Greetings!

If you to like to sing, you’re heartily invited to sing in the chorus that will perform during Sunday morning’s memorial service. This invitation includes classmates, spouses and significant others, and other family members or friends who accompany you to the reunion.

We will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s “Verleih uns frieden” (grant us thy peace). It’s a lovely setting for SATB voices, exciting to sing, easy to learn. I’ve posted the score, an mp3 file of a performance, and another mp3 file with the German pronunciation that you can download (see below). If possible, please download these materials and spend some time learning the notes and text before the reunion, so we can use our limited rehearsal time to enriching musical values, not just learning notes. If you can’t access the web, or can’t download the materials, contact me (see below) and I’ll send you a score and CD by snail mail.

If you do plan to sing, please let me know so I can estimate the size and balance of the chorus. Send me an e-mail, or call, or drop me a card. Mention any voice parts you can sing (e.g. “Alto, can sing tenor if necessary”) Thanks!! My contact information is at the end of this page.

Rehearsals have been scheduled into the weekend’s program so as not to interfere with other activities. They will be held at the following times:

1. Thurs June 7, 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Cochran Chapel -- for choristers who arrive early. This rehearsal is optional, but will allow us to develop a nucleus of singers who can sing with confidence and set a model for those who join us later. Please attend if possible!
2. Fri June 8, 3:15-4:15 p.m. in Graves Hall -- note location change!
3. Sun June 10, 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the Cochran Chapel -- final rehearsal before the 10 a.m. memorial service (mandatory)

Please plan to attend at least two of these rehearsals (including the mandatory Sunday morning rehearsal).

Scores and practice materials

1. The Mendelssohn score can be downloaded here (right click and select the command to save to your computer, or click to view on a browser page) as a pdf file (5 MB) that you can print on your computer. NOTE: for copyright reasons, this file is protected by password access. The University of CT choral library has loaned me 50 purchased copies of the score, and we have the legal right to distribute that number of copies electronically, as long as these are used only as a temporary substitute for the real copy and are destroyed after use and not copied or distributed to others. PA '57 men may already have the password; if you don't have it, please e-mail Tom Terry at Thomas.Terry@UConn.Edu.

2. A recording of the Mendelssohn piece can be downloaded here (right click and select the command to save to your computer, or click to view on a browser page) as an mp3 file (5.6 MB) that you can play on your computer, or burn to a CD. NOTE: for copyright reasons, this file is also protected by password access.

3. A midi file (18 KB) of the Mendelssohn piece can be downloaded here (right click and select the command to save to your computer. or click to view on a browser page). This small file from the public domain and does not require password protection. Midi files can be played on your computer with Quicktime or other standard multimedia software. These files can be useful to help you learn notes.

4. An mp3 file (448 KB) with the German pronounciation can be downloaded here (right click and select the command to save to your computer, or click to view on a browser page). Unless your German pronounciation is flawless, please practice speaking the text with this guide (thanks to Constance DeFotis for recording this!).

If you are not able to download or print these materials, please let me know (contact information is at bottom). I will send you a score and a practice CD by snail mail.

Practice Notes

Everyone:
1. practice speaking the German, using the mp3 file (above) as a guide.
2. learn to sing the notes with correct pitch and timing.
3. practice singing along with either the midi file or the mp3 file of this piece (above).

Men: all voices (T and B) should sing the opening sections (marked B) up to the SATB section.
Women: all voices (S and A) should sing the Alto part in the opening duet section.
At the SATB section, please sing your normal voice. Baritones, please sing the tenor line if this is comfortable -- the tessatura is not particularly high, and we are short of tenors.