[Choir] Sicut: due MEMORIAL DAY

Fri May 22 10:24:26 EDT 2020

Dear Choir!

My sincere gratitude to those of you who have participated in the "Sicut" project, not to mention the "Witness" and "Alma Mater" efforts many of you have made as well. This has been a difficult semester for me as well as for all of us, and the fact of many Choir members staying "in the game" with these new efforts has meant a lot to me personally. So thank you.

To those who have not yet submitted but actually could do so (I realize some of you truly can't): please participate. We're accepting files through Memorial Day. It's time to get to mixing.

We have 18 submissions for "Sicut" as of this writing. That's now enough for a viable video, but given that our spring Choir was a 35-person ensemble, it's not as true a representation as I believe it should be. Again, if you CAN make that video, please do.

FYI re the alumni-inclusive projects: "Witness" stands at 33 submissions and "Alma Mater" at 41, both with more coming. 🙂

Cheers,

Dr. Bethany Reeves
Director, Stevens Choir & DeBaun PAC Voice Studio
Music Program Coordinator, DeBaun Performing Arts Center
Stage Director/Teacher, DeBaun Shakespeare & Summer Theatre Projects
Stevens Institute of Technology

_________________________________________________
Forwarded from after one set of online sectionals:

Dear Singers!

Thank you for attending sectionals for "Sicut" tonight. Having attended and gotten the info, you are now ready to make your recording. Huzzah!

Here are the video steps:

2) Gather some type of computer, earphones you can plug into same, and your phone.

3) Choose a quiet time and location. Re "quiet" - take a moment to close your eyes and really listen. Are there machine hums of any kind happening, or other noises you don't usually notice? Is is possible to eliminate those? Trying to clean unwanted noise out of audio files is difficult. The cleaner your file, the better.

4) Wear something neat-looking and preferably in Stevens or standard concert colors: red, grey, black, white (President's Ensemble - your sweaters would be a nice touch). If you don't have anything like that, just wear something neat and on the neutral side. Try for a pleasant background and good light. Light should be on your face, and ideally will not come from behind you.

5) Arrange your phone so you can record a video of yourself using landscape orientation. Placing the camera at eye level or at a very slight angle downward tends to look best, but don't sweat it.

Remember that it's important for your best sound to maintain your alignment and freedom to breathe efficiently, so keep that in mind as you arrange things. "Stand up on your butt" if you're sitting - but there's a 99% chance you'll sing better standing. There's a reason choirs always stand to sing in concerts.

6) Consider printing out your individual "Sicut" part (attached) so you can see what's coming up in the music ahead of time. Avoid paper noises while recording, though.

7) Pull up the appropriate YouTube link, below, on your computer.

8) Rehearse a couple times with the track for your part while reviewing notes from sectionals. The main points are listed on the bottom of the parts sheets.

9) Review the opening of the track a few times. When you're ready, plug your headphones into the computer and sing along to your part on the video, recording only your voice on your phone. DO CLAP when instructed. That clap is a syncing tool for when we're dealing with 30+ files.

10) Save your file with the following title format:

Sicut-Tenor-Clifford,C.mp4 (if you are Cam!)
Sicut-Soprano-Dillon,K.mp4 (if you are Kiera!)

And so on. PLEASE BE SURE TO USE THIS TITLE FORMAT. It will make managing the files much easier, and it will prevent anyone overriding anyone else's file (which is exactly what will happen if two people happen to send in files with the same generalized name).

11) Save a copy of your file on your own device just in case there's a problem later.

12) Then, upload your file to:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zLDz5hamPYXBxDt9i9LccT6ij_yAwAuG?usp=sharing<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fdrive%2Ffolders%2F1zLDz5hamPYXBxDt9i9LccT6ij_yAwAuG%3Fusp%3Dsharing&data=02%7C01%7Cbreeves%40stevens.edu%7Cb951855d464248fbd8f408d7dd0c6145%7C8d1a69ec03b54345ae21dad112f5fb4f%7C0%7C0%7C637220917562631175&sdata=zx%2BIdfkHdupVVwiRAsyiEOlln%2F8f5BPn6oLGoDZwRpQ%3D&reserved=0>

Files should be under 100 MB.

Please do not in any way touch anything else in that folder. Thank you.

13) Dish up a generous portion of ice cream or chips or whatever makes you smile, and pat yourself on the back! You are part of the Stevens Choir's first ever virtual choir project. 🙂

14) For the extra ambitious among you - by all means, study another part and make a video for that, too! This is one way in which virtual choirs actually can outdo in-person choirs. I'll probably make recordings of all but the bass part, myself. 😄
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Here are the sing-along-to-this videos:

These were created specifically for us by a generous alum, Diana Voyer.

https://youtu.be/tIL_J8czvso<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FtIL_J8czvso&data=02%7C01%7Cbreeves%40stevens.edu%7Cf048f4501ddb454b5a7908d7db65d1d8%7C8d1a69ec03b54345ae21dad112f5fb4f%7C0%7C0%7C637219102671858565&sdata=niBVkv%2FUND1xD%2FP2ddFhRyHl%2FkJY8lNtBXmlJAb15Js%3D&reserved=0> - alto
https://youtu.be/VCc-dpUjaF4<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FVCc-dpUjaF4&data=02%7C01%7Cbreeves%40stevens.edu%7Cf048f4501ddb454b5a7908d7db65d1d8%7C8d1a69ec03b54345ae21dad112f5fb4f%7C0%7C0%7C637219102671863555&sdata=UZspsRGcJHTO3z%2BMim89KpfHFNb%2BcueUFZknDITMnrk%3D&reserved=0> - bass
https://youtu.be/eY-lH04xbts<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FeY-lH04xbts&data=02%7C01%7Cbreeves%40stevens.edu%7Cf048f4501ddb454b5a7908d7db65d1d8%7C8d1a69ec03b54345ae21dad112f5fb4f%7C0%7C0%7C637219102671863555&sdata=KIrhNGDmMKyJJue9m3HZlHn6rqBfp2Wk12Ly5txfYHg%3D&reserved=0> - soprano
https://youtu.be/NKqVaJGdUCs<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FNKqVaJGdUCs&data=02%7C01%7Cbreeves%40stevens.edu%7Cf048f4501ddb454b5a7908d7db65d1d8%7C8d1a69ec03b54345ae21dad112f5fb4f%7C0%7C0%7C637219102671868546&sdata=OPwYxhQ%2FUbSiE3jg84oGY3N%2B49%2FRD4BIvPOoICN4lng%3D&reserved=0> - tenor

Cheers,
BR

PS - if anyone wants another copy of the full score, email me. I did send it to the choir list maybe two weeks ago.

Dr. Bethany Reeves
Director, Stevens Choir & DeBaun PAC Voice Studio
Music Program Coordinator, DeBaun Performing Arts Center
Stage Director/Teacher, DeBaun Shakespeare & Summer Theatre Projects
Stevens Institute of Technology

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