Fall Update 2012

Off and running this season! All of the groups are settled in, rosters set, music issued. In the Callanwolde and West groups, we've been through all of the music (except for Holiday) at least once. The pieces in yellow should be memorized already and the ones in orange should be learned before the end of October. 

Holiday music will be ready to be distributed the week of Oct 16, which will give us 7 weeks of preparation before the Holiday Recital.

International Dinner

Oct 14, 2012

TR/IMM feature set--Ayele, Lucky Little Cricket

w/TCC--Scorpio and Orion

Holiday Recital

Dec 8, 2012

S’Vivon                 3  = D (mel) C/B (1st counter mel) A (2nd counter mel)

Ocho Kandelikas       2  = A/B--C/D 

Hanerot Halalu      2 =  C/D--A/B

Ayele 

Come In!

On to Bethlehem Town

Cuckoo Carol

Infant Holy         3 = A  B/C  D

A New Year’s Toast/Hoppin’ John

Round of 3 Country Dances    3 =  D (Sing After...) C/B (Robin Hood)   A(Tom)

Tell Me a Story, Sing Me a Song

March, 2013

Hine Ma Tov: A Story of Two Brothers   2  = C/D--A/B

Victory Chorus from Brundibar – with book by Maurice Sendak

Devil and Bailiff McGlynn   divisi @ end

The Jazz Man – Britten

Children's Prayer from Hansel and Gretel   2 =  A/B--C/D 

The Fox   2 = C/D--A/B

Scorpio and Orion

Lucky Little Cricket      2 = A/B--C/D

Ombra Mai Fu 

A Time to Dance

May 11 or 18, 2013

ALL

3 Country Dances  3 = D (Sing After...) C/B (Robin Hood)   A(Tom)

Jai Ho 

E Te Iwi E    3 = A  B/C  D

TR/IMM

Ah Si Mon Moine

Lucky Little Cricket    2 =  A/B--C/D 

The Fox 2 = C/D--A/B

Tango from Solfege Suite  2 = C/D--A/B

Training-IMM Part assignments - Repertoire

PIECE	SOPRANO		ALTO
	1	2	1	2
Dove and Maple Tree	A/B		C/D
Hamisha Asar	D	C/B	A
Hussar	C/D		A/B
Little Birch Tree	A/B		C/D
*Ton The	C	D	A	B
Sesere Eeye	A	B/C	A
Wanderer	A	B	C	D
Sound the Trumpet	A/B		C/D

January Report

January started with some new choristers, so playing some get-t0-know-you games was in the line up for the first couple of weeks.

Concepts

Posture, breathing reinforced constantly. Feet 10 inches apart, shoulders back and down. Keeping the rhythm in the body was a big focus this month. Steady beat in the feet and hands, then subdivision practice to prepare for sections in Birch Tree and Hamisha Asar where 2 + 3 utilized. Audiation with do-la descending was a crucial step this month. Some choristers still singing Do-la and Do-sol descending the same. Explore idea of songcatching: context of songs tell stories about people and their lives. Songs create rallying points for groups of people, instruct children, etc.

Repertoire

Birch Tree--solfege, reinforcing minor scale and Do-la skip. Meaning of song. FAQ--what's a balalaika!? Notes and rhythms are solid. Moving ahead with shaping phrases on the breath, dynamics, diction.

Wanderer--rhythm/diction lesson. How do we know where to put the final consonant? Working from p. 6 to the end with "land" on whole note and "light" on half note. Strong rhythmic pulse reinforced to get the canon going and call/response on "wamara"

Hamisha Asar--put the beat in the hands and feet and listening to the melody. Worked with diction right away--what words do you recognize? what language? What's the story? First verse memorized. Starting 2nd verse pronunciation.

Dove and Maple--Analyzing from listening to AYS-North at Holiday recital. Other sections of choir learned quite a bit from not performing it in December. They basically had it memorized by the first rehearsal in January. Worked on security of starting pitches, form, diction. Started Czech language.

Sound the Trumpet--continued where we left off in December. Worked cross-voicing sections and melismas at end of piece.

Ton The--started with language (the piece is a tongue-twister after all) and all melody sections by rote. Taught alto part with solfege to reinforce the Sol-Mi-Sol-Do relationship.

Saman--1st movement section and 1st chant are underway. Several kids learned at camp and are helping move the process along.

MISC REP News:

West Choir has the most number of new students, so Brianne re-visited the pieces from the fall--Sally, Kitty, etc.

HOUSEKEEPING: music folders distributed to new students, new agendas for JAN-MAR to everyone.

Back-to-Rehearsal Update-- North and East

Caroline and Meaghan have had a really great first two rehearsals back! I know it's early, but we are really feeling like the remainder of this season's training performances have the potential to be really spectacular. The repertoire is already coming along so smoothly, and the tone of rehearsals has been set at a higher level from the start of last week's rehearsal. We have high hopes that the singers will continue to meet and exceed our expectations as Young Singers.

We've used solfege to teach most of Birch Tree, and even did it in two part canon on our first sing-through.

We were also able to use solfege to learn Ton The. First they learned the "catchy ending" of the melody, and the entire melody fell into place soon after. Last week we learned the harmony that starts on p. 9, and we heard no complaints, only beautiful high notes :)

Only one of our singers was at summer camp, so Hamisha is pretty new to most of them. So we started with the meter, then jumped right into the text, using the monotone treble I part in the last verse to practice. Then it was no problem for them to go back and put the same text with the melody.

We've learned the melody and some of the harmony to the Wanderer. Our biggest challenge on that one will be making those phrases musical!

We're working on rhythms with IMMs, and using the syncopation the Hussar to practice.

We are continuing work on Sound the Trumpet and Dove and the Maple Tree, of course. We have introduced the concept of Songcatching. We talked about Ton The and Birch Tree, showing the singers where they could look in the front of their octavos to find out information about the song and why it fits the theme of songcatching. They seem to grasp the concept of songcatching, but don't seem to have many ideas so far of what that means for them.

On an informal note... We ended rehearsal with a runthrough of Kitty Alone. They were basically shouting, and after stopping and re-starting one or two times, we continued on. They immediately changed into the most beautiful, pure tone, and I turned to Caroline and said "I could listen to this all day." So we are glad to be working with these singers, and looking forward to seeing where they go musically over the next 4 months or so.