Rehearsal Summary 24 March 2011

We worked on: Sing Sing Sing, Bring Him Home, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Saints Bound for Heaven, Red Red Rose, and Sure On This Shining Night. There is a new link to an mp3 for Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. I think we sang all the way through every piece we worked on tonight. We must memorize Sing Sing Sing, and It's a Grand Night for Singing. Some of the others should be quasi-memorized.

Sing³ - We worked on following the repeats and the D.S. al coda and which parts don't sing on which repeats (see the post from last week). One thing I missed in my post about this last week is that the women come in at 62 the first time instead of waiting until after the first ending and the repeat back to 56. This one needs to be memorized.

Saints Bound for Heaven - We did sing all the way to the end, but most of our time was spent on the first half of the piece. We reviewed the men's part from 40 to 60. We also worked on unifying our style/markings with the breaks after "by and by" in measures 3, 15, 23, after come in the SA line in 43, et cetera. Perhaps someone who didn't get confused by the markings can use the comments to respond with more details. Part of my problem is that the basses only get this pattern about 3 times but other parts sing it many times. I can't keep track of the markings for all parts.

Red Red Rose - Chuck is directing this one. We need to watch at 21 where the tempo picks up. The Altos, Tenors and Basses need to be careful when they come in at 13 to not be too strong. 37 to 40 builds to the climax and then after 45 the end is very soft.

Albin Dittli

March 24 Rehearsal

we rocked the mic

Pictures!

Young Single Adult Easter Fireside
Saturday, March 19th

Wish we could have got a picture of everyone!

Always have to have a picture of the food...

Laura and the Woodwards....so happy!

Our beloved president, Kendra....eat on, girl...eat on!

Party after rehearsal on March 17th
Happy St. Patty's Day!

Lovely ladies

The "kids" of the choir :)

The other "kids" of the choir :)

More green wearin' peeps

Thanks altos for the yummy green treats!

This treat gets the award for "Coolest Looking"! Whoever brought this deserves a serious pat on the back! Way to go! Thank you!

Rehearsal Summary 17 March 2011

Here are my rehearsal notes. We are now singing through most pieces from start to end with fewer and shorter stops.

We have a concert this Saturday for the single adults' conference at the Oakdale building (by the Temple). Call time is 5:30.

The tentatively scheduled temple fireside on April 24th has been dropped from our schedule.

We ended rehearsal with a St. Patrick's Day party. Hopefully some pictures will get posted.

Sing³ - We worked on the entire piece. We worked on making our voices sound like band instruments (string bass, muted trumpet, tinny old-time radio drama music). This music is quite non-linear. That is if you try to sing page 2 then page 3 then page 4 etc to the end you will get it very wrong. So here is the flow by measure number.

1-10

11-17 + take 1st ending

11-17 + take 2nd ending

20-27 take D.S al Coda

11-17 take Coda

28-32

33-40 basses only

33-40 no tenors

33-40 all

41-42

43-50 take 1st ending

43-55 take 2nd ending

56-63 take 1st ending, tenor and basses only

56-64 take 2nd ending

Balm in Gilead - We worked on entrances at measures 11 and 12. We also worked on the key change at 28. Then we sang it all the way through a few times. I made notes to myself about breathing. For example, I marked an extra big breath in 28 because the next breath is in 35. Even with that, I didn't make it on the next run through, so I'll have to stagger breath.

Bring Him Home (men) - We sang through it all. Notes aren't the problem. Focus on dynamics and breathing. Also, we need to count so that we don't hold notes over the rests or cut off early.

Every Knee Should Bow - The only thing I wrote down was to put in a brief pause before the pickup to 50. However some reminders might be in order. The half note on -sus (in 16 and 22) is changed to a quarter note and the closing s falls right on beat 3. And in 18 and 24 the closing s in confess is attached to the next word so we sing "con-feeee sthat". We sing klawry for glory and Lawd for Lord.

This is the Christ - I marked no breath in 24 and the men sing ov instead of us in 51.

Hossana - The only thing I wrote down was that I need to work on the notes is some specific places. Perhaps there are others who also need to work on notes, but I'm not pointing fingers.

Albin

Rehearsal Summary 24 Feb 2011

Hello again,

Sorry I haven't written in several weeks. For what ever reason, I didn't write down much so I had little to post on the blog. What follows is a combination of my notes from three rehearsals.

Bring Him Home - This is the men's number. We have now rehearsed through the whole piece more than once. If the note is hollow (any note greater than or equal to a half note) then it should swell or shrink. Holding the volume and feeling steady for any significant duration is boring and blah.

