Monthly Archives: January 2023

This is part of a larger work, the text is based on the Beatitudes (from the Sermon on the Mount).

This stand-alone movement from Tuvayhun – Beatitudes for a Wounded World, is from Matthew 5: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be the children of God.”

SOPRANOS: Please everyone learn soprano 2. I will only put one or two voices on the sop 1 part, as it just needs to float and not be too heavy.

This is an arrangement of an old Shaker hymn written 250 years ago. Even though it was written as a deeply Christian hymn, I appreciate the fact that this arrangement is timeless and open to interpretation. We are certainly living in times of tumult and strife, roaring tempests and darkness. The rock we each cling to to survive is personal and unique to each of us. Some believe in a God, for some it’s the goodness in others, for some it’s simply love, for some the Earth as our Mother. Whatever you feel is your rock, please sing this beautiful song with heart full.

Here are the parts to this arrangement. Please note the time signatures as we move through the changes in meter.

As you work on your part, warm up your voice a little, then first just listen and follow along, making sure you have your line of music marked so you don’t get lost. Please as you listen, ignore the words. Don’t even look at them. Pay close attention to your notes and rhythms. The words are easy and will come later.

Then, on the next listen, sing along on a neutral syllable like doo or loo or lah. Learn the notes and rhythms that way first. Have your pencil ready to make any tricky spots that might need extra work.

Repeat until you know all the note and rhythm changes, continue to ignore the words, looking at only the notes and rhythms. Then when you’ve really got it in your ears, eyes and body, you can add words, remembering to use tall vowels and deep full breathing.

Have fun.

A Beautiful rendition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL3-gqGHfdw

I am familiar with a couple of different arrangements of this song. We sang the arrangement by Gwyneth Walker several years ago. I like this arrangement, and I like the tempo Susan Rice takes to keep it light and not plodding. Just listen to the blend of the women’s voices!

Parts to follow in the coming weeks.

In choosing music for this session, I felt it was important to acknowledge the profound losses (global, national, and personal) of the past 3 years, and was looking specifically for the text of the Requiem. I settled on this arrangement by Tom Porter. Perhaps we can all have the intention of holding someone dear we’ve lost in our hearts while we sing this together.

Here is the translation from the Latin text:

Light eternal shine on them Lord,

with your saints in eternity,

because you are holy.

Rest eternal, give them, Lord,

and light unending shine on them.

Here are your isolated rehearsal tracks.

soprano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqGfEBCIe1I

alto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoYS3aquEkc

tenor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuoisYGk6EM

bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeiXRBg_Ezg

All Parts/Full Mix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apFVXtHzU7c

This selection is one that I had chosen for us to do in 2020. We had started it before the world changed. I like this message, the horn collaboration and the interesting meter changes. My apologies to the first sopranos. I played your last note a beat early.

The rest of it it pretty clear. Nice triple and duple beat divisions here. It’s a little slower here than we will take it.

This one will be a memorized encore. So download it to your listening device and get busy.

Here is a nice version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye_wUgap0GE