Unfortunately Ed Bonner is unwell but we have one of the first reserves, Anthony Chater, stepping in instead. We hope to squeeze Ed Bonner in next week which would make for a longer session but we hope you would all be on for that.
Also reminder we will have wine available tonight afterwards. If you can bring your own picnic glass so much the better. (Eco Lesley)
A good session with Penny Homer last week cracking Rex Tremendae and the Offertorium. If you were not there, hope you have had chance to catch up on those with the learning tracks or your own chosen method. Tomorrow Ben would like to run the whole Requiem to assess what needs particular attention. Don’t forget your pencil!
Dear All,
Last Tuesday we focused on the following parts of Mozart Requiem and here are the notes:
Hostias – p57, bar 46: mark first syllable of faceas as FARK
Confutatis – we must sing through the AR in ConfutARtis – attack!
Agnus Dei – there is no R in the middle of Donna Eis make sure this is two words not donnareyis.
Lux Aeterna – this is nearly but not quite the same as the Kyrie with different words. We have to attack it especially in the lower parts where the sopranos are floating over the top. Very last two bars – mark the middle S in pi-uS es as attached to the last note so it is pee- uuuu – ses! (because you are merciful)
Next Tuesday Penny Homer is taking us through:
Rex Tremendae – new
Offertorium – new
And other bits of the Requiem. Do try the learning tracks/listen these before if they are new to you or you need a reminder.
TICKETS – choir members can and are encouraged to buy tickets by payment direct to the bank account. Then no fees for us. Just let me know so I am not guessing whether its your subs or six tickets. Lesley.morley1@gmail.com
Ben has been offered the opportunity to take us to participate on 24th March in a Brandenburg Choral Festival concert at St Katherine Cree church, EC3A 2BJ. Rehearsal 5pm, concert 7.30pm. We would take existing repertoire and provide one half of the concert. It would be fantastic chance to spread our wings further. We need a critical mass to participate and I need to note we may miss the chance if we don’t respond fast as we are not the only choir being asked to fill this slot. Email me asap if you are up for it! lesleymorley1@gmail.com. See brandenburg.org.uk. for the project.
We need to sell 20 tickets but this will be no issue if we have enough to take this up. We appreciate this is Another Thing for those who have already signed up for Come and Sing or CC Passiontide but we are on a roll – the Holly Lodge Concert challenge is concrete evidence of that!
Dear all
Fantastic rehearsal today! All the pieces we covered today are sounding great, and we are really starting to shape it into a great performance! Well done to all present!
We started with a working run of the VW Te Deum. Each phrase is now sounding excellent, but a lot of them only sounded excellent the second time through! We really need to make sure we concentrate all the way through this piece, especially during the organ interludes, so each entry is powerful and effective. Make sure you note in your own scores where there are awkward page turns and rhythms you are not expecting (eg at the bottom of the penultimate page).
We then went through select bits of the Faure (Offertory, Agnus Dei and Libera Me). These are all sounding very good now and the dynamic shapes of the phrases are coming through really well. Especially tenors, watch tuning at during the unaccompanied bits of the Offertory. In Libera Me, please try not to slide around the jumps in the tune at the end!
Finally we spent 5 minutes on the Antiphon. Dynamics are key here, especially the big crescendi up to each “My God and King”. Everyone should make sure they know the “And above all the heart must bear the longest part” section, as this is always the hardest bit!
With only one rehearsal left before concert day (!) a few reminders:
Thanks all, see you next week.
Dave
Dear all
Huge apologies that these roundups have been few and far between this term – life has well and truly taken over!
Well don to all for the last two rehearsals, both of which have been extremely successful.
Last week (17th May) we sang through the concert repertoire in order. For those not there, this order is:
Vivaldi Gloria
Vaughan Williams Festival Te Deum
Faure Requiem
Vaughan Williams Antiphon
We identified the bits that needed most work and will focus on them in the remaining 3(!) rehearsals.
Today, we sat in the positions we will perform from and were accompanied from the organ, which really helped get into the concert mood! We focused mainly on the two Vaughan Williams pieces, especially the Te Deum, which is now starting to sound really secure. Please use the rehearsal resources available to learn this more thoroughly (Chris tells us that the basses have used these more than any other section… and it showed!)
