Rehearsal Notes and Zoom Recordings

Viva la Musica Rehearsal #1

2026-01-11 Zoom Recording

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Preparation for second rehearsal, Sunday, January 25, 2026.

Pointers for your own practicing

• Use the resources on www.vivalamusica.org for translations, Latin pronunciation (general guides and these texts specifically), part learning aids, and recordings.

• Write measure numbers in your scores.

Only measures with a downbeat are considered full, "number-able" measures.

Without a downbeat, no matter how much else there is, it ain’t a countable measure.

• Write translations into your score. 

• I like to write the meaning  word above the Latin word.

• Text translations are on respective repertoire pages on this website.

• In Coronation Mass mark differently choral and solo entries. 

That way it is easy to see when you are about to sing and when you can stop looking at the music because the soloists are singing.

I use a yellow highlighter for choral entries and a pink highlighter for solos. The colors don’t matter but the differentiation between the two matters a lot. The point of marking stuff in your music is so that you become so familiar with the music that you don't much need the printed page  andthat it doesn't gobble up all your attention. You want that to go out, not get sucked up by your binder.

• The Coronation Credo and Haydn Te Deum are the wordiest, the least familiar Latin, and the most contrapuntal musically.

So in your own practice, give these two pieces a lot of attention.​

• Start memorizing the first Coronation mvt: Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie eleison! 

• Practice saying the Latin slowly, in correct rhythm.

• Pay attention to the beauty and consistently of the vowel sounds that I ask for in rehearsal and that you hear on the Latin pronunciation guides on this website.

• Printed word syllabification may need to be changed to fit how we divvy up sung syllables, particularly consonants that end a syllable.

• Practice pitches slowly on "doo" or any neutral syllable.

Use a pitch checker

• Practice everything slowly for now.

• Practice something every day.

That way the music has a chance to start living in you and you in it.

• Read program notes on this website and anywhere you find them to learn something about the pieces.

• Please send Shulamit resources you have found that could be useful to others.

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Prep notes from Tuesday January 20, 2026 for 

Our second rehearsal of thirteen is this Sunday, Jan 25, 2:00 PM —5:30 PM

Island United Church, Balclutha, Foster City

There is much benefit all round if you can be present in person. For distance singers, participating in the live Zoom is also super helpful for you and everybody. If you cannot attend live, the recording will be posted hopefully the day after rehearsal. At the very least, listen, watch, and practice with the rehearsal recordings.

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Prep for Rehearsal 2

A pitch checker:

Handel Zadok

1. In three sections or movements:  

Section 1 orchestral intro then "Zadok the priest"

Section 2 “And all the people…”

Section 3 “God save the King…”

Number the measures starting each of the three sections at m 1.

2. Section 1, eighth note pairs are sung as dotted eighth sixteenth, as in the accompaniment. Section 1, m10 and m25. Change the written rhythm to reflect sung rhythm.

3. Mark (above the syllable ) emphasized syllables with “ —“  and unemphasized syllables with an upward cup:

3. Section 3 sixteenth runs: Prepare the following runs by singing super slowly and checking pitch. Sing light, slow, and on “aah”. Emphasize the groupings with a small — on the first of every four sixteenths.

Bass PU to m 7–m 10 (same as B PU to m 52—54)

Sops 1 and 2, PU to m23—25

A1 and 2 unison, T and B1 unison PU to m 31 (most of m 30)—32

For Haydn and Mozart:

If you have not yet written a translation for every Latin word we will sing, do that post haste. I like the literal meaning. And I don't care about  sentence structure. When I sing a Latin word, the meaning is in my consciousness and thus might be evident in the sound. Seem unlikely? Try it! Remember emotional contagion. If you don't know what that is, read my dissertation! All 350 pages of it!

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Haydn Te Deum

1. Listen to the Latin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HFUdaRWhNk) also posted on https://www.vivalamusica.org/zadok-empress-maria-theresa 

This is some of the least sung Latin for most of us, so working with the excellent pronunciation guide is super helpful.

2. Again, mark  emphasized and unemphasized syllables throughout. Notice how the emphasized syllables are often on longer note values or on stronger beats (1 and 3 in 4/4). 

3. Esp practice mm 40—58, contrapuntal— make entering voices clearly heard.

4. Similarly, mm 84—114.

5. And the biggie: PU to m 141-177.

6. Check the syncopated rhythms in mm 170-172; 174-176; 178-183; 184-188.

Mozart Coronation

If you have not watched the Von Karajan -Kathleen Battle 1985 recording, do! It is the apogee. Here it is on the Viva site: 

https://www.vivalamusica.org/coronation-mass-text-translations.

