Song Notes (Get it? Notes? For songs?)

Hello singers!  (Mrs. Green here.)  This is a bit lengthy, but someone asked me to write down what we talked about on December 15th.  So, here it is.  Most of you wrote these notes in your scripts already, but if you were absent/late, then you'll need to know this.  And all of you should read through this, just as a reminder.  If there's something new just for you, I've written your name in red.

Page 3

• If you are in Scene 1, then you sing this entire song.  If you're not in Scene 1, then you come in where it says "COMPANY".
• This entire song is to be sung as forte, which means "loud"--except for the very last line.  Under "And the good ol' U.S.O.!" you should write cresc. underneath or draw a crescendo symbol (it looks sort of like a thin, open-ended triangle with the larger end toward the right).  At the end of the line we should be singing fortissimo--"very loud".  You can write ff there.  That's the symbol for fortissimo.
• There are two places where we have the line, "In every nation, on land or sea".  Please don't take a breath after "sea".  Rather, take a quick one after "nation" if you need it.  If we take a breath after "sea", then it's quite difficult to get "They bring a big..." in there clearly.  
• When we sing "They bring a big warm welcome from the land of the free," I want you to think of those last words as "lan-dove-thuf-free".  Really link those words together please.  This line happens twice as well.

Pages 6-8

• Only those cast members who are in Scene 4 sing this one.
• Really enunciate the verses.  Overdo the consonants a little.  Usually I wouldn't say that because singing is all about the vowels, but these words will get lost if we don't.  For words like "jitterbug", "Saturday", "gotta", and "little", I'd like for you to sing those as "jidderbug", "Sadurday", "godda", and "liddle"--otherwise, sing the /t/ (i.e. "cats", "eight to", "fast", "last").  And guys, sing "Cud-a-rug".
• Guys, it's difficult to hear on the CD, but when you get to the floy-floy/oh, boy part, the notes change somewhat.  We'll go over this next time we rehearse the song.
• We will keep the word "shiners".
• Pop those bahps!  Sneak a breath between the two bahps, when you need to.
• Smile!  Practice singing in front of a mirror.  It helps.  = )

Pages 33-34

• "Together We Must Stand" is to be sung slowly and majestically with patriotism and pride.  It starts softly, growing louder and louder throughout the entire piece.  Sometimes we will add voices to get louder, sometimes the same voices will simply sing louder.
• Sloane (Ruth) did a lovely job on the 15th.  That being said (and deservingly at that), the solo there is just too long.  We're going to try adding Angela (Rachel) and Elisabeth (Rebekah) at the first "We are one!" part.  So, Sloane, Angela, and Elisabeth, can we get together early on Jan. 5th to try that out?  Could you be there by 11:45?  Let me know here or email me (Jen@ngyc.org).  Thanks.
• Bailey (Gladys) and Marie (Rose) will come in at their respective places.
• ALL ONSTAGE ACTORS ~ Okay, we won't know for sure who these people are exactly until we stage scenes 18 & 19.  So, please bear with us until this happens.  Whoever these cast members are, they will need to crescendo on the word "stand".  We're building up to forte here.
• ALL ~ So, this is the entire cast, except for Kilroy and the two M.P.'s.
• At the top of page 34, there's a space after "We are the land of the free!"  There is a key change here (also called a modulation).  After the key change, we will sing very loudly--fortissimo--ff for short.
• There's a mistake in CHORUS ONE.  The correct words are in green below:
• (Sings.)  We are one!
• We are the United States of America,
• We are one!
• We are the United States of America,
• We are one!
• We are the United States of America,
• The yellow highlighted words are those which have different notes compared to those same words in the rest of the song.  The reason those notes are different is so they can match up with CHORUS TWO.  Listen carefully to your CD's and you might be able to hear it.
• We will crescendo on the very last line.  Everyone sings this together.  It's supposed to end in fortissimo possibile, which means "the loudest possible".  Keep in mind that this is the loudest possible singing we can do--not screaming.  = )  The symbol for this is fff, if you want to write that by "free!" in your script.  By the way, watch your "ee" sounds.  Don't make them too bright.
• I know I still need to decide who is singing which CHORUS.  Let me know if you have a strong preference towards Chorus 1 or Chorus 2.  I'll try to be accommodating, but I can't make any guarantees.  Same goes for the very last line of this song.  Let me know if you prefer low part, middle part, or high part. Give me a 2nd choice too, please.  (The very high note at the end--I'm going to hand pick just a few people for that one.)  If I don't hear from you, then I'll assume you have no preference.  Reply here or to Jen@ngyc.org.  I just need it in writing--otherwise I'll forget.

Thank you!  And congratulations on reading it all!