Retreat Weekend Notes

Homework

If you have been writing equivalent English words in place of IPA, please go through your scores and replace them with proper IPA symbols.

Be Like the Bird & Huldravisa are to be memorized for Sept 14^th.

Vem kan segla & Sister Song are to be memorized for September 21^st.

Alto 2s, please review the final line of Sister Song.

How our season is shaping up

LunaSea – “Ibsen Bites” – End of September

This is an event with approximately seven other performers/group, each with a 10-15 minute slot. Each short event will happen in a different room of an historic house on Brunswick St. We will be playing characters called Huldras (Norwegian mythical creatures) singing on the stairwell as people enter – then we will act as the guides through the house as we take audience members from room to room. For each performance, we need 16 singers – this means that nobody will perform in more than three of the four shows. There will be only four pieces of music that must be prepared for this performance.

CD Recording – November 21 - 23

The title of our CD will be Here on These Branches (this is the name of the final piece on the CD – written by a young female Canadian composer, and this will be the first professional recording of this piece)

Music is not expected to be memorized for recording.

December 13 – CD & Concert Event

XYE show, our music, food and merriment! Location not confirmed yet.  More information to follow!

Remount of Fatty Legs

Will be performed during the first weekend of May, hopefully in the new Halifax Library theatre! This remount will be longer and more involved for the choir than the first incarnation.

We will be looking to tour this show – perhaps doing school tours. This will not be part of the regular Xara season, and we will work with a reduced number of singers for this project.

Notes on Repertoire

FYI – Christina will be making an mp3 of the pronunciation of every song that is not in English! Whee!

Repertoire for LunaSea

Huldravisa

Measure 29 & 31 – the A-flat should be down the octave.

Really watch the timing from the 2/4 measure at 24

Translation: I call so loudly for my lad, didn’t you hear? And were you to come tonight, I think it would be good.

Sister Song

From Measure 1 – 11 we function in a three-part split. At Measure 12, switch to a four-part split for the remainder of the piece.

Anywhere there are actual words, please change this all to Doo-doo-doo.

Vem kan segla

See someone from your part for pronunciation if you were absent.

Be very aware of who has the melody (it changes every two measures) and make sure that you scale your dynamics appropriately.

Verse 1 & 3, follow punctuation for phrasing.

During the verse with no words, please stagger breathe so that no break is evident.

Be Like the Bird

This is the transition piece to move between rooms during the Ibsen Bites show.

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Repertoire for the CD

Here on these Branches

Bottom of page 7: Rhythm needs to be tight, watch the eighth notes.

Snow

Make sure the word “and” is overpinned with the word “end”

Songbird

Six part split.

Lullaby

Six part split.

Split in part 4 (Alto 1A) – Paige & Zoe take the top; Leah B, Sydney & Mackenzie take the bottom. In the three-way split, Zoe is alone on the top; Paige & Zoe in the middle.

In part 2, second last measure, Kallie & Kristin go up, Shila & Rachael go down.

Pakannen

For those who have sung this before, there will be MANY changes for the recording.  See notes below, and ask if you don’t know what part you are singing in any given section J

Sitting order for Sopranos:

Kristin

Shila

Rachael

Zoe

Hayley

Kallie

Maria

Nelle

Georgia

Shannon

Claire

Colleen

Brianna

Paige

Opening Page

The call is done by Kallie, Sydney & Cat

Solo line by Kristin, Shila, Rachael

A (2 before)

Melody line sung by Kristin, Shila Rachael, Kallie, Zoe & Hayley

Alto 1 line sung by Alto 2s

Alto 2 line sung by Alto 1s

A1

Same as A

A2 (2 before)

Colleen, Georgia, Brianna & Paige do the first two bars of “haha”

S2  Kristin, Shila Rachael, Kallie, Zoe & Hayley

MS1 – Shannon, Nelle, Maria & Claire

MS2 - Colleen, Georgia, Brianna & Paige

Measure 36

S1 – Nelle & Georgia

B1

S1 – Kallie, Kristin, Nelle & Maria

S2 – Paige, Hayley & Zoe

MS1 – Shannon, Georgia & Rachael

MS2 – Claire, Shila, Colleen & Brianna

Alto 1 – All Alto 2s

Alto 2 – All Alto 1s

A3

S1 – Nelle & Georgia

S2 - Kristin, Shila Rachael, Kallie, Zoe & Hayley

MS1 – Colleen, Brianna & Paige

MS2 – Shannon, Maria & Claire

Alto 1 – All Alto 2s

Alto 2 – All Alto 1s

B2

Same as B1

C1

Solo –

Measure 70

S1 – Nelle

Alto 2 – All Alto 2s

Everyone else on melody

C2 – 6 part split

S1 – Sop 1 A

S2 – Solo

MS1 – Sop 1 B

MS2 – Sop 2

Alto 1 – Alto A

Alto 2 – Alto B

D1

Same as A3

D2

S1 – Nelle & Georgia

S2A – Kristin, Kallie & Shila

S2B – Rachael, Zoe & Hayley

MS1 – Shannon, Maria, Claire, Colleen, Brianna, Paige

MS2 – Alto 1

Alto 1 – Alto 2A

Alto 2 – Alto 2B (new notes & rhythm from here to the end)

Snowforms

This piece will be on the CD, and is also in Fatty Legs

Page 5 – First two systems

Top Alto – Leah B, Mackenzie, Sydney, Camila

Middle – Tenille, Joanna, Robin, Sara, Jenny, Natasha

Bottom – Krystal, Cat, Devon, Leah P, Nikki

Page 5 – End of second system

Regular 4/8 part split

Satakieli

In Finnish, words are accented on the first syllable.

Letter I

Entries are as written until the repeat signs have gone by. At that point, singers continue to sing their line in time until Christina gives the signal to stop.

Pseudo Yoik Lite

This song needs to be quite nasal in its production.

Northern Lights

There may be slight changes in notation to this piece in October, prior to recording it.

At the end, Sop 2s only close to the “m” at the very end of the piece.

Winter

Be aware of the different feel between the 6/8 and 3/4 sections.