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Second Soprano Rehearsal Notes

10/14/2025
Soprano 2 Notes

Warmups
Singing on “v” or “z”, no vowel, is a semi occluded exercise. It allows you to sing with no pressure on the vocal chords. V is easier as Z requires more air (as you probably noticed).
Grown Wild
Stay in rhythm in this piece. It's beautiful, but don't take personal enjoyment from that – give it to the audience.
Watch, watch, watch Jane so the chords all line up.
m. 10  Make “spr” quick and “i' be high and open.
m. 11  Make the A high. 
m. 12 /13 Sing a good “F” at the end of “leaf”, which cuts off on the downbeat of m. 13
m. 73-76  This is the hardest passage – “the” is the high note, but is the least important word. Don't let weight bring the line down.
m. 76  Make the G high
Creator of the Stars of Night
Sing lighter on unisons or they will slam together and we will be flat. (True of any piece).
m. 111  Stagger breath, breath often to keep the pitch up.
m. 112  G should be high
Gloria in Excelsis
The eighth note passages (in the beginnig) should be rich and in the body so they contrast with the quick stuff.
m. 64  Forte
m. 67  Don't punch “cel”
O Come, Emmanuel
Don't get lost in how beautiful this is – watch Jane 
m. 20  is Tutti
m. 36  You can go up to the soprano line, or stay on the alto as we will go back to the alto line in m. 40, beat 3
m. 37  Soprano line – from above, sing “aw”
m. 41  The E flat needs to be high,  Sing “aw”
m. 52  Beat 3  Go back to soprano line
m. 54  Careful of vibrato on the E flat
m. 56  Watch, Jane is stretching here
m. 84  Watch the cutoff
m. 111 Make sure you cut off here
Siyahamba
Make sure to lighten on “ba”, don't punch it
Simon will give us our starting note.
m. 3  Wait for Jane to bring us in. 
m. 7  Only mezzo piano – “no drama” here 
m. 9  F sharp (have been singing F natural)
m. 11  And everywhere we crescendo on a long note – crescendo then come back to the starting volume, here mezzo forte
m. 38  Observe the rest
m. 47  Mezzo piano
m. 51  Starts mezzo piano – so it can crescendo over the next pages
m. 64  We start to get tired here – re-energize
This piece needs – Confidence. The crescendos – so start softer so we can crescendo. To know what is coming next. Joy (it should be fun to sing).
Stars I Shall Find
Darker sound
m. 5  “will” not “shall”
m. 7-8  The “sh” and “st” sounds need to be quick and line up or it just sounds like a big “shshshs”
m. 64  Watch (ritard)

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