Hello, Warriors,
I am so proud of our work last Tuesday! We got a good handle on a big chunk of the first movement of Stories, and sounded rather confident on most of it! Thank you for letting me push you—I'm so anxious to get the notes and rhythms into place so that we can really dig into the musicality of that work.
Next week we'll push forward as far as we can go, with the goal of feeling confident through the entire first movement by the end of the month. Remember, at our first rehearsal we did a credible job of reading through the third movement, since it's by far the most approachable at first sight, so saying we're moving right along is quite amazing. We've only had two rehearsals!
I keep mentioning that the instrumental ensemble for Stories is really bizarre, so it occurs to me that I should simply show you:
- Clarinet
- Violin
- Cello
- 2 Horns
- 2 Trumpets
- Trombone
- Tuba (!!)
- 4 Timpani, 1 player
- Glockenspiel
- Vibraphone
- Marimba
- 3 Percussion
- Piano
Good thing we'll have the use of our hanging mics, right?
Since I seem to be listing things, here's the order of pieces for the second half of the program:
- Sing Me To Heaven
- Sure On This Shining Night
- Serenade to Music
- Psalm of Life
- Alway Something Sings
- We Beheld Once Again the Stars
I would very much like you to set aside a half-hour to read all of our texts in order, aloud if possible. As I've explained several times, I see the second part of our performance as a fulfilment of the combined request and promise made at the end of Stories: "Find those you love in the dark and light...help them through the days and nights....sing anything...love and music are the last things to go."
Our six second-half pieces, taken in order following Stories, complete the arc begun with the discovery of what we now call Alzheimer's Disease.
One final note: I will have to tweak our seating arrangement just a bit more, but I'm almost finished! Remember that I had planned this concert long before COVID, and of course had no way to predict its eventual effect on our numbers, with our need to mask up again. Just imagine "Serenade to Music" with our typical 90+ singers, and Alzheimer's Stories with the same number of singers battling it out with the powerful brass section! And we haven't even looked at "We Beheld Once Again the Stars," which is a double choir piece. Distribution really matters in this concert.
That's why I have dubbed you Warriors: each of us will be giving to the max, and will be stronger and much richer for it.
See you on Tuesday night,
Solveig
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