Hi everyone!
Warm-ups today mainly comprised basic solfege and tuning exercises, from singing a simple 'do re mi fa so' scale in unison to going into a 4-part split, each section taking one note of a series of chords: 'do mi so mi do', 'do fa la fa do', 'ti re so re ti', 'do mi so mi do'. Our coordination still needs a bit of work, as seen from the intermittent jumbling up of the hand signs. x)
For Ave Maria, (which we spent the most time rehearsing in order to help us memorise it), one of the issues was our lack of good phrase-offs, meaning that we cut off too abruptly at the end of a phrase. If one phrase follows after another without any rests in between they should almost sound connected. Another thing we worked on was to know when to come out into the foreground and when to be in the background, lending support to parts with the melodic material. To practice this we bent at the knees whenever our respective parts were supposed to be in the background, and straightened up when they were supposed to be in the foreground. It made a tremendous difference, and the challenge now is to achieve the same effect but without these physical aids. So when singing this song you must be conscious of when to really sing out and when to yield to other sections. Also, for certain parts to sop 1s are really counting on the alto 2s to provide them with a solid foundation, for example at the last system of page 2 where the sop 1s tend to have a drop in energy from F to the D in the 2nd bar. Remember that this song is to be memorised, with all these details & dynamics & everything in by 14 March!
We made pretty good progress for Ecce Crucem Domini, hitting a tempo of 144 and incorporating most of the dynamics. However with the increase in tempo we must be even more certain and precise about our entries and cut-offs. Be careful not to come in too loudly at section E (Radix David) or it'll ruin the effect.
We also worked a bit on Laudate Dominum where the altos had trouble with the rhythm on the 5th page onwards. Draw sticks in to help you with the rhythm and if you still can't get it, please go and ask your SL. Then, we ran through the SYF set piece, which was good on the whole except for the fact that we are still breaking between 'our' and 'home' at the very end. D:
Keep up the great work everyone, and look forward to choir camp because it's going to be an unforgettable time of fun and bonding :D
-Quianna & Ankita
