Relax and Keep it Loose

Keep Jaws relaxed!

Generally, our songs seem to need us to keep our jaws relaxed and loose to enable us to make the vowels more elongated in sound and to hit the high notes. Keep this in mind when practising at home and singing together.

The Circle Game will probably have different voice parts singing the verses so we will all get a turn at a verse, but we concentrated on the chorus.  Make ‘round and round’ with an ‘ow’ sound.

The chorus builds up to ‘where we came’ with the harmonies and then gets quieter at the end.  The very last time slows right down so watch for timing.

Downtown; Sops have very high notes, so it is essential you relax into them.

‘Down’ is slightly longer than ‘town’ and is syncopated.

Tenors have an extra ‘downtown’ so make sure you can be heard.  Altos be brave and sing louder.  You know it and can do it!

Listen the voice parts and learn the ‘doo doo’ section.

Diamonds are Forever; basses you get to sign the ‘oohs’ in the James Bond style, so make sure they swell up and can be heard.

Snow is very slow and controlled, so watch where you take a breath, which would be after ‘prayer’, ‘air’ and ‘slow’. It starts very quietly and gradually builds up with a crescendo on ‘might’ and ‘white’ bringing the climax to ‘Heaven blessing us ….’

 It slows down even more at the end with a long ‘prayer’ and ‘snow’ which fades down gently.

The sops have the highest part.

“Popoli di Tessaglia… Io non chiedo, eterni dei” (K. 316 / K. 300b) — a recitative and aria for soprano and orchestra composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1779.

Mozart wrote it for Aloysia Weber, one of the most celebrated sopranos of his time (and the sister of Constanze Weber, whom Mozart later married).

And for those who understand and can read music, this piece is indeed famous for its extreme vocal range, particularly the two written G6 notes — the G in altissimo above high C (C6), which is about 1568 Hz in modern concert pitch. According to the Guinness Book of Records, this is the highest note ever scored for the human voice in classical repertoire.

We only have a few weeks left to rehearse, so please listen to the tracks and practice at home so we can concentrate on singing the songs and not keep going over individual parts. Believe in yourself and you will succeed.

Just imagine singing with your younger self or not!