Hi all.
NEWSFLASH – tomorrow is going to be hot. WIth 200 people in the church (choirs = 50, orchestra = 10, audience =140, perhaps?) the concert will be very warm. Please dress appropriately. Not passing out takes priority over being in long sleeves or being colour-coordinated.
And please, bring plenty of water to both rehearsal and concert.
As they say in Merida
Manana!
CH
And so, after 19 Tuesday nights together, plenty of sectionals, and lots of individual work at home, our preparation is done. And it sounds great. Thanks to Bernadette for her help this evening, to Robert for his help every week, and to you all – including those choristers who came and sang and helped even when they knew they could not sing the concert – for your effort and commitment. There have, for sure, been times when it has been a slog, but here we are now with a very special concert in the offing.
But of course it wouldn’t be a rehearsal recap without a list of little things that can still be a tiny bit better!
Brahms – more dynamics. Then a bit more dynamics on top of that, and a bit more after that.
Haydn –
1. Precision, especially the timing of bar 79
2. Super-quiet in the ‘eine neue welt’ parts
4. First entry has to be as strong and convincing as the soloist who precedes it. You always have been, but getting the lead tonight from Bernadette seemed to distract you a little. Maybe practise with a recording?
13. Rhythmic strength – make ‘zeigt’ percussive and in general keep everything with a good strong beat
18. Altos and Tenors – check that bit at the bottom of page 79; everyone, make sure you start those long notes quiet so you have room to get louder
27. Keep the energy up! Sops and Tenors, really emphasise the fz markings on p 112. Dynamics-wise the movement is kind of all loud, but with room to shape individual phrases – make the most of that chance.
29.
Part I – the goal is to sound like one single harmonious voice underpinning the soloists. First entry has to be confident but quiet. Beautiful shape to the phrase ‘erschall in ewigkeit’ bar 34
Part II – entry at D bar 82 – sops, make sure you are ready and hit it with power. Everyone else, follow with the same conviction please.
Part III – respect the rests!
Part V – (M p130) – Dynamics! Quiet entry, then back and forth from loud to soft. MAKE SURE THE QUIET ENTRIES ARE NOT BEHIND THE BEAT! T&B at letter S especially.
33. Make sure you know how long the long penultimate note of p 151 is. Stephen is conducting 8 to a bar, so that note is 10 beats. Keep the energy high throughout the movement – we will all be knackered at this point. Tenors, entry at bottom of p155, please give it a look. Last pages – don’t lose concentration. This not the moment to come in a beat early!
Laudate Dominum – beautifully quiet and controlled. Just watch the ends of phrases – no holding notes longer than written please. Tenors, I’m looking at you!
We didn’t end up singing Habanera or Va Pensiero, but I am confident that they will run beautifully.
When we started out back in January, my hope was that, by this point in our rehearsal schedule, we would be happy that we know the notes and we would be fine-tuning and making the good truly excellent. And that is exactly where we are. These last few rehearsals have been wonderful, the sound you are making is truly lovely. By all means spend a little time this week checking you have all the details right, but now the main thing is to enjoy the fruits of your considerable labours. It’s going to be a great evening, with new friends to make and beautiful music to sing.
See you on Saturday. Bring your friends!
Chris
One more message for the day – if you have been struggling to see the words of the Verdi, I have an amended file for you that may help.
https://sheengatechoir.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Va-pensiero-choir-text.pdf
Sorry about the flurry of posts today. This one covers all you need to know for the big day.
In addition to being ready to sing on Saturday, we need to meet our Spanish guests and to know when to be where, as the second half involves us getting on and off stage. Nothing tricky, but we do need time to run through it, and we don’t want to do this while the orchestra is there, hence we need to ask you to be there before the official orchestral rehearsal time, please. It’s a long day but it will be well worth it.
Chris/Siobhan
12.30pm – set up crew arrives. If you are able to offer to help please speak to Siobhan.
1-1.15 – arrive at church. Singing starts at 1.20. After Zorongo, SGC step outside church quickly and quietly so that CAL can rehearse their pieces.
