Rehearsal, final stage, performance and thoughts after performance
I strongly believe that a composer never finishes a piece of work. He is always composing, learning, listening, self-criticising him self and his own work. All alterations that are made at the rehearsal, dress rehearsal and after premiere or after concerts are also part of the creativity process.
Colours (here in) was not different. On the first rehearsal I attended, the choir made the piece from the beginning until the end without stopping. It was good and they were doing exactly what was on the score. However, there were some issues that I wanted to correct:
1. Text
Most of the time the choir reacted well with the Portuguese and Kristang texts, but they struggle in some places. One of the cases where the choir was less confident, was the word “Lisboa” and the way they were singin the “a” - it was to short. Although I wrote a tenuto above the “a”, the choir was singing it as it were a dotted quaver.
On bar 42, when I was writing the piece that word “otru” from the Malacca poem should be sing with an appoggiatura. However, during the rehearsal, I realised I was wrong. Every time they sang with the appogiatura it seemed to me that they were struggling with the word, and the result was completely out of the context. It felt that they were having a hiccup. So, I decided to change it by two semiquavers (image 1).
Image 1 - rehearsals changes, two semiquavers instead of appogiatura and semiquaver.
2. Articulation:
The choir reacted very well to the articulation I wrote. They were so precise that I needed to change some places because I was not convinced of the result, as for example on bar 48, they were doing the accent and the dot. It was to short, confuse and made no sense to me. I decided to remove the dots and as final result was so much better, specially because the choir reacted immediately to this change (image 2)
Image 2 - rehearsals changes, removing the dots.
3.Orchestration and writing issues:
One of the examples where the choir was feeling better doing different of what I wrote was on bar 71. I wrote “Lisboa” starting a semiquaver before bar 71 (image 3) and they asked if they could start on the bit of 71 because it was confusing when starting one semiquaver before. In fact, the result was not different of what I wrote, so I decided to change it for them.
Image 3 - rehearsal changes, writing issues.
On bar 92, when sustaining the word “it” from the e.e. Cummings poem, the soprano solo starts singing “Lisboa” from Campos’s poem. These overlap made a problem, mostly because the choir was singing this chord in fortissimo so it was impossible to heard the vogal “Lis” by the soprano solo. So, I change the end of the chord and when they pronounce “it” is now when the soprano solo get in (image 4).
Image 4 - rehearsal changes, issues with the orchestration and perception of the words.
Other example of issues in the way of writing, was the way I wrote the glissandos. For example, on bar 95 and 96, the way they were doing them was to long, and that was because I wrote them that way were to long. So I changed it, starting in the second quaver instead of starting on the crotchet (image 5)
Image 5 - rehearsals changes, glissando changes
Still in orchestration and writing issues, on bar 140, I needed to change the tenor octave (octave higher) because the tenor was struggling to reach these low notes and the result was not satisfying. The effect should be strong and consistent, but with in this register it was poor and not satisfying. So, I changed the octave of the sentence “Lisboa com suas casas de” and kept the octave low in “varias cores” (image 6) I repeated this alteration on the following bars where the same was happening. The result was better and satisfying.
Image 6 - rehearsal changes, solo tenor octave
In general, the choir was singing everything too static and calm. I suggested in the rehearsal that they must sing everything with more energy and that the expression indications as “emphatic”, “gentle”, etc., were missing so far. They responded immediately and did what I asked.
Although one of the objectives with this work was to scape a bit for the choir sound colour, I think the choir and me as audience felt that that characteristic was missing. There is a couple of moments where this sound colour happened, however it seemed that they needed more of it. There is nothing wrong with the choral sound, and also there is nothing wrong with the non-choral sound. Still, I think it is possible to find a balance between both and make the piece more comfortable to whom is singing and listening.
Next stage is, remaking what was worked on the rehearsals and after listening live, find the places where the chorale sound is missing, added and listening again.
A composer’s work never finishes, it is very difficult to finish a piece, specially because we are human beings and we are always in evolution, changing and learning with experiences. Hopefully, Colours (here in) will reach other level and will be closer to be finished, but I do not know what is going to happen when played again. For now, this stage is almost finished, only the future will said what happen next.