Author: Lesley Morley

Sorry for late post but please bring if you can – those present last week can use those copies for the moment. Thrilled that Dave has made a new setting of welsh traditional All Through the Night just for us! Please come and enjoy!

Dear all

Apologies this has come later this week – I’ve been distracted by the sun in Lanzarote.

Firstly a reminder that there is no rehearsal next week (19th October). THe next rehearsal will be on Tuesday 25th October.

Secondly, Solos – The Turtle Dove is written for a soloist in the first and fourth verses. I am planning to finish the rehearsal on 25th October at 9pm, and then use the last half hour to hear auditions for these verses. The score asks for a baritone but any voice part (male or female) is welcome to try out. We may also consider having different soloists for the first and fourth verses. Additionally, I would like to hear from any sopranos who can comfortably sing a high C (C6) for a small bit at the end of Battle of Jericho.

If you are interested in either of the above, please drop me an email (d.ansticepim@gmail.com) or message (07919270624) to let me know, so I know who to expect. You will be asked to sing all or part of the first verse of The Turtle Dove with AND without accompaniment (high sopranos for Battle of Jericho – I will reply to messages with more details)

I last week’s rehearsal, we spent time getting to know The Turtle Dove by Vaughan WIlliams. This arrangement is fairly simple but very effective – we need to make sure the parts are balanced and blended when we sing, especially when accompanying a solo in verses 1 and 4. If you were not at the rehearsal, please take whatever time you can to have a look over the notes in this piece, using the practice tracks available on the website if it’s easier.

We then spent time on Battle of Jericho, learning the final bits we had not looked at previously. We have now note-bashed the whole piece, but I am conscious that not everyone has been at every rehearsal. We cannot continue to spend large parts of rehearsals note-bashing after half term, so please make time to learn bits you missed, especially in this piece, which I still hope to do from memory!

We lastly looked at Shenandoah, having not done so for a couple of weeks. This is really starting to settle into a good performance piece and the sopranos and altos are managing very well with the stretto in the fourth verse. We have a tendency to go very flat in this piece, especially in the first 2 verses, so we will work on keeping the pitch up.

Thanks all, see you on the 25th!

Dave

Dear all

We covered a lot of ground in tonight’s rehearsal – well done to all present, you sang a lot of notes today!

We first looked at Battle of Jericho, specifically at the last 2 pages. These are short, but technically very challenging – syncopate3d rhythms and lots of awkward intervals. If you do any work on music this week, make it checking your notes on this last page, especially the 2nd sopranos – that minor 9th from the C to Db at the end is very hard to pitch!

We next spent some time on Linden Lea, which we’;be not looked at for a couple of rehearsals, but was generally well remembered. This is one piece we need to start bringing to life a little more – the notes are there, but it needs a bit more energy and commitment to make it a piece people would stop and listen to. It’s partly familiarity with the notes, but also about being brave and not being scared of getting something wrong!

Next we looked at Danny Boy, paying particular attention to the section at the start of page 5 where the key changes. This was sounding very good by the end, well done! We then spent more time on the first verse, which has very difficult corners, especially for the tenors. Again, familiarity with the notes will help make this an exciting piece to listen to.

Finally, we looked again at the first verse of Ellen Vannin, which was not as well remembered as I had hoped. We managed to get a very enjoyable performance out of this by the end of the rehearsal – that’s the point I’d like to start at next time please!!

Many thanks again to all whom came, it was very enjoyable to conduct you this evening. Please remember that we do have a rehearsal next week, but not on the 19th as that will be our half term.

Thanks again,

Dave

Dear all

Firstly, fantastic singing in tonight’s rehearsal! We’re singing some difficult music in places and managing remarkably well considering this was only the third rehearsal this year.

We spent most of tonight’s rehearsal on ‘The Lover’s Ghost’ by Vaughan Williams, which is made harder by the key, which is not the happy major keys we expect (technically it’s mostly in the Dorian mode, if you’re interested). THe nots themselves are not that difficult, but because it slow and in an unusual key, keeping in tune is going to be the hardest thing about this piece. We need lots of energy and support, especially when singing quietly – it’s hard work!

We next looked at Battle of Jericho which, as I said last week, we really need to perform off-book to do it justice. Today, we focused on just the first section, including singing it from memory, which went well enough (for a first try!) We all need to know the notes on this piece as soon as we can, so we can work on the performance, which is the main point of music like this! If you get time to look at music this week, try and get these notes in your heads.

