Aim for the Stars
After a warm-up with our voices, tongues and brains, we finished off Once Upon a December.
Link words together as in ‘dim a san ember’ for ‘dim as an ember’
Tenors and Basses as you sing change with the chords and don’t flow with the underlying piano part.
Also do not sing The Tune in ‘Things my heart seems to know..’ if it feels too low, you’re singing it wrong!
When singing the word ‘storm’ in ‘…through a silver storm..’ change the vowel sound slightly to an ‘ar’ so it sounds like ‘starm’
The dynamics of the song:
Start quietly, but the humming should be loud enough to be heard, which takes a lot of work with an openness inside your mouth with lips closed.
‘Dancing bears…’ comes in at a medium volume with quiet ‘Ooh’s underneath.
‘Once upon a December…’ is medium volume until ‘..across my memory’, with memory building up to loud although not a long note
‘Far away, long ago….’ is quiet until ‘…it yearns to remember’ with remember getting quieter at the end of the word.
Then medium volume in ‘Someone holds me safe and warm….’ until ‘..across my memory’ which is loud and very long note into the key change.
Then it is very loud until it gets quieter again on ‘…things it yearns to remember’ which is a long note.
Quiet and slowing down on ‘And a song someone sings’ with ‘sings’ being a high long note
‘Once upon a December’ at the end is quiet, but at the usual tempo previously sung.
It would be ideal to take one big breath and control it to the end on the last line ‘Once upon a December’ remembering ‘Dece-mber’ is a very, very long note.
Next was I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm. This is a popular song copyrighted in 1937 by its composer, Irving Berlin. The song was sung by Dick Powell and Alice Faye and debuted on film 12 February 1937, in the musical On the Avenue
Although considered a seasonal winter song and not strictly a Christmas song, since the lyrics make no mention of the holiday, it has been recorded for many artists' Christmas albums
There are no harmonies in this version so we are all singing in unison, which is still a challenge as some notes are very low for the higher voices and some notes are high for the lower voices. This is where you can really feel the change between the head and chest voices!
Even though the notes are low and can sound dark (it is a dark time of year!) make sound bright and bubbly and more like champagne than a pint of stout!
Keep the endings ‘storm’ and ‘warm’ short and crisp.
Make the words sound exciting and surprising.
At the end ‘….love’ is a long note so keep it going and then straight into ‘.. to keep me warm’.
After a well-earned break we came back to Song for a Winter’s Night, a song written by Gordon Lightfoot. The song was written on a hot summer night in Cleveland while Lightfoot was performing there. He was missing his wife of the time, Brita Ingegerd Olaisson, and his thoughts turned to winter. He used the vivid, cozy imagery of falling snow and a dying fire to project the freezing, solitary mood he felt inside his heart.
The timing is critical in this song. ‘lamp’ is quick and ‘falling’ and ‘calling’ also finish quickly.
‘…hold the hands I love’ is syncopated and pushed just before the beat.
Altos have an extremely long note on ‘you’ at the end of ‘..winter’s night with you’, so take a big breath!
In the chorus, Sops crescendo on the part of harmony ‘If I could only have you near’ so it sounds like a glorious descant.
Sop 2s and Altos on your part ‘The fire is dying…’ it is very quiet and slows right down, but still sing it with energy
When going into the long ‘If’ and ‘I’ link the ‘f’ of ‘if’ onto the ‘I’ so it sounds like ‘IIIIII- f-eye’
Make sure all the notes are sung right to the end with energy and not petering out, so it still sounds interesting. Basses, keep it light at the end.
Look out for a new song in Dropbox this week. We will go through that and recap any others we have previously sung.
We only have three more weeks with Elliot and he will be reporting back to Eamonn on what we have achieved and what still needs work. Keep up with your homework and ensure we have an A* report from Elliot!
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