Page 112 - Voice for Life Songbook 1
P. 112
25. He came singing love
Track 25
Information
The composer of ‘He came singing love’ is Colin Gibson, a teacher and writer who lives in New Zealand. Using song as a metaphor for life, the text of this piece suggests that each of us can help love, faith, hope and peace to flourish in our world through living them out in our lives.
Preparation
The melody of this song is based around the tonic chord of E flat.You could start by singing the following pattern to warm-up the voices and get your singers used to the sound and feel of the arpeggio on which the melody is based:
On each repeat move the exercise up by a semitone. Make sure that the first note is resonant and has plenty of tone.
Teaching the song
Begin by teaching the melody, which is the same for each verse.You can do this by rote, teaching two bars at a time and asking your singers to imitate you (as you would in a call and response song).Alternatively you may like to ask your singers to sightread this melody.
The harmony parts are optional but if you want to perform this song in unison you will need to be aware that the melody is shared between the voices in this arrangement: in the second verse the upper part has the melody, in the third the lower part has the tune, and in fourth verse the melody swaps between the two. Most of the harmonies are fairly simple and memorable, but you could teach sections at a time by making a simple exercise out of the sequences, for example the descant bars 31–32, or bars 42–43 could both be turned into longer descending sequences to get your singers used to the shape of the melodies here.
Using the voice well
Your singers will need good breath control for the diminuendo at the pause in bar 8 if both the tone and pitch are to remain steady.To practise this, ask them to try a gradual crescendo and diminuendo on a single note lower in the register (choose any vowel sound, e.g.‘Ah’).When they can control this change in dynamic, raise the pitch gradually until they can manage this at the same pitch as in bar 8. Once they have achieved this you can add the words back in.
Make sure the up-beat to each verse has a good resonant tone even though it is low for most singers and has a short duration.
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