Author: Siobhan Jones

Hello singers! I hope you are all surviving Lockdown II. Despite missing our weekly get-together.

We are not the only choir whose 2020 schedule has been messed up, obviously. And, like many professional musicians, some of the professional choirs have switched to online performances. One such is The Sixteen, who are, whilst overexposed on Classic FM, brilliant singers with a fabulous sound.

They are doing a choral pilgrimage in November and December. Five concerts plus a carol concert, at venues across the south of the country, which are being sold as live-streamed events but which you can watch through January. The details are here: https://thesixteen.com/a-choral-odyssey/

A couple of us had the same idea, that we pick a night and we all go to a concert together – in our own living rooms but at the same time. Then, at the interval, we could have a quick hello over a glass of bubbly, and at the conclusion we could repair to the bar for the rest of the bottle and compare notes (over Zoom, inevitably) about what we listened to.

The concerts cost £10 each, or £50 for the whole lot, which is a fraction of what it would cost to be there in person.

The proposed date is Friday December 4th, 7.30pm, but it could be changed or it could be more than one night. UPDATE: WE ARE NOW LOOKING MORE AT TUESDAY DECEMBER 1st. If you’d be interested in getting together in this 2020 way while we still can, before the vaccines spoil all our ingenious virtual socialising, will you let me know? At the usual email – chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com.

Stay well and see you all soon!

Chris

You had probably assumed as much, but just to confirm. Hope everyone is well and enjoying lockdown as best we can.

See you all soon!

This week will be our last rehearsal for a few weeks, sad to say. So let’s make the most of it.

Can we shoot for 7.30 arrival so that we can start singing at 7.45 please?

Music to bring:
Shenandoah;
Battle of Jericho – please take a look at this beforehand if you possibly can, it’s a tricky little number;
The little Amazing Grace we did in the summer which you can find here;
And the Chilcott Irish Blessing which you can find here.

Dave is away on a well earned break so you will have to put up with whatever amateur choirmaster or mistress we can find. Sorry in advance.

See you on Tuesday

Can you help by sewing scrubs at home?
Can you help, or if not, do you know someone who can help and may be glad to know about this?

Volunteers are needed to help The Scrubbery, a busy sewing centre ; dust off your sewing machine, you can sew in the comfort of your own home. If you can use a sewing machine – that’s all that’s needed. Currently scrubs etc are being made for a variety of healthcare locations and hospitals including Great Ormond Street and The Royal Brompton.

Scrubbery Location: the Bank of England Sports Centre, Bank Lane, Roehampton, SW15 5JT. 

Help for sewers: pre-cut kits, thread and detailed instructions are all provided to assist volunteers.

Anyone interested please visit the website address at www.thescrubbery.org for more information and contact details.

You may be wondering why you got a notice about the cancellation of rehearsal some while after the rehearsal was due to start.

Sorry for this, and particular apologies to those who went to church unaware of the cancellation.

WordPress, the system behind our website, chose Tuesday evening at around 6pm as a good time to go haywire. So when, at the last minute, we concluded that we didn’t have enough singers in all parts to make rehearsing worthwhile, we struggled to get the post up on the site. When it was finally posted, we discovered that the email system sending out the alerts was also kaput.

So you will probably be finding this apology in your inbox right next to the announcement of the cancellation.

Hoping that you understand and know that we did our best to minimise inconvenience.

We will be digging into the new rules in the next couple of days and will be back with conclusions as soon as we have them.

Sadly we do not have a quorum on some parts, so tonight’s rehearsal is cancelled.

We keep our fingers crossed that we may be able to meet again soon. We will, of course, keep you informed.

Well, it has been a hectic few days but the good news is – WE ARE BACK ON FOR NEXT WEEK!

I am happy to say that the choir member who has been diagnosed with Covid-19 is as well as can be expected.

