Call to Celebration, A (David Angerman) Choristers Guild CGB629, Level 3

Transcription

1 Call to Celebration, A (David Angerman) Choristers Guild CGB629, Level 3! Please be sure to use two mallets in alternation in the malleted sections. Obviously, in cases such as the D4 s transition from m. 51 to m. 52, you may need to start with a single mallet as you come off of the previous rung note; please incorporate the second mallet as quickly as possible.! Regarding measure 9: it s NOT a big deal. They re all flat. Don t panic when you get there just drill measures 7-10 about 10 times in a row in rehearsal and you ll have it down. As always, once you have worked out your choreography (weaving, etc.), mark it so you practice it the same way every time (just like scales).! Note the C5 selective damp in measure 27 (and again in measure 78); this bell should damp on beat 4.! Measures such as 34 and 41 are actually in 8/8 time, not 4/4. They will be conducted in 3 (3+3+2), to accommodate the strong beaming. Measures like 35 and 37 will be kept in 4, in an effort to feel the tug of the syncopation more.! Measures 68-69: in 3! Measure 76: in 3! Measure 85: in 3! Measure 92 to end: in 3! The diminuendo in m. 93 is going from forte to piano. It needs to be a very significant change in dynamic!! Please be sure to leave yourself somewhere to go at m. 97, dynamically. The ring-touch at 98 should be very very tight, and a hand on the bass clef castings after the mart will help to control any overtone bleed.

2 Cantabile (Emily Li) AGEHR AG53244, Level 3! The tempo marking Freely will be strictly observed. (Translation: watch! If you allow me to do so, we ll take lots of time and maximize the gorgeous rubato potentials of this opening.! Note the footnote on page 3 regarding how LVs apply throughout the piece.! Treble clef (from C6 up) need mallets for the last chord.! At measure 16, the pulse will be somewhat more regular, though we ll still push and pull a bit to maximize the espressivo quality asked for (and so well written-into the piece).! Stem-up treble fluff notes in measures 39-46: easy here; the melody is in the chimes. You re here for color, not to steal the show!!! Please draw in a hairpin for the crescendo in m. 53, just as a reminder. Note that the stringendo ( tightening ) that begins in measure 52 doesn t really have an ending point we will play with it and see what works in the room. It may just go for two bars, it may go through most of the rest of that page.! Great chord at m. 61; please be sure you have a D-FLAT.! The comma in measure 63 will be a quasi-caesura. A quick break, full cut-off but not long at all.! Note that measure 75 continues the rit. from the previous bar, and slows into the broader tempo at measure 76.! Please watch carefully in measures 90-92; the tendency will be to play these longer notes too quickly.! Ringers often miss the F6 in measure 95; at a glance, it seems like everything there is tied from measure 94.! For the vib. at measure 99, I was taught by a second-grader that rather than moving the bell side to side (i.e., like a sideways shake ), it s far more effective to rotate the wrist, in effect spinning the bell a quarter turn back-and-forth (keeping the bell upright). (Think about the way a socket wrench ratchets a nut into place.) Why are these things so much easier to show than to describe in words? Anyway, that s how we re going to do it and I ll show you at the event!! Starting with the pickup to measure 101, we ll be much freer, like the beginning. I will subdivide the last two beats of measure 106.! Bells in measure 105 and 106 that are NOT part of the final chord: please keep your bells moving, even if the sound has completely decayed. Unless you re preparing to mallet the final chord (see below), please pedal your way down to the table, and damp on or near the table, rather than at the shoulder. Remain engaged until we finish the piece!! Treble ringers, please mallet the final chord (obviously with bells off the table). If you breathe with me on the prep, we ll all strike together. o Using traditional Allured assignments, the CD6 ringer will need to hold the bells in Shelley position in the non-dominant hand, and two mallets in the other. This applies for the C7C8 ringer as well. o We ll truly let the sound fade, so it ll be a long note. Please make one huge circle with your bells (full arm extension), and continue all the way to the table, where we will place the bells.

