Rehearsal Markings for Spring 2024
Markings from May 13 rehearsal
Rose of Sharon
Rocio suggested some things to make this jazzier. The following may get tweaked a bit as we try it out.
Rose of Sharon
- m 1-5: Altos sing this line with the sopranos.
Rocio suggested some things to make this jazzier. The following may get tweaked a bit as we try it out.
- m 9–24, SA: Sing down an octave (a literal unison with TB)
- m 9: pp, with a cresc to mp in m 11
- m 13: pp, cresc to mp in 14. m 15–16 is a cresc/decresc
- m 17: p, cresc to mf in 19.
- m 21: p, cresc to mf in m 22. m 23–24 is a cresc/decresc
- m 25: f
- m 32+1/2–40, SA: Sing down an octave
- m 34: p
- m 37: cresc
- m 41: Keep the whole scat section comfortably mp, and the women sing even softer than the men.
- m 64+1/2–72, A (only): sing down an octave
- m 81–88: S sing in your octave, but softer and breathy. A sing down an octave.
Markings from May 6 rehearsal
God is Seen
God is Seen
- m 42: lift after “rays”
Markings from April 29 rehearsal
I, too
I, too
- m 38, B: take 8th out at comma
- m 44: take 8th out of “head”
- Do not do the “H” on the hummed grace notes that we were directed to do several weeks ago.
Markings from April 22 rehearsal
Deep River
Deep River
- m 8: begin a gradual cresc here, instead of leaving it all until m 9
- m 12: lift before “Lord”
- m 16: see m 8
- m 20: lift before “Lord”
- m 32: lift before “Lord”
- m 1: only mp; save the mf until the cresc in m 2
- Staccato quarter notes should be sung as 8ths.
- For the many occurrences of staccato on the first syllable of “six-ty”, pretend it’s spelled “sik-sty”.
- m 114-124: Enunciate clearly the “v” in “five” and “alive”
- m 117, SA: take 8th out of “-live”
- m 28, SA: It should be “ki-yi”, not “ti-yi”
- m 37: take a quarter rest out
- m 54: take a quarter rest out of “Gate”
Markings from April 20 workshop
Rose of Sharon
Rose of Sharon
- m 52 & 54, B: take quarter rest out of “house” and “love” (my notes of Apr 8 were wrong here)
- m 57: cresc
- m 38, TB: first syllable of “de-signs” is short i (dɪ-zainz not di-zainz), per Sanford’s usual preference on unaccented initial syllables spelled with “e”.
- m 44: no breath
- m 53: first syllable of “de-clares” is short i (ɪ)
- m 54: take quarter rest out of “-clares”
- m 2: exaggerate the “ng”s of “ring-ing”
- m 49-52, AB: be as down-home south as you want on “glo-ry” (“guh-” and American “r”)
- m 35, TB: fermata on “sea”
- m 49, SAT: take an entire quarter out of “on”
- m 63: take 8th out of “then” (i.e., strike the dot)
- m 63-64, TB: first syllable of “be-sides” is short i (ɪ)
- m 4: take 8th out of “goat”
- m 19, AT: breathe after “lip” (probably an 8th off)
- m 19, AT: take 8th out
- m 28, S: take 8th out of the D
- m 30: take 8th out of last beat
- p 11, m 5, SAT: take quarter rest out of “wood”
Markings from April 15 rehearsal
Jubilant Song
Jubilant Song
- p 3, m 9: Do the grace note on the downbeat
- p 5, m 1, TB: mp (and continue to dim as written to p)
- p 16, m 3: Sanford will conduct this 6/4 bar as two 3/4 bars. Lift between them.
- p 17: lift at the comma in m 1, but carry thru in m 2.
- p 21: last bar TB has the melody for 4 bars, so SA back off.
- p 24-25: solid “ŋə” release of “song” each time
Markings from April 8 rehearsal
My Spirit Looks
My Spirit Looks
- Grace notes are all on the beat.
- When a grace note appears on a hummed note, aspirate it with a “huh”. Other hummed notes do not do this. (This marking has been canceled.)
- Bright and somewhat nasal.
- On diphthongs that end in a “i” glide (“my”, “waits”, “ways”) go straight to the glide, rather than waiting until the end of the note.
- When we get to the stomps (m 34), stomp left foot on beat 1, right foot on beat 4.
