Old English Carol and rehearsal help

Hello - good rehearsal last night. Obviously, we still need to work out the difficult rhythms for O Come O Come Emmanuel. I forgot to mention it last night, but in an earlier blog, I gave instructions on where to find rehearsal files for this piece. You can visit my Dropbox or go to this link to get the files.
http://www.carlfischer.com/partbypart/satb.htm#o
That should be a tremendous help!
Also, some of you were asking about the Old English carol This Endris Night. Below are the stanzas for that old melody. For fun, try singing these words to the tune!
See you next week!

Burden:
 This endris¹ night I saw a sight,
A star as bright as day,
And ev'r among, a maiden sung,
"Lully, bye bye, lullay."

1. This lovely lady sat and sang,
And to her child did say,
"My son, my brother, father dear,
Why liest thou thus in hay?"

2. "My sweetest bird, 'tis thus required,
Though I be king veray,²
But nevertheless I will not cease
To sing 'Bye bye, lullay.'"

3. The child then spake in his talking,
And to his mother did say,
"Yea, I am known as heaven-king
In crib though I be laid.

4. "For angels bright down on me light;³
Thou knowest 'tis no nay.⁴
And for that sight thou may delight
To sing, 'Bye bye, lullay.'"

5. "Now, sweet son, since thou art a king,
Why art thou laid in stall?
Why dost not order thy bedding
In some great kinges hall?

6. "Methinks⁵ 'tis right that king or knight
Should lie in good array.
And then among, it were no wrong
To sing 'Bye bye, lullay.'"

7. "Mary mother, I am thy Child,
Though I be laid in stall;
For lords and dukes shall worship Me,
And so shall kingès all.

8. "Ye shall well see that kingès three
Shall come on this twelfth day.
For this behest give Me thy breast
And sing, By by, lullay."

9. "Now tell, sweet Son, I Thee do pray,
Thou art my Love and Dear—
How should I keep Thee to Thy pay⁶,
And make Thee glad of cheer?

10. "For all Thy will I would fulfill—
Thou knowest well, in fay⁷;
And for all this I will Thee kiss,
And sing, By by, lullay."

11. "My dear mother, when time it be,
Take thou Me up on loft,
And set Me then upon thy knee,
And handle me full soft.

12. "And in thy arm thou hold Me warm,
And keep Me night and day,
And if I weep, and may not sleep,
Thou sing, By by, lullay."

13. "Now sweet Son, since it is come so,
That all is at Thy will,
I pray Thee grant to me a boon⁸,
If it be right and skill⁹,—

14. "That child or man, who will or can
Be merry on my day,
To bliss Thou bring—and I shall sing,
Lullay, by by, lullay."

---

Notes

1. This endris night: "The other night" or "A few nights ago"

2. Veray: True

3. Light: Alight

4. No nay: Undeniable

5. Methinks: I think

6. Pay: Satisfaction

7. Fay: Faith

8. Boon: Favor

9. Skill: Reasonable

Fred Silver bio

Since tomorrow is election day, I am posting early this week. (Also to make up for my late posting last week...) Since we've been having fun singing The Twelve Days AFTER Christmas, I thought you would enjoy knowing about Fred Silver, the composer. Below is some of his bio. He just passed away in 2009. See you tonight!
********
Fred Silver graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in 1961, and was the first recipient of the
Rodgers and Hammerstein Award to a gifted composer for the Musical Theatre. In the 1970s and 80s, Fred was a very influential part of New York's Musical Theatre scene as a composer, author, and vocal coach to major artists. A Master Steinway Piano Artist, he was half of the Duo-Piano team of
DeMaio & Silver. Fred's body of work includes seven musicals including "In Gay Company," over 120 choral pieces, most notably, the song, "The Twelve Days After Christmas," (1968)
performed by Carol Burnett; the book "Auditioning For The Musical Theatre," and "The Audition Doctor" column for Back Stage Magazine.

Fun divergence

Rehearsal this week was very much out of the ordinary as has been most of this week for me; hence my delayed posting. Several of you who were not there Monday missed some great fun, a guest composer and costumes! Because of Superstorm Sandy, the composer for one of the pieces on our program, Beautiful Night, attended rehearsal and led us in learning his piece. Joe Utterback from Connecticut was scheduled to return to LaGuardia airport earlier Monday and could not get a flight back to CT until Wednesday. Consequently, he graciously agreed to lead part of rehearsal, play a few fun jazz tunes, and explained the background of his composition. It's always fun to gain additional perspective from others, and he was very complimentary of our singing and of Wooyoung's musicianship at the piano. Thing 1, Thing 2 and the Phantom were also present for Halloween week - photos to come, I hope. I look forward to seeing you all next week as November is now here. Don't forget to turn your clocks back one hour this weekend, or you may be a little early for rehearsal! Have a great weekend.

