Rehearsal Markings for Fall 2025
IPA transcriptions of diction notes are given in slashes /slæʃəz/.
Markings from Nov 19 rehearsal
Purcell
Purcell
- m 57: only the trio stand
- m 62: everyone stand
- m 92: all but the trio sit
- m 194, second time: stand
- m 33: Note that the 7 voices who were not marked f at m 32 are still p. Resist the temptation to match their volume.
Markings from Nov 17 rehearsal
Purcell
Purcell
- m 78-84: delete the “r” of “Ark”
- m 32-33, TB: no breath
- m 33, TB: take 8th rest out of “joy”
- m 17: insert 4 bars of shaker before T enters. SA, extend your long notes to fill those 4 extra bars.
Markings from Nov 10 rehearsal
Purcell
Purcell
- m 57: Stand
- m 264: p at “those”
- m 270: “more” (mf) at “then”
- m 274: “less” (mp) at “those”
- m 277: dim to a p at m 280
- Sit for the overture
- Stand before #1
- Sit at the end of #3
- Stand at m 71 of #5
- Sit at the end of #5
- Stand before #11
Markings from Nov 3 rehearsal
Purcell
Purcell
- m 362-end: Whenever you say “Cecilia” unaccent “-lia” and slight lift after.
- m 6: this section is “declamatory”, perhaps a bit detached
- m 25: this section legato
- m 54: declamatory like the opening
- m 17-18: no breath
- m 94: to put the accented syllables in the right place, make beat 2 just “-do-”, beat 3 “-ra-” and beat 4 two 8ths “-tur et”. Thus the whole measure reads ♩ ♪♪ ♩ ♪♪ for S and ♩ ♩ ♩ ♪♪ for ATB.
- m 96-97: make beat 4 of 96 be two 8ths for all and sing “qui lo-”. In m 96, sing “-cu-” on first beat, “-tus” as a quarter on second beat.
- m 105: make beat 2 a quarter “-sma” and beat 3 two 8ths “in re-”
- m 36, S: this line “fluty”
- m 158-159: note the marking “attaca subito” at the bottom. This means Sanford’s cutoff for the fermata will be the downbeat for m 159 (rehearsal 17)
- m 170-171: like m 158, this is an attaca
Markings from Oct 27 rehearsal
Howells
Howells
- m 13: no breath; don’t try to say the “r” of “air” until the last instant
- m 16: lift after “joy”
- m 23: lift after “earth” with a clear “th”
- m 26: note the emphasis on “mar-”
- m 27: lift after “aspire”, second syllable should be “ah”, no “r”
- m 28: note the emphasis on “ring”
- m 29: “fire” ends in “ah”
- m 40, chorus: “aftermath” with final vowel “ah”
- m 42, chorus: “dance” vowel sound “ah”
- m 53 ff: “the” with a schwa
- m 69, TB: take quarter rest out of “man” with a clear “n”
- m 92 ff: “hark” as “hawk”
- m 68 ff: “shall” vowel sound “ah”
- m 119, beat 2: less loud
Markings from Oct 20 rehearsal
Purcell
Purcell
- m 63-65: lift after “hail” every time with clear “l”
- m 66-80: much lighter and quicker, a happier sound; stress first syllable of “Harmony” with more open “o”
- m 80: less volume at “that”
- m 84: more volume at “of”
- m 180, Soli: more volume at “to”
- m 210-280: lighter and quicker, as if in 1, not 3
- m 346, T: grow the long note
- m 352, S: grow the long note
- m 372, A: grow then dim the long note
- m 14-15: clear final consonants on “cold”, “hot”, “moist”; lift after “dry”
- m 18 & 19: lift at comma
- m 11-17: Note dynamic markings are above S and below B but apply to all!
- m 17-20: lift between “sing” and “for” each time
- m 23: flip the “r” in “spring”
- m 47, S: take dot off “heart” so the “t” sounds unison
- m 48: lift after “aspire” (S again shorten note to be together)
- m 49 & 51: lift at comma
- m 75: lift after “Cecilia”
- m 80: observe mp marking mid-note (ff>mp<f)
- m 84-88, STB: clear “d” on “cold”; “aftermath” with broader “ah”
- m 100: separate “word” & “to”
- m 102: clear “t” on “night”
- m 104: take quarter rest out of “-dise”
- m 105: lift after “-dise”
Markings from Oct 18 workshop
Purcell
Purcell
- m 284: Sanford has added a repeat back to m 281 (so the organ plays this top line twice)
- m 192, SA: take off the tied quarter
Markings from Oct 13 rehearsal
Handel #3
Handel #3
- m 20: mf
- m 37: mp, and somewhat louder on each of the next 3 phrases (mm 39, 41, 43)
- m 45: mp
- m 53: mp
- m 64: mp
- m 69: lift at comma
- m 72: mf
- m 83: f
- m 90: finish full (previously marked as a dim)
- m 23: no breath
- m 29: dim to p in m 30
- m 73, Ch2: take quarter rest out
- m 77: all take quarter rest out
- m 107: take 8th out of “earth”
- m 109: take 8th out of “rise”
- m 169: Sanford will conduct the hemiola, i.e., will beat each syllable of “im-mor-tal”
Markings from Oct 6 rehearsal
Archer (new tonight)
Archer (new tonight)
- m 31-32: women divide HML
- m 49: all divide HML
- m 106-107.5: women divide HML
- m 106-112: men divide HML
- (There are other places with two notes in a voice, but if not listed above, stay on your own line; the other spots lead into 4-part divisi for men or women.)
