When is it appropriate to refrain from singing every verse?
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    That whole post needs to be in bold purple.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    I modulate around on the keyboard - at practice, of course - then come back to the printed score key. Most of them can't tell the difference and can sing it where it is written.


    STEALING THIS.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    I modulate around on the keyboard - at practice, of course - then come back to the printed score key. Most of them can't tell the difference and can sing it where it is written.


    You are so mean!!!
    What if the soloist was really lovely... like me... I probably wouldn't be able to tell either....
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,937
    Real sopranos can usually handle B-flat with no problems. The altos who think they are sopranos usually need a different key. I have three people who can sing the piece - two sopranos (B-flat) and one tenor who does well in A-flat. Other than those three, all the other folks who want to sing it really can't do it very well regardless of the key it is in.
  • Just to add to the list of liturgical prayers that invoke saints, specifically, the Blessed Virgin, there are the seasonal Marian antiphons, proper to Compline, but used as votive antiphons at other liturgies, including Mass. Each of the four contains one or more specific petitions, such as "Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia."
  • Real sopranos can usually handle B-flat with no problems.


    A soprano who can't sing an F should probably reconsider her voice designation.
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  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,298
    A soprano who can't sing an F should probably reconsider her voice designation.


    PREACH IT, @AndrewMotyka
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    A soprano who can't sing an F should probably reconsider her voice designation.

    Dagnabit, I can't resist a straight line...
    "A soprano...should reconsider....."
    Almost oxymoronic.
    Similar to "A tenor who doesn't think the whole world is his stage, and everyone in it is a bit player in a supporting role, or in his audience."
    W and I are soprano and tenor, respectively, just for clarity's sake!
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    Then there's those that deny their designation. We won't get into that.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,937
    Then there's those that deny their designation. We won't get into that.


    I tell those who maintain they can sing both soprano and alto, that they are bi-sectional.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Not that there's anything wrong with that....
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    We don't sing every verse of a psalm nor do we always sing every verse of a hymn.

    I often have to do "selected verses" of hymns at masses (one place where the projections screens actually help). If you've been playing church music long enough, you usually develop a sense of how much time you have and what length of music works. It's even down the stage with some hymns that I know how much introduction to play or how much interlude I'm going to have to add to the end.