Ritmo

This is Rosemont High School concert choir singing "Ritmo." It is a fun, energetic piece, that embodies the Spanish spirit. Unlike the pice we looked at last week, I think the claps and various other rhythmic expressions are necessary. For the most part their snapping and clapping were clean but there were a few places where they were off just a little. Generally they connect the rhythmical sections with the soaring verses. 

There blend could be better. At times I could here all the parts, but a lot of the time I would loose the alto, or tenor and the sopranos would dominate. Despite their intonation seems very good. They all (from when I could hear them) sounded pretty in tune. Tone wise I think the sopranos, were shrill at times. Part of this comes from their spreading the [i]/[I] vowel in RItmo. This was especially obvious when it got higher in the register. I couldn't really hear the altos. The men sounded comfortable and clear. There was a good amount of "luster" in all the parts that I feel was necessary to the style of the piece. 

Their diction was good, I could understand the words, but sometimes they Americanized the Spanish. It wasn't so obvious, but after sitting in front of Gabriel in Chamber everything sounds Americanized. 

Also you could tell where in the music the crescendos were written in. They handled these well, but I felt the rest of the piece needed a little more dynamic contrast, even if it was something as subtle as swelling a bit to a word accent in a phrase.