- m 5 & 10: “valleys” is correct, don’t drop the “s”.
- m 23, T: take 8th out
- m 27, ST: take 8th out
- m 31: take 8th out
- m 32-34: do not enunciate the “t” and “d” of “sat down” separately.
- m 42, 47: single “t” in “sweet to”
- m 56: take quarter rest out of “house”
- m 91: take 8th out (but do not shorten any of the other occurrences of “-wake”)
- m 127, S: take quarter rest out of “past” (B sing as written)
- m 131: take quarter rest out of “past”
- m 133, ATB: take quarter rest out of “gone” (S sing as written)
- m 137: take quarter rest out of “gone”
- m 139: take quarter rest out of “past”
- At all the written breaths on a quarter note or longer, take out an 8th (e.g., mm 2, 4, 23, 43, etc.)
- Second syllable of “Hal-le-lu-jah” is open (ɛ)
- m 6: take 8th out of “sword”
- m 35, TB: take 8th out of “sea”
- m 37, TB: rall, with fermata on “me”
- m 41: Women are HML from here through the first 2½ beats of m 46
- mm 1-9 will be solo, let Sanford know if you’re interested in it.
- m 122: fermata at end of measure
- m 123: T middles sing the T1 line
- m 124, B: change your rhythm and underlay to match the other moving voices (S1AT1)
- m 194, SA: change the words on the second half of the measure to “deer and the an-te-lope”
- m 29-39: Men are HML (only here, not on the last page)
- m 59: huge rit, Sanford will drop into 4
- Sanford reiterated some but not nearly all of the markings from previous rehearsals, which you can find on the bottom of this page.
Markings from April 1 rehearsal
I Got Gershwin
I Got Gershwin
- Do not over-enunciate final or internal “t”, e.g., in “got rhythm”, “naughty” (naudy)
- m 123-129: do not swing (i.e., sing even 8ths). Mileposts for the cresc: m 125 mp, m 127 mf
- m 133, etc: “fascinating” → “fascinat’n”
- m 9-13: Alto has the melody, so other voices keep at p, especially sopranos.
- m 58, TB: change “ask” to “long”, as in SA.
- Close to the “m” on all the long endings of “Harlem”: m 15, 23, 39, 71, 88
- m 9: start soft and cresc, as if to depict an arriving train.
- m 28, AT: Do a turn on the first note (listen to the practice recording). I think this means replace the dotted quarter with three 8ths G-F-G or E-D-E. Swung, of course.
- m 60, AT: see m 28
- p 3, m 3: A has melody, let it come out
- p 4 & 8: the marks on “best we know” are tenuto, not staccato
- p 4, m 2, TB: take quarter rest out of “life”
- p 4, m 4: take quarter rest out of “good”
- p 5, m 2: take quarter rest out of “wood”
- p 5, m 4: take quarter rest out of “grow”
- p 6, m 5, SAT: take quarter rest out of “cake”
- p 7, m 1, SAT: take eighth rest out of “said”
- p 7, m 5, AT: take quarter rest out of “bread”
- p 7, m 6, T: All tenors sing the T2 line for 3 measures (no need to double the altos)
- p 8, m 1, ATB: take quarter rest out of “good”
- p 8, m 5: take quarter rest out of “wood”
- p 9, m 1: take quarter rest out of “grow”
- p 9, m 6, SAT: take quarter rest out of “please”
- p 10, m 1, ST: take quarter rest out of “found”
- p 10, m 5, TB only: take quarter rest out of “ground”
- p 11, m 1: take quarter rest out of “good”
- p 11, m 3: fermata on “know”
- p 11, m 5: take eighth rest out of “wood”
- p 12, m 1: Sanford will conduct each note. Move the “a tempo” to m 2
- p 12, m 5-6, B2: there is a dot missing on each B-flat
Markings from March 25 rehearsal
Deep River
Deep River
- m 14, 22, 35: de-emphasize the final “d” of “campground” rather than clearly enunciating it. Similar lack of fine diction on “want to” in the preceding measures (“wanna”).
- Except as noted, breathe at punctuation marks, taking out an 8th rest (unless the note is already followed by a rest). Sanford pointed out many of these during rehearsal, but this general rule from our last performance is a good guideline.