We next looked at Ellen Vannin, the rather pretty Manx folk song. Basses need to make sure their jumpy line is as smooth as possible, and tenors watch out for the entry on ‘My own…’, which is earlier than you think!

Finally, we sang through the first verse of Danny Boy a few times, again with a focus on getting familiar with the notes so we can perform the music effectively. If you get a chance this week, have a look at the King’s Singers’ performance of this arrangement at a concert in Cadogan Hall about 15 years ago – (this link might work https://youtu.be/SfGTq71VXfo) – and listen to how much they pull the tempo around, especially in the first verse. This is what this arrangement calls for. The bass 2 in this recording is an acquaintance of mine and he told me once they never perform a piece until it has been rehearsed for a minimum of 50 hours!

That’s all for this week, I hope you all got home safely, despite the rain

Dave

Dear all

Huge thanks to all who came tonight – it’s great that we can all meet and rehearse again!

For those who don;t know (or don’t remember) I will try and send a roundup after each rehearsal, so that a) those who couldn’t make it know what we covered, b) I can give you things to look at during the week (if you can), and c) there is a written record of the things I’ve asked you to mark in your scores!!

Today, we looked at the middle section of Swansea Town, which is much easier than it looks with theirs and basses in octave on their chromatic figure, and altos just moving up and down an octave every now and then! Make sure you mark in breaths every 2 bars (where the phrase phrase marks stop and start again) and we will keep practising this with the dynamics – growing and fading like waves (under the verse about the storm – see what he did there?)

We then spent some time on Danny Boy. This was actually sung extremely well considering how little time we have spent on it, and we even managed to do it a capella! The key to this piece is know your parts inside out – it’s not an easy one to read each time, so it’s all about note bashing until you can’t do it wrong. The general pause after the word ‘hushed’ (page 4) will be a proper break, so make sure it’s marked in your score.

We then tackled Battle of Jericho. The nots are much easier than they look and don;t take long to pick up, so this piece is all about the performance. Ideally this will need to be from memory in the concert, because the effect will be lost if we all have our heads in scores! I’m saying this now – the concert is about 3 months away so there’s plenty of time! We will work on this regularly.

Finally, we sang through Shenandoah. We spent most time working with the sopranos and altos on the 4th verse (page 5), with the sop 1, sop 2 and alto singing the tune in stretto – this is most difficult for second sopranos, trying to fit in between the other two! It worked really well in today’s rehearsal, but it’s a section that needs concentration!

That was all for this week. Please continue to bring all the music shared so far to each rehearsal from now on. We may add more depending on prioress and timing for the concert, but we have plenty to fill our time for the moment!

Dave

Dear all

I hope you and yours are all keeping well. Apologies that I have not been in touch for a while – the wheels of Government are of course still turning and I am still working full time from home (and busier than usual!)

I’m sure this will not come as a surprise, but I have been speaking with the committee and we have to admit defeat and formally cancel the concert on 20th June. I know this will be as much of a disappointment to you as it was to me but, even if restrictions are lifted enough by then, they certainly will not be in time for us to have enough rehearsals to put on the concert we would all want. Whilst we are very sad to have to finish this term on such a note, we are very excited to announce preliminary plans for the future…

We aim for formal rehearsals to begin again on 8th September 2020 – this is of course subject to restrictions and a few potential diary issues but pencil this in your diaries now! Our Autumn concert will follow the usual format of smaller-scale pieces, this time around a theme of traditional and folk music. I am planning a varied programme featuring music from around the British Isles (I am even toying with the idea of teaching you some Welsh…) as well as further afield. Particular highlights will be some folk song arrangements by Vaughan Williams and Holst and a selection of American Spirituals arranged by Moses Hogan (if you don’t know his arrangements do see if you can find some recordings – they are such fun!)

However, the work we have done this year will not be wasted. The current plan is to perform the Mozart Requiem celebrate the 10th anniversary next Summer in 2021. I know this is a year late, but there is not enough rehearsal time in the Autumn term for a full-scale work, nor enough budget for an orchestra then and another one in the Summer, so maintaining the current cycle is important. We have not decided on the full programme yet but it will not necessarily feature the Birthday Madrigals anymore. More details later in the year…

Disappointment aside, we will of course continue to monitor the restrictions and, as soon as it is considered safe, will look into some informal get-togethers or sing-through over the Summer. I don’t want this to be a complete sign off for the next 5 months if we can avoid it – watch this space!

Thanks all and stay safe!

Dave

Dear all

Apologies for not sending a roundup last week – a combination of 3 concerts in two weeks, being unusually busy at work and a little unwell over the past fortnight meant that it slipped my mind!