Christmas concert line up

Here is the program line up in chronological order of origin:
Christmas Through the Ages
Carols with origins from different time periods.
1100-1400’s
O Come, O Come Emmanuel – Darmon Meader

1400’s

Behold, the Great Creator – arr. Antony Baldwin

1500’s
Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine – arr. Walter Ehret

1600’s

Fum, Fum, Fum – arr. Parker/Shaw

1700’s

Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light – J. S. Bach

Domine Fili Unigenite – Antonio Vivaldi

Gloria – Franz Joseph Haydn

1800’s

The White Dove – Johannes Brahms

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear – arr. Valerie Capers

1900’s

Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree – Elizabeth Poston

Nowell – Randall Thompson

The Twelve Days after Christmas – Frederick Silver

2000’s

Beautiful Night – Joe Utterback

In Excelsis Deo! – Greg Gilpin

New season of old and new

First, great concert on Sunday! In a perfect world, we would have more time to revel in what we accomplished on that program. We sang expressively, our words were understood, the audience was quite positive in their comments, and we all just enjoyed that time of music making and celebrating. Why else do we do this that we do? Thanks to all for your fruitful efforts and for putting yourself into the music.
That being said, onto Christmas! We have pieces with a variety of musical origins for this next concert as well as a good mix of styles and arrangements. I love those familiar carols and songs of the season with just a little twist to keep me interested and engaged year after year. To that end, I will soon finish assembling recording tracks of the music on the program. If any of you have any to share, please pass them along as well. For starters, go to my Dropbox folder for the rehearsal file for your voice part for the piece O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. This publisher offers these for free, so see how helpful it is for you. Remember to NOT drag the file out of the box but to COPY it to your computer for your use.
Thanks for all you do each week. See you next Monday!

One more Monday

That says it all. One more regular rehearsal until we make our season debut. I hope you are getting to the point where you can enjoy the music while you are singing. That kind of energy comes through in our sound and expression.  We are in a good place, and I am looking forward to bringing it together in a couple of weeks. The illustrious Emily Floyd will be leading next week's rehearsal in my absence, and we welcome her return. I have sent her some notes on the music that I hope will also guide you in your preparations this week. I have listed the comments in the program order we outlined last night as well, so organize your music accordingly.

Lover and Lass

Verse words – comfortability

Dynamics – pretty much as marked

Silver Swan

Staying together – ensemble – watching for beat

Call to Remembrance

Shaping phrases

Diction

Greensleeves

Dynamics

Rhythm/timing of ending “las”

Look Down

Diction

Amaryllis

Verse words – comfortability

Rhythms – fitting together – ensemble

Sumer

Rehearsing the form of the piece which is:

Accompaniment quartet sings their part twice and continues throughout.

Everyone else sings the entire melody once through in unison.

S-B-A-T sing the melody in four part canon.

The piece ends with two more times through the accompaniment by quartet.

Let Thy Merciful

Phrase shape

A few chromatic pitches – tuning

Psalm 1

Singing the text with better diction and more forward motion as a chant.

Dynamics are:

Verse 1 – forte

Verse 2 – Mezzo forte

Verse 3 – Mezzo piano

Verse 4 – Forte

Verse 5 – Mezzo forte

Verse 6 – Mezzo piano/forte

Ave Verum

Phrase shape – expression

If Ye Love Me

Expression

Entrance both times in measure 14-15

Come Ye Sons

Light/dance quality

Enjoy these pieces, especially the ones that don't seem to get sung as often. Have a great week, and I will talk with you once again before our dress rehearsal.

Attendance and Musicianship

Both were great last night. Maybe these two principles have something in common? I think so. We always hear, "showing up is half the battle," and I think that may be more than partially true for choral groups. We can't know how we will sound or what we are capable of if there are those of us missing. We also encourage each other to sing out or to sing more expressively or to simply sing better. Only with a real representation of our ensemble can we sing as a cohesive ensemble and listen for blend and balance. Not to mention that we were able to sing the entire program which at this point is critical so as to not lose ground on any of the music. Keep up the good work, enjoy this new month, and see you next week!