- m 9: no breath, but glottal on “or”
- m 32: S take quarter rest out of “house” (to place s with tenors); AB no breath
- m 12-15: women are HML
- m 36 (last note) - 44: women are HML
- m 127-130: all are HML
- m 156-161: women are HML
- Divide as written, never HML
- The word “world” is pronounced with a schwa and no American “r” (“uəld”)
- Need to enunciate the final “d” of “world” in the many places it occurs. Usually this means taking out an 8th rest. Sanford specifically noted these places, but there are probably several more: m 6, SA; m 7, TB; m 8; m 16 (8th out for all, including S); m 25, AT.
- m 20: take 8th rest out before “where”. For S this is a breath, while for ATB it’s to precisely place the “d”.
- m 22: take 8th out of “soul”
- m 42: take 8th out of “free”
- m 43, TB: There should be a staccato-tenuto mark on “-ness” (not just staccato) like SA have.
- m 59: take 8th out of “free”
- m 61, S: on beat 1 there should be a tie from the previous note (just like in the A part), so this note is still A-flat.
- m 62: take 8th out of “pearl”
- m 155-168, TB: divide HML (thru “so”)
Markings from March 18 rehearsal
The Coolin
Number your measures if they aren’t already numbered in your score. There should be a total of 38 measures.
The Coolin
Number your measures if they aren’t already numbered in your score. There should be a total of 38 measures.
- m 1: no breath at comma
- m 7: pp
- m 15, S: take 8th rest out of “slip” to place a good “p”.
- m 17: no breath after “slip”, but separate it from “a”.
- m 27: take 8th rest out of “black”.
- m 32, TB: lift at comma
- m 33: no breath at the comma
- m 36: fermata on the last note of “goat”, then breath.
- m 6-7: lift at commas
- m 11: second syllable of “com-forts” is a schwa sound
- m 25-26: lift at commas
- m 30: lift at comma
- m 34: lift at comma
- m 38: no breath after “death”
- m 40-43: as indicated, close quickly to the “n” of “A-men”. There should be about an 8th-note of “ɛ” before each “n”
- m 70, SA: 5th note should be G, not F (cf piano part).
- m 35: drop the “t” of “went”
- m 55 & 83: S2AT1T2B: not too loud, listen for S1
- m 103-106: do articulate both the “t” and “d” in “went down”
- No HML, stay on your own staff as written.
- p 9, m 2: solid “ŋə” release of “song” on beat 2½ as written
- p 10: take 8th out of “youth” and “day”
- p 11: take 8th out of last measure
- p 15: lift, or maybe even caesura, after “men”
- m 1-2: no breath
- m 2: take 8th out of “too”
- m 4, SAT: take 8th out of “-ca”
- m 5, SAT: take 8th out of “-ca”
- m 30: lift at end of measure
- m 50-51, T: ignore the small notes (for now)
- m 63-64, T: ignore the small notes (for now)
- m 73: lift at end of measure
- m 2-3, SA: divide HML (return to your regular staff at m 4)
- m 6-9, TB: divide HML
- m 16-17, SA: divide HML (men do not)
- m 44, S: first two notes should be D, E, not C, D
- m 75-76: HML for all
- m 87-90: HML for all
- Divide HML
Markings from March 11 rehearsal
Sanford announced that several pieces would divide HML in the places that there are 3 notes for men and/or women:
Sanford announced that several pieces would divide HML in the places that there are 3 notes for men and/or women:
- My Spirit Looks: HML both men and women
- God is Seen: HML for men in mm 28-40
- Deep River: HML both men and women
- Swinging’ Down to the River: HML both men and women. On the first page, T1T2B = HML, so M starts the piece.
- When Johnny Comes Marching Home: HML both men and women (except m 173-176, obviously).
Marking from previous performances
Here are markings from previous performances of these pieces
Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal
Here are markings from previous performances of these pieces
Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal
- m 0: glottal on “I” after “Hark”
- m 1-2, S: tenuto on the off-beat notes
- m 2: no breath between “-nal” and “Ring-”
- m 3: glottal on “and”
- m 5: the repeat is softer than the opening
- m 9: Women divide HML (men stay as written, TBB)
- pg 5: Altos sing the top line; Sopranos tacet
- m 24: Women are again HML; H sings “Hal-le-” in this measure.
- m 25-31: Lift on the dot of each dotted quarter + 8th “Hal-le-”
- m 33: Women divide SA
- m 41: Women divide HML (starting on beat 2)
- m 10, 14: only mf
