How to learn a Bach Solo Cantata in 5 days
Last Sunday I was tagged on Facebook in a post that searched for a cover for Bach Cantata 35 Geist und Seele for the following Saturday. I was free and fancied a challenge - I hadn’t sung the piece before - so I emailed back and offered my service. The confirmation of my booking came Monday afternoon, which left me with only just 5 days to practice the whole piece. My daytime was already committed to university work, so I really only had the evening hours for practicing. This post summarises my approach to tackle this piece.
Preparation: I listened to the whole cantata, following the score I got from the Internet (legal copy) and printed the score. Identifying challenges: I had a first run through all the pieces (3 arias and 2 recits) and identified the bars that could be potentially challenging due to either fast tempo or an unexpected combination of notes.
Making a practice plan: Following this, I made a practice plan which helped me immensely to a) not loose focus during the week and b) not to loose my mind when it was getting tough. The plan was detailed and straightforward: single out challenging bars first and then focus on one aria per day.
The practice sessions: I started with the first aria ‘Geist und Seele’, a typical DaCapo aria. Learning this aria in one practice session really afforded to be disciplined. I looked at the meaning of the text and how Bach composed the different words and thought about how to interpret this musically. The main challenge were fast decoration on 'jauchzen’. Hearing my teacher’s voice in my head 'Fast singing is slow singing sped up’ I diligently slowed it down and sped it up only when I could do it three times correctly in a row. (My pupils love the 'three times right’-game, however i found when being on the other side, it can be quite frustrating, although it did pay off.) The next aria 'Gott hat alles wohl gemacht’, included lots of semi quaver runs that were exactly on the transition between mode 1 and mode 2 (also called chest voice and head voice), so resonance strategies and careful tongue positioning had to be thought through. The last aria 'Ich wünsche mir’ was then a real challenge, in particular two passages with extended semi quaver triplet runs in high speed. Again, singing really slowly helped a lot. I practiced with a metronome and sped it up notch by notch until I reached the desired speed, making sure not to progress before I had managed it 3 times correctly in a row. This was hard work, but I could see it coming together.
Mental practising: In-between I kept listening to the piece and thought about my own interpretation of the recitatives. On Thursday, I was so tired I needed a day off, but I still thought about the piece, would read the score and review my practice. Important was that I tried to include to imagine the physical experience of singing the piece, instead of just thinking of the pitches and rhythms or musical ideas.
The day before the performance: After having made a mental plan on how to sing the recitatives, I now had a go at physically singing them. Thanks to my mental practice, this started on a high level and went very well. Finally, I chose a few recordings in various speeds and slightly different instrumentation and would simply sing along ensuring that I knew exactly when to come in (one of the dangers of practising on your own, although my partner played far more Bach on the piano than he probably wanted to!).
Then I tried to relax and had an early night.
The performance next day with the saraBande orchestra, led by Peter Siepmann, was a real success and when the last notes of the orchestra stopped, I was so happy that I have the privilege to perform such beautiful pieces.
Previously published 27 September 2015