| Subject: |
|
Kent's e-mail to the chorus, 02/19/07 |
| Name: |
|
Liz Simpson |
| Date Posted: |
|
Feb 19, 07 - 9:10 AM |
| Message: |
|
Dear Chorus,
I need to clear up any confusion that may exist concerning your ongoing attention to learning material outside of rehearsal. I expect every chorus member to be spending at least 30 minutes each day on the music we are learning. If you do not do this, you are not only missing out on the beauty of your involvement in OSNY, you are letting down your neighbor. This is the very reason that we have been so conscious to create 1) transliterations, 2) rehearsal recordings (as David has done for Stravinsky) and to make available other learning resources. Plus you should be exploring and listening to accomplished recordings of our concert works by other choirs, some of which we have recommended to you. In short, you must put in the time to reap the rewards! There is no quick fix in music.
I know that we all have the same goal in mind- a fantastic performance! So be sure to keep daily discipline as a high priority between rehearsals. I think you may be interested in an (edited) explanation of group rehearsal technique which I recently shared with one of our members, who was inquiring as to why we rehearse so frequently on neutral (one vowel) syllables:
" ... Too many choral groups are used to singing on the words all the time. Though this may feel like you are accomplishing a great deal, the problem with this practice is that you cannot isolate intonation when words, with differing vowels, get in the way. Which is to say that vowels must be unified, and before you can unify vowels you must unify intonation separate of the vowels; without this any intonation exercise is approximate. I believe deeply in the musical principal that to learn something well you must break everything down; a good chorus must execute first the pitches and rhythms exactly on a single neutral syllable, and THEN add in the text at which time they are ready to attend to vowel unification. This is why we must rehearse on neutral vowels so much! The result otherwise is approximate approximate approximatem which for many choruses is 'good enough', but not for ours."
See you Thursday!
Kent |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
Home
bravenet.com