Welcome to ctk’s online A Cappella choir!
For more than a decade, we have put together an a cappella choir to provide special music selections for services during Holy Week. Although we cannot sing as a choir in person, I would still love to pull our voices together to provide two choir pieces, one for Good Friday and one for the 10:30 a.m. service on Easter Sunday.
Here’s how it works: Any of you who would like to participate can use the resources below to learn your part, video record yourself singing, and then send your recording to amanda@ctkcambridge.org by end of day on Friday, March 26 (earlier is even better!). We will be compiling video recordings so we can create a video collage (like the many you have probably seen during the past year!). If you would rather not send video, please still send an audio recording, as I’d love to include as many voices as possible! The notes and recordings below can help us all sing together.
Please let me know if you have questions or need any additional resources (amanda@ctkcambridge.org). I hope you will be able to lend your voice!
Amanda Holley
Video Recording Notes:
Please listen with headphones/earbuds to one of the recordings below (either your specific part or all four parts together) while you record. At the beginning of each recording you will hear the starting pitch(es) given, followed by four snaps before the piece begins. The individual part recordings also include a click track on the beat throughout to help manage longer sections of rest. If you are able, I recommend listening to the 4 parts recording while you record your part, as I found it helps it feel more like singing with a group!
Find a quiet place with decent lighting to record. Remember that passing cars, computers, and other appliances can create unwanted background noise!
Rest your recording device on a solid surface rather than holding it while you record.
Please shoot your video in portrait (vertical) mode rather than landscape (horizontal).
LAMB OF GOD, MOST HOLY - Nikolaus decius, arr. holley (For good friday)
Sheet Music
Performance Notes:
MM = 66. At the beginning of your recording, please snap or clap one measure of half note beats before you sing (You’ll hear these four beats at the beginning of each recording below). This measure of clear, audible beats will help me line up all of the recordings more easily.
Keep vowels tall and consonants crisp. Exaggerate the diction. Please flip the R’s, as you are able. Also, pay attention to cut-offs.
The piece is marked Molto Legato, so please connect the notes and sing phrases as much as possible.
Basses, if you listen to your individual part, the second half will sound pretty digitized. I had to sing it up an octave and transpose it, which is why the voice sounds strange. The pitches and rhythms, however, are correct!
Alleluia, Alleluia - Christopher Wordsworth/Amanda holley (For Easter Sunday)
Sheet music
Performance Notes:
MM = 108. At the beginning of your recording, please snap or clap one measure of quarter note beats before you sing (You’ll hear these four beats at the beginning of each recording below). This measure of clear, audible beats will help me line up all of the recordings more easily.
Keep vowels tall and consonants crisp. Exaggerate the diction. Please flip the R’s, as you are able. Also, pay attention to cut-offs.
The piece should begin with a hushed excitement and build to full-blown joy by the last verse!
A few of the parts are a little tricky in the middle (sorry!), so watch the notes carefully. Also, forgive my voice at times in the recordings, as some of these parts are not in my preferred range!