3 Crosswind (Sondra Tucker) Augsburg Fortress , Level 4-5! If you have six or seven octaves of bells, please contact me for additional doublings.! C8, note that you only ring in m. 8 on the repeat.! Measure 17 is technically an 8/8 bar; it will be conducted in 3 (3+3+2), following the strong beats.! Please change the staccato notes in measures 18, 20, 22, 24, 25 and 26 from TD to a light martellato.! Mind the diminuendo markings in both m. 25 and 26 consider the downbeat of m. 26 mf.! Measure 37 will be conducted as a 3/4 measure.! Note that the first time you play m. 37, you jump to m. 40. Within the caesura at m. 58, we go back to m. 8; the second time we play m. 37, we continue through 38 and end at 39.! In measures 40-57, you may find it helpful to have a neighbor handle the malleting (i.e., B4C5 on the G4, and D5E5 on the G5), so that they can use two mallets (which will be critical when we get to tempo). This allows the ringers who are at G4A4 and F5G5 to mart the bells as called for in the score.! From measure 41 through measure 57, every other measure is 4/4; the ones in between are 8/8 and will be conducted as such, in three (e.g., odd-numbered measures are in 3; even-numbered measures are in 4).! Bring out the rise-and-fall of the bass melody in m. 45 and m. 57.! Measure 58 will likely be conducted in 4, to achieve the molto rit. Turn back quickly (and silently!) to measure 8 this will not be a LONG caesura.! For the mart-lifted chords in m. 38, notice there s an echo lift way up high and way down low. This applies to all bells that mart-lifted in m. 38, which is all bells on those stems.! I believe that the apparent bells suspended malleting on the G5 in measure 38 is an error; please add staccato dots to those four notes and mallet them with the bell on the table.

4 For the Beauty of the Earth (Cathy Moklebust) Choristers Guild CGB562, Level 3! Please pay close attention to which voice is LVing throughout the piece.! Since the introduction is rather extended and structured around the main melody, we must be sure to feel the ritard together in m. 16. Also, the highest notes in mm can play out just a bit, to establish the beginning of the true DIX melody. Conversely, a little bit less in mm ! Similarly, the stem-up treble melody should predominate in the chime section in mm This should be fairly easy to achieve. The tough part will be bringing out the melody in mm ; stem-up trebles should really back off here!! Everyone who is malleting in the 6/8 dance section needs two mallets, period. Unless you re responsible for two bells, there s no reason not to alternate. Practice alternating between your dominant hand on beats 1 and 4 (the strong beats ), with your non-dominant hand on 3 and 6 (the weaker beats ). This section needs to have a lilt to it.! Please be sure to ring with very tight damping in the 6/8 section.! The mart-lifts in mm contain some LVs; they really should just fly by as though nothing has happened effortlessly! Note that the last three eighth notes of m. 93 are not lifted, just pressed full martellato into the table.! Similarly to above, the marts in mm need to just zip along, nice and cleanly. The stem-down bass notes are mart-lifted, but damped by their note values; all notes are mart-lifted on the downbeat of m. 126 except for the stem-up treble.! No ritard at the end it would be helpful to write this in around m. 132.

