Rehearsal Markings for Spring Quarter 2008

Markings from May 5 rehearsal

Abide

• m 2: slight lift before “fast” (not a breath).
• m 11: no “r” in “com-forts”—that syllable should have schwa sound.
• m 40-43: close to the “n” of “a-men” after the first 8th-note value; e.g., men in m 40 sing “-me” + “n” as 8th note + dotted quarter (this changes a marking from the workshop). In the final measure (44), Sanford will indicate when to close to “n”.

Copland

• diction!
• m 16-17, 91: second syllable of “wa-ters” is schwa (no “r”). Same with last syllable of “to-geth-er” in 90.
• p 19-22, SA: make all those 8th notes more detached.
• m 344, T: take 8th rest out of “it”.
• m 347, TB: make that breath be an 8th rest, with a clear “d”.

Mollicone

• m 2: the portamento isn’t until the last 8th note (as marked), and it goes directly into “sleet”. So part of the portamento is on the “n”. Same in m 44, of course.

Smile

• m 52, 54, 60, 62, LTB₁: observe the accents, so that the arpeggio of “doh”s comes out.
• m 113, H: don’t sing that low E—it’s well covered by the other voices, so you needn’t make that awkward leap. (I guess this advice could also apply in m 51.)
• m 115: start with straight tone, then add vibrato for that “pop” ending.

Anthony

• more anguished, not like the pretty recording

Markings from May 3 workshop

Mary Hynes

• beginning: Sanford will give a B.
• p 3, first note: come quickly down to p after the sf.
• p 4, first m, B: cut “moon” off on the tied 8th for a breath.

Anthony

• p 5, S: to avoid wearing out, each soprano will only sing every other “Anthony” from here thru the second staff of p. 6. If you were absent, ask for an assignment next time.

Coolin

• p 6, bottom: take an 8th-note rest out of “black” for a breath.
• p 7, very middle: no breath between “me” and “under”.
• p 7, bottom: no breath after “fill”; do breathe after “goat”.

Thompson

• beginning: Sanford will give a D.
• p 3, S: note the pp marking, less than the other voices.
• p 7, top: no breath between 2nd and 3rd measures.
• p 7, bottom, B: the simile applies up to the dolce on the next page.
• p 11, STB: close to the “m” of “A-men” (somewhere around the last beat of that measure).

Ives

• beginning: Sanford will probably demonstrate the two keys to the audience, thereby finessing which pitch to give.

Whitacre

• beginning: Sanford gives A-flat.
• m 7: “doon”, not “dyoon”.

Copland

• general diction: we’re reminded again to bring out lots of “d”s in this piece. Every time you have “And God said” it should be more like “ɛndə-gɔdə-sɛdə”. Similarly, “And God called” is “ɛndə-gɔdə-kɔldə”. Apply liberally. Minimize or eliminate the “r” in “morning” and “earth”. These words appear throughout the piece—I’m not going to enumerate all the places. Some specifics: p 7, first syllable of “di-vid-ed” is “di”, not “dee”; p 14: no “h” in “herb”.
• m 25, ST: take an 8th note out of the tied quarter for breath.
• m 84, A: take a quarter note rest out of “so”.
• p 17: cut off “day” at the end of the top staff (i.e., right before solo “night”).

Somewhere

• m 42: for the molto rit, Sanford will beat each note of the triplet.
• m 45, SA: close immediately to the “m” on the sfz “some-” (reverses an earlier decision).
• m 51, T₂B₁: swap notes, i.e., T₂ sing E-flat, B₁ sing B-flat.

Smile

• beginning: Sanford will give F.
• m 37-38: pronounce “lit-tle” as an American, i.e., like “lid-dle”. Same in m 99-100.
• m 49-50: bass has melody, other parts back off (same in m 111-112).
• m 80-82: don’t oversing—let the lush harmonies come out on their own.
• m 83, A: feel free to sing the E in the tenor’s octave if it will be more comfortable.

Mollicone

• m 4: separate “-west” and “states” so that we hear all the consonants.
• m 20, TB: take 8th-note rest out of “-land” for a clear “d”.
• m 31, 32, 33: clearly articulate the “d” of weekend. Ditto for “and mild” in m 36-40.
• m 34: first syllable of “re-lief” is “ri”, not “ree”. Ditto for “re-ports” in m 49 (basses).

