Score keeps musicians on their toes, directors say

The score for Jekyll & Hyde sounds gorgeous, but it hasn't been a snap for student musicians, their Denton High School teachers said.

Band director Brian Wilson has put the pit orchestra of strings, brass, wind, keyboard and percussion through many rehearsals. Choir directors Mark Baker and Patti Freeman have coached the singers through a demanding libretto.

Freeman said the vocal score makes the singer meet pop and opera stylings in the middle.

"I think that's what true Broadway is - halfway between pop and opera," she said. "The students have done a remarkable job. This isn't a show that your average high school would try unless they had the horses for it, so to speak. And we do."

Baker said the students are drilled in choir to listen to their section and blend their voices.

"This is a different kind of singing," Baker said. "We've spent way more time on the emotional side of singing than the technical stuff. Of course, a lot of these students are already technical singers. We've got All-State [choir] caliber voices in this show."

Wilson directs musicians as young as eighth grade and old as seniors in the pit, which holds a 28-member orchestra. The musicians who volunteered to be in the pit started rehearsing in the fall. Wilson said he's teaching the musicians how to complete the atmosphere and the emotional colors of the show.

"I had to get in their heads a little bit," he said. "I use a lot of imagery, which is something I do a lot with my bands. In the song 'Murder,' I told them this is a doctor who has gone crazy and has killed someone. We have this four-note fermata that we've named 'the death chord.' They aren't supposed to play it exactly and add vibrata and make it pretty. They have to understand that, as this chord is playing, someone is getting stabbed. Someone is getting their throat cut. Someone's neck is being snapped. It's pretty much me up there, yelling 'DEATH CHORD!' and using my baton to stab the air like a knife. Now, we're getting to the point where I can say 'death chord,' and they make it happen."