We also took apart the Antiphon a little, which was really useful and this again is sounding very confident now. Enunciating the words as clearly as you can is the key to getting this piece across convincingly.
Before these two, we also sang through some of the Faure and Vivaldi, to get used to the organ behind us. In movement 2 of the Faure – keep the tempo steady through the unaccompanied sections (altos and tenors mainly) and sopranos – when you enter at the end keep it string but not too loud.
The next 2 rehearsals will finish at 9pm so I can work with soloists until 9.30.
That’s all for today – see you next week!
Dave
Dear all
Many thanks to those who came to last night’s rehearsal – we covered a lot of material.
We started with the Faure Requiem, working backwards from the last movement. In Paradisum is mostly being sung very well, but particularly tenors and bases may need a little more familiarity with the notes, especially when the T&B parts split. This is true in quire a few places throughout the whole requiem (tenors and bases split far more than altos or sopranos do), so if you have any time this week focus on this. The Libera Me is sounding very competent and the notes are more secure – the key to this piece iOS the performance, notably at the end when we sing the main theme in unison. Follow the dynamics in the score, and exaggerate to the point of it feeling silly! Agnus Dei is sounding good, but again, could use more familiarity.
We’re then spent the rest of the rehearsal on the Vaughan Williams Festival Te Deum, note-bashing through the bits we have not done before (large 13 to the end), which generally sounded very good. We will keep going over these bits and will likely need to break them down again a few times – the notes are quite tricky at first but mostly follow patterns, which make it easier as you get to know it. We have now covered all the notes in this piece and it is already sounding convincing, but it needs a huge amount of energy to pull it off. It’s loud and high most of the way through, and even the quiet moments need a sense of drama, so it will feel like much longer than 6 minutes to perform start to finish! It will be worth it though!
Auditions
As per last week’s roundup, please let me know by next week’s rehearsal if you would like to sing for any of the solos in the Vivaldi or the Faure. We have a few so far but not enough! Details are in last week’s email.
Also please be reminded that next week, Tuesday 5th April, is the last rehearsal before Easter. We will resume on Tuesday 26th April.
Best
Dave
Dear all
Rehearsal tonight was very productive – well done to everyone there! We started going over a couple of movements of the Vivaldi (numbers 2 and 4 to be precise) as a warmup – I really want to get the dynamics I want in the second movement, so we will keep working on that!
We then spent some time on the Faure Requiem which, considering we only sung this for the first time last week, is already sounding very good. We went through the first movement again before looking at the the ones we didn’t try last week, in order. There’s not much to say about this piece at this stage as we are still note-bashing (and the notes are not the most complicated) but we need to get much better at contrasts in dynamics to make this piece effective!
We then looked over the bits we have already done from the Vaughan Williams Te Deum, which is starting to sound a lot more confident each time we do it! Tenors and Sopranos’ impressions of trumpets were very good tonight! Sopranos and altos could still be more confident with their entry at the bottom of page 10, but the triplets on page 12 and 13 were excellent!
Finally, we sung through the Vaughan Williams Antiphon, which could use some more familiarity work but is generally fine. We are coalescing around these 4 pieces for the concert in June, which are about 1 hour 10 minutes in total.
Solo Auditions
There are solos in both he Vivaldi and the Faure, which we hope to ‘cast’ from within the choir. We will look to hear some people for this at the last rehearsal before Easter on 5th April. Please let me know in advance (d.ansticepim@gmail.com) if you would like to come along so I can plan enough time at the end of that rehearsal. We need a minimum of 2 sopranos, and alto and a baritone, but it would be nice to split them up further:
Vivaldi:
Laudamus Te (2 sopranos)
Domine Deus, Rex Coelestis (soprano)
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei (alto)
Qui Sedes (alto)
Faure:
Offertorium – Hostias (baritone)
Pie Jesu (soprano)
Libera Me (baritone)
Dear all
Many thanks to those present at tonight’s rehearsal, and many thanks to Michael Diaper for stepping into Robert’s shoes for the evening. Robert has been unwell and I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing him a speedy recovery.
