Voice for Life Gold Dust

Transcription

1 Voice for Life Gold Dust The quarterly choir resource full of training and repertoire ideas! Edition 6: August 2011 Welcome to this edition of Voice for Life Gold Dust from the Royal School of Church Music a quarterly resource for all Voice for Life choirs offering support, advice and training ideas for use with your singers. This issue focuses on music for weddings. Every wedding offers unique and exciting possibilities for a choir, particularly during the signing of the register, and a strong group can provide a congregation with the support they need to play a full part in the ceremony. Weddings are among the services included in Module E session 10 regular and special services in the Choir Trainer s Book. More information and music suggestions, together with guidance for couples and musicians, can be found on the RSCM s Music for church weddings page ( and on pages of Sunday by Sunday 56. August 2011 overview 2 World of warm-ups 6 Singspired! give you a new commandment by Peter Aston 9 Hymn time! Not for tongues of heaven s angels 10 Repertoire resource Music for weddings Colin Davey Voice for Life Programme Manager +44 (0) voiceforlife@rscm.com 1

2 World of warm-ups Octave leaps Begin with the Slides and Sirens exercise from the Light Blue level. nitially use slides of no more than three notes wide, but gradually extend these towards an octave, keeping the tone sustained from one pitch are to another in the voice: etc etc Now place (or imagine) a small object on the floor, about an arm s length away. As you slide up to the highest note, bend at the waist (not the neck!), picking the object up as you reach the highest note. Visualise the sound coming (forwards) out of the back of your head; this will encourage you to open your soft palette. etc Descending thirds This exercise is based on the opening motif of give you a new commandment (see page three). Begin with a descending scalic passage, sung to a bright sound: F D 7 G 7 C A C7 F F/E D 7 etc. Take care to support the pitch and tone as each phrase descends, and place the octave jus carefully (particularly the leading note in the fourth to the fifth bar). Once this exercise is secure, omit the passing notes to give a sequence of descending thirds: F D 7 G 7 C A C7 F F/E D 7 etc. Aim for well-sustained legato, and take care to keep the pitch up as the thirds descend. 2

3 Singspired! give you a new commandment give you a new commandment ntroduction This versatile anthem by Peter Aston sets words from John 13: This text is associated with Maundy Thursday, but it s appropriate for many other contexts (for exale Weddings, Eucharistic services and Remembrance) as well. This anthem may be performed in three ways: 1. as a unison anthem with all available voices singing the higher part; 2. as a two-part anthem for Soprano 1 and Soprano 2/Alto voices; 3. as a two-part anthem with all female and/or boys voices singing the higher part and men s voices singing the lower part. give you a new commandment appears, with organ or piano accoaniment, in the RSCM Bronze Collection and the photocopiable resource Season by Season. This music is covered by the CCL Music Reproduction Licence. f you have a CCL MRL, please include it in your annual CCL report. This doesn t cost you, your church or school anything, but it does ensure that coosers, authors and publishers get due financial recognition for their work. t also enables the RSCM to train the church musicians of tomorrow. Training ideas Building on the descending thirds exercise in world of warm-ups, learn the first phrase, taking care to sustain the tone to the final t (which should come at the beginning of the third beat of bar 8). Once you ve dealt with the leap at the beginning of bar 11, all that remains of the next four bars is scalic movement try sightreading this with little or no accoaniment. Take care to keep the lower part (if you are including it) bright. Take care to establish the new key at bar 16 thoroughly; when you first come to this piece, you may need more than the two given beats to fix it firmly (reduce the amount of establishing time as your singers become familiar with the music). Before learning this line with your singers, establish with them where the key changes back again: what musical effect does the lack of an A flat in bar 23 have? You may want your singers to mark a cautionary natural here. Once you have learnt bars 16 26, go back and practice picking up the new key, building backwards from bar 16. When the first theme comes back, take care to make your a little stronger than the p at the beginning this is the first step in the steady growth to the climax at bar 51. f you re using the second part, encourage your singers to shape the imitative phrases in bars independently. 3