2.00 – main rehearsal with orchestra, soloists, Stephen
5.00 – rehearsal ends
No later than 6.45pm – assemble in vestry
6.50 Warm up
6.59 SGC out on stage
7.00 Concert begins with Brahms
Haydn
Interval (bell will sound to indicate the concert is recommencing)
5 mins before interval ends, choirs reassemble on stage, standing
Laudate Dominum
SGC off to pews on right (as for piano interlude in December concert)
CAL perform 5 pieces
SGC return to stage, same layout as before
Habanera
End
Thank yous
Encore
If we start on time and keep everything moving along without unnecessary delays, expected end time is 9.15pm. But if we faff around, and especially if we let the interval drag on, it will be later.
Please bring all food ready to serve (on a plate etc) and wrapped so that it can be safely stored until after concert. Take it to the bar table area where it will be kept until we are done. If anyone wants to bring their food to rehearsal then that’s fine as long as they provide their own cool box. No hot food as we won’t be able to manage it.
Morning everyone, I’m looking forward to seeing you this evening for our final rehearsal of a total of 19 that we have spent working on Haydn’s Creation, and other music to boot.
No more notes to bash, no words to learn, just details to sharpen and dynamics to beef up. Bernadette Lord is joining us this evening. She will be singing the soprano solo lines in a number of the pieces to give us an idea of how different it will be on Saturday.
There is a separate post pending with timing details for Saturday. Please make sure you read that and have everything clear. It is a complicated day with lots of movements. No pun intended.
See you this evening
Chris
Dear Sheen Gate Choir
Thank you for a highly enjoyable rehearsal last night and for your warm welcome.
It was a big sing, but I thought you did very well indeed and you are on a great trajectory for the concert. In the concert there will be of course lots of solos to break things up, so the Haydn won’t feel quite so relentless, or at least not for you.
Chris said he was making notes on things to work on. Things that come to mind are:
I think you make a great sound and are doing a great job with the Haydn. Congratulations to you, to Robert for some fine accompaniment and of course to Chris for getting you to this point.
I am very excited about the prospect of conducting you in the concert.
Cheers
Stephen
Dear all
I hope you are excited for tomorrow, when Stephen will be coming to conduct us in rehearsal, ready for the big day on the 24th. Please try to be there on time, ready to start singing at 7.45.
If you have not already done so, can I please suggest that you listen to the recordings that Stephen sent. The speeds of many of the movements are quite different – slower – than we have typically been practising. The last movement opening passage, the Andante, is a very good example. It is truly walking speed. Die Himmel Erzahlen is a lot more leisurely than some of our assaults on it. That’s not to say that Stephen will be following the same speeds as the recording necessarily, but puts us on notice to watch and not sing on autopilot. It’s going to be fun for sure.
Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow
Chris
Dear All
More ticket sales please!
I know everyone has been putting a lot of effort into preparations for the performance in a couple of weeks which is marvellous, but we also need to pay some attention to our ticket sales. This is a big event for us and we need to cover our costs. Remember the aim is for every choir member to sell 3 tickets at the very least. Tricia has only had numbers (& payment) from a handful of people so far, so there must be a lot more of you out there who have sold tickets but just haven’t got round to letting us know……
We were sounding fantastic last week. It’s going to be a really enjoyable concert with an exciting and varied programme which our guests should thoroughly enjoy and which has attracted sales from non-choir members who have seen it advertised. So come on everyone – get selling!
To purchase tickets in advance, transfer payment to the choir bank account and advise Tricia Joshi (patricia@joshifamily.co.uk) of payment and names of guests. Tickets are £15 each or £5 for under 12s.
Sorry for the very late review – been a hectic week. First, a big thank you to those who arrived early on Tuesday and laid out the chairs so we were able to start promptly. Please use that same seat location for the rest of the rehearsals and the concert. If you were unable to be there on Tuesday, please sit where directed by those who were there. Everyone has a seat, I promise!
