North/East September Update

An update from the North TR/IMM group:

Repertoire:

• We did a lot with Sally Gardens the first two weeks, then put it aside. Pulled it out this last week in September and it was beautiful! They have it well-learned and memorization should be no problem. ---What worked as far as phrasing was "painting" the phrase in the air. I have tried various ways of getting them to sing the phrases, and this was the first that got immediate results.

• The North kids know Kitty Alone really well. It's a big group-- and a very consistent group-- which means we were able to get into two parts really quickly. They maintain their parts well. But we are having a hard time with musical details such as cutoffs because they won't read it in their scores and they won't respond when we give it to them in our conducting. It makes it especially tricky in the verses where the two parts are in canon, if they aren't counting how long to hold a note. I did finally get them to hold out some of the long-duration notes yesterday, but only when I had them put down their music and watch me. With a bit of focus, this is a really solid piece for them.
  
• Give Us Hope-- we have done each section, and done the alto part. They just need to experience the song in its full form. They all want to sing melody on this anyway, so no problem for int'l dinner.
• Sesere Yeye-- They can sing it well, but we haven't added any movement. (I can do the movement, but I need to clarify if what I know is the mirrored version or the correct version, so I don't teach them left/right incorrectly.) I actually did introduce the soprano part on Wednesday, which they picked up immediately and sang well.
  
• Caroline and I had great success teaching the Dvorak melody at camp, using count singing. So we went ahead and started it with these kids; so far they have made it through the first two pages, soprano, count-singing. We figured that even though the IMMs aren't singing it, it doesn't hurt for them to learn the melody.

Other:

• We've worked a lot in warm-ups on breathing and vowel shape, and it has really showed during rehearsals.
• Lots of solfege practice. Learning arpeggios and intervals with hand signs, and mystery tunes at the beginning of rehearsal and after break.
• Again, the size of the group and their good attendance has really benefited us. We're making a lot of progress. Looking forward to getting them part assignments: the consistency will help some of our youngest new friends, and some old friends with talking problems!

East:
We're making good progress on the repertoire, but we are having to spend a lot of time on the basics of theory. Solfege and intervals are a real struggle, as is reading simple rhythms. The ability is there, we just need continued work and persistence!

Fall Kick-off

Well, September is about to bid a hasty farewell and the Young Singers are off and running. Repertoire-wise, we've got a good start from work done at Camp and Mini-camp.

Sally Gardens is in good shape and it's time to get everyone memorized on the piece and really work phrasing.
Kitty Alone is moving along pretty well on the S1 part, and kids have been introduced to the Alto, but not trained on it.
Camp kids also learned Give Us Hope and Sesere Eeye pretty well--again, parts introduced, but not trained.
Bist Du Bei Mir and Sound the Trumpet and Pergolesi Amen were worked at Camp Woodmont, but only limited work by Mini Camp kids
Saman had one or two introductory lessons--basic move and chant--and one ensemble performance of it at Woodmont
Hamisha Asar had an introduction at Camp
Polar Express was rehearsed daily at Camp but not at all at Mini-Camp

So the September report to date for Callanwolde/Mable House rehearsals:
Lot of work on audiation to get the choir, particularly IMMs to start solidifying basic intervals (Sol Mi) and diatonic steps within the scale. We've done the Name Game song/Luriala Le as an intro to Mi Re Do patterns and basic harmony. Also a little "simon says style" drill on Mi-re-do patterns. Have done some training on score-reading with Sound the Trumpet score--measure, bar, measure numbers, system, beat numbers. All TR/IMM singers should be able to look at a score and find a measure number for a particular spot. Also with Sound the Trumpet, we've been memorizing the solfeggio for m.29 to the end. TR Singers have been asked to write this in and sing it individually. about half have mastered it so far.

For rhythm skills, we've been doing some patterns and giving them fruit or color names and them reading them off the board, then identifying them in the score.

Last week, we did a lesson with improvisation during the warm-up and used the Brahms lullaby as an example of how to use ostinato.

More on solfeggio...
Sally Gardens scavenger hunt for sol-mi was OK. Tried it only by ear rather than by sight. I'd like to try it again at another time once the audiation for that particular interval is more developed, but for now, it was a good way for new kids to pick up on the melody.

Kitty Alone is still a favorite piece and the kids are on the way to having the S1 part memorized. And now for the Alto part...

The last two weeks, we've done The Wanderer--introducing the idea of syncopation--and have gotten though 2 out of 3 melodic themes. Tried to do a little of the canon last week, but rushed into into it and they got lost.

We've been hitting Give Us Hope, Saman, Sesere Eeye as we have time, but not consistently. The next big priority for Training Choir will be Dove and Maple Tree for the December Recital. Holiday folders will be distributed the week of OCT 17--7 weeks before the recital.

Now that auditions are over and rosters set, we'll be assigning each chorister a letter. Assignments will be a little different this year. We need each chorister to be assigned a letter A-D with more A's and D's than b's and c's. E.g: the combined number of b/c should equal the number of A's or D's. Thus, in 2 parts the configuration is A/b c/D; in 3 parts is A b/c D. since we don't do 4-part music in Training and IMM, the only other division we have to worry about is a four-pt round and we can always borrow singers to balance it.

Housekeeping-a-thon: tis the season for paperwork and uniform.

• INT’L Dinner rep: Sally Gardens, Kitty (A/b high c/D low), Sesere Eeye (unison on melody), Give Us Hope (no parts)
• ANNOUNCEMENTS: Turn in Yellow sheet (Scheduling), Uniform Order forms—turn in if you haven’t done so already, International Dinner coming up OCT 16—families look for dessert donation forms via email, extra hard copies of available at rehearsal next week.