Thanks, everyone, for another productive and enjoyable rehearsal! We’ll be in clinics for the first hour again next week.
VOCABULARY
Tie(s) or tied notes: when two (or more) notes of the same pitch are connected by a slur, such that one does not re-articulate the second note; the notes sound as one longer-held pitch – more detail here: https://www.studybass.com/lessons/reading-music/tied-notes/
Staccato: a note played short and lightly, indicated by dot above or below
Tenuto: a note played at full value, sustained, indicated by a short line above or below
Horizontal accent: a sharp, forceful beginning to a note, then a little decay, with the note played at full value, indicated by a small arrow > pointing to the right
Vertical accent: a very sharp, very forceful beginning to a note, with the note ending almost immediately, played very short, indicated by a small arrow pointing up
TONIGHT’S REPERTOIRE
Chorale No. 4
Nice, lush sound tonight! Continue to play this with a free, full sound (and free, full breaths), and start to shape the phrases more; allow yourself to taper the end of each phrase and take a little extra time to breathe before beginning the next one.
Mah-na, Mah-na
This is coming along nicely! The parts for this piece contain a lot of information about articulation – staccato, tenuto, horizontal accents, and vertical accents. Experiment with and practice these articulations, find out how much you can exaggerate them and how subtle you can make them. Details like this help make our performance interesting!
African Alleluia (read-through)
This piece needs rhythmic precision and lots of energy to be effective!
Bass clarinet, bari sax, horn, trombones, basses:
- at mm. 13 and 41 add an eighth note after your written rhythm, so that it reads dotted eighth-sixteenth-eighth (eighth rest, half rest to complete these measures).
Everyone:
- try practicing this piece without observing the ties (i.e., re-articulate the tied notes at their individual values instead)
- when you encounter a dotted eighth-sixteenth rhythm, leave a little space between the notes, to make it bounce
- at mm. 25-32, pay careful attention to the rhythms, specifically, the rhythmic difference between a grouping of two eighth notes (even) and a grouping of a dotted eighth note and a sixteenth note (uneven)
NEXT WEEK’S REPERTOIRE:
Perfection – We will focus on mm. 34 to the end
And Goodnight – We will focus on mm. 1-28
Soul Bossa Nova – sight-reading
