Here it is: my attempt at chant. This is the Introit for the first Sunday of Advent.
Ad te levavi
Constructive criticism is welcomed. And of course it goes without saying that I'm not perfectly happy with every single pitch, but this is the take where the cat wasn't crying in the background.
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6 hours ago
3 comments:
Very Good Mrs. D! My only advice to you is to add a little more support. Not nessesarily making it louder, but one thing that works is if you hold up a music stand or something else of similar weight, the pull you feel on your stomach muscles is exactly what you should feel when singing. Then again, you're not exactly singing opera, eh? ;) But if you sing a few phrases like that it should help.
Great Chant! Liliting, simple, and music to my ears! Chant on!
Way to tackle an antiphon! I applaud you for stepping out into more melismatic land! One thing that always helps me in thinking about the musical line in the antiphon is to think of the textual divisions (e.g. half bar line for end of a phrase and full bar line for the end of a sentence) and then making those divisi work together with the pitch (high vs. low) in making a phrase that has a lot of energy in the beginning, climaxes somewhere in the middle where the pitch peaks and relaxes both in tempo and volume into the end of the phrase. It also works like this for the psalm verse, although the verse flows at a much more speech-like pace (it kind of parallels the contrast between aria and recitative in opera...) This type of phrasing lends to a flexible structure that really helps the music make sense. Also, the note right before the quilisma (the squiggly neume) is elongated, just as if it had a horizontal episema on it (e.g. inimici).
I'd be happy to have you in my schola anyday!
Anna,
Thanks, that actually seems to help a lot. I wonder why they don't teach things like that along with how to hold a pencil and how to add.
Teresa Benedicta,
I'll look at the introit again with those tips in mind. I listened to my recording again, and I was mortified that I'd put it up. I guess when one records something at 11 PM, one has to expect that it's going to sound a bit rocky, but sheesh! I can't believe how wobbly my pitch was on some of those notes. Guess I'll make sure I'm fresh next time I'm mad enough to put my voice on the internet.
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