March 13, 196 2 :r{}r concern for next Monday1 s rehearsal has occasioned my referring back to a letter written to you when we were preparing the St. Matthew Passion. -But, before going farther,we must certainly say thank youto Frank Barr for acceptYr. Shaw1 s return,on such ing the responsibility for this last rehearsal,before short notice. There were enough favorable comments left with me so that I feel happily confident that it was time well spent and that our text and notes are a lot more firmly in hand.
Now back to a consideration of next Monday night's rehearsal, and what I can do to help you prepare for it. There are now seven days in which you can study, a little each day perhaps, your score noting the phrasings, dynamics, seques, rests and releases. --Not just the ones you conductor orders. He can't possibily catch all your individual mistakes; when you slip up, mark it immediately so that it doesn't happen "next Monday.11 It's your music. Build it l In addition a. b. c. d. e.
to marking your music: Concentrate on your intonation. Exercise control in dynamics. Memorize t Try singing with a minimum of two glances per page. Look at the conductor. The only way to have real togetherness is by having somebody acting as a clearing house. Feel what you are singing.
Here 1 s a pretty important thing. It ought to be one of the rock-bottoms of our singing. Primarily it 1 s concerned with the technique of phrasing, but it has terrific implications for intonation and vitality. 11
This: the lem It's gets
The clue to phrasing
is the treatment
of the "weak" beat.
"Now, the problem of any phrasing is a problem in dynamics and rhythm. It I s problem of deciding the proper amount and duration of stress. It ' s the probof seeing that melody moves, that it just doesn't jump up and down in place. the problem of deciding in advance where music should go, and seeing that it there.
The answer mechanically is so simple as to be in the category of a trick. More than any other Actually it I s a lot deeper and more'. inclusive than that. aspect of music, phrasing is the thing which takes all of you: mind, body, spirit. simple stress of the weak beato Think crescendo ••• But here I s the "trick": intensity ••• pull ••• stretch ••• breadth ••• deepness-:::s"urge.::uirust ••• going ••• over ••• all these things on that so-called "weak11 beat ·. It I s like that last up-ness of a heavy Pacific comber just before it curls over and breaks. 11 There remains just one thing worth mentioning. "Remember The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus is not a Monday Evening Club. We don 1 t forget it in between times. It 1 s up there with our jobs and our families. Of course some people have other interests. It just happens that the Chorus is formed of people who are kinda whacky on choral singing i
R. s./eb