopation and two parts staying constant while the other two move. Be alert. ETA Page 3, Measure 13, second time, pronounce ‘sur’ as ‘seh’. Page 11, start slowing in Measure 80 even though the rit is shown in Measure 83.

Sunrise, Sunset – On the iterations of ‘Sunrise, sunset’, swell a little on ‘sunrise’ and then drop back down on ‘sunset’ to mimic the action of the sun. ETA Page 7, Measure 69, is marked dim. and rit. but this applies only to the second time, not to the first time. Last measure of the song, observe the > so our voices match the natural decrease in volume that occurs in the piano.

Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In – Starting on Page 8, Measure 77, everyone but the basses sing the same set of words over and over for six times. Basses join in at Page 9, Measure 83, for five times. Matt is encouraging the idea that we should memorize this so we won’t need our music as we slide down the razor blade of life to the end of this piece. This means that he will probably want us to do the optional hand claps starting on Page 10, Measure 89, which in turn means that we will get lectures about how we should clap only on beats 2 and 4. Sigh! ETA Page 3, Measures 25 and 26, crescendo so that the volume reaches mf at Measure 27.

WOMEN ONLY

Dream a Little Dream of Me
I Sound the Song Of Spring
We Are the Voices

MEN ONLY

Stand By Me
Fire and Rain
Heading Home

SECOND JOINT SET

Evergreen – Men, turn to Page 4, quietly, when the women start their last line on Page 3. Page 7, Measure 48, break after ‘beginning’. ETA Page 5, Measure 29, make a mark of some sort so you observe the rest at the beginning of the measure. Page 10, Measure 78, don’t break.

You Make Me Feel So Young -Page 9, Measure 63, there is a rest on Beat 1 so there are actually two beats of rest between the end of ‘balloon’ and ‘You’. Page 9, Measure 64, no break in the middle. Page 12, Measure 89, no break in the middle. ETA Page 6, Measure 36, mp. Page 11, Measure 78, mp.

And This Shall Be For Music -WTD. ETA Page 3, Measure 6, no break. Page 4, Measure 14, no break. Page 10, Measure 62, note that there are two beats of rest at the beginning of the measure.

Blue Moon – Throughout, when the sopranos start singing the real words, everyone else drop volume so that the sopranos can be heard.

Go in Peace, Walk in Hope, Live in Love – This will be our encore which we WILL sing from memory, no music. Use whatever mnemonic tricks work best for you. Page 7, Measure 34, break after ‘peace’.

Comments on music 02/01/24

We have joint rehearsals on Monday, February 5, and Thursday, February 8. No sectionals those days.

Sunrise, Sunset – Page 2, Measure 10, since this is a show tune, ‘little’ should be pronounced ‘little’ instead if the usual pronunciation of ‘liddle’. Page 4, Measures 33 and 34, men sing ‘oo’ for only two measures and then switch back to singing real words in Measure 35. Page 6, Measures 58 and 60, put the ‘t’ on ‘sunset’ on beat 1 of the following measure.

Stand By Me – Matt wants this to have a Brawny towels lumberjack feel, so starting with Page 9, Measure 57, sing ‘oo’ with sort of a marcato feeling, even though the notes are shone tied.