solo question

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tenor uno
Posts: 1
Joined: 01 Feb 2007 04:10

solo question

Post by tenor uno »

hello. my name's jonathan and i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for nice tenor solos. My high school choir was invited to sing at Carnegie Hall in New York this Spring and my conductor advised everyone to pick up solo work to 'raise their voice to that next level' and I would very much like to pursue a good solo for Solo and Ensemble Contest for this specific reason. I've never performed a solo sing, I guess that explains my inexperience with composers and pieces; however, I'd really like to tackle a formidable tenor solo and see where that takes me and my voice. I am a tenor one, so any suggestions of tenor solos from any period (baroque, renac., romantic) would greatly be appreciated. I tried to search the Library, but im not familiar with composers or pieces. Thanks so much in advance.

Jonathan
mjolnir
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Joined: 12 Sep 2005 14:39

Re: solo question

Post by mjolnir »

The only suggestion I'm prepared to make is to speak with your conductor, and solicit his advice. There are certainly a number of good tenor solos, but the readers of this forum are not likely to know you, your capabilities, or your voice, and know you are capable of, and what would be a good fit for you.

ns
DaveF
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Joined: 12 Jan 2006 21:11
Location: Abergavenny, Gwent, UK

Post by DaveF »

Jonathan,

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with much of the operatic repertoire, but in the choral/orchestral repertoire I would point you towards the Requiems by Verdi and Berlioz. The Ingemisco (Verdi) and Sanctus (Berlioz) are both good exercises in high, sustained tenor singing. Unfortunately, neither of these pieces is currently on CPDL, but any good music library will have them.

The Bach cantatas have some ferociously virtuosic and difficult tenor solos; try Erholet euch from Cantata 103 or Kann ich nur from no.105 for starters. Vocal scores of all the cantatas are available at http://www.bach-cantatas.com/IndexScores.htm. Have fun!

DF
CHGiffen
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Location: Hudson, Wisconsin, USA

Post by CHGiffen »

You might check out tenor arias from Handel's Messiah (which is available at CPDL), especially "Every valley shall be exalted" and "Thou shalt break them"

Chuck
Charles H. Giffen
CPDL Board of Directors Chair
Admin at & Manager of ChoralWiki
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