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For every movement in which both choir and soloists sing, mark the choir entries in one color (yellow) and mark the solo entries in another color (pink). Pink tells you to look up and out.

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Where/ and How Much: Solo / Chorus

 Kyrie 31 mm

14 mm for soloists; the rest chorus. Thus: 50-50.

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Gloria 198 mm

52 mm for soloists; the rest chorus. 25% solo; 75% chorus.

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Credo 151 mm

23 mm for soloists; the rest chorus. 15% solo; 85 % chorus.

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Sanctus 46 mm

100% chorus

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Benedictus 98 mm

All solo until Osanna mm 62-71 (9) & 85-98 (13)

20% solo;  80% chorus

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Agnus Dei 106 mm

70 mm solo; 36 mm chorus

67% solo; 33% chorus

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Kyrie

Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison is the only text in the movement. So....we sing this movement from memory.

Mark emphasized and un-emphasized syllables.

In subdivided 4, so you will see 8 pulses per measure mostly.

Look for all the two-note patterns—long, dotted note followed by complimentary short note—rhythm patterns.

—

Gloria

Consult at least one of the five the Latin guides at  https://www.vivalamusica.org/latin-for-singers

Mark emphasized and un-emphasized syllables.

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In 3 and sometimes in 1. 

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Mozart’s music is all elegantly phrased: it goes somewhere, arrives, retreats. Find the direction of each small phrase. That gives dynamism (not dynamics)—motion to the music, what on the page looks like series of static notes.

The Gloria being in dance meter, there is much going forward. That’s what imbues excitement.

Notice the dotted rhythm and complimentary short note followed by a concluding third note, a compositionally unifying feature from the Kyrie.

Notice the difference in dotted rhythms in mm 1, 5, 9 compared with m 11.

The double consonant GL needs to come AHEAD of the beat with the vowel “o” = “aw” on the beat.

Peccata (“sins”) has a double consonant of the same letter. This is a big deal: break after the first syllable and spit out the “cc” = K

PU notes in each entering voice mm 114-117 slightly emphasized for rhythmic clarity, not because the word is important.

If you have the bandwidth start marking dynamics: I color forte and piano. Of course, dynamics is an amount of sound, a quantity, but, as important, it is also a quality. It suggests. If a word pops into your mind for what that suggestion is, please write it in and share it with us in rehearsal or, if you write to me, I can share with the choir online.

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Credo

In the same ballpark as the Haydn Te Deum, text we sing in most but not all masses. (We did not sing it in the Requiem mass, for instance).

Also there is a lot of it. 

Also the music is contrapuntal. 

Three things that we need to overcome to feel comfortable. Then our singing can become story-telling.

So, study the Latin—meaning, pronunciation, emphasis and de-emphasis of syllables, RHYTHM.

Over dinner, recite the Latin to your self or your dining partner. Convince yourself and/or them of the meaning! You might try the recitation in rhythm!

This is a LONG movement: sing it through beginning to end to develop your stamina.

Sanctus

Remember De-us is meh-oos, not day-oos.

Ex-cel-sis should be re-syllabified to e-ks-she-lsees

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Osanna   PU to m 17; light, dancelike, one per measure feel, joyful.

The double consonant in O-sa-nna: make it pop to give more zip to this zippy word.

Benedictus

Get your dreamy look on until the Osannas, one at PU to m 62 (a repeat of the Sanctus Osanna) and a second more driving one at PU to m 85. `

Agnus Dei

More dreamy choir of angels until the donna nobis kicks into Allegro con spirito, m 71. This is a canter to the finish line. So learn the music accurately, slowly, 

PAH-cem (no punch). 

M 91 at al.  Use the sixteenth note to propel you to the next quarter.

M 99: SOLOISTS’ 2 measure interjection! Choir back in PU to m 101.

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Ochoa Misa Del Pueblo

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Singers score in pdfs, program notes, texts and translations are at  https://www.vivalamusica.org/about-5

The movements are in 8 separate but labeled pdfs. Print double sided.  Read Rene’s notes.  Learn the Spanish. Listen to Adriana's authentic Spanish pronunciation audio on the Ochoa Misa page. Listen to one of the Viva recordings on YouTube

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