11 February 2025
Dear Singers,
WHAT WE DID ON 11.02.25
This was an excellent rehearsal - even the warming up was musical!
Some 'reverse chunking' helped everyone learn the Hummel Gloria quite quickly, from the end to the beginning. We also sang through the Kyrie pretty well at the checkout, spending a moment on bar 65 with the sopranos (then the tenors) to explore throwing caution to the wind and 'going for it' with tricky semiquaver moments. Bar 54 is similar. The tip with anything quite high in the voice is to pay attention to the energy and tone of the notes, and not the words - they are less important.
Sectionals on the Mozart Hostias to the Quam olim (p54-64 without the Sanctus. This ironed out some tricky corners. The key things to improve are now:
Hostias - Pronounce the 'Ostias (without the 'h'); more contrast in the dynamics alternating for loud (forte) to quiet (piano)e.g. bars 23-24, without losing the tone/tuning in the quiet bars.
Quam olim - Keep the notes short and clipped (staccato) to give the sound the sound rhythmic energy
Sanctus - Pay attention to word endings - a strong 's' on the 4th beat of the Sanctus. Bar 5 - Sabaoth (pronounced sar-bar-ought) should have a strong 't' on beat 4.
Going into the Hosanna (without the 'h') make the first note of that bar very short to clear the way for the basses to kick off the new theme. keep the running quavers very light, bright and happy!
Masters in this hall and Gaudete (from Christmas) - we had a fun romp through these to introduce them to new members and a brush-up for the old hands.
NOTICES
There IS a rehearsal next week
Music Festival - Thank you for signing up, we have 39 so far, with some ?? The balance is 14.14.4.7. The deadline is Feb 25, when we can sing the pieces and decide if we are happy to go ahead
The festival dress will be concert black for ladies and DJ for men
REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR COPIES OF GAUDETE & MASTERS NEXT WEEK PLEASE
WHAT WE WILL DO ON 18.02.25
Hummel: Agnus Dei (p70) and Gloria & Credo in checkout
Mozart: Agnus Dei (p72) and Hostias to Hosanna (p54)
Sing through Gaudete etc
INSPIRATION TRACK
Here is a Spotify link to the Agnus Dei and Dona nobis, last two movements of the Hummel Mass
https://open.spotify.com/track/6LUUUEe7p1pXpISfVX7aQS?si=2ccb9b0aaf954ad6
Have a good week, happy hummelling!
Peter