Today at Haslett, I lead another bass sectional with the young men of the Varsity Choir. This time, we worked on their part in Old Irish Blessing, an SATB piece that has become a tradition to sing at the last concert with the alumni. This is one of the first times that I have become aware of the difference between parts in an SATB texture and a TTBB texture. The bass section spans a much wider range in this SATB piece than I have seen in any of the TTBB music that they have. This made me realize how beneficial it is to have young singers in either a TB or SA choir, since only a few of the men could produce sound all the way through the over-an-octave bass line that sat really low for a while and then really high. These men will have support for the concert from the older basses to be sure, but it was an eye-opening observation.
The sectional itself went really well - I can already tell how much better the young men have begun to read from the beginning of the semester to now. One of the goals that Mr. Boyce had was to teach them where were were adding breaths and where we were carrying through. Because of this, I found myself adjusting my conducting to be more technically clear and sacrifice a bit of musicality to exaggerate where the breaths and no-breaths were until the men had them in their voice. I vocally modeled these places well, but I think I could have modeled crisper diction, as I kept having to get after them to produce more energized voiced consonants. In addition to the music making, I was happy with the way that I addressed them, calling them "gentlemen" instead of my usual bad-habit-go-to, "guys", and was surprised at how much of a difference it made in the tone of the rehearsal. There was much more focus, all of the men were engaged in making good music, asking questions, and very respectful, which was a really nice way to start my day.
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