Here is a tool for you to practice the cluster in Matsukaze Opera.
Some notes about the "App" bellow:
- this “App” is working well on Chrome, it’s likely to work well on Firefox but doesn’t work on Safari.
- Being on smartphone or on a computer doesn’t make a difference.
- You should have a good network in order to not wait to long for the audio files to connect.
- the first volume on the top, is the general volume. then there are individuals volumes for each voices (including the piano and also for the metronome).
- The metronome is only here for you to understand where the audio is in the score as lots of moments in that music doesn’t have a strong pulse.
- You have some presets in the “set up your balance” menu, for the individual volumes.
- When you change manually the individual volume, this menu (set up your balance) change automatically to “custom”. Don’t hesitate to use “balanced” to restore the initial volumes.
- the “mute” checkbox is quite obvious.
- the “solo” checkbox allows you to check in furtive mode your voice, or you can make some groups by checking 2 or more checkboxes, especially if you follow my advices in the footnotes.
- The first excerpt of Scene 4 (mes 25 – 36) has a tempo change bar 30. listen carefully the metronome to notice it.
- Finally, I didn’t put any dynamics in the choir voices, it is all very raw, but it gives you clear pitch from the start of every chords.
In any case of bug in this App, remember to refresh the webpage, and it should be fine.
Every excerpts comes with a foot note, giving you tips of how to find your place in the cluster. As you will see, almost every chord is either a diminished 7th or a derivative from this chord. So listen to a lot of diminished 7th, and also tritons (which is a diminished 5th), in order to really feel this tone colour strongly and be able to sing easily your part.
About the foot notes, every time you have what I call an “extra note”, as most of the chord are starting in Piano dynamic, give the other voice a head start in the crescendo so the diminished 7th is well anchor before you actually come to “destroy” it. This observation is obviously for the early stage of rehearsals. Closer to the performance, I will ask you to do the same crescendo than your colleagues, in order to directly hear the right chord.
Final advice: Embrace the opportunity to practice this regularly! By engaging with these chords every day, you’ll become more acquainted with the unique colors of each cluster, allowing you to sing your notes instinctively and confidently discover your own sound!
Enjoy!