Choirs

The choral program at Memorial has expanded under the direction of George Utphall and Beth Willer to include over 400 students in eight credited performing organizations and numerous small ensembles. Performing organizations include the concert choir, mixed choir, boys’ and girls’ glee clubs, 4 madrigal groups, a vocal jazz ensemble and three show choirs. The show choirs hosted their fourteenth annual Winterfest Showchoir competition in February. The students are very active in WSMA solo/ensemble festival with over 270 entries this year over 60 of which qualified for the state festival. The choirs have also held the state record for number of students selected for the all-state choir for the past five years.

Literacy-based instruction has long been a cornerstone of the Memorial choral program. All music is approached through solfegg and mostly without the use of a keyboard. The choirs perform an extended work each year. Over the years works performed include Schubert’s Mass in G, Haydn’s “Imperial” Mass, Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass, John Rutter’s “Requiem” and “Magnificat” and “The Peaceable Kingdom” by Randall Thompson and Beethoven’s Mass in C.. The choirs travel extensively and have performed in Washington D.C. , Orlando, and at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City , Holy Trinity Church-Stratford-Upon-Avon, England and at the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio . Fifty-one of the fifty-four Memorial Choirs competing at WSMA festival over the past 17 years have received Division I or Gold ratings.

MHS vocal jazz is a function of The Madrigals- Memorial’s top choral organization. The group typically performs over three dozen times during the holiday season and hosted their 35th annual Tudor Dinner this December. Jazz has been a part of their repertoire for the last 12 years and they have consistently received first division ratings at the state fest over that time period. They have been featured at the UW-Eau Claire A Cappella Extravaganza and UW-Madison Chorfest and have been featured with the Chippewa Valley Symphony. They were vocal jazz champions the past 2 years at the Cedar Rapids Mo-Show.

The Old Abe Show Choir has been consistently successful in competitions over the years placing in the finals at 12 of 14 competitions in the past 2 years including 2 Grand Championships. This year they placed second at Fame Show Choir Nationals at Branson and were awarded best combo and best diction.

Choir Practice Guide
Here you go…a list of what you should know after our first three weeks of choir! If you have questions about any of this information, it is your responsibility to set up a time with me during a study hall or after school for one-on-one help.

1) The names of the notes on the staff:
Lines counting up from the bottom – E G B D F (Every Good Boy Does Fine, if that helps!)
Spaces counting up from the bottom – F A C E
* If that seems like useless memorizing to you, you can also just think of them as Line, Space, Line, Space in the order of the alphabet A to G (starting on the bottom line – E F G A B C D E F…)

2) How to find a key signature by looking at the sharps or flats at the beginning of a piece of music (see yellow sheet for help with this…knowing the note names will help!)

• Sharps – call the last sharp “Ti” and go up one note to “Do”!
• Flats – call the last flat “Fa” and go down four notes to “Do”, or look at the second to last flat!
• “C” no sharps, “C” no flats = key of C!

3) How to count basic rhythms (whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes) such as those in your sight reader.

4) How to solfege basic melodies such as those in your sight reader.

5) Accidentals :

• Sharps (#) raise the pitch a half step (make it higher)
• Flats (b) lower the pitch a half step (make it lower)

*If you already know this, start working on learning altered solfege syllables (on the back of your yellow sheet)

Example: #fa = fi, bmi = me

These are all things you can be studying and counting as practice time. Please be prepared to answer questions in rehearsal about this information. Again, if you still don’t understand after spending some time in practice, come see me ASAP…remember that we are graded on sight singing each quarter for a part of your final grade.

Practice Ideas:

• Write in solfege/counting for the music we are singing in choir or show choir, and then practice saying those syllables in rhythm
• Go through the sight reader and figure out the key signatures of melodies we haven’t done in class – if you’re up to it, go ahead and try to figure out syllables too.
• Practice another musical instrument (this counts as half the time)
• Get together with a friend and study the information on this sheet or sing through your parts together…chances are you will understand different things and you can help each other.
• Practice show choir choreography on your own or with friends
• Look up information on the composer of a piece that we are singing in choir – I may ask you to present it to the class sometime if you are willing
• Go to the public library and check out a choral music CD and listen to it…listening is a HUGE part of making music.
• EDLINE EDLINE EDLINE counts as practice time too.

For help with note names, key signatures, etc…

• Go to EDLINE and log on to your Choir
• Click on “Online Music Theory Practice” under Links
• Under “lesson” menu, select a topic and watch a short video that explains things such as time/key signatures, intervals, ledger lines, clefs, note durations, etc.
• Under “trainer” menu you can do drills to practice key signatures, note names, intervals, etc.
• It will keep track of how well you are doing so you can track your progress.

For help with Solfege…

• Go to EDLINE and log on to your Choir
• Click on “Online Solfege Practice” under links
• Read the page on the reasons we use solfege, then click on “Let’s sing” at the bottom of the page

Keep reading…this will walk you through solfege (review for you if you have been paying attention in choir J ) and then continue on to “More Exercises” at the bottom of the page