Circle the State with Song 2009
Teaching and Performance GuidelinesWelcome to a new year of singing! As you will see, this concert will provide your students with a variety of high-quality musical experiences. This teaching and performance guide is provided to enable teachers across the state to prepare students for rehearsal and performance together. The guide includes highlights about each piece, teaching tips, useful solfege patterns, and identification of phrases that will need extra attention. The practice CD this year has separate tracks for alto and soprano. Enjoy!
Sandy Knudson, CTWS Repertoire Chair, sknudson3@cox.net (405) 364-8305 1. Danza, Danza…..Hal Leonard 08564238 ............. Francesco Durante, arr. Audrey Snyder
We will sing this classic art song in Italian! (English translation can be found in the inside front cover. ) This is definitely a diction piece, but the Italian flows nicely with pure vowels, and the students will love it if you do! There are lots of slurs and separation in this piece- let it dance. (Especially note the staccato in m. 55 and 57 and 59). Go for the first beat, give it weight and let the 2nd and 3rd beats have less weight. This piece goes back and forth between Gm and Dm, using sequence to modulate. Note the hemiola at the end.
Voices: Language: Form: Tonality: Meter: Tempo: Marking: Instruments: 2 pt. Italian
Throughcomposed Minor
3/4
Nq
=152
Allegro con spirito
Piano
2. Two Poems of Emily Dickinson… Santa Barbara Music Publishing SBMP 230. .........................................................................................
Poetry: Emily Dickinson, Music by Neil Ginsberg Voices: Language: Unison/ 2- part English
The poetry is exquisite; teach it with extra care. Try to find original sources for these poems and have the students read and study the texts and meanings. Some Through-composed important words: Frigate= ship, coarsers-= swift/spirited Form: Tonality: Major ( with horses, traverse=crossing, oppress=weight or hardship Mixolydian flavor) toll=payment for the right to pass, frugal=thrifty, Meter: 4/4 economical, chariot= in this case, a book. In other wordsTempo: q = 60 and 88-92 look at what a treasure we have in books and literature! Very freely, legato Marking: Stagger breathing from m. 16-17 (even though a breath is And playfully taken on the CD, you need a choir to stagger breathing!) Instruments: Piano moor=bog or marsh, waste land covered with heath. Summary thought for second piece: Even if we haven’t seen something, we can be sure of what it is through the eyes of faith and imagination. In the first piece: Work on shaping the phrase with the text. Work for long phrases. In the second piece, observe the accents, and lift the “I” each time it occurs as an upbeat. Tricky measures are m. 13 and m. 32- dr sd, and notice that m. 8 ends on “mi”, but m. 20 and 40, students sing a “do”.
3. Waters Ripple and Flow…Brilee BL495…Czecho-Slovak Folk Song, arr. Becki Mayo
The rhythm of this piece is quite repetitive and quite accessible for reading. This gives you a chance to teach tam-ti and triple-ti. Make sure students sing the Q-A form in a beautiful way- passing the melody back and forth like the ebb and flow of water. This piece is also easily taught with solfege. Note the dynamic contrasts throughout the piece. Altos need to stagger breathing in m. 40-46 and should especially not take a breath between m. 42-3. Only the sopranos divide at m. 50 to the end. Read and enjoy!
Voices: Language: Form: Tonality: Meter: Tempo: Marking: Instruments: 2 part English
Unison and Q-A
Major 3/4 q = 72 Flowing, lyrical, expressive Piano
4. J’entends le Moulin……Hal Leonard 08551983……French Canadian Folk Song,
arr. Emily Crocker
The IPA and pronunciation and translation may be found in the inside front cover. This is a piece full of dynamics and accents. Another diction piece, it is full of sixteenth notes and staccato. The tricky part is for the altos. F m l s d’ and a tritone when they go from si to do in m. 22-26 and 41-45. There is a word correction in m. 44. The “tick-a” should be a “tack-a” for both altos and sopranos. At m. 86, the descant should not overpower the canon. Assign just a few students to this part!
