Tuesday, March 19, 2002

Part-time job opening As some of you may know, Bella's manager nonpareil of the past 4? years, Vivian Evans, lives in Sacramento. Vivian currently commutes to be with us. She has chosen sanity over Bella, and will be stepping down at the end of this season. This means that Bella needs a new manager. This is a paid position requiring on average 40 hours a month of paid work. If you are interested, please see Vivian for more information. If you know someone who might be interested, please pass this information on to them.

THIS TIME, I actually brought the list of people in small groups. This list is also posted on the web. Please contact me if there are any errors in this list.

Dress Rehearsal Date has changed from Friday, May 17 to Wednesday, May 15, 7pm at St. Joseph the Worker church. We will also have a dress rehearsal on Monday, May 13 at Corpus Christi Church in Oakland. Please mark your calendars!

Reminder to singers in small group pieces: Remember that you need to rehearse on your own as time in chorus rehearsals will be limited. There will likely be sectionals. We have practice tapes. Please check the "small-group" list next to the sign-in sheet (this time it's there). Please also see if you can schedule a time to get together with yor group.

Meet the composers: Thomas Weelkes (c1576 -- 1623), whose professional career spanned one of the most fertile periods in England's musical history, is without doubt one of her finest composers. Like Purcell, he had a vivid imagination and love of experiment, and died prematurely at the peak of his creative powers, but not before he had composed a very large amount of music. Nowhere are Weelkes' outstanding musical abilities more evident than in his four sets of madrigals, which appeared between 1597 and 1608, and his splendidly sonorous full anthems. The English madrigal school reached its peak with Weelkes, the most original madrigalist, and John Wilbye, the most polished; both were deeply indebted to Thomas Morley, both surpassed him.

Probably the son of a Sussex clergyman, Weelkes was appointed organist of Winchester College in 1598. There he composed some of his finest madrigals, which appeared in two volumes published in 1598 and 1600. In July 1602 he graduated BMus from New College, Oxford; and some time between October 1601 and October 1602 he was appointed organist and master of the choristers at Chichester Cathedral, where he ended his days, dismissed from his post on grounds of his being a habitual common drunkard and a notorious swearer and blasphemer, a tragic end for the successful young madrigal composer of the 1590s, who had evidently aspired to higher things: several of his anthems and services were written not with Chichester in mind but for the more sumptuous services and ceremonies of the Chapel Royal, with which he evidently had some informal contact. He never, however, consolidated the London connectionto the extent that he could leave provicial Chichester. We can only speculate whether the debuached habits were the cause of the stagnation in his career or the effect if it.

As a madrigalist, Thomas Weelkes owed a great debt to Thomas Morley, who had done more than anyone to establish the Italian form on English soil. But while Weelkes' madrigals may lack Morley's lightness of touch and fondness for nimble counterpoint, they are much more adventurous and possess stronger links with English musical tradition. Similarly, although Weelkes does not display the same elegant and carefully shaded sensitivity to the text as John Wilbye, arguably England's greatest madrigalist, he pushed the use of musical imagery to its limits and often attained a magnificent sonority in his writing. (http://home.sprintmail.com/~cwhent/Weelkes.html)

Marcelle says: Great tricks for lessening vibrato?

1. Listen to your neighbor! If you are singing a second or a third, and you are not a Tuvan throat singer, try to match your neighbor, who is singing only ONE note. One note at a time is plenty.
2. Take voice lessons -- or at least take a friend with a good set of ears and infinite tact into a quiet room for a constructive listen and advice. Or tape yourself and listen to the tape kindly and critically.
3. Support is an issue. Trying to sing too big or undersupporting a large voice can lead to a tension quiver or a vibrato of oceanic proportions, respectively. Try to isolate the involved muscles: tongue, abdomen, stuck rib-lifters, etc.

"Shameless Plugs" C Alumni Chorus presents Music of the Americas Sunday, April 7, 2002 -3pm Hertz Hall - UC Berkeley (Bancroft, near College)
Tickets $15 general/ $10 students and seniors. For tickets & information call 510 643 9645,talk to Jody (alto), or visit www.ucac.net.