We have taken the opportunity to amend our risk assessment in light of the ‘Rule of Six’ and the importance of this has also been underlined by our hosts, ChristChurch:

NO MINGLING. It is important that, even with masks on, we do not form clumps of chatting members before we start, nor do we congregate outside the church doors afterwards.

You can review the full Risk Assessment on the website, accessible here in the blue link and also from the main menu. Please be familiar with its expectations as well as our joint and individual responsibility for hygiene measures and the current general requirements for social distancing.

So, we hope to see everyone again on Tuesday ready for 7.45 start. If you are still unable to join us, we send you our best wishes and look forward to seeing you soon.

Music – the same four pieces as last week so nothing new to print off. Reminder that they were:
Shenandoah
Danny Boy
Linden Lea and
Swansea Town

Any questions or concerns, please drop us a line.

Lesley and Chris

Welcome back!

I hope you are all excited to get back together again tomorrow at 7.45 as usual. And for those for whom it is not yet possible, you are with us in spirit and we look forward to singing with you again very soon.

This will be a bit of a long message. Sorry, but there is quite a lot to cover for obvious reasons. Please take the time to read through.

First, music! Dave is looking to cover the following pieces this week:
Shenandoah
Swansea Town
Linden Lea
Danny Boy
Those who were able to be a part of the group over the summer will be reasonably familiar with three of these. We didn’t get to Swansea Town, but there are practice tracks available. Please make sure you print off copies of each of these.

THIS IS VITAL AS, UNDER COVID RULES, YOU CANNOT SHARE MUSIC! So if you don’t have a copy, you will be singing from memory!

Music can be found here: https://sheengatechoir.co.uk/downloads/repertoire-outline-for-autumn-2020-concert/ – click on the name of the piece for the download. Practice tracks are in the same place.

Next, to be allowed to use the church, we must follow Christ Church’s protocols, which are tighter than you may be used to. Here is the Covid-related stuff you need to know.

Masks are to be warn at all times by everyone, with no exemptions, when inside the church.

Entry is only through the normal (southern) door on West Temple Sheen. Exit is only through the other (northern) door on West Temple Sheen.

Seating is in marked locations, three to a large pew, two to a smaller pew. Large pews with one at each end and one in the middle; small pews one at each end. Alternate pews are left empty.

Toilets are open but to be used only in an emergency, as they will require thorough sanitisation if we use them.

Touch as little possible, including each other. Helpful cooperation such as putting the piano out or finding a music stand is, sadly, to be set aside for now.

When you arrive, take your seat in the pew you are directed to and relax. Once you are seated in your spot, you won’t be able to move (well you can, of course, but it will be a pain) so if you must be next to (2m apart from) your best buddy, arrive with them or bring a cardboard cutout of them to save their spot.

At the end of rehearsal, if you are not part of the clean up rota, please exit (through the correct door) promptly so that cleaning can begin.

Nobody is permitted in the chancel (ie we all remain in the main body of the church, off the stage at all times)

Your name and telephone number must be provided for track and trace purposes. (We will let you know how to do this.)

Clean up and sanitisation will be by a rota – you will know when it is your turn. It won’t take very long and you will have the benefit of being able to ask a friend to have your drink ordered and waiting for you when you get to the Plough.

We have produced a risk assessment document, which has been provided to Christ Church. If anyone would like to see it, please ask.

There is also a cleaning/sanitising document, but you will have instruction on this when it is your turn so you should not need to print it off.

And finally… In the past, we have celebrated the start of a new singing year with a glass of something while we all arrive. We cannot do this tomorrow, as even Chateau Lafitte doesn’t taste very good when drunk through an N99 mask. So we will do our social reconnection at the Plough afterwards.

That’s it. Thank you for reading all the way through, and

SEE MANY OF YOU TOMORROW!

Dear All

You may have seen the good news is that the restriction on choirs singing together is being lifted and we can start to sing together again starting Tuesday 8th September. Dave is on board and excited to hear our sound once more.

