For this weeks blog post let’s talk a little bit about the exam first off.  I had no trouble listening to the song and being able to identify it that way, but I did have some trouble memorizing the years.  That is probably because my brain doesn’t like to think in numbers, which must be why I hate math so much.  I feel that putting them up into separate play lists on Spotify was very smart rather than just putting them all into one big playlist.  The way they were really helped me remember the genre and the general time period each was from.  I also really liked the set up of the exam.  The format was really easy to follow and reflected the study material well.  I’m hoping that studying for these types of exams will come easier with the next one, just because I’ll have a feel on what to expect.

On another note I’ve started rehearsing all of my pieces for my jury this semester.  My adviser, Dr. Lo, is one of the professors going on the trip to China in May so I have to have my jury a week early.  I’m working on one French piece, one Italian piece, and one English musical theater piece. The French piece I’m working on is called “Clair de Lune.”  It’s composed by Debussy and means “light of the moon” or “moonlight.”  My Italian piece is “Vergin, tutto amor.”  By Francesco Durante, it is a prayer to the virgin Mary.  My last piece is “Diamond’s are a Girl’s Best Friend” from the musical Gentlemen prefer Blondes.  It’s a really fun piece to preform and sing.  All of these pieces explore a different part of my vocal range.  The English piece is meant to help me bring out my “belting” range, the French piece is to help my with more of my middle range, and the Italian is to work my middle-high range.  My vocal ranges is quiet strange actually.  I can comfortable sing anywhere from Alto one to a high Soprano two.  In my Vocal Rep class I am singing Soprano one for a piece called, Suscepit Israel (Magnificat by J.S.Bach).  That part is more of a higher Soprano two, than a Soprano one so  it isn’t too harsh on my voice.  Also the performance I am in this weekend “The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace” I sing a mixture of Sop two and Alto one.  “The Armed Man” is a Mass by a Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. The piece was commissioned by the Royal Armories Museum for the Millennium celebrations, to mark the museum’s move from London to Leeds, and it was dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis.  It was written for SATB chorus with soloists and a symphonic orchestra. Guy Wilson, then master of the museum, selected the texts for the mass.  All of IUP’s choirs will be performing in this mass along with most of the music professors either on their instruments or singing solos within the piece.  The performance is on Sunday the 26th from 3-5 at Fisher Auditorium.  It should be a great performance.