4 Singspired! give you a new commandment n order to sustain the crescendo to the final climax at bar 51, you ll need to take a breath at the end of bar 48. Take a quaver (or even a crotchet, if you are singing in a very resonant acoustic) out of the dotted minim, to make sure everyone breathes at the same time. You ll also need to take a top-up breath in bar 46. Using the voice well The first note needs careful attention; it requires a firm onset, while being light enough to place give on the first beat of the bar, with a slight ehasis. See the notes on onset in the Diction part of section A in the Choir Trainer s Book. This piece will benefit from bright voiced consonants; particularly the n in new and the l in love. Note where the tongue goes to make these sounds. Take care to pace the diminuendo from bar 53; it will tend to happen too quickly, and lose pitch and support in the last phrase. Remember that the at bar 55 has to be loud enough to allow an effective and controlled dim. to p in the last bar. Quick-fire questions What does Andante amabile mean? (Andante in included in the list of performance directions at Dark Blue level; amabile is less common, and not included on the Voice for Life lists but your singers may be able to work it out from similarities with the English word amiable.) What key does this piece start in (Light Blue)? What key is it in in bars (Red)? What is the technical term that describes a key change? What is the first interval in bar 11? Where else in the music does this interval occur? Where is the loudest point in the piece? n the first six bars the you sing, both parts have the same music. What is this called? Where else in this piece does it happen? The second part in bars is almost the same as the first part two bars earlier. What do we call this type of writing? Which note is different? 4

5 Singspired! give you a new commandment PHOTOCOPABLE PAGE FOR SNGERS Andante amabile q = 96 p p give you a give you a 6 new com mand new com mand ment: love one a no ment: love one a no ther, love one a ther, love one a 12 no ther; as no ther; as have have 18 loved, as have loved you, so you are to love mf loved, as have loved you, so you are to love mf 24 one a no ther. one a no ther The Royal School of Church Music 5

6 Singspired! give you a new commandment love one a no ther. love one a no ther. 43 mf cresc. 48 ment: give you a new com mand love one a no f mf f give you a new com mand ther, ment: love, there is this love a mong you, then all will cresc. there is this love a mong you, then all will know, all will know that you know, all will know that you f are my di sci ples, f are that 53 dim. you are my di sci ples, that you my di sci ples, 58 rall. that you p are my di sci are my di sci ples. ples. p 6

7 Hymn time! Not for tongues of heaven s angels PHOTOCOPABLE PAGE FOR SNGERS 1 Not for tongues of heaven s angels, not for wisdom to discern, not for faith that masters mountains, for this better gift we yearn: 2 Love is humble, love is gentle, love is tender, true and kind; love is gracious, ever patient, generous of heart and mind: 3 Never jealous, never selfish, love will not rejoice in wrong; never boastful nor resentful, love believes and suffers long: 4 n the day this world is fading faith and hope will play their part; but when Christ is seen in glory love shall reign in every heart: Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) based on 1 Corinthians 13 Words Timothy Dudley-Smith/admin Oxford University Press Music Stainer & Bell Ltd, 23 Gruneisen Road, London N3 1DZ, England. 7

