First Soprano rehearsal notes

February 10 Rehearsal Notes

Please note for next week's rehearsal: first sopranos sit in back.

OK, on to today's notes.

I Started Out Singing (page 3 [measure 39] to end)

Beginning measure 39: 1st vowel of “smil-“ing is “aw” (no diphthong)
Measure 51: Tutti
Mm. 57-61: Watch Jane for the tempo changes
Measure 59: Sing the vowel of “sto-“ries–don't close to the “ries” too soon; no breath in this measure
Mm. 66-74: Clean cut-offs; energy! (same note as last week)–“not namby pamby”
Measure 68: Observe the 1/8 rest
Mm. 79-80: Watch Jane for the tempo changes
Universal: Keep the “eh” vowel of “yes” high
Next week: From the beginning

Always Something Sings (measure 36 to end)

Universal: Diction; no wobble
Universal: Keep it in the body
Universal: Drop the “r” of “dark” (“dahk,” dahling), and give it a good “k”
Measure 39: No breath; observe word emphases (dark-est, mean-est)
Measure 41: Watch Jane
Mm. 42-43: No breath
Measure 54: Vowel of “stars” is “aw,” and don't wobble
Beginning measure 56: Keep the tone round (tall vowels)
Mm. 57 & 61: Don't be thrown off by the S2s not singing the E
Measure 60: “Soar!”
Measure 63: Good “k” on the downbeat; note that the dynamic is forte
Measure 65: 1/4 rest on beat 3
Mm. 66-67: “Don't even think of taking a breath”
Measure 68: 1/4 rest, 1/2 note F#, 1/4 note E (first 1/4 E in this measure is for the S2s); dynamic is ff–give it power
Measure 70: Reiterate the second A with a little pulse
Mm. 74 & 76: Dotted 1/2 followed by a 1/4 rest
Measure 86: Note the time signature change to 5/4
Measure 89: No hard landing on the middle-C “foul”–unison, so keep it light
Measure 93-end: Vowel is “eeeee” (same note as previously)
Next week: Start on measure 28; to prepare, review measure 70 to the end, and listen to the recording Jane provided

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers (page 5 to end)

Measure 44: Dotted 1/4 (“soul”), dotted 1/4 rest, dotted 1/4 (“And”)
Beginning page 5: Take off every tied 1/4 at the end of a phrase and replace it with a 1/4 rest (mm. 45, 50, 52 & 54)
Page 5: Turn early (same note as previously)
Mm. 41-63: Note the different text and different dynamics of the repeat
Measure 63: Drop the tied dotted 1/4 and replace it with a rest
Mm. 57-58 & 66-67: Glottal stop between “at” and “all”–but keep in time; otherwise, “at” is dentalized

Shadow River (page 10 to end)