Rehearsal Notes from 10/15

Hi ladies,

Here's what we rehearsed on Monday:

Morning's Innocent: measures 17-41.
Vacuum: measures 60-75: Really look at the piece for next week.
Night: measures 4-12. Jessica suggested to first try conquering measures 6-12 on your own, then sing it again while listening to another part.
Landscape: measures 29 to the end.
Diamonds: measures 4-24.
Autumn: measures 24-48.
Pedestals: Please have this memorized for next week!
Changeless: We did a sing-through.
Earth: Pickup to 73 to the end, then we did a run of the piece.

Next week, rehearsal is ending at 8:30, followed by a board meeting, so please get to rehearsal on time so that we can work on as many things as possible. :)

Have a wonderful week- see you next time!

-Melanie

10/1 Rehearsal Notes

Hello ladies,

What a rehearsal we had on Monday! We did some difficult stuff but we all did a great job!

Here's what we rehearsed:

Night: working backwards from 25-18. Work on your "stars"!
Blacksmith: measures 19-23. In two weeks, Jessica would like us to have a solid beginning section (especially measures 11-17). She will be posting a sound file of SALT's performance on the BVS site: take a listen to it.
Pedestals: worked from measure 49 until the end, then did a read through
Earth: we worked on measures 53-71 and then read through to the end
Changeless: we worked on page 7
Landscape: measures 24-27
Vacuum: focused on measures 39-60, read through page 6.

We do not have rehearsal next Monday, so please take some extra time to review the above so we can have a smooth transition to the next rehearsal.

See you then- have a great two weeks!

Melanie

9/24 Rehearsal Notes

Hi ladies,

So I finally think I have this mass email thing working! For those of you who didn't receive last weeks email, I apologize.

At last nights rehearsal:

We worked backwards from measure 50 for I Will be Earth.

We also worked backwards from measure 23 of Landscape and then did a casual read through until the end.

Make sure the vowel in "whisper" is elongated- don't place the s sound to quickly!

We emphasized measures 7-9 of Changeless and then sang through the whole piece.

For Blacksmith we reviewed to measure 10 and then worked on measures 11-13.

For Vacuum, measure 31 for the altos: eighth rest, quarter note, eighth note, quarter note. Jessica also asked us to go to www.stephenhatfield.com and check out the excerpt.

We reviewed Pedestals to the end.

Please look over Night for we didn't get a chance to work on it last night and will be on Monday.

See you then!

Melanie

9/10 Rehearsal Notes

Hi all,

Every week you will be receiving can e-mail from me regarding that week's rehearsal and what you should look over for next week.

What we did last night:
Read through Songs for Women's Voices: number's 1, 2, 3 and 6
Read through Three Ways to Vacuum Your House
Read through Dream Song
Worked on the first four measures of The Blacksmith
We also introduced the board and had a nice icebreaker with some refreshments. :)

Jessica will be putting up practice tracks on the BVS site and has also put together an Excel layout of what should be practiced. She will be sending these through e-mail as an attachment. You should print these out and bring them with you to each rehearsal for there is room on the form to write notes.

Looking forward to a wonderful season!

Melanie

Walker Recording

Hi everyone,

Please check out the website below for the "Songs for Women's Voices"
recordings:

http://www.gwynethwalker.com/walkinst.html#womenpiano

Jessica

April 10 Rehearsal Notes

Hey BVSers,

Here's what we rehearsed last night (4/10):
Hebrew love songs #5
Finished On Children
Schumann #4 with German, then all Schumann pieces
All Hebrew love songs
Holst
Small group songs

For next week, whatever we don't know we can't sing in the concert! So, it's imperative that everyone practices, especially Hebrew love song #3--this should be near perfect, and you should be sure to practice the Schumann pieces with the German. Practice everything for next week.