- m 258-270: don’t sing too loud, let’s say mp, so that you have somewhere to go at pickup to 271.
- m 285-325: delete. We go straight from end of 284 to the pickup to 336. (And as noted in Sanford’s rehearsal plan, m 336 is now tutti.)
- m 387: mf, i.e., a bit less than the previous, which was probably f from 378.
- We’re making two cuts: delete mm 1-67 (so we go straight from the soprano recitative to the Allegro) and mm 145-167.
Markings from Sep 29 rehearsal
Britten
Britten
- m 169: notice there’s no rit here.
- m 179, T: take quarter rest out of “state”
- m 182, AT: no breath
- m 183, S: take quarter rest out of “-age”
- m 185, T: take quarter rest out of “beast”
- m 186, SA: drop the tied quarter note
- m 197, SA: drop the tied quarter note
- m 201, SA: no breath
- m 202, SA: quarter rest out of “did”
- m 203, T: take quarter rest out of “child”
- m 218: close immediately to the “n” of “violin”
- m 235, TB: bass sing B, tenor sing G#
- m 246, SSAT: drop the tied quarter
- m 247, S2AT: drop the tied quarter
- m 16: take 16th rest out of “leap”
- m 29: Middle men stay on the bass line, don’t bother leaping up to the upper F.
- m 79: take 8th out at each comma
- m 84: unaccent “-ny” on the downbeat
- We’re dropping pages 7–9.
- m 270: take 8th out of “-ture”
- m 271+pickup: sing louder here for about 6 measures, before backing down to the original dynamic in m 277.
- m 380, A: sing “-li-a” as two syllables on the two notes given for it.
Markings from Sep 22 rehearsal
Britten
Britten
- m 93-114: “err” rhymes with “spur” not “spare”, but lay off the “r”; maybe the whole word is simply a German open ö /œ/
- m 163: no breath
- m 169: no breath
- Use Church Latin
- m 8, 12, 20, 22, 28, 34, 38: take 8th rest out at end
- m 32: take 8th out at end
- m 53: fermata on “bis” and breath before continuing
- m 55: take 8th out of “-tus”
- m 59: take 8th out at end
- m 55, SA: no breath
- m 12: take 8th out at end
- “untune” is pronounced with a glide: “untyoon” /ən-tjun/
- m 198: mp
- m 199 beat 4: mf
- m 201: cresc to f in 202
- m 202 beat 4: mp cresc
- m 206 beat 4: mp
- m 210: cresc to f in 213
- m 216: ff
- m 21-22: women divide SSA
- m 38: S1 sings the descant; S2 joins everyone else on the unison line
- m 50: take quarter rest out of “night” (descant still sings as written)
- m 56: first vowel of “delight” is “ih” /dɪ-laɪt/
- m 87: the tempo primo should be here, not two measures later
Markings from Sep 8 & 15 rehearsals
Britten
Britten
- Women divide HML
- Per mid-20th-century British choral tradition, cut off tied short notes (in this piece, usually quarters and usually on a downbeat) when followed by a rest. Examples mentioned in rehearsal are listed below.
- m 12, S12AB: cut off tied quarter
- m 20, S12AB: cut off tied quarter
- m 24, S12A: cut off tied quarter (not an instance of the rule cited above)
- m 28, S12A: cut off tied quarter
- m 33, S2ATB: cut off tied quarter
- m 34, S1: cut off tied quarter
- m 37, S2ATB: cut off tied quarter
- m 38, S1: cut off tied quarter (per rule, not specifically mentioned)
- m 47, S12A: cut off tied quarter
- m 49, TB: cut off tied quarter
- m 50: cut off tied 8th
- m 56-67, A: Feel free to sing the tenor part if alto is uncomfortably high
- m 60: no breath
- m 66: cut off tied quarter
- Conducted in 8
- Women divide HML when there are 3 parts. Men probably divide as written.
- Do a messa di voce (mdv) on dotted half note phrases. Enumerated more specifically below. (In this context, I think Sanford really means dynamic swell / crescendo+diminuendo / double hairpins over the stated measures, not the fancy vocal technique.)
- m 21: mdv
- m 23-24, A: mdv (i.e., cresc 23, dim 24)
- m 25-26, S: mdv
- m 27: mdv
- m 29-30, S: mdv
- m 31-32, A: mdv
- m 34: mdv
- m 37-44: cresc on “from” or “to” leading into “harmony”
- m 57-58, TB: mdv
- m 68-69 & 70-71, TB: mdv
- m 81, TB: mdv
- m 88-91: mdv
- m 1-12: two bars cresc, two bars dim (3 times)
- m 17-19, SAB: this long note is song only the first time, not on the repeat
- m 77: dim to p
- m 89, S: this note is sung only the first time
- m 93-96, B: this is sung only once, the first time. The pickup “Ce-” is sung only on the repeat of the 4 bars above.
- m 114-115 & 120-124: women divide HML.
- m 66: the odd time signature symbol is essentially what we know as cut time. What looks like cut time back at m 57 is really 4/4. As a practical matter, this means m 66 and what follows is roughtly twice as fast as mm 57-65.
- m 229-232, T: sing the italicized words to match everyone else. Do this again when the line repeats at m 261.
- m 362 ff: The first syllable of “I-o” is pronounced like “eye” (/aɪ-/ not /i-/)