This evening, we spent a little time at the start warning up with the Vivaldi Gloria. In the first movement, please make sure we are not adding letter to the Latin text – “Gloria in excelsis” not “Gloria-r-in excelsis”, and “De-o” not “De-y-o”. We also looked at the Qui Tollis/Suscipe – ignore whatever the dynamics in the score are telling you and arch me for this one!!
We spent most of the rehearsal making a start on a few parts of the Faure Requiem. There is a fair amount of note-bashing to do here but the piece is fairly straight forward and very singable once we get into it. The first movement is only tricky for how slow it is at the start – at such a slow tempo, it is hard to stay in tune and not to speed up.
We also looked at the end, In Paradisum, which has a few difficult entries at the key shifts, so we will need to make sure we are comfortable with the nots, especially for the altos, tenors and bases (who are effectively the soprano’s backing singers in this movement…). If you only look at one thing this week, make it this!
Finally we bashed through the notes of the penultimate movement, the Libera Me (with probably the most famous baritone solo in the choral repertoire). In the tutti sections, much like In Paradisum, there are some unexpected key shifts which make entries a bit awkward on some places, so we will need to become more secure over time.
Charity Performance for the British Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal
I mentioned at the end that on Sunday (20th March) I am performing in a scratch performance of one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most famous comic operas, HMS Pinafore, to raise money for the above charity, and it would be great to see some friendly faces in the audience. I’m sure we’ve all seen the news about the awful situation in Ukraine and that we have all asked the question of what we can do to help. Well, this is your chance to do just that, and all you have to do is be entertained for an evening!
The show is being organised by the New London Opera Group, one of the groups i perform with regularly. It will begin at 7:30pm on the evening of Sunday 20th March in Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington (next to the Royal Albert Hall). Nearest stations are South Kensington and Gloucester Road. Entry is only £10 and all performers are also contributing £10 to take part. The company is covering all costs and so all proceeds will be donated to the charity. Details can be found on the FaceBook group – https://fb.me/e/1w3NwloVw
I’m sure many of you have at least heard of HMS Pinafore before, or perhaps you saw the recent production by the English National Opera at the Colosseum (starring Les Dennis), bit for those that don’t it is a wonderfully farcical story featuring some of Sullivan’s most catchy tunes. Common sailor Ralph Rackstraw (played by yours truly) has fallen in love with Josephine, his Captain’s daughter. Despite requiring his love, they are from different social classes and so she is forced to refuse him. Her father is hoping to marry her off to Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty who has never been to sea in his life (a thinly-veiled dig at the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time the piece was written, one WH Smith (yes, the stationary guy)) who, despite being a nobleman, believes that ‘love levels all ranks’. In taking this stance he unwittingly encourages Ralph and Josephine to elope together, but unpopular sailor Dick Deadeye is determined to get in their way. Will he succeed? Or will Ralph and Josephine get their happy ending? You’ll have to come along and find out!
Hope to see many of you there!
Dave
Dear all
Congratulations to those present at tonight’s rehearsal – it certainly contained the best singing I’ve heard from the choir this year so far!
We spent about half of the rehearsal on the Vivaldi, which included an (almost) complete working run through! We sang through the movements in order (skipping the solo-only movements), with some notes on each one:
The rest of the rehearsal was dedicated to Vaughan Williams, in one form or another. We did some detailed work on the Festival Te Deum, focusing mainly on the section from page 9 to page 13. We spent a long time making sure the notes were secure, and once they were the sound was quite magical! We then built backwards adding sections we have already looked at, working to a full performance as far as page 13. This is a significant way through this (challenging) music, with much of what is to come variations on what has already happened, so it is now in a very good place! This will need a bit of TLC moving forward, to make sure we don’t lose that security with the notes – if you only look at one thing in your own time this week, make it this!
Lastly, we sang through the Antophon, which is sounding very competent, if a little unsure towards the end. This will come with more practice, but I think the notes are there now.
See you next week!
Dave