COMMENTS ABOUT REPERTOIRE FOR MCAA 2025 MALE CHOIRS FESTIVAL
NEW COMMENTS (OCTOBER 2024) ARE HIGHLIGHTED
Specific Comments are identified using Page / System(s) / Bar number(s).
Anthem from Chess
6 / 1 / 41-48 Blend “Oh” (as in “hot” NOT “so”) into the “Ah” vowel to avoid harshness.
6 / 4 / 59 Breath after “around” and before “my” on the 4th beat.
4 / 1 / 1 Opening dynamic in Piano should be mf
4 / 4 16 & 5 / 2 / 28 & 6 / 2 / 50 Cut off on the 4th beat
5 / 3 / 34 No breath between “her” and “but”
Away from the Roll of the Sea
Tempo approx. crotchet = 96 bpm. (Slower than pract files.)
8 / 1-3 / 5 – 15 All tenors to sing this phrase.
8 / 2 / 10 Breath after second beat before “give”
9 / 2-3 / 27 – 35 etc. Tenors stagger breathing.
11 / 2 / 61-63 and 13 / 1 / 97-100 Half T1 to sing F# other half T1 to sing upper “a-lee”.
13 / 1-2 / 101-114 T1 and T2 to divide evenly to cover each part.
14 / 3 / 125 Clear break and breath after 1st beat and before “of the sea”.
Be Still My Soul (Finlandia by Jean Sibelius)
I plan to have singers seated during the opening minutes of orchestral solo in this piece. We will have someone to indicate when they should all stand.
15 / 1 / 40 As a general rule, sing across the commas in the text and breath at the end of each four bar phrase.
Careful with dynamics. Opening mp then incorporate swells etc. The first f dynamic occurs 15 / 5 / 63
16 / 6 / 118-119 Big Breath between the two “Amen”
Bound For South Australia
17 / 1 / 1 – 18 / 2 / 16 If you have a confident soloist then your choir may wish to learn and perform this with a soloist until the end of bar 16, or you might use a sub-section. The MMCSA usually uses a baritone soloist. At the 2025 concert we may have one person (probably amplified) or a subgroup of B1s.
23 / 3 / 94 – 24 / 1 / 99 Use half the T1s to sing the top system.
Deus Salutis
This will be conducted in 4. Crotchet = 80 bpm (approx.) As per the MP3 pract files.
25 / 1 / 5 – 26 / 1 / 20 Sing all phrases as four bar phrases with no breaths in the middle. Breath always on the fourth beat of the fourth bar of each phrase. This applies to all verses. 28 / 3 / 62-66 The Amens will be very spaced out for impact.
Bars 62 – 63 slightly allarg. and stretch of 4th crotchet in 63 (B1 Bnatural), then breath.
Bar 64 also allarg. and stretch 4th crotchet, then breath.
Bar 65 molto rall.
For The Beauty Of The Earth
In 2, Minim = 66
29 / 4 /12 Cut off on the barline of the next bar.
30 / 1 / 16 and 30 / 2 / 20 and 30 / 3 / 24. Cut off on the beat, place the final consonant(s) on the beat (not halfway through). This applies to similar phrases throughout.
38 / 2 / 105-108 conducted in one in a bar
38 / 2 / 109-117 conduct crotchets from now on. Gradual rit. to end.
I Still Call Australia Home
46 / 2 / 89 & 47 / 2 / 101 Tenor 1: The practice file has these two bars inverted.
48 / 1 / 108 & 48 / 2 / 112. Baritone: Practice file has the note missing.
41 / 2 / 24 B1 mf Ti, T2 & B2 mp
Let All Men Sing
54 / 3 / 59-65 Tempo will slow in bar 59 and Bars 60 – 65 will be broader.
Make You Feel My Love
General comment: My experience is that T2s (and other parts when they have the words) will sing this rather mechanically for the sake of accuracy rather than singing expressively ie. very smoothly by joining syllables together and also shaping the phrases. The latter can be achieved without sacrificing rhythmic accuracy.