5 Jesus Loves Me (Michael J. Glasgow) Red River Music BL5055 (handbell folio), BP5055 (piano score), FS5055 (full score), Level 2+! I ll tell you the story behind this piece when we re together, but suffice it to say that this setting isn t like most settings of the tune. It s prayerful, introspective, and meant to consider the text with a sense of awestruck amazement. Therefore, we ll spend a lot of energy working on phrasing and musical sensitivity. Anywhere you see a rit. (and even in places you don t!), it s critical to read ahead and know what s next, so I can have all of your eyes to really give the piece some shape.! Since the piece has 2-3 octave and 3-6 octave parts running simultaneously, you ve perhaps discovered the need to mask the part you re not playing (mini-size sticky notes are great for this), or at least X out the first measure of each new system you don t play, and put a star or arrow or something next to the one you do play. This is great you will not have to read off of the other line at our event, as long as you follow the instructions below about the brackets.! The brackets can get confusing they are areas where people are tacet when the piece is played antiphonally. I hope to play it this way, but since it s unlikely we ll have an even split of those who have prepared the TOP LINE and those who have prepared the BOTTOM LINE, we may need to do some shifting. o First, DON T PANIC.! As I said above, you will still read off of the same line you ve been practicing; you won t have to re-mark a new score or transfer your markings, if you just take a few minutes to follow the instructions below. It looks very complicated, but it s not at all, as long as you read carefully and don t skim. o Directors, if you want to save time, you may wish to mark each score yourself rather than have your ringers do it in rehearsal it takes about 10 minutes to figure this out, and then about 2 minutes to mark one score after you know what you re marking. Once you know how to do it, you don t have to waste your rehearsal time explaining it to your ringers (which is what I m trying to avoid for our rehearsal time at festival). o Step one ALL CHOIRS: Remove any sticky notes or masking you ve put over the line you re not playing (or do all of this before you mask anything out!). o Step two ALL CHOIRS: Go through the score, and on the brackets in the BOTTOM LINE (even if you re not playing that line), put six or seven little crosshatches on each bracket, basically making it a dashed bracket. These will need to be done on the brackets around these five spots: " measures 5 and 6 " the end of 8 and 10 " middle of 14 and 16 " middle of 18 and end of 19 " middle of 36 and end of 37 o Step three FOR CHOIRS RINGING THE TOP LINE: Go through the score again, and copy the brackets you just cross-hatched directly up into your (2-3 octave) part, around the same measures/notes. Be careful with the split brackets in measure 18, and for goodness sake, be sure that you remember to cross-hatch them when you copy them, or it defeats our purpose. o Step three FOR CHOIRS RINGING THE BOTTOM LINE: Go through the score again, and copy the brackets in the TOP LINE directly down into your (3-5 octave) part, around the same measures/notes. Be careful with the split bracket in measure 18. You should be transferring down the brackets around these five spots: " middle of measures 7 and 8 " middle of 11 and end of 12 " middle of 16 (be careful) and middle of 18 " middle of 34 and end of 35 " middle of 37 and end of 39. o Step four ALL CHOIRS: Replace any sticky notes or masking over the line you re not playing. Take a deep breath, smile, and know that somewhere in Raleigh, North Carolina, I just got a warm fuzzy feeling and don t know why.!

6 ! This brackets and dashed brackets system was devised after personal experience as well as feedback from other clinicians who have directed this piece or Trust and Obey (which is constructed the same way) in massed-ringing situations. It s great when you have two choirs back at home, or when you have a room evenly split. However, the latter is rarely the case en masse, so this new system has been created to allow flexibility and consistency in telling people OK, these tables don t play the things in DASHED brackets, and those tables don t play the things in SOLID brackets. Future titles will hopefully be released with these solid and dashed brackets already engraved in the score, but as this was a new concept, we didn t foresee the challenges with it! I thank you for your patience, and hope you will find the piece worth the effort.

