I presented a new tune to the Palo Alto singing this afternoon. When we sang the notes, the tune did not go particularly well, but the singers were very supportive and suggested we sing through each part separately; I also asked if someone else would lead so I could concentrate on listening to how people were singing the tune, and the tenor bench took over leading for me. It proved to be incredibly helpful to hear the singers go through each part separately; and when we put all the parts together everything went together very well indeed. We kept the tempo quite slow, and at one point Will on the tenor bench was leading the tune in four, which I thought was exactly right (I thanked him for this later).
This turned out to be the best run-through of a new tune I have yet gotten — it was such a treat to have a talented group of singers who were willing to sing through a tune so carefully. And fortunately, to reward everyone’s patience, the tune turned out reasonably well. (A new singer had to ask if I actually wrote the tune, since it sounded old — I count this a high compliment, an affirmation that this tune “sought the old ways and walked therein.”)
I wrote this tune while thinking of Dominic Zeigler, one of the regular singers in the Berkeley weekly singing, who died last month of a brain aneurysm at age 23, and so it is dedicated to his memory.
Prospect Hill. 10.10.10.10.
A couple of the Palo Alto singers pointed out that the tenor line has an odd-sounding jump in the eighth measure in that first pair of eighth notes, from D (sol) to F (fa). That is true, but when I told them that I wanted that particular sound in the melody line, and besides it’s just a passing note on the second half of a weak beat in the measure and that it doesn’t really matter what note they hit, they were willing to accept it. And when we finally put the parts together, that chord sounded reasonably good — an open V7 chord that’s all sevenths, seconds, and unisons.