Rachie
64 / 2 / 5 – 65 / 2 / 20 Sing each four bar phrase straight through with no breath. All breathe on the 4th beat of the 4th bar in each phrase. The same applies to 66 / 3 / 33 – 67 / 3 / 48.
66 / 1 / 28 hold the last note until the bar line.
Sailor’s Chorus
The Festival book contains the wrong version of this chorus. The correct version is attached as a PDF. Please make a choir set of copies for the singers attending the Festival. Page numbers etc given below, apply to the attached PDF.
2 / 4 / 46 and 3 / 1 / 52-53 Whenever the three semiquavers sung followed by a semiquaver rest appear please ensure that the third semiquaver is not held into the rest. Particularly with a large group of singers, it will be very easy for this chorus to lose clarity and for the character to be spoiled.
3 / 2 / 56 – 6 / 1 / 70 This section should have a playful quality.
Shelter
Attached is a scan of Shelter with some changes and extra markings.
I have added some dynamics to use as a framework. The song naturally invites subtle dynamic changes as it moves through the vocal range.
77 / 2 / 14 Keep the vowel of “zon” (in horizon) fairly open not covered as in the practice files.
78 / 1 / 18-19 No breath from “lovely” to “dressed”.
82 / 1 / 52 Quick breath before the last quaver.
Some words have been changed to reflect what Eric Bogle sings:
76 / 2 / 6 last beat “As” it
82 / 1 / 51 & 52 Last word in these two bars should be “our” not “my”
82 / 2 / 56 & 58 Last word in these two bars should be “we” not “you”.
She Was Beautiful
To make this piece suit male voices better and to make it easier to read this music has been transposed down to Db Major and printed with each vocal part on a separate stave.
A new PDF has been attached.
In bar 88 the last beat’s word has been changed from “you’re” to “she’s”. This is the same as Bryn Terfel sings it and matches the other uses of “her” and “she” throughout the piece.
Bar 29 B1 and B2 breathe at end of bar 29.
Bar 70 All breathe at end of bar 70.
Speed Your Journey
90 / 1 / 12 Last beat (dotted quaver and semiquaver) whenever this rhythm appears throughout this chorus it should be sung as 5/6 and 1/6 of the beat which lines up with the sextuplet accompaniment. This is basically what the recorded practice files do.
91 / 1 / 16 This should be “valleys”. The original Italian uses plurals for “mountains” and “valleys” (colli & clivi)
93 / 2 / 26 Last beat, words should be “Oh re-membrance”.
93 / 2 / 27 “mem” from remembrance last for the first 3 notes in this bar.
94 / 2 / 31 and 95 / 2 / 35 This was a misprint. The second and fourth beats should be sung with rests between the notes as happens on the practice files Attached is a reprinted version of those two pages.
97 / 2 / 41 “Je” of Jehovah pronounced as in “jet” not as “jee”
Rhythm Of Life
Allowing for the acoustic of the performance area, this may be taken slightly faster than written (up to crotchet = 100bpm).
103 / 1 Letter E. Tenor 1 has full crotchet on the words “life” and “beat”. Please change the corresponding phrases at Letter N (page 109) and Letter O (page 110) to match.
108 / 1-2 / Letter L. Bass 2. Sing the “Doo-bi doobi” smoothly in two bar phrases. The accompaniment may be slightly detached and the other voices as they join in are certainly staccato but if the B2s are smooth they will be heard because they have a different character.
What Would I do Without My Music
Careful with phrasing / breathing as the practice files are not consistent.
114 / 1 / 5 All parts breath after third crotchet
114 / 3 11 B1&B2 change minim to dotted crotchet.
117 / 3 / 43 B1&B2 The words are missing. A scan of another edition is attached to show the correct words (“not a long long way if I try”).
118 / 1 / 46-47 Bar 46 conducted in 8, tutti breath after pause on third quaver. Bar 47 conducted in 4.
118 / 2 / 49 Breath for everyone between the second and third crotchets.
Evan Patton
24 February 2024
Updated 28 October 2024