Rehearsal Markings for Spring 2025
Markings from Jun 2 & 4 rehearsals
If Music Be
If Music Be
- m 17: slight fermata on beat 2
- m 34: take 8th out of “sound”, and maybe a little extra time here
- m 39: slight fermata on beat 2
- m 69: fermata on beat 1 (maybe; he didn’t do it on Wednesday)
- m 9 & 10: take 8th out of final note (“dead”)
- m 20, SB: take 8th out of each quarter note
- m 22 & 23: take 8th out of final note (“dead”)
- m 37: take 8th out of final note (“dead”)
- m 51-52: delete the tied note on “meat” (make it half note, quarter rest)
- m 102-115: sing much less than the nominal dynamic during the solo
- m 67-68: no breath
Markings from May 26 rehearsal
I Am Music
I Am Music
- m 58: take quarter off
- m 67, TB: cut off on tied eighth note
- m 69, SA: cut off on tied eighth note
- m 54: Sanford will take a little extra time in the middle of the measure before starting the new section
- m 69-80: stress “slander”
- m 82-97: slight lift after “that” to enunciate the “t”
Markings from May 19 rehearsal
Scarborough Fair
Scarborough Fair
- Sanford conducts in 3 at the beginning, may drop into 1 later.
- m 25: close to “mm” on beat 1
- m 3, S: drop the tied quarter note
- m 6, S: drop the tied quarter note
- m 7, S: drop the tied quarter note
- m 52: take 8th rest out of “meat”; Sanford may take more time than that
- m 31, T: first word should be “tu”, not “ti”
Markings from May 12 rehearsal
Ego sum
Ego sum
- m 33-34: dim
- m 72, S2AT: take quarter rest out
- m 72, S1B: dim quickly, so the other voices come out
- m 7: dim the second half of this measure all the way thru m 8
- m 13-14: no breath (and also similar places that lack punctuation)
- m 30-31: second syllable of “memory” is a schwa
- m 34: second syllable of “renewed” is a glide [rɪnjud] (“rih-nyood”)
- m 44: fermata on the 8th rest
- m 105, S: don’t cresc very much; 106 is a subito p.
- m 22: fermata
- m 28, SAT: take the dot off “wound” (and it rhymes with “swooned”)
- m 30, SAT: take the dot off “are”
Markings from May 5 rehearsal
Love Is a Sickness
Love Is a Sickness
- m 31, ATB: take the f with a grain of salt: be sure you can hear the soprano melody.
- m 40, B: drop all the way to p on “Heigh”
- m 19-28, AT: stagger your breaths so that you’re never breathing at a comma. Also, don’t enunciate the “t” in “waters”; pronounce it with a dull “d” like we do in American English.
- m 29-33, B1: see previous note on breathing and diction; especially do not breath between 32 and 33.
- m 52, S: drop the tied quarter note
- m 54, S: no breath
- m 55, S: drop the tied quarter note
- m 1: Flip the “r” in “spirit”
- m 18: take 8th out of “found” to place the “d”
- m 27-28: no breath
- m 40: take 8th out of “cried”
- m 41: breathe before “Thou” (Sanford will conduct)
Markings from Apr 28 rehearsal
Canticum Novum
Canticum Novum
- m 2-8, 10-16, 58-64, 66-72: stagger breathing--avoid breathing at the commas.
- m 122, B2: After hearing the basses in the practice recording do it, Sanford thinks you should sing G♮, not G♭.
- First syllable of “divine” is short vowel [dɪ-vaɪn]
- Pronounce both “t”s in “oftentimes”
- On “tuneful” the u is preceded by a glide [tjun-fʊl]
- The last clap, for those doing it, is beat 2 of m 94.
- m 89: Sanford drops into 3 here.
Markings from Apr 26 workshop
If Music Be
If Music Be
- m 39, B: lift before “Sure”
- Jan may play an extra measure of the octave E before m 1 to make the entrance less sudden.
- m 86: lift before “I’ll”
- m 1: “Bade” is pronounced “bad”
- m 10: no breath
- m 14: no breath
- m 22: take quarter rest out
- m 23: take 8th rest out of “said”
- m 25: lift before and after “I”
- m 44: no breath, but be sure to enunciate the “t”
- m 50: no breath at the comma
- m 53: glottal on “and”
- m 54: glottal on “eat”
- m 55-56, ATB: no breath
- m 61, TB: dim as the altos do
- m 64-65, ATB: no breath
Markings from Apr 21 rehearsal
Love Is a Sickness
Love Is a Sickness
- Basses, feel free to use portamento on “Heigh ho” the many times it appears.
- Drop the “t” from “doot” in the many places it appears.
- Clearly enunciate, maybe even exaggerate, the “k” in “sickness”, especially places like m 20, SA.
