<p>For one of my auditions the song cuts are supposed to be 16 bars and both of mine are 20 bars with no logical cutoff at 16. Is that ok?</p>
<p>You may want to call each school and ask. I do think most colleges will be okay with 20 bars instead of 16, but I would call just to be sure. Call the MT department with auditon type questions. The admission department may not know or may give you the wrong answer.</p>
<p>cmkundin -- Are you starting at the end of the song and counting backwards? What songs are you singing... someone here might be able to help you figure out a cut that is closer to 16 -- bars.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post your audition material.</p>
<p>Kate</p>
<p>What's that old line -- "it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission"...:-) Seriously, in most cases I'm sure that would be fine. There are, however, a few schools that are notoriously strict about their guidelines; if you read the websites carefully, you should be able to tell which ones they are. If you're not sure -- call them and ask.</p>
<p>16 bars means 16 bars! Some places will eliminate you from consideration just because you don't follow the directions--no "the rules don't apply to me" kind of thing. Err on the side of caution. Auditioners can hear everything they need to hear in those 16 bars, and they're on tight schedules. Choose your material and cut wisely!</p>
<p>It's not really true that schools will "disqualify" people for having cuts that aren't exactly 16 bars long. 16 bars is a cut length that is used because most Golden Age MT songs were written in an A-A-B-A format, and 16 bars was the length of a standard B-A section (the bridge to the end of the refrain). 32 bars was usually the length of the entire refrain. No one will count bars - unless perhaps your cut "feels" very long. You need to understand that the "rules" mimic professional audition format, and in a professional audition a 16 can mean anywhere from about 12 - 20 measures, depending on the time signature of the song. (If a song is in cut time and very fast, a 32 is the equivalent of a 16.) A 16-bar cut "rule" in both professional and college auditions is designed to get a cut that has a specific "feel" in length - most important is to understand this and make a cut that's dynamic and complete musically and textually. So yes, 20 bars should be fine, if you have truly made the most complete and dynamic musical cut.</p>
<p>I'm going to expand just a little on what CoachC said. A typical musical phrase in much of the MT literature (and other musical literature, for that matter) is 8 bars long. Two 8 bar phrases ( a musical "period"), as CoachC said, would be the standard length of a defined section of a piece. An important reason not to take the 16 bar length too literally is that some composers do not write nice, square 16 bar periods. Phrase lengths can be uneven. A 9 bar phrase may be followed by a 10 bar phrase. It would be a mistake to perform a 16 bar cut of a musical period that is, let's say, 18 measures in length. One would either have to begin singing 2 measures after the first phrase began or stop singing 2 measures before the final phrase ended. Either choice would be very inappropriate musically. No auditor would want a student to do that. When my D auditioned for CMU, Gary Kline cautioned students not to make that ridiculous, unmusical choice. He begged the kids to be sure they did not stop singing in the middle of a phrase! I cannot imagine any school penalizing a student for choosing an audition piece that had an 18 or 19 bar period instead of a 16 bar period. What they do not want is for a student to come in with no appropriate-length cut chosen ahead of time or a cut that is far longer than what their guidelines stipulate. A 16 bar cut does not mean 48 measures. Eighteen to 20 bars, if the material follows a musically logical beginning and ending point is fine.</p>
<p>If you are not sure what constitutes an appropriate cut, consult your voice teacher or your vocal coach. Any well-trained musician should be able to help you.</p>
<p>Completely agree with CoachC and dancersmom.</p>
<p>As someone who sits through lots of auditions I do not count bars... As others are saying many contemporary pieces don't cut cleanly into 16 or 32 bars. I think it is important to not let a 16 bar cutting expand to 32 bars.... but if 18 - 20 bars is what makes musical sense I do not believe anyone would penalize you. </p>
<p>Starting at the end and counting backwards often will give you a good cut, although sometimes that is not the case with more contemporary material.</p>
<p>Starting at the beginning and stopping at an illogical spot 16 bars in is not advisable.</p>
<p>As is mentioned by CoachC, dancersmom, and Soozievt look for the most dynamic logical cut that sticks as closely to the 16 bar mark as possible.</p>
<p>Kate</p>
<p>I also think I would rather have someone sing more bars that 16 (within reason) than call me ahead of time to ask if it is okay to sing more bars than 16.... I am a fan of the forgiveness/ permission quote posted above :).</p>
<p>In last year's auditions, my S did not strictly adhere to the 16 bar rule as it would not have made sense for the songs that he chose. No one said a word about it and he was not penalized. I think he went as far as having 24 bars in his up-tempo, which made me a little nervous, but everything worked out fine.</p>
<p>thanks, that was really helpful. I've done lots of auditions and gone over the "16 bar" limit without penalty, I just wanted to make sure that it was the same for college. Thanks</p>
<p>cmkundin....just to be clear...you should be staying within the required song lengths, but simply completing the phrasing in a logical place, even if it means a few extra bars. So, I wouldn't want anyone to get the impression that you don't have to adhere to the required length, generally speaking. You do, but in a reasonable or logical fashion, as explained by others earlier. In other words, don't sing a 32 bar cut for a 16 bar requirement. Your 20 bar cut may be fine if the 16 bar cutoff is not in a logical place or in the middle of a phrase. Try to find a 16 bar cut in the song but it may mean for THAT particular song, it may be necessary to sing 20 bars.</p>