Seek Ye the Lord – Knut Nystedt
 
This piece must be memorized.
 

    * At the start of the piece, treat the un-stemmed notes as if they were quarter notes, and I will conduct the half note (every other note). Each other part comes in after just one note, so it sounds quite cacophonous at the beginning. Note that the bar is repeated five times. When the Soprano I part has been sung twice through, the Altos begin singing, in the same tempo as the Sopranos.
    * At the bottom of the page 3, again treat the un-stemmed notes as if they were quarter notes, and again I will conduct half notes. However, the beats will fall beginning on the second note. In other words, the first note, “for”, is a pickup, and the beat falls on the word “He.” Line up the three parts as indicated. All women should split that evenly among the three sections.
    * Page 4, first bar, yes, that is a low E. Don’t worry if you can’t hit it, but you at least need to think it so that the F is in tune. Note that there are now four beats to a measure, the half note gets the beat, and the first note is on the “and” of beat 3.
    * Page 5, the first two systems is actually a classic atonal, 12-tone row. (11 tones actually.) You need to be very careful to learn these notes correctly.
    * On page 5, fourth system, second bar, put an eighth rest before the last note.
    * Page 6, yes, that is a four-part split among the sopranos.
    * Page 7, read carefully the directions at the bottom of the page. This is why you must memorize this piece. It’s a really cool effect.
    * Page 8, bar 2, put an eighth rest before the last note.
    * Page 8, second system, bar 3, put an eighth rest after the first note.
    * Page 8, bottom system, bar 1, put an eighth rest before the last note.