Blue Notes for Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Next week, on Tuesday, April 27, we will be rehearsing at St. Scholastica
Academy, beginning at the usual time. St. Scholastica is located at 7416 North
Ridge Boulevard in Chicago. It is less than two miles due
south of the Unitarian Church. (Ridge Boulevard is simply an extension of Ridge
Avenue
when
it crosses
Howard Street.) The school is a few blocks (0.19 miles, according to MapQuest.
Click
here to see the map) south of Howard on the west side of the street.
Plenty of parking is available in the rear, and the building can be entered
directly
from the
lot.
You may
want to head out a few minutes earlier than usual in order to be ready for
a full rehearsal. (Section coordinators: Please contact absent singers
with this information.)
Tickets are available for the May 23 concert beginning tonight, with Paul
Siegal in charge. Remember the prices for advance sales: $18 for “regulars,” $15
for seniors and students (“irregulars”?), and $10 for youth 12
and under.
The spring patron mailing is going out around the first of May—which
means a whole bunch of envelopes are waiting to be stuffed with various items.
If you can help, join Kay Rossiter and others at her home next Tuesday morning,
April 27, at 9:00. Kay lives at 785 Valley Road in Glencoe. For directions,
give her a call at 847/835-1371.
Our next Jewel shopping days are May 10, 11, and 12. Save some big purchases
for then.
Copies of last week’s Blue Notes are available at the back table. To
have an item placed in Blue Notes, contact Len Barker: 847/272-2351 or lenpbarker@comcast.net.
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From the Conductor’s Corner …..
I would like to say a few words about the term appoggiatura that I use so often
in rehearsals.
It is an Italian music term that comes from the word appoggiare, meaning “to
lean on.” In the Baroque Era (c. 1600-1750) appoggiatura was an ornamental
note (or an accented non-harmonic note), usually a second above or below the
main melodic note with which it is connected, and played or sung “on
the beat.” Rules governing the execution of appoggiatura were fairly
flexible, but they did dictate rather particularly the length of these notes.
Rules also varied in Italian, French and German music. I will write more about
this topic when we do a baroque piece in the future (when there are actual
instances to consider).
In modern parlance, appoggiatura is an important type of non-harmonic note
(a note that does not normally belong to the chord in question) that is sung
with a slight stress, and afterward a slight “retreat” into the
main melodic note. In order to achieve this effect, it is common to do a slight
crescendo preceding the appoggiatura and a slight decrescendo following it.
When the second of a tied note of the same pitch, because of harmonic progression,
becomes an appoggiatura, it should be executed in the same manner--with a slight
crescendo into the tied note (to gain a sense of stress) and then a decrescendo
(retreat) into the main note.
It is in this latter context that I use the term appoggiatura when explaining
how melodic lines are to be sung in Mozart’s Requiem.
Donald Chen