We ran through all of the movements of the Haydn, the Brahms, both Spanish pieces and the Mozart. The only one we didn’t sing was the encore, Va Pensiero. We tried to take into account the feedback Stephen has given us. He will be here in person on Tuesday next.
The work from here can be summarised in two words: dynamics and precision. You have done a brilliant job of learning the notes and the words. Much of what you are doing sounds wonderful.
In terms of dynamics, we are at the moment, as we often are, much too mezzo – mezzo. Everything needs to be far more varied. Think of your voice as having 8 distinct volume levels:
| Marking | Volume level | |
| ppp | 1 | Quietest |
| pp | 2 | |
| p | 3 | |
| mp | 4 | |
| mf | 5 | |
| f | 6 | |
| ff | 7 | |
| fff | 8 | Loudest |
We spend too much time in the 4-5 range. We need to be using all of 2-7, and occasionally adding the 1 and 8 for extreme drama.
We are better at pushing up from 5 to 6 or 7. Less good at going down in volume. And Stephen is looking for much more quiet singing in movements like Im Anfang (emerging from nothing) and ‘Und eine neue Welt.’
Precision means word endings as we have worked, not just the first time it comes in a movement but every time; we tend to lose focus and precision as a piece goes on. It means being bang on the beat with entries, especially quiet ones where our voices take a split second longer to produce a sound and we come in behind the beat on ‘Dich beten Erd’ and ‘in Ewigkeit’ (pp134-135 for example). It means being perfectly in time with the whole choir in moments where everyone is on the same rhythm, such as ‘otra vez’ and many other places in Habanera. And it means loads of other things too. The concert is a big one. You should expect to be physically tired at the end from the exertion of singing. But you should also be mentally tired from the constant concentration that precise singing needs.
Which is not to say that you are not singing very well already. If we performed everything as we did on Tuesday, it would be a very good concert. But I for one would love to make it an outstanding concert, and for that we just need to lift the details a couple of notches.
In two weeks from now we will be assembing at Christ Church with orchestra and soloists and conductor, getting ready for the concert. Not long to go, keep up the excellent effort, and see you all on Tuesday, ready for a prompt 7.45pm start please.
Enjoy the sunshine!
CH
Practice Pack
Work on singing to 8 different volume levels, where 1 is as quiet as you can sing and be in control of your pitch, and 8 is as loud as you can, without losing tone. If the neighbours bang on the walls you are doing it right. Work especially on singing at 2 or 3 on the scale, but ensuring your voice makes a noise right on the intended beat, not just after it. And pay close attention to pitch at lower volumes; it’s super easy to drift flat.
Then work on any piece in the program, but using the full range of volumes, especially the quieter ones. The Brahms especially is nothing without the full range of dynamics and drama.
The recording that Stephen is basing our performance around is this one: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2oWkBkmDmF5oxggrbmao9l?si=9bb8bbba5fd44648
It would be great for everyone to use this as their singalong tracks from here on so we all have a sense of how the movements flow. Remember that we are not singing every movement, however. The listing is as on the website.
Dear All
I hope you’ve had a lovely half term break enjoying the glorious sunshine.
EARLY SET UP TONIGHT:
With just a few rehearsals to go until our concert we’d like to start promptly this evening. We’ll be on the raised altar area tonight so will need to set up chairs as we used to do. If anyone can get there a few minutes early to help set up that would be very helpful.
.
FOOD AFTER CONCERT:
As mentioned at the end of the last rehearsal, we would like to fit in a social gathering with our much anticipated Spanish visitors and decided that the best time to do this would be on the night of the concert and that the easiest venue would be Christchurch itself. We are therefore asking everyone to bring a dish of food to the concert (finger food would be the easiest) which can be offered at the end to SGC & AL choir members and any visitors who would like to linger. The bar will of course be open throughout (thank you Douglas!). That way any visitors who may have been enticed to come with the promise of food afterwards will not be disappointed and we have a ready made venue that can fit all of us.
Please could everyone let me know what they plan to bring so I can make sure we don’t end up with just sausage rolls…. (email Siobhan – jonezfamily658@virginmedia.com)
Many thanks!