Red, Red Rose - If your music has markings from last time then please use them. Here again we have worked all sections of the piece well past sight reading.

This is the Christ - We have been working especially on the a Capella section (measures 28 to 35).

It's a Grand Night for Singing - We need to memorize this one. We worked on tuning from 117 to the end. When it divides into 6 part harmony at 121 the 2nd tenors and the baritones are taking the middle note. (I don't know how the women are dividing on the treble clef.)

Sing Sing Sing - I noted that the basses are supposed to sound like pizzicato string basses (also called a walking bass line). The tenors should sound like muted trumpets. And they should skip the three glissandos on pages 10 and 11. Women, please comment and tell me if you are supposed to sound like an instrument. (Oh, and this one will need to be memorized so our hands are free for the choreography.)

Balm in Gilead - Erin had us number the measures (first one on each line is enough; there are 55 total). We worked on blending.

Saints Bound for Heaven - This song is about deliverance from all kinds of bondage. We worked on measure 60 to 80 tonight.

Sure On This Shining Night - I don't have any notes about this one but we have been working on it. Erin challenged us about a month ago to figure out what the lyrics are about.

We have now sight read all our music for this semester (except Witness which we sang last semester). And we have nearly completed a second more detailed rehearsal of each piece. It is time to move beyond learning the parts. I'm sure we will continue to work on parts if a section is off enough to catch Erin's ear, however rehearsals are already shifting to focus more on style. If we don't know our parts then we can't make much progress on style.

Respectfully,

Albin Dittli

Rehearsal Summary 3 Feb 2011

A few days late, but here are my notes from February 3rd:

Sopranos: please bring treats for our Valentine's Party this Thursday

Every Knee should Bow - Sing KLAW-ri for glor-y, accent Christ in measure 36 and flip the r, sing Lawd for Lord, take a breath in measure 49, in measures 38 through 41 as each voice comes in we should accent the first word "to". We worked on measures 28 to the end.

Hosanna - We worked on measures 29 to 50. Watch for the accents and dynamics. In measure 35 (and in other places where the same structure appears, m.53, m.76, m.62?, m.66?, others?) the first note will be shorter than written so that there is a little space after it.

This is the Christ - We worked on measures 27 to the end. There is no breath in measures 37, 40, 44 and 46. Sing legato in measure 42.

Saints Bound for Heaven - We worked on measures 40 to the end. In measures 41-43, and 55-56 we are singing all the notes marcato and short (not full value). In measures 44-48 and 57-59 we continue singing marcato but give the notes full value.

Sure On This Shining Night - My only notes say that we started at letter D. Erin challenged us to figure out what the song is about.

Balm In Gilead - We are singing Gilead to rhyme with Iliad. On page 6 sing the "If you can't ..." lines with energy. As this phrase continues over onto page 8 we should all sing as with one voice (per section). Also at the bottom of page 6 we should accent the word Paul. Erin mentioned a particularly inspiring talk by President Packer on the Balm of Giliead. After a little research I found that he originally gave the talk in 1977, but repeated much of the talk in 1987.

Albin

Rehearsal Summary 27 Jan 2011

Welcome to a new semester!

I take notes in choir each week and post a summary of what happened in the rehearsal. This is probably most useful to people who miss rehearsal, but I think it can be helpful for everyone. I don't know what happened in the Women's sectional so if someone wants to chime in with that information I'd appreciated it.

It's a Grand Night for Singing - In the men's sectional we worked on singing the falsetto sections from 85 to the end. In the combined rehearsal we sang from 53 to the end through once.

Every Knee Should Bow - In the sectional we sight read the first 27 measures. In the combined rehearsal we did the same section. Erin called it speak singing and wanted lots of consonants.

Hosanna - We started by speaking the words in rhythm. We then sang up to measure 36 several times. We worked on dynamics and flipping R's. In the combined rehearsal Erin played a recording of the piece with full orchestra. We sang through up through measure 54. Again, working on dynamics and singing with feeling.

Sure On This Shining Night - We only did this one in sectionals. We worked on letter D up to letter E. The focus was on keeping it light by raising the soft pallet you do when you are surprised. We also sight read from E to the end.

Balm In Gilead - In sectional we worked from the middle of page 5 to the end. Gilead should be sung Gil-e-ud or Gil-e-ahd and not with the short a in apple. In the combined rehearsal we sang from the bottom of page 4 to the end.

Erin said that we are still looking for more tenors so please tell your tenor friends.