Diction and Dynamics
Day thrrrrree (since we have been grilled in diction, this is in honour).
Today hasn't been nearly as grooling as yesturday. We have been nit-picking details to the same degree, but we are definitly getting huge leaps and bounds and getting to the good stuff of the music. Some of the pieces are truely becoming exquisite. We go from the simplicity of a Norwegian Wedding piece, to the polyphony of a des Pres renaissance musica ficta, to the soul music of Worth to be Praised; all with easy.
The effects of so much singing are finally starting to creap into my voice. Today it took almost all of the morning rehearsal to warm up, and then I found that it was just being hoarse... the afternoon was spent mouthing words. On the otherhand, i'm now basically leading overtone singing in Past Life Melodies, and playing percussion in a minimalist work called Ananda. Should be excellent, i guess this comes from talking with the conductors and pianist about my musical background, experience and styles. I'm not trying to suck up, in fact i'm doing quite the opposite, but i'm sure that others are probably seeing it that way.
This evenings rehearsal was quite good, shorter thankfully, but we managed to get some fantastic moments in pieces like Loch Lomond or Minoi, Minoi. After this we zipped right into masterclass. This must have been a bit of a shock for people not used to it, but it was quite interesting. The tag team of Sandra and Ingmar is quite interesting to see work, and well quite frankly a bit scary when your being worked on. I wasn't schedualed to go tonight, but because of a switch needed I ended up going. I sang Zur Rosenzeit by Edvard Grieg. First time through, it went resonably well (despite saying the name wrong... again... and getting grilled on it). Then came the interesting part. Lets just say they managed to take a piece that i've just been sluffing through, and having it come out sounding fantastic... mostly by just making me smack myself upside the head about what i was missing. They grilled me... hard... on it, but it made it sound so much better.
After masterclass I was talking a bit with Ingmar, and he highly recommended that I do start taking more care with what i do solo wise, that i have a voice capable of it, i just need to apply myself. This seems to be true in many things.. but i won't get into that now. Its very interesting to see how the simple lessons that i have gotten from this trip so far, have improved my singing immensly, mostly from the stand point of culminating alot of the work that i've been doing and pushed towards so far.
I've decided that i'm going to hold of posting the list of rep until the final list has been decided for the concerts as we have far more than we are going to need.
Tomorrow is going to be fun. Not only are there solo auditions, for which a few i'm hoping to get, but it is also our evening off. Which means a) getting drunk b)being out from under the umbrella of the chaperones for once c)getting to feel like an adult, and best of all d) getting to sleep in for once the next morning. As a result, there probably won't be a post tomorrow, or it will be shorter.
Anyways, i'm going to go read for a bit instead of staying on the computer, in an attempt to fall asleep faster.
Turra!
Today hasn't been nearly as grooling as yesturday. We have been nit-picking details to the same degree, but we are definitly getting huge leaps and bounds and getting to the good stuff of the music. Some of the pieces are truely becoming exquisite. We go from the simplicity of a Norwegian Wedding piece, to the polyphony of a des Pres renaissance musica ficta, to the soul music of Worth to be Praised; all with easy.
The effects of so much singing are finally starting to creap into my voice. Today it took almost all of the morning rehearsal to warm up, and then I found that it was just being hoarse... the afternoon was spent mouthing words. On the otherhand, i'm now basically leading overtone singing in Past Life Melodies, and playing percussion in a minimalist work called Ananda. Should be excellent, i guess this comes from talking with the conductors and pianist about my musical background, experience and styles. I'm not trying to suck up, in fact i'm doing quite the opposite, but i'm sure that others are probably seeing it that way.
This evenings rehearsal was quite good, shorter thankfully, but we managed to get some fantastic moments in pieces like Loch Lomond or Minoi, Minoi. After this we zipped right into masterclass. This must have been a bit of a shock for people not used to it, but it was quite interesting. The tag team of Sandra and Ingmar is quite interesting to see work, and well quite frankly a bit scary when your being worked on. I wasn't schedualed to go tonight, but because of a switch needed I ended up going. I sang Zur Rosenzeit by Edvard Grieg. First time through, it went resonably well (despite saying the name wrong... again... and getting grilled on it). Then came the interesting part. Lets just say they managed to take a piece that i've just been sluffing through, and having it come out sounding fantastic... mostly by just making me smack myself upside the head about what i was missing. They grilled me... hard... on it, but it made it sound so much better.
After masterclass I was talking a bit with Ingmar, and he highly recommended that I do start taking more care with what i do solo wise, that i have a voice capable of it, i just need to apply myself. This seems to be true in many things.. but i won't get into that now. Its very interesting to see how the simple lessons that i have gotten from this trip so far, have improved my singing immensly, mostly from the stand point of culminating alot of the work that i've been doing and pushed towards so far.
I've decided that i'm going to hold of posting the list of rep until the final list has been decided for the concerts as we have far more than we are going to need.
Tomorrow is going to be fun. Not only are there solo auditions, for which a few i'm hoping to get, but it is also our evening off. Which means a) getting drunk b)being out from under the umbrella of the chaperones for once c)getting to feel like an adult, and best of all d) getting to sleep in for once the next morning. As a result, there probably won't be a post tomorrow, or it will be shorter.
Anyways, i'm going to go read for a bit instead of staying on the computer, in an attempt to fall asleep faster.
Turra!