On 25th April we started by working through the Introit and Kyrie of the Mozart. We have covered all the notes for the Requiem now so I will be topping and tailing a couple of movements at each rehearsal. We also bashed some notes on the Rutter numbers 1 and 2 – more on these below.

This week we moved on to the Dies Irae and Rex Tremendae of the Mozart. These are generally sung very well. Keep the pace up in the Dies Irae – it dragged a lot at the beginning, and again when the basses sing ‘Quantus tremor…’ with quavers. The Rex is only hard because of how slow it is – needs a lot of concentration to keep in time and know when your entries are!

We spent the majority of the last 2 rehearsals with detailed work/note bashing on Rutter 1 (It was a lover and his lass) and 2 (Draw on sweet night). Both have their challenges but are very singable once we have our heads around the style.

It was a lover – make sure you are confident with the rhythms, especially when the syncopation kicks in. The verses are much more similar than they seem, so be confident that even though it’s slightly different you know what you are doing! The 1st bass part is especially tricky – have a look over in your own time if you can chaps!

Draw on – main point here is simple – YOU ARE NOT DRAWING A PERSON CALLED RON. There is no R between the words ‘Draw’ and ‘on’ – please stop putting one in! Rant over 😜. Generally we are coping with this very well. In contrast to the previous piece, the rhythms are very straight forward but the notes are sometimes hard, especially the occasional semitone clashes between parts. Each part needs to be 100% confident of their own line, so they are not put off by all the others! We will continue to work on this.

Finally, just to clarify from previous weeks, we are rehearsing up to and including Tuesday 24th March. We then have 3 weeks off for Easter, starting again on 21st April.

Have a good weekend!

Dave

Dear all

Firstly, to clarify from last evening, there will be NO REHEARSAL NEXT WEEK on Tuesday 18th Feb due to half term. Our next rehearsal will be on Tuesday 25th Feb. Apologies for confusion!

We spent most of the rehearsal yesterday making great progress with the first of the Rutter Birthday Madrigals. I think this is the hardest of the set and we are already singing it competently, even after only 2 rehearsals! It is the kind of piece that needs to look and sound relaxed – which means we need to know it inside out! We will spend at least some time on this at each rehearsal to make sure we do, and it would be a good idea to have a listen to this at some point over the next fortnight to keep it in your minds.

We also started work on the second of the Birthday Madrigals, which is more straight-forward in terms of notes but does take some putting together, as the parts do clash a lot in places. Early signs are that we will rise to this challenge comfortably!

Finally, we sang through the Rex Tremendae, Confutatis and Lacrimosa of the Mozart. These are sounding very solid and we now need to start putting in the finer touches which make a performance special – dynamics (I will talk about those a lot) and phrasing (singing lines, not individual notes) are the key elements to this, which we will continue to work on.

All best

Dave

Dear all

Many thanks for a cracking rehearsal on Tuesday! We spent the majority of the rehearsal breaking the back of the first of the Rutter Birthday Madrigals – It Was a Lover and his Lass. There are some very tricky moments in this movement and it is, at times, complicated to put together, but each verse is largely the same as the last (with only minor differences), so I think it will come together fairly quickly. It will be a piece that needs regular work – please do spend some time listening to it with the score in front of you if you can!

We also spent some time on the final part of the Mozart – the Cum Sanctis Tuis fugue. This was very well sung. We will continue to work on making the semiquavers as tidy as possible and making each entry of the main theme very strong.

Finally, we had a run through the third of the Birthday Madrigals – Come Live With Me. This continues to be very good, but building up the chord in the last few bars still takes a few goes to get right! We will continue to visit this every now and then.

See you all next week!

Dave

Hi all

Huge apologies for not being able to be with you at short notice last week – we had a sudden childcare emergency. I am very grateful to Alison for stepping in and, from what I have heard, achieving so much with you, and to Robert, Chris and Lesley for understanding and helping to cover my absence!

For those not present, Alison spent the whole rehearsal on the Mozart. She went back over the Introit and the Kyrie and started work on the cum Sanctis fugue at the end. I understand she did a lot of work in picking the difficult semiquavers in the Kyrie and Cum Sanctis, which is very useful work. As we have now covered nearly all of the notes in the Mozart, we will start to do this a lot more. She also worked through the Lacrimosa, with a focus on the dynamics, and the Rex Tremendae. Many thanks again to Alison for this excellent work.

This week will will spend more time on the Rutter, so please make sure you have your copies with you.

All best,

Dave