Apr. 19th, 2011
*smug look*
Apr. 19th, 2011 07:49 pmSo in choir, we're rehearsing, as one does (and apparently on Thursday he's going to have us sing some of the movements in groups of 16, i.e. four people per part, which is amusing me because I will have absolutely no problem but there are people who still don't even come close to knowing their part), and we get to the Cum Sancto Spiritu fugue
(in which "people like to rush through their noodles". I kind of love our conductor)
and, so, okay. The basses start, with the fugue theme, and then the tenors come in with the fugue theme modulated up a fifth, and then the altos come in on the dominant, and then the sopranos come in, but it's all building on itself. So the alto entrance apparently tends to disappear, because the male voices, especially the tenors, are doing nice powerful dancingy things, and the altos come in with a slower (but more important) entrance in the same range.
Or to put it another way, to help the alto entrance stand out, he is having the sopranos sing too.
(Sopranos. On what for us is a low C. Yeah.)
One of the things he was saying is that for the fugue theme, consonants are very important. Especially the /k/ of cum on the first note. So at some point, without really thinking about it, I decided to go pretty much all out on the consonants without worrying about having enough breath to sing the notes.
(Two things of relevance: one, C is pretty damn low in my range, so I'm not going to get much sound out anyway; and two, with a pretty much fixed rib cage I do not really have a lot of air capacity.)
So he kept wanting more k, more k, I know it feels like you're being loud but I can't hear it back here...
...and then at one point he asked who was doing the super k from [the soprano] side.
I can't really raise my hand all that well; but at least four people, including the TA, pointed at me.
"Do it like that."
Heeeee. ^_^ I am awesome!
(in which "people like to rush through their noodles". I kind of love our conductor)
and, so, okay. The basses start, with the fugue theme, and then the tenors come in with the fugue theme modulated up a fifth, and then the altos come in on the dominant, and then the sopranos come in, but it's all building on itself. So the alto entrance apparently tends to disappear, because the male voices, especially the tenors, are doing nice powerful dancingy things, and the altos come in with a slower (but more important) entrance in the same range.
Or to put it another way, to help the alto entrance stand out, he is having the sopranos sing too.
(Sopranos. On what for us is a low C. Yeah.)
One of the things he was saying is that for the fugue theme, consonants are very important. Especially the /k/ of cum on the first note. So at some point, without really thinking about it, I decided to go pretty much all out on the consonants without worrying about having enough breath to sing the notes.
(Two things of relevance: one, C is pretty damn low in my range, so I'm not going to get much sound out anyway; and two, with a pretty much fixed rib cage I do not really have a lot of air capacity.)
So he kept wanting more k, more k, I know it feels like you're being loud but I can't hear it back here...
...and then at one point he asked who was doing the super k from [the soprano] side.
I can't really raise my hand all that well; but at least four people, including the TA, pointed at me.
"Do it like that."
Heeeee. ^_^ I am awesome!