Working from home

We are getting some good "grunt" work done on the music, but we have a long way yet to go artistically. I can't wait to hear us sing all this music with great confidence and expression. To that end, here are several things you can do before next Monday.
Psalm 1 - mark accented syllables as you speak each verse naturally out loud. Know how the chant fits with the words as "pointed," or marked.
Amaryllis - at least speak the words of each verse in rhythm. Mark beats in the measures where the rhythm is tricky. Use the half note = 1 beat to help you.
Greensleeves - go over your "la" part in the last section.
Sumer - read the text so that the strange syllables make sense to you when singing the music.
On the others as well as those above:
Take one piece each day (or carve out time to look at them all at once) and be sure you know where the phrases begin and end for your part (marked by breaths or rests). Also make sure where the "high point" is dynamically so you know how to shape each phrase. At least speak each phrase's text in rhythm. Know when to come in after a rest (know how to count the silences as well as the notes).
If everyone - yes everyone - would spent about 30 minutes this week doing all of the above, we will rock at our next rehearsal, which is already October 1. Not everything will make sense alone, so come prepared with your questions about those places in your music. Let's try to get to every piece next week to know where we stand.
You can sing this music - WE can sing this music together. And, I am looking forward to it!
Have a wonderful week!

Shakespearean soliloquies

I wonder how many of you visited the www.musictheory.net website over the past week? Be honest, now... I know we're busy, but I was thinking during last night's rehearsal how much those exercises would benefit anyone who took even just 5 or 10 minutes to help train their eyes and ears. As we sing some quite complex parts in our repertoire for this concert, I can't stress enough how helpful it would be. In any case, we will again rehearse as many of our current pieces as possible on Monday, so come early and be ready for another solid rehearsal.
Coincidentally, I have, over the past week, heard two separate references to words from the great Shakespeare. So, I got to thinking, I bet that many of you have a favorite passage or two from the bard's great masterworks that have resonated with you throughout the years. I will never forget being forever changed by seeing in high school a dramatic interpretation of the "Out, damn spot!" scene in Macbeth where Lady Macbeth is driven to publicly reveal her horrid, secret crime because of her immense guilt. I think, though, that my favorite is still the classic sonnet:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Ah, iambic pentameter is quite romantic, no? So, what are your favorite Shakespearean lines? Let me know by blogging about it here or sending me your thoughts. Those lines may have a place in our concert on October 21.

A snapshot of an era

Glad to be back on track with rehearsals. It was slow going last night in places after a week off, but we made it! A few reminders:
Take notes during rehearsal - mark up the music so you can remember expression, cues, and breaths from week to week.
Go to www.musictheory.net and click on "Exercises." Scroll down to "Interval Ear Training" and say "Yes" to customizing your exercise. UNcheck all the minor intervals and the tritone. Check the second box under "how should intervals be played" to hear them played in both up and down directions. Then, click "Start Exercise." WHEW! The result is a wonderful ear training exercise on all the intervals of the major scale. [Hint: If you need to hear the interval more than once, click on the sound icon at the top of the page.]
Come early to rehearsal. I will have the music in order on the board, so assemble your pages before the rehearsal begins. This will also give us a chance to catch up with each other without interrupting our singing.
Have fun! This is great music, and I hope you will enjoy singing it. Below is a brief paragraph from our upcoming newsletter. See you next week!

The Renaissance was a turbulent yet inventive period of European history. The printing press was invented allowing dissemination of information like never before. Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation highlighted the loosening of the Catholic Church's grip on society. A humanist spirit prevailed resulting in a groundswell of artistic creativity and production. Music was no exception to that rule, and a wealth of choral music from that time remains in our repertoire as one of the foundational building blocks of the modern choral ensemble. Composers began writing multiple voice parts and more independent musical lines called counterpoint. Music within the church continued to flourish as English mixed with Latin texts. Dance and folk music were the basis of many secular choral forms. It was a significant time where many guidelines of choral singing and composing were established forever permeating this fine art.

A Renaissance

Ren·ais·sance

[noun]

1.the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.

2. ( lowercase ) a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth; revival.

I think we experienced a little of our own "renaissance" last night returning to rehearsal. Our sound and musicality were quite good right out of the box. As you listen and think about our program of Renaissance music, think about the way in which the music is sung in addition to the notes and rhythms. We touched on most of our concert program last night, so spend at least some time with the music until we meet again on September 10. Here is my plan for next time:

Come Ye Sons of Art (will distribute at rehearsal)

Though Amaryllis Dance (new scores will be distributed)

Let Thy Merciful Ears

Look Down O Lord

Ave Verum Corpus

It Was a Lover

Call to Remembrance

The Silver Swan

Have a great Labor Day holiday. See you in a couple of weeks!

Back to blogging (and rehearsal)

Hi all - welcome to the new season of Choral Guild fun! I will be keeping you up to date each week with some fun or important info (or maybe even both!) right here on our blog. For starters, check your email for a link to access music files for listening and rehearsing pieces on our upcoming Early England concert. Also in that dropbox folder are the tracks from our recording session in May.

One of the pieces is a musical setting of Shakespeare's poem "It Was a Lover and His Lass." You won't want to miss the real meaning of that playful and famous text. See you at rehearsal tonight!