HEY IT'S KEEEETS!
warm-ups: okay. I’ve forgotten all about last Friday’s warm-ups, unfortunately, but I do remember today's! basically what we've found is that we're pretty airy and not focused enough. so what can we do to combat this? glad you asked! (insert cheesy smile and thumbs-up) we can put our fingers along the top of our cheekbones with our fingertips on the bridge of our nose because this magically makes us sound more focused. I really don't know why. if someone can come up with an explanation why, put it in the cbox.
then we broke up into our sections for sectionals and section bonding and since I don't know what happened during the other section's sectionals I’m just going to tell you what happened when we combined.
ecce: so we basically haven't really touched the first part. not combined anyway. I know sop 2s have already started, because we're awesome (amirite?) but I don't really know about the other sections. so the part we have learnt is from B till E.
and you know that there's a translation on the back page of the score, right? go write it down in your score. just scrawl it all over the place if you want. just make sure it's there. this is really helpful 'cuz when you're singing, you'll see the meaning of the text and you'll kind of get reminded of it while you're singing and you can try and get the mood(?) of the text into whatever you're singing. this is really important especially when you're singing in a foreign language you tend to forget the meaning 'cause you're just trying to get the pronunciation right and focus on the other stuff as well.
and if you haven't already guessed, we've put in the text for the parts mentioned above. sops be careful of rhythm, make sure you've got a suuuuper steady sense of pulse and draw sticks if you need to. if you don't know how to draw sticks, go ask your seniors.
sidebar: did you notice that at part E, the alto and sop lines are kind of symmetrical around the mezzo part? yeah I didn't either. Mr. Tay mentioned it during practice, which was the only way I could have seen it.
ave Maria: today, we practiced the pronunciation of the words again and also re-learnt the alto solo part at the beginning of the piece. if you need a guide to Latin pronunciation, here it is:http://www.mgchoir-.blogspot.sg/2012/10/practice-on-231012.html
(USE THIS FOR ECCE AS WELL)
there are a few changes, of course, since this is German Latin. I think I covered emphasis on my last post so go refer to that if you need to. 'c' is pronounced as 'ts' and when there's an 'I' after 't' it's pronounced as 'ts' again.
Info on Franz Biebl:
Biebl was born in Pursruck, now part of Freudenberg, Bavaria, in 1906. He studied composition at the Musikhochschule in Munich. Biebl served as Choir Director at the Catholic church of St Maria in München-Thalkirchen from 1932 until 1939, and as an assistant professor of choral music at the Mozarteum, an academy of music in Salzburg, Austria, beginning in 1939, where he taught voice and music theory.
Biebl was drafted into the military beginning in 1943 during World War II. He was a prisoner of war from 1944 to 1946, being detained at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan. After the war, he moved from Austria to Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany, where he served as director of the town chorus.
Singapore our home: we only really ran through the piece actually. the rhythm was pretty terrible actually and there were a lot more things that we need to work on that I can't remember right now but good news! we're going to work on them during sectionals tomorrow! yay!
announcements: please go fill up the contact list. I’d aimed to get everybody's contact info by this Friday and share it with the teachers by then too. BUT FINE. since that's not going to happen, by next Wednesday EVERYTHING must be filled up. if you don't I’ll just assume that you live in a Timbuktu cave. OR. I’ll get creative and put your names up on the blog. YOUR MOVE.
if you haven't written your well wishes for Janine, come to my class and write or just look for me during choir whenever there's a break
MR TAY SAID THAT TODAY'S REHEARSAL WAS REALLY GOOD AND THAT HE WAS REALLY HAPPY WITH OUR PROGRESS! WOOHOO! I'M REALLY PROUD OF YOU GUYS!
Love, Keets
