Fundamentals in Choral Singing: Light and Shade
Any simple chord succession like the example below will do for practice in light and shade (nuancing.) It saves a great, deal of time in the practice of the printed page if a choir comes to the printed page with a crescendo and dimuendo technique. Each chord may be taken with a slow, steady crescendo, and a like decrescendo; or the three chords may
be taken as a phrase--quickly enough to be sung in one breath with the same nuancing transferred to the whole phrase. The pitch may be raised by semitones to as high a point as the conductor may think practical. If it, is too much trouble to mimeograph the three chords a chord-progression out. of a convenient hymnal may be chosen; the chords are so simple that they can be easily memorized.
Guard against, too quick an increase in the crescendo and too sudden a decrease in the dimuendo. The practice of this nuance is fatiguing and therefore ought to be carefully limited.