You got off to a very good start this week and so now we get busy.

At rehearsal, in sectionals, we will review #V - pgs. 21-29 and work  on #III - pgs. 38 - 46.

I'd like to divide into 3 sectionals (soprano and alto - Jean, Mary  Alice, and Jennifer, accompanists); (tenor - Jan, accompanist); (bass  - Kathy Melton, accompanist)

Assignment:
1.  NUMBER ALL MEASURES IN THE SCORE.  Begin each section anew.  Watch  out for the partial measures that begin a couple of the sections -  measure 1 should be the first FULL measure!

2.  Make use of cyberbass.com or the CD's from Charles to help learn  your part.

3.  #II - work on pgs. 21 - 29 (end)

4 Review #V and work on #III pgs 38-46.

4.  Feel free to earn extra points by going over other sections as  well as those assigned.  The fugues in #III and #VI are very hard!

Please make sure you have numbered the measures correctly.

In sectionals:
1. Review pgs. 38-46
2. Work pgs. 21-39

Assignment: # III - pgs. 38-46

Some wonderful sounds happened this week! It's going to be great.

Please warm up your voices a little (even if it's in the car) before rehearsal. I'd like to start on time - there's lots to go over!

Breathing notes:
Movement I:
SAT - m. 19 - lift after "blessed"
B - m. 20 - lift after "blest"
A/B - m. 42 - no breath
ATB - m. 50 - breathe
A - m. 52 - breathe
T - m. 51-55 - stagger breathing. m. 54 - no breath after "tears"
S - m. 54 - lift after beat 1
B - m. 54 - no breath after "in"
S/A - m. 57 - lift after "joy"
S - m. 58 - no breath
**B - m.66 - find your entrance note!
SATB - m. 74 - lift after "-eth"
S - m. 84 - lift after ""-eth"
A/B - m. 87 - carry to m. 88
S/T - m. 87 - breathe after "seed"
S - m. 91 - no breath
A/B - m. 93 - no breath
T/B - m. 94 - lift after "sheaves"
S/A - m. 111 - lift
B - m. 112 - lift
A/B - m. 132-133 - no breath
S - m. 141 - lift
S - m. 142-143 - no breath

Everyone needs to make the 2nd syllable unaccented - especially "com-fort", "bear-eth", "weep-eth", "bless-ed"

Movement III:
pg. 31 - m. 25 & 26 - change words to say "that my life-- is but"
m. 28 & 30 & 81 - change "that" to "and"

Movement VII:
Change all the words "which" to "who".

Anyone who missed last week, get the word changes from someone in your section!!!

In Sectional rehearsals, we will begin Movement VI, pg 63. Measures 1
- 209.

Here are the word changes for Movement VI:

m. 8 & 9 - change "howbeit" to "but yet"
m. 42-43 - no breath
m. 56 & 57 - tie notes and sing "chang'd", not "chang-ed"
m. 61-63 - tie notes and sing "chang'd", not "chang-ed"
m. 88 - breathe after "dead"
m. 89 - no breath after "dead"
m. 92 - tie notes and sing "raised", not "rais'ed"
m. 103 & 104 - tie notes and sing "chang'd", not "chang-ed"
m.129 - breath after "swallowed"
m. 130 - no breath after "in"
pgs 72 -74 - change any "thy" to "YOUR" and any "hast" to "HAVE"

In the FUGUE the main theme is written "Wor - thy art Thou to be prais - ed"
In each of your parts, change to: "Lord, you are wor-thy, we
praise you..."
Change any "thy" to "YOUR"

m. 234 - S/A - sing "praised", not "prais-ed"
m. 249 - A/B - written "Thou, Lord, art" - change to "wor---thy, are..." (alto connect first 2 notes of m. 249) m. 252 & 253 - sing "praised", not "prais-ed"
m. 258 - SAT - sing "praised", not "prais-ed"
m. 264 - SATB - sing "praised", not "prais-ed"
m. 268 - 290 -BST - sing "praised", not "prais-ed"
m. 271 returns original fugue - change as above m. 279 & 281- SAT - sing "praised", not "prais-ed"

pgs 81 -end - change any "thou" to "YOU", "hast" to "HAVE", "thy" to "YOUR", "art" to "ARE"

m. 325 - S/B - carry over - no breath
m. 326 - B - no breath after "pleasure"
m. 338 - SATB - lift after "worthy"
m. 339- 343 - reads "to be prais -ed, Thou Lord,"
change to read: "Lord of hon -or and might"

In sectionals, we will go over the beginning of Movement VII (pg. 86)

In rehearsal, I hope to sing through Movement IV. Then we will have experienced all the movements!

There were some lovely sounds when we "oo'd" through # IV! We have now sung through all the movements and we all KNOW where our work must be done! The fugues with their key changes and lush harmonies often don't go where we think they are and so those places with small differences should be marked in your scores! Keep listening to the entire CD's as well as your part rehearsal CD. The more you internalize the sounds of Brahms, you will find you will "hear" your parts better.

Text changes for # VII:

"Blest are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth, says the spirit, they will rest from their labors, and their good works will follow after them.
Blest are the dead who die in the Lord. They who die in the Lord from henceforth.
Blest are the dead who die in the Lord. Blest are they, blest are the.
Blest are the dead who die in the Lord. Blest are they who die in the Lord, who die in the Lord.
Blest, blest."

