The singers of the second Sunday Palo Alto singing allowed me to present a couple of new tunes today. Here’s the first one:
This proved to be a little challenging to sight-sing, which I had expected. Although the melody lines of each part are pretty straightforward, the tempo changes and tied notes complicate matters. I know I made several mistakes. But by the end of the four verses we sang, we got pretty good. This was fun to sing, and worth singing again.
The second of two tunes I presented at today’s second Sunday Palo Alto singing:
New Hundred Forty-eighth. 8.7.8.7.D
The class sang this tune well, even though it’s challenging to sight-sing — there are lots of notes to sing, and each part does a few unexpected things. Not only that, but the tune should go pretty quickly (quarter note equals 120-144 b.p.m.). So we sang through the shapes twice, and by the last time, the class gave a very nice reading. I felt this tune would be worth singing again: after a few repetitions, a class could get the tempo up even more, which would be a lot of fun.
Notes: Peter asked about the unusual metric indication; the “D” means “doubled.” Melody inspired by Julia Wolfe’s “Steel Hammer.”