7 Prayer for Peace (Michael Helman) AGEHR AG36023, Level 3! Please be sure to read the Composer s Notes, particularly the third paragraph, to understand the opening chords. These are damped, not LV; however, I will hold the opening chords for varying lengths of time (notice that each has a fermata). Therefore, please just memorize these four chords so that we can all be together. They must be strong, brittle, and precisely damped, especially at the start of measure 5 (which we will hold for a very long time). The start of measure 5 must be absolutely silent, so if you re afraid you ll damp too late, please just damp early! (An extra hand on the lower bells will be helpful to eliminate overtones as well.)! The R and LV markings in measure 6 bring us to the logical conclusion that the melody is not LV throughout (unless specifically marked as such). As a default setting, plan for the LV to apply to the accompaniment throughout, when it s in between the staves. Be careful, though there are many LVs of varying lengths and in different voices. I think it s all pretty clear, but if you have questions, please feel free to or call.! Careful to observe the selective damp on E5 in measure 13.! Please make your bell changes as early as possible. (This is a good rule-of-thumb for all pieces. Waiting leads to mistakes; plus it makes your director anxious.)! Example: the only bells that should be switching at the end of measure 53 are E5 and E6 everyone else should have changed long before.! Please write in an mp dynamic for the stem-down bass chimes at m. 70. If you don t have chimes at all, please do not play the melody in mm (I would like that to be purely on chimes). However, if you don t have chimes (or you don t have the lower octaves of chimes), you may play the accompaniment (stem-down bass) on handbells. Instead of ringing them, though, please mallet (bell suspended) with a soft mallet, and damp by note value. This will more closely approximate the color of the chimes.! The echo-lifts in measure 86 apply to all whole notes, including the F5. Treat echo-lifts simile in measures ! Notice that the LV in measure 117 never ends. Therefore, don t damp anything from 117 to the end. And even after your bell s sound has decayed, continue moving the bells. It s amazing how our eyes can help our ears fill in the holes.

8 Simple Dance, A (Michael J. Glasgow) Choristers Guild CGB637 (2-3 octave version) or CGB638 (4-6 octave version), Level 2+ (optional 4-)! The concept is that the Simple Gifts melody often set to the text Lord of the Dance is actually a dance! A waltz, to be specific. To that end, I d like to move the piece in 1, rather than in 3. (For those of you who use demo recordings as a learning aid, please know that I d like to move this along faster than the demo.)! Pay close attention to the parentheses and brackets in the piece for performance at home, particularly in the 4-6 octave version. Notes like E4 in measure 6 can t do double-duty, so they re omitted by various choirs. (An analogous spot for 2-3 octave choirs is the A4 in measure 45.) For our time together en masse, however, play whatever it is you ll play as a single choir: it s all compatible for massed ringing, so it ll work out just fine!! I won t give a big bells up cue, just for the basses playing G3 (4-6 octaves) and G4 (2-3 octaves). No one else should raise their bells at this time. o D5-D6, please lift your bells quickly and precisely on the downbeat of measure 4. o E6-C7, please lift your bells quickly and precisely on the downbeat of measure 10. " This will all look very cool if the whole room does it together!! Bell hogs, beware: regarding assignments, if you generally have B6C7 (plus any octave doublings for 5-and-6 octave choirs) at the top position, this would be a good piece to let that ringer also cover the C#7, rather than having the C6D6 ringer double it with the C#6. Share the joy! (This rule can be applied, in general, for pieces which are mostly diatonic and include C# in the key signature.)! Mark your key-change notes early, way before measure 42 if possible. (Example: C5 s and C6 s should change to C# in measure 39 why wait 5 measures, just to have a chance of missing it?)! Damping throughout the piece is essential, especially in passages like 61-64, and My score doesn t have a single LV in it!! Please make the accents strong in measure 79, which will make the subito mp even more dramatic in measure 80.! There are various performance options for the ossia line that begins at measure 80. More advanced choirs (or choirs with a few advanced ringers in them) may opt to incorporate the ossia line, which outlines the English carol melody Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day (get it?). However, for our purposes in a massed-ringing setting, let s leave the dancing day business to the fiddler, OK?! During the triplet section (mm ), work on the swinging feel of the six triplets you have to ring. I recommend the bell ringers all sing the melody from the pickup to m. 81 through m. 95. (Gather round the piano if you like, make an evening of it, whatever but if you can SING IT, you can RING IT!) Just feel it; don t try to dissect the triplet (remember, each measure is zipping along with one pulse to the bar, so the triplets are really, really fast). o To contrast the triplet section, be sure that the eighth notes are very square in m. 96.! From 112 to the end, think of this as a music box sort of winding down. I will conduct measures 112 to the end in 3, and subdivide the last two beats of measure 116 (notice what the violin is playing against your part).! The mallet sign in measure 117 (4-6 octave version) applies only to the A2. Notice that the bell is suspended.