Rehearsal notes – please Read, Mark, Learn and Inwardly Digest…
1. Introit & Kyrie
· Page 7 – much more eye-contact, please – notes are not difficult!
· Page 8/9 – tenor and soprano melodies should be memorised and off copy
· Page 9-10 transition: NO DIMINUENDO till bar 58
· F onwards – you shouldn’t need to look at your music at all!
2. Offertory
· Tenors are flatting, mostly on the repeated B’s, 7-10, and then on the C#s, 15-18
· As orchestra and soloist finish the Hostias at G, you need to be concentrating for the new entry and the tempo change
· Big crescendo at 82-83 and then DON’T let it go until after the page turn
· Bar 90 is very dangerous for early breaths – LISTEN to the altos.
· 91/92 needs careful listening; big steps going up, don’t let it sag coming down; SPIN the sound and listen to the organ for tuning. If you can’t hear it, you’re too loud!
3. Sanctus
· Breathe early with each phrase so you can float the sound. Sopranos (tenors and basses too, but I hear it worst in sopranos) – the tone from B flat to C is much wider than you think, and the hooded “oo” vowel of Sanctus flats very easily. You need to make sure that it’s always the same B flat you return to
· After C – make sure that the 8th note pickup is only an 8th, and not a 16th – a couple of people are rushing it.
4. Pie J – lovely, Amy!
5. Agnus Dei
· Another melody that needs to be memorised and right out of copy
· C onwards; sopranos, the danger is that the first note and the last note of bar 48/50/56 etc do not always match – use your good singing technique to support all the way. You tend to pull this whole passage down…
· E onwards – as the beginning – out of copy!
6. Libera me
· Be ready to explode on the “Dies Illa” after C; at D don’t let it be slower even though it’s piano, and then be ready to build to 77 and prep the diminuendo there.
· At E, altos and basses, EYES!
· At F, this is another “to be memorised” melody- very focused but also very quiet; it’s magical when you can get that suppressed tension into it
7. In Paradisum
· Sopranos, I shouldn’t need to have to do this with you four times – you know how to prep the sound, and where you need to think about going over onto a note and not climbing up to it. You finally got what I was asking for, but you have to find a way of marking that into you copy
· Please be very careful about the difference between dotted 8ths and even 8ths – there’s nearly always someone (not always the same person) who makes a mistake
· Last page everyone – notes are not hard, words are not hard, OUT OF COPY, please!
I think this can be a wonderful concert – but I need 110% focus from you all, please!
Brigid