Melissa

Dear BVSers,

In today's rehearsal we rehearsed the following pieces:

1. Hebrew #2 measure 50-end
2. Schumann #1 with German. Please note that there is a missing umlaut on the word schon in m. 37
3. Smetana #1-3
4. Irving Berlin songs

We will go through the following pieces next week:

1. Holst: Spring and Summer, everything
2. German on Schumann #2; know notes
3. Notes on Schumann #3
4. Review Schumann #1
5. On Children--email Jessica if you don't have this
6. Review Hebrew #1-3
7. Small group--Heart We Will Forget Him

Good night!

Melissa

Hi -

Please learn and review as follows for next week's rehearsal

SCHUMANN

#1 review notes and rhythms

#2 learn notes and rhythms

BERLIN

No Business both verses should be memorized

Blue Skies should be memorized

I Love a Piano - all notes and rhythms should be solid

HOLST

Spring - review with a focus on dynamics and phrasing

Summer - review notes and rhythms especially on pages 6-7 and the last page

SMETANA

#1 & 2 should be solid

Review notes, rhythms and words to #3

WHITACRE (Hebrew)

#1 Review

#2 Learn notes, rhythms and words in measures 51 through the end

#3 Review notes (altos especially) and learn words

Thanks!

Rehearsal Notes for 3/5

From Vanessa:
Here is what to rehearse for March 5th,

Practice the Schumann #1. be ready to learn the German.
Smetana - all notes to #3
Whitacre - all notes for #3 and #4
Memorize No Business Like Show Business

Vocal Exercises

Sara's vocalization exercises that we reviewed during the retreat are online on the Exercises page.

Rehearsal Notes from 2/5/07

Dear BVS,

For next week, please rehearse the following-
Summer: measures 1-37
Spring: measures 1-66 all notes
Blue Skies: memorize by 2/26
Hebrew Love Song #1: all words and notes
Hebrew Love Song #2: measures 1-50 with words, all notes for 51 to the end
Hebrew Love Song #3: all notes
Smetana #1: know the entire song with the words

A few other items-
If you haven't already, please write in the measure numbers for Blue Skies and No Business
Also, next week's rehearsal will start downstairs due to a PTA meeting in the auditorium. There will be signs or singers to guide you.
As a reminder, there is no rehearsal on 2/19.
And please save June 3rd for a potential concert with a women's choir visiting from Sweden.

Details TBD.

Updated Rehearsal Tracks

The Smetana is now online as well as three other songs for which we don't have the music yet. I know there was some problem with the alto part for Kala Kalla, which mysteriously resolved itself. Let me know if the problem persists.

Songs to rehearse fo 2/5

From Vanessa
Hello ladies,

For this coming Monday 2/5, Jessica would like us to review:

Whitacre - Learn notes to song I. Have song II solid through measure 50.

Irving Berlin - Blue Sky - have the entire song solid.

No Business - learn notes up to the first ending, measure 75.

Holst - Spring - review all notes upto measure 38.

Summer - review the counting on the first page up to measure 28.

I believe everything is up and running on the website, so we shouldn't have a problem reviewing these songs. See you on Monday!

Vanessa

Rehearsal Tracks are online

The following rehearsal tracks have been uploaded
All of Irving Berlin
The Encore
Spring and Summer
Schubert
Hebrew Love Songs, except for the Soprano part on the last song

Concert Recording

Here is the link to the songs from the concert on the website, if you can't wait for your CD:

www.bellavocesingers.com/moresongs.htm

I'm experimenting with new website colors too - I've just been playing around with that particular page, not the whole site yet. Anyway, it will sound better *not* on computer speakers - also your CDs will sound better, since they won't be mp3 files. But it's a nice start for you to know just how great you sounded in December!

Looking forward to seeing you on the 22nd, and don't forget about our retreat on Jan 27 from 10-2!!!

(And some of you still didn't respond to my last email regarding whether or not you'll be joining again - can you please let me know asap? Thanks!)

See you all soon,

Jessica

P.S. Let me know if any of the song links don't work, and please note that Petit Enfant and Slumber my darling are on the same track (sorry about that)