- m 8, ATB: swell (cresc-decresc)
- m 16: take 8th out of “it” to place the “t” on beat 2.
- m 32, S: take 8th (the dot) out of “mind”
- m 36, S: take 8th (the dot) out of “kind”
- m 40, B: dim beat 4
- m 42: take 8th out of “it” to place the “t” on beat 2.
- m 60, STB: no breath
- Flip the “r” in “spirits” whenever you have it.
- m 13, B2: the lower note should be C#, not C natural. (The practice midis have also been updated.)
- m 14, TB: sing a schwa on the “-tle” syllable, putting the “l” on at the last moment.
- Everyone divide HML.
- m 21-22: the decresc goes to mp in the middle of 22.
- m 7-8, A: no breath
- m 9: take 8th out of “spake” to place the “k”
- m 11: take 8th out
- m 19: “shew” is archaic for “show” and pronounced the same.
- m 29: take 8th out of “heard”
- m 30-31: no breath
- m 32: take 8th out
- m 36: take 8th out of “-plied”; glottal on “O”
- m 37: take 8th out
- m 38-39: no breath
- m 39: lift after “thee”
- m 18, T2: instead of dropping to the baritone E here, you could drop a quarter earlier to the F-flat for “better voice leading”
- m 19-20, T: Be sure to read the correct notes (T1 stems up, T2 down)
Markings from Apr 14 rehearsal
Canticum Novum
Canticum Novum
- m 26: Sanford conducts this section in 2.
- m 39, HM: no breath before “Cantate”
- The divisi markings announced by Bill in his Apr 9 message were repeated. See that message for details; in brief, they are:
- Men stay on their own lines, dividing 1 & 2 where written, except in the 5 measures described below, and in the final measure of the piece, where they go HML.
The women divide HML when there are 3 notes (anywhere on their 3 staves) and SSAA when there are 4 notes. The small number of places that have 5 notes are handled two different ways:
* In m 7, 15, 63, 71, 88: women sing the upper 4 notes SSAA, T1 sing the lower alto note, T2 sing T1, and B1 sing T2.
* In m 55 and 87: Soprano highs divide to sing the upper 2 notes, while soprano middles, A1, A2 sing the lower 3 notes. The H division is Veronica, Sophie, Rachel on the upper of the two notes, Pat, Wendy, Sandra on the lower of the two.
- Women divide HML on 3 notes, SSAA on 4 notes.
- The optional clapping, by those who have hands free, goes only thru the end of page 11 [as of 4/28, this means last clap is on beat 2 of m 94]
- m 5: Rocio suggests thinking of “ba-ra” as imitating a bongo drum, “chi-ki” maracas. Later in the piece, “ko-kong” or “kong-ko” is imitating a conga drum.
- The markings in Bill’s Apr 11 message were repeated: In general, stay on your own staff, dividing 1 & 2 where written. Exceptions follow:
- m 25-27: Basses delete the upper note of the 3-note chords and sing only the lower two.
- m 34-37: Basses sing the lower two notes, T2 sing the upper E.
- m 48-53: Basses sing the lower two notes, all the tenors sing the upper note, which is the melody, all the way thru m 53, even tho the basses come down to only one or two notes before then. Meanwhile, women divide HML for all 6 measures, with H on soprano, M on alto, and L on tenor.
- m 80-82: Basses delete the upper note of the 3-note chords and sing only the lower two.
- m 104: Sopranos sing the upper two notes, ignoring the bottom notes, which are doubled in A1.
- m 108-110: Soprano highs divide the same as in Canticum Novum to sing the upper two notes, while soprano middles sing the lowest notes.
- m 110: B1 drop down to the C (the A♭ is doubled in the tenor)
- m 148-151: Basses sing the lower two notes, T2 sing the upper F.
Markings from Mar 31 rehearsal
I am music
I am music
- m 25, B: take 8th rest out at comma
- m 61, A: take 8th rest out at comma
- m 87, T: take 8th rest out at comma
- m 92, A: take 8th rest out at comma
- Women divide HML
- The syllable “die” is pronounced as the English word. IPA [daɪ]
- The syllable “tsow” rhymes with “how”. [tsaʊ]
- The isolated 16th-note “ba” syllables in the first few measures and elsewhere should be thought of more as “bap” (“bahp”) to be more percussive.
- Per the conventions of mid-20th-century English choral music, every note ending in a tied-8th followed by a rest should have the 8th note deleted. For example, m 6 A, m 7 STB.
- m 25-27, B: delete the upper note of the 3-note chords and sing only the lower two (the upper is doubled in the tenor)
- (See Apr 14 markings for more divisi details, which were changed from tonight’s markings.)
Markings from Mar 24 rehearsal
Canticum Novum
Canticum Novum
- m 31: take quarter rest (the dot) out of “-jus”.
- m 73: Sanford is conducting this as 4+3+3+3