Voices: Language: Form: Tonality: Meter: Tempo: Marking: Instruments:
2-3 part French Motivic variations Minor 2/4 q = 96 Brisk Piano
5. Sleep, My Little One (Duermete Nino) …. Pavane
P1047… Spanish/Mexican Lullaby, arr. Herrington-Glick Voices: Language: Form: Tonality: Meter: Tempo: Marking: Instruments: 2 part (3 part at end) English/Spanish Strophic ABA Major/Minor 2/4 q = 72 Tenderly Piano
There are excellent rehearsal notes on the inside front cover. This is a beautiful piece for building legato line and singing 4 bar phrases. Emphasize the poco ritardando and fermata. Experiment with different tempos and holding notes for different lengths so students will watch! Make sure singers can hear both parts in the canon (sing in a “listening way”). In m. 66, please divide only the sopranos.
6. Shoo My Love……Hal Leonard 08564248……North Carolina
Folk Song, arr. Cristi Cary Miller
Leila is pronounced- lay (long “a” sound) -la. This is a great piece for reading syn co pa. Q-A will need to be exact- listen and make the conversation come alive! Practice the lowered 7th in the Mixolydian scale. Do- ta- do! In m. 39, the quarter note in the alto line should be a half note. In the section with four ostinatos, make sure singers sing in such a way that they can hear all the parts! Claps should be half-palm claps or golf claps, and students should hold both hands near the right side of their face (conductors- left!) Practice these claps until mastered! Enjoy!
Voices: Language: Form: Tonality: Meter: Tempo: Marking: Instruments:
2-4 part English Verse-Refrain Mixolydian 2/4 q = 120
with a bounce
Piano (claps), optional fiddle and percussion
7. The Artist Teaches us All…Brilee BL552…Words and Music by Mark Patterson I never tire of Mark’s lyrical melodies and poignant texts. This will surely be a favorite. This is a disjunct melody- teach it well. Leaps of a 7th are not common in Voices: 2-part our children’s musical literature. Another challenge is in the Language: English correct execution of the triplet. Sing through all the dotted notesForm: Throughuse them to crescendo the line. This is not a metric piece. Let the composed students feel the give and take of tempo and dynamic nuance. Be Tonality: Major sure to stagger breathing in m. 33-36, m. 58-61 and m. 63-67. Meter: 3/4 and 4/4
Tempo: Marking:
Instruments:
q = 72-76 Freely, with expression
Piano
8. Swinging on a Star ……Shawnee Press EA0202 .... Lyrics by Johnny Burke, Music by
James Van Heusen, arr. by Greg Gilpin
Look for some musicians to help you close Voices: 2-part the concert with this piece- a bass player Language: English and a drummer would be great! This is a Form: Verse-refrain blast from our past. It’s time for our students to learn this winsome melody. This has some Tonality: Major- jazz scale chromatic tones- tune those half steps! There Meter: 4/4- let it swing Tempo: are straight eighths marked at the first, but let q = 132 it swing thereafter. Please note that all sing Marking: the melody the first time and that part II Instruments: Piano and combo comes in only on the 2nd and 3rd times. (It is not done this way on the CD- oops!) To my knowledge, we will not be doing the choreography at our festivals. However, feel free to incorporate it for your own school concert!
Note on division of parts: If a group should be a little bigger, it is best to inflate the middle soprano and alto; soprano will always carry. In addition, sometimes more mature students handle the middle soprano and alto more easily. Young students who are isolated and seated way to the front because of size are sometimes lost when it comes to singing their parts!! Make decisions that help your region’s students succeed! Note on alto tone quality: Altos do not need to oversing or belt their parts. Please have students bring their head voice into their chest voice. *Division of parts: for 12: S1=3, (S middle=3 and A middle=3), A2=3