Morning all, hope your central heating is working OK. Our fourth full-choir rehearsal last night was another good step towards the concert. We were very happy to have Ivy and Juliet join us for the first time, I hope you felt welcome and enjoyed singing with us. Thank you to Bex for making a Spotify playlist of the pieces and also to all those arriving early to get the seats out so that we can start on time. Below is what we sang last night, but first, for those who struggle with long mails, ANNOUNCEMENTS:
HOLLY LODGE CONCERT, THURSDAY DECEMBER 8TH: If you have not responded to Siobhan, PLEASE do! Whether it is a Yes, a No, or an I don’t know yet, it will help us make a decision on whether we can commit. Thank you.
HALF TERM: Reminder that we ARE meeting next Tuesday, 18th October. But we are NOT due to rehearse on Tuesday October 25th, although I think I am around so if there were any choristers who fancied a little small group thing focusing on danger areas, that might be possible.
SUMMER 2023 TOUR: Many of you know that this has been a topic of discussion. You will be getting a proposal in the next week, and it will require you to make a relatively quick decision. So please start thinking about it. Possible dates are July 6-9 and July 13-16.
Rameau, O Nuit – we noted the couple of small variations between verses in the inner parts. Then we sang through the whole piece. Notes are pretty much locked in for this piece now, so it’s now about making it sound good. Phrasing and tone are what we are focused on now.
Lauridsen, Sure on this Shining Night – we worked on bar 32 to the end. This is a lot of split part work, so a good place to devote some homework time if you have it. Bars 40-3 especially, as we need to be 100% confident there in order to give it maximum volume to support the soaring soprano line.
Whitacre, Sleep – we worked on the middle passage, bar 27-43. This has to be spooky and dramatic. Basses, practise holding an owlish C for half an hour without losing tone or pitch. Alto 1s, walk around work or home singing A flats to B naturals (‘in the night,’ ‘frightening shadow,’ ‘flickering light’). Tenors and Basses, some homework on bars 35-43 would be good. It isn’t especially hard, but it needs to be accurate and together. Sops, maybe double check your notes in ‘clouds of dream’ bar 39. And just like the Lauridsen, the big climax starting at bar 57, the lower parts are not yet as solid as they need to be to give the soprano top A flat the underpinning it deserves. That section would benefit from some close attention.
Rachmaninoff, Bogoroditse Dyevo – last week we worked on the middle and end sections, and this week we reprised that to cement what we had done. Note-wise, it was very good indeed, and starting to sound impressive. Basses, remember to hold the dotted crotchet at the start of bar 21 for its full length. Tenors, bar 24 is your glory bit – sing it out. Otherwise this piece is filed alongside the Rameau – it’s now about making it sound as lovely as it is. Lots of romantic expression, lots of yearning.
Stopford, Lully, Lulla, Lullay – the notes of this one were never going to be a big challenge and you have them down. The challenge here is not drifting flat. So if you want a challenge to work on at home, try giving yourself a starting note somehow (piano, or off the recordings perhaps) – and singing one verse and one chorus, and then seeing if your ending note is still where it started. If not, work on pushing everything up. And then when you can do that, try it again but extra quiet. Singing down in volume makes the risk of going flat higher. If you can hold your pitch at super low volume, you are good to go!
Have a good week, make sure you have friends and family teed up for early evening Saturday December 17th, and see you next Tuesday.
Chris