Elgar Festival Chorus - Rehearsal 3
Thank you all for a productive rehearsal! I hope you are beginning to enjoy the music now.
Movt 2 has been discussed in detail in my last set of notes which now takes us on to Scene 3. Although we have only taken a quick look at the first half of this, I will give you all the housekeeping notes you require for your scores for the whole movement. Please make sure that these are inserted before we next meet so that our learning process can be all the smoother.
Letter E/Bar 58 – it is worth noting that the introduction to bar 58 is the final bar of the previous page (page 44) when the tempo for the ensuing section is established.
It is also worth noting that bars 58 to 65 are unaccompanied until the final beat of bar 65 when the strings momentarily join the texture. From bar 66 to 69 the sopranos tune is accompanied by a single solo flute. A fuller orchestra then joins in from bar 70 until the end of the movement.
Letter E (page 45) to letter K (page 54) has a lot of musical information to convey to the listener. Therefore, it is vital that we obey Elgar’s very precise articulation markings. We will pay a lot of attention to this at our next rehearsal.
Page 47 – bar 72/3..sopranos please carry over from ‘hall’ to ‘thro..’
Letter G – Note the slightly faster tempo marking here. Bar 79…T/B take a crochet out of ‘glances’ Bar 83..A/T/B..take a quaver out of ‘glances’
Page 53 – bar 118..tenors take out a quaver from ‘dances’ Bar 125 – A/T/B..take the dot out of ‘in’ to give you a full crochet rest before turning the page.
Page 54 – bar 127..sop & alto take out a quaver from ‘in’
Letter N – (page 58) bars170/175..tenors take out a quaver from ‘Coldly’…Sops take out a quaver from ‘Coldly’ bar 174.
Letter P – (page 61) bar 193/194..altos/basses take out a quaver from ‘faded’
Page 62 – bar 195/6..A/T/B..carry over ‘faded’ into ‘to the ground’ Sops..bar 198 carry over from ‘hair’ to ‘Down’ Bar 199..tenors take a quaver out of ‘hair’ Bar 200..Sops take a quaver out of ‘her’
Page 64 – bar 213..quaver out of ‘dark’
I look forward to working on this with you all very soon!
Stephen