Don Neuen, Director of Choral Activities at the Eastman School of Music, uses a warm-up early in the fall that inspires instant, compelling choral tone. “Imagine that a long-lost friend has just appeared at the door to our rehearsal room,” he suggests to his homesick students a few weeks into the rehearsal season. “Call to that friend, ‘Heyl Come here and sit downl’ ” The choir obeys. Coaxing more enthusiasm, Professor Neuen eventually offers to watch the group call again and select two or three who aren’t quite vivacious enough, so that the entire group can help them. Now, of course, everyone calls with manic urgency. That, Professor Neuenexplains to each breathless ensemble, is choral tone. He never actually chooses anyone to embarrass with help. He usually takes the exercise a step further: imagine that rehearsal has started and you need to call to your friend just as intensely, but pianissimo.
Strengths of Professor Neuen’s technique include: 1) It shows singers that they are already capable
of producing exciting tone – they don’t need to struggle with mysterious, unknown concepts. Beautiful music is already within them. 2) Once a group has sounded imperative on the verb “Come,” they can be reminded in rehearsing other imperative verbs to recall their urgent tone. Imperative verbs are rampant in choral texts: “Lord, have mercy,” “Grant us peace,” “Hear us,” “Come away,” “Sing me a song … ” If you haven’t used hey-come- here-and-sit-down in regular rehearsals, you may also find it effective for focusing nervous energy
in a warm-up rehearsal immediately before a performance.
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