Amazing Grace

• The marked breaths are all 8th rests. Note there is no breath after “lost” in m 63 and 71.

Elijah Rock

• p 6: fermata on downbeat.
• p 6, upper voices: Make the two marked breaths in the top staff a 16-th rest; in addition, take a 16th-note breath out of “stood”. No breath after “would” in the bottom staff.
• p 9, end: marked breath will be more like a cesura to allow us to regroup for the subito p on the next page.

Abide with Me

• m 38: no breath after “death”.
• m 41: do close to “n” on “A-men”, but not until finishing your moving notes.
• m 44: don’t close immediately to “n”.

Markings from Apr 28 rehearsal

Somewhere

• m 6, AT: take 8th-note rest out of “us”.
• m 15, all: take 8th-note rest out of “us”.
• m 39-42: women divide HML, men TTBB; at the end of 42, S₂ move from lower staff to upper to get those last 2 notes (i.e., sing triplet “there, ah” on G-flat, A-flat, B-flat).
• m 45, SA: for the sfz on “some-”, close to the “m” on the last 8th note of the dotted quarter.

Mollicone

• m 24-25: note there is no ritardando here (not until the basses do their thing in m 26).
• m 49, B: first syllable of “re-ports” is pronounced “ri”.

Copland

• p 81: pronounce “God” in the direction of “Gawd”; articulate all the “d”s (and, God, good, blessed).
• m 244, B: breathe with SAT.
• m 244-245, SAT: over-articulate all the “d”s (ɛndə-gɔdə-sɛdə).

Elijah Rock

• p 6: First 3 measures, the 4 voices on the upper staves are divided HML+Tenor. In the fourth measure, the upper staff goes to SSA, with Alto 2 staying on the bottom staff and singing the C’s on “the rock where”. Sanford will subdivide for this slower section.
• p 7-8, B: despite the “Bass I” marking, all basses sing. After the “rock” on downbeat of D, change dynamic to mf to match tenor.

Markings from Apr 21 rehearsal

Mollicone

• m29-30, men: “New England” is HML.

Copland

• p 35 and similar places: the things that look like dotted bar lines are intended to make you put word stresses as though the next beat were a downbeat; Sanford will, however, beat the bars normally.
• various diction notes for p 33-43:
  • “and” should approach “end”; “earth” more like “uhth”.
  • lots of consonants to make clear (e.g., the k of “make” in 246, the d of “and” in 279, 281)
  • p 38 glottal on “over” (multiple times)
  • first syllables of “dominion” and “replenish” are long vowels, not reduced to shwa.
  • “subdue” is “subdyue”.

Mary Hynes

• p 2: “love of my heart” more legato than the preceding.
• p 2: take 8th rest out of final “heart”.
• p 3, first bar: diminuendo immediately away from the initial sf.
• p 4, bottom: 8th rest out of “heart”; diminuendo immediately away from the sf on “She”.
• p 7, middle: no breath between “see” and “The”.
• p 7, bottom: break after each “airily” (and also before the first one).

Hark, I Hear

• m 5-6, S: bring out the syncopated notes (i.e., put tenuto mark over the 8th on “the” and dotted quarter “-ter-”).
• m 8-16: HML in women, TBB in men.
• m 17-23.5: top line is Alto; Sopranos sit out.
• m 25-32: HML in women (with pickup being H, of course).
• m 41-end: HML in women.
• m 25-31: parts with dotted quarter notes “Hal-” lift on the dot.

God is Seen

• m 28.5-39, men: HML.

Markings from Apr 14 rehearsal

Copland

• Women divide High-Middle-Low in all the sections that have 3 notes. Specifically, m 327-329; 332-334; 337-338; 342-345; 367-371; 376-377.
• m 159, A: the first quarter (tied from m 158) should be F#.

Ives

• m31-32: no breath

Anthony O’Daly

• We’ll pronounce the second syllable of “Anthony” approximately “thaw” (or “θɔ” for IPA fans).
• Bass drone should be done without breathing in obvious places.

Smile

• Women are divided HML; men are divided TBB.

Markings from Apr 7 rehearsal

Copland

• p 18, bottom: SA cut off “lights” with the soloist’s cutoff on “years” (men continue as written).
• p 29, m 184-195: T has the tune, SAB back off

Great is thy Faithfulness

• Notice that there are no cautionary accidentals in this score. You might want to write some in.
• m 53, A: typo — “they” should be “thy”.