8 Hymn time! Not for tongues of heaven s angels ntroduction to Hymn time! This section is designed to help deliver relevant training for singers to achieve their hymn/song singing targets at Light Blue and Dark Blue levels, and for the Bronze, Silver and Gold Award exams. Aim to dedicate some of your rehearsal time each week to hymn/song singing. This could be as little as 5 minutes, perhaps after your warm-ups; it may be considerably more. The sile verse (or verse chorus) structure means that singers should be able to pick up the melody fairly quickly, but may need time to be able to read and understand the lyrics fully (young singers in particular). Don t feel you must cover a whole hymn (teaching the notes and discussing lyrics) in one rehearsal. You can cover a couple of verses one week, then come back to it the next week to consolidate, test their memories, and then add more verses. For choirs that sing regularly for worship, regular work on hymns and songs will help breed familiarity with the melodies and lyrics, allow greater understanding of the meaning of the hymn texts and irove the overall quality of hymn (and other congregational song) singing. Choirs that don t sing regularly for worship can use this approach with any verse, or verse chorus, songs to teach the music and lyrics and help your singers understand what they are trying to communicate. Background Timothy Dudley-Smith s hymn is a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13, one of the most popular readings at church weddings. t was written in 1984, as a new text to the tune Bridegroom by Peter Cutts. Not for tongues of heaven s angels can be found in the hymnbook Sing Praise, and a choral arrangement by David liff is included in the photocopiable resource Season by Season. David liff s arrangement suggests a metronome mark of = 84 between verses: it would be sensible to make the final chord a dotted minim, and leave two crotchet rests before the next verse. Training Hand out the hymn sheet on page 7 to your singers. Sing through the tune to la, or another sound. Take care to shape the descending fifths at the ends of the first and third phrases musically. Read through 1 Corinthians 13: this hymn follows the text of the reading quite closely, and this will be useful in explaining the meaning of the words. Now read through the first verse of the hymn which parts of the reading does it echo? Sing the first verse, taking care to make the words clear without breaking up the legato line of the tune. n another rehearsal, tackle the subsequent verses, referring to the reading to clarify meanings. Take care over breathing in verse four: there should be no breath following the first or third phrases. 8

9 Hymn time! Not for tongues of heaven s angels PHOTOCOPABLE PAGE FOR SNGERS Memory game This Wordle shows some of the most iortant words in Not for tongues of heaven s angels. Use them to fill the gaps in the hymn text below. 1 Not for tongues of angels, not for to discern, not for that masters, for this better gift we yearn: 3 jealous,, love will not rejoice in wrong; boastful nor resentful, love and : 2 is, love is, is tender, true and kind; is gracious, ever, of and : 4 n the day this world is fading faith and hope will play their part; but when Christ is seen in glory love shall reign in : Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) based on 1 Corinthians 13 9

10 Repertoire resource Repertoire ideas for weddings A Gaelic Blessing by John Rutter Source: Water of Life (unison; mixed voices on CD Rom); The Bronze Collection (unison); Choral leaflet Arrangement: Unison/optional two part, SSA or mixed voices with organ or piano (with optional guitar); parts for harp and strings available Often known as Deep Peace, this has again become a hit due to the recent release of Aled Jones s solo recording. Due to the gentle nature of both words and melody this has become a firm favourite at christenings, weddings and funerals. Faith, hope and love by David Ogden Source: The Sunday by Sunday Collection 1 Arrangement: Unison with optional descant and solos (and optional congregational refrain); organ; two optional parts for flute or violin Pachelbel s Canon is often requested at weddings and is too long for the entrance or recessional as it needs time to establish itself. Here it is supporting the words of Ubi caritas a hymn to love. Love one another by S. S. Wesley Source: The Bronze Collection Arrangement: Unison (with four bars of two-part writing at the end) A favourite for trebles, taken from Wesley s Easter anthem Blessed be the God and Father. Psalm 23 by Colin Mawby Source: Choral leaflet Arrangement: Unison with organ This is a useful setting of Psalm 23 ideal for smaller choirs or soloists. The text makes it ideal for general use, or at weddings and funerals, etc. As recorded by Charlotte Church on Voice of an angel. The Father s Love by Simon Lole Source: Choral leaflet Arrangement: Two-part (SS) with organ A beautiful two-part setting, written with Simon Lole s usual strongly melodic style. t is often sung with men on one line, upper voices on the other making it perfectly accessible to smaller choirs. give to you a new commandment by Peter Nardone Source: The Sunday by Sunday Collection 1 Combines the plainsong Ubi Caritas with a delightful melody. Can be sung by women and men in sile 2-part or, with divisions, SATB. Adaptable writing that is rewarding to sing. O voice of the beloved! by Grayston ves Source: The Sunday by Sunday Collection 2 Written for the wedding of the RSCM s Head of Publishing, the lovely setting, based on the famous Song of Solomon words makes an ideal anthem for weddings and Easter. All of this music is available from RSCM Music Direct. Tel: +44 (0) Fax: +44 (0) musicdirect@rscm.com Web: 10