There are, of course, some constraints to ensure that we all stay safe and we need to comply with Christ Church requirements for its “Covid secure space”. We have done the risk assessment for our Covid protocols and we will need volunteers to help with the additional setting up requirements and post rehearsal cleaning. We propose a rota per section and will go through what is required at the first rehearsal and share the risk assessment with you all. If anyone wants to see it before then let me know and I will email it to you. The key points are that as well as cleaning, for the time being we will have to wear masks while singing, be sure to remain 2m apart and not share paper copies of music.

We understand entirely that some of us may not feel comfortable to join in yet and we look forward to seeing you back whenever you are ready. Given the continuing uncertainty situation, we have decided to waive fees for the coming term and will be covering our costs from the choir’s rainy day fund. If this isn’t a rainy day, then what is?

So for now, nothing more to do than mark Tuesday September 8th in your calendars as our first rehearsal back and be ready to bring your rehearsal copies with you as well as your mask and sanitiser.

If you would like to read the research on which the government guidance regarding singing is based it is currently available on a web platform called ChemRxiv. With any luck you can find it by following this link: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/pstorage-chemrxiv-899408398289/24339416/PerformSingersSubmittedVersion.pdf

Lesley

Lesley.morley1@gmail.com

Chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com

Dear All

Thanks to all who have contributed to keeping the choir going, offering gardens, bringing wine, singing, sending moral support – I think we have used this enforced downtime well and we are still very much a choir. We just wait to be able to sing normally again.

In the meantime, some of us have looked at some of the pieces that Dave had suggested as a concert of traditional and folk songs for the autumn. We have to accept that this concert possibly won’t happen at the original time, but we have enjoyed working on a number of pieces.

Danny Boy – a complex, 8-part arrangement littered with ornate harmonies. We can give verse 1 a pretty good sing; verse 2 is still a challenge.
Shenandoah – my favourite of those we sang, we practised staying in tune on the first two verses; we have the gorgeous harmonies of verse 3 pretty well mapped out; and the second sops and altos have done a fabulous job of picking up the incredibly tough ‘stretto’ verse 4.
Linden Lea – we learned this pretty quickly. A nice, easy one with pretty straightforward harmonies.
This Little Light of Mine – we now have the tune irrevocably buzzing in our heads. Arrangement and harmonies to follow.

We have not yet looked at several others:
Ellan Vannin – a simple arrangement similar in structure and style to Linden Lea. We will pick this up quickly when we try it out.
The Turtle Dove – a beautifully mournful arrangement by Vaughan Williams.
The Lover’s Ghost – another eerie piece by RVW, and of similar moderate trickiness.
I Love My Love – an SSAATBB arrangement by Holst that we looked at a couple of years ago, but never performed. Some tricky rhythmic patterns in the upper parts, but another lovely piece.
Swansea Town – an upbeat, sailor’s tail with a catchy tune. Tricky parts where the tune passes from part to part intra-verse, and some good counterpoint too.

All of this music is available on the website, https://sheengatechoir.co.uk/downloads/repertoire-outline-for-autumn-2020-concert/

We also sang simple warm-up arrangements of Amazing Grace and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Thank you to all who did so. It was really nice to hear something that I had arranged being sung and sounding rather lovely.

For all of these, we have used specially-created practice recordings which amplify a given part over the rest of the choir to allow work at home. And we have sung along to YouTube recordings too. Many of you have found these recordings helpful. Please continue to use them, and let me know any suggestions for improvements.

I have actually set some of them up on a YouTube channel, #ChoralPracticeRecordings. If you were able to visit me there, subscribe, listen often, leave an occasional Like or a comment and do your practice on YouTube rather than from the links on the choir website, that would be very helpful! I won’t get rich with these, but a bit of a following might be nice. 🙂

We have nothing planned for the rest of August. But I am sure that we have sufficient interest to be thinking of how we can meet in September. Gardens are probably out given light and temperature, but we will see. In the meantime, keep singing along to the radio, to the sounds in your head, to YouTube recordings or whatever, and watch this space for news.

Chris, pp Lesley et al