From Dr. Whitmire

(8/26/09) Dear Singers – What a wonderful first rehearsal we had last night. It was great to meet so many new singers and equally great to see so many familiar, smiling faces.

We got some excellent work done as well. We are not only learning and improving our music reading skills, but establishing a rhythm and pitch discipline that will lead to a clear, shimmering rendition of the Brahms Requiem. We will keep working with “lu-lu-lu” for several weeks to learn to sing with an easy, focused, shimmering sound.

This week’s assignment: (1) Brahms Requiem Movements 1 and 2, (2) Worksheets 1-3

(1) With your Rehearsal CD and score, work on movements 1 and 2 every day.

1. Just listen as you follow along in the music (listening without the score is less helpful).

2. Sing through the movements (on “lu-lu-lu”)

3. Find the problems spots and begin to focus on them.

If you do not have a score, go to the Choral Public Domain Library, and use the score; http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/c/c8/JB45-Ein_deutsches_Requiem.pdf

(2) Locate the passages of music in the worksheets on your Rehearsal CD. Practice singing the pitches and rhythms with the CD.

If everyone completes this week’s assignment, we will have an incredible rehearsal next week.

Yours-DrW