Specifically:

pg. 86 - S/B - Tie your first 5 notes on "blest". Change "which" to "who"
pg. 87 - ALL - don't sing "bless - ed" , tie everywhere so you sing "blest". Change "which to "who". m. 23 - SAT, lift after "dead". B, lift after "blest"
pg. 89 - ATB - change "saith" to "says". TB m. 43, change "that they"
to "they will". m. 49 & 50 - change "that they" to "they will". m.
51 - A - change "they--" to "they will". m. 54, S -change "that" to "their". TB change "that their" to "their good"
pg. 90 - S -change "their" to "good". A - change "that their" to their good". T/B - change "do" to "will". S - m. 59 - change "that they" to "They will". m. 60 - 61 change "that they" to "they will".
m. 64 - ALL - change "that their" to "their good"
NO breath from m. 67 to 68.
pg. 91 - m. 76 - A/B - change "saith" to "says". m. 79 & 83 & 84 - SAT - change "that they" to "they will". m. 81 - B - change "saith" to "says"
pg. 92 - m. 86 -88 - change "that they" to "they will". m. 92 - ALL - change any "that their" to "their good"
pg. 93 - like pgs. 86 & 87 change any "which" to "who"
pg. 94 - change any "which" to "who". m. 121 - S/T - change "which die" to "they who". m. 122 - S/T - change "in the" to "die in the".
Don't sing any "bless - ed" - only "blest"
pg. 65 - m. 133 - A - change "blessed, blessed...." to "blest are the dead. m. 135 - T - change "blessed are.." to "who die in..". m. 143 -
146 - change to "blest are they". m. 147 - A - same as 132-133 pg. 96 - T - change "bless-ed are.." to "who die in.." m. 151 -160 - change "blessed are the dead who.." to "Blest are they who.." Don't sing "bless-ed" only "blest"

Assignment for 2/12:

Tenors: pg. 43-44

Everyone: continue to work pgs. 40-46. We will continue to have each section sing their part alone with the accompaniment.

#VI - pg. 79 @ K to the end. Review pg. 75-79

Sectionals:

Review #II - pgs. 15 -17 and pgs. 21 - end and #III - pgs. 37 - 46.

Rehearsal:

#I - all

#II - pgs. 21 - end

#III - fugue pg. 38 - end and pg. 37

#- VI

Movement # V:

pg. 57 - m. 23 - change "eth" to "ed". m. 26 - change "eth" to "ed"
pg. 61 - m. 69 - change "eth" to "ed". m. 71 - T/B - changed "eth" to "ed". m. 72 - S/A - change "eth" to "ed"

Movement # II:

pg. 13 - m. 35 - change "with'reth" to "with-ered". m. 38-41 - change "de-cay-eth" to "has fad-ed"
pg. 14 - m. 67 - change "with'reth" to "withered".
pg. 15 - m. 70-73 - change "de-cay-eth" to "has fad-ed". m. 80-82 - S
- change "com-ing of Christ" to "com-ing of the Lord"
m. 81-83 - ATB - change "coming of Christ" to "com-ing of the Lord"
m. 88-90 - S - change "com-ing of Christ" to "com-ing of the Lord". ATB - change "com-ing, the coming of Christ" to "com--ing o-f the Lo-rd"
pg. 16 - m. 92-95 - S - change "husbandman waiteth" to "far-mer waits pa---tient-ly".
m. 93-95 - A - change "husbandman waiteth" to "far-mer waits pa---tient-ly"
m. 95 - T - change "wait---eth" to "wa--its".
m. 93-95 - B - change "husbandman waiteth" to "far-mer waits pa- tient-ly" (in m. 94 make the dotted half note a half note and a quarter note)
m. 104 - S/T - change "hath" to "has"
m. 106 - A - change "hath" to "has" m. 107 - B -
change "hath" to "has"
pg. 17 - m. 119-120 - change "so be ye" to "You must be"
pg. 18 - m. 159 - change "with'reth" to "withered"
pg. 19 - m. 62-65 - change "decayeth" to "has fad--ed"
pg. 20 - A/T - m. 191 - change "with'reth" to "withered". m. 94-97 - ATB - change "decayeth" to "has fa---ded"

It was the consensus of the group last week that the extra rehearsal should be on March 16 (Palm Sunday)@ 2 p.m. at First Pres. The other rehearsal is April 13 @ 3p.m. (I think)

I missed one page - I know you're groaning...

pg. 37 - m. 129 - change "Ver-i-ly" to "Sure---ly"
m. 131 - change "walketh" to "wa--lks"

At least I keep you opening your scores!

Assignment:
1. #VI - pg. 79 - end
2. #III - Review pg. 37 - 46
3. Remember that you must work on the difficult passages yourself and cannot wait to rehearsal to "hear" the notes from your neighbors. There are too many similar but different places. Continue to listen to your recordings - it does help!

The first thing I must address is that each section needs to be conscious of blending within the section.  I don't want to hear individual voices, but a beautiful blend from each section!  This work is taxing on the voices and you can't oversing and survive to the end!

Next, several people are still struggling with notes.  I can't stress enough that outside study on the tricky "similar, but very different" measures throughout the fugues is a must!  The sooner you conquer those, you will be able to enjoy singing this powerful piece.  We HAVE to avoid the last minute panic that we experienced before the last concert.  If you need more outside help, please let me know.  Kathy Melton has volunteered to help individuals or groups, if needed.

Sectionals:  Review #II - pgs. 21 - end

Rehearsal:
1.    #I -
2.     #II -
3.    #III -
4.    #IV -