Notes 9-24

Tenors and Basses: good work. Continue repeatedly singing this slowly until it is very comfortable (boring?). We will then be ready for the actual tempo.

Look at the section in the new key as well, esp. the ear-bending section, mm 112 – 114.

Be sure to count rather than depend on the entrance of the other group.

I’m going to suggest it again: Please write the measure numbers of EVERY measure that we sing throughout this piece. It makes it much easier to keep track.

m 45 – The music tells us “warmly”. A good choral trick for this is to actually use warm air. Think of making a foggy circle on a cold mirror

mm 60 – 63 should be without accent at all (the music says that as well).

Altos: Mikiko and I verified that the notes in m 3 should be F# G. F#

The text is set to music very well in this piece. This means that the syllabic accent of the words falls invariably on the downbeat. Be aware and give each syllable a nudge.

m 17 should be marked f (as should the beginning of the piece)

Talk about setting words to music well! This piece is gorgeous in that way as well as many others. Try reading the poetry without the music. I think the music flows inevitably from these beautiful words.

We will be a bit more persnickety about this later on, but for now be aware of the syllabic accent throughout. The setting is not slavish, however. Notice what happens in 15 – 20. Syncopation and note length changes the emphasis: “and you should always KNOW, wherever you may GO, no matter WHERE you are, I never will be FAR away,” for example. This guy is good! We will explore this kind of thing later.

Work on the transition to m 22

Also, check notes 22 – 29 and 46 – end.

Bass 2, don’t be afraid to be a little loud with the “doo”. You are in a range that you can’t easily overdo it.

We will work on the “ooh” rhythms at 30.