Dear All
One thing I forgot to mention at rehearsal: we need to sell tickets for our concert!
As usual we ask everyone to sell at least three tickets (including one for themselves) to cover the costs of hiring the church etc. Tickets are £10 each.
If you are able to sell tickets in advance please transfer payment to choir account and include your name and ‘tickets’ in the reference.
Tickets will also be sold on the door.
Many thanks
Those who ordered folders:
Peter, Tim, Gareth, Angus, Barbara, Ivy, Clare, Claire, Hannah, Sarah, Anna, Judith, Natalie, Camilla & Sharon
The price I quoted you was without the VAT, so the unit cost for the folders is £5.98 and the insert sleeves are £3.00. Please all have £8.98 for me next Tuesday.
If you have lots of photocopies then you will need a second insert pack, which I have. If like me, you have the original copies of the music that Chris ordered then you can just get in all in with 1 set of inserts. A second set will definitely be useful for other concerts though.
I’ll have them with me next Tuesday.
Tricia
Commiserations to our Welsh and Iranian friends. Despite other attractions and a frigid church, another encouraging run-through last night. Lesley made a recording of the Gjielo and the Rachmaninoff. So you can hear for yourselves what sounds good and what could be improved. Overall, especially given it’s just recorded on a phone, I hope you are happy to hear just how nice you sound.
On the hot topic of church temperature, please know that Siobhan has been trying repeatedly to get the churchwardens to respond to our request that the heating be turned up an hour or two before our rehearsal time to get the church to a workable temperature. At the very least, we will have this solved for the concert itself.
I have put the concert running order in a separate post. For the purpose of the recap, here is the order of our sung pieces and some thoughts from me. Sorry if it is a bit long, and please don’t feel that there is loads being marked as imperfect. You have done an amazing job learning a whole load of notes in a wide variety of different styles. The comments are now just last little details to take pieces from good to amazing. It really does sound very promising and, with the traditional SGC last couple of weeks panic extra effort it can be something very good indeed. Confidence, so you sing out and without hesitancy, is the only ingredient that we could use a bit more of.
| Sounds good | Could be better | ||
| O Nuit- Rameau | Accompanied | Entries at starts of each verse; solo verse beautifully delicate; words are good; notes all confident | Soprano top notes bars 22, 48, 74; watching for Rit end of each verse; sing out a little more, it’s the opening of the concert. |
| Bogoroditse Dyevo from Rach Vespers RECORDING | Unaccompanied | Notes are all good; big climax bar 20 very strong; ending nicely peaceful, no unwanted Shhh | Togetherness is everything – so looking down is bad, which means being confident you know both notes and words; DON’T RUSH, especially, quavers after a long note eg T & B bar 8; altos could sing out more bars 14-24; and you can never have too much dramatic expression in this piece. More is more. |
| Sure on this shining night – Lauridsen | Accompanied | Generally the tone is great. V1 much improved last night by lower parts. Keep doing that. Soprano line bars 31-48, the big climax, very good indeed. Most tempo changes and entries fine. Lots to like here. | Basses – the tempo at E bar 48. No looking at music, you just have to watch. |
| Abendlied, Rheinberger | Unaccompanied | Notes seem fine now, words too. Expression nice, especially last 4 bars; entries all good. Big improvement over the last 2/3 weeks | The piece is all about precision. A very strict, regular beat which can’t be rushed and requires everyone to be together. Just a little more confidence required. |
| Sleep – Whitacre | Accompanied | This has become a very strong piece in the last few weeks. It sounds confident. The big climax from bar 43 is very impressive, culminating in the beautiful top A flat in sop 1. | Watching so that we can pick up the pace slightly at bar 14; keep your tone focused and spooky bars 27-43; watch out for too much ssssssleep at the ending |
| Dark Night – Gjeilo RECORDING | Accompanied | Plenty to enjoy, as you can hear. V1 good, entry at 69 very nice. Notes all sound fine, you are picking up the tempos and changes fine. The ending is great. Can’t wait to hear it with the violin | Make the sound big throughout. Sing BIG! SOPRANOS – check your note at entry at A, you are coming in on an F. Big swells at bars 42/3 and 51 – more please. Chords at bar 73 – more confidence, the notes are good. Timing at bar 77 – on me, but it is slower than you think. Just watch and count. Alto and tenor G# in final chords – more please. |
| In the stillness – Beamish | Unaccompanied | This has really come together. Low notes at ends of verses are good. Intonation is fine. Expressivity and words are what Ms Beamish would appreciate. It sounds very nice. | The coda is slower – you have to be watching bar 22. Big crescendo here, from pp to f in a few notes. Really watching for ‘and the presence of a child’ – everyone is singing the same rhythm so any out-of-timeness will show up as raggedness. |
| Lully, Lulla, Lullay -Stopford | Unaccompanied | Ditto. Sounding very good. Expression good, nice variations, ending very calming and lullaby-esque | Sops, never relax on the jump up bar 7, bar 15 and similar, or you will undershoot the top E flat. Be thinking about tuning every single note, everyone. Every repeated note is pushed up a tiny bit from the previous. |
| O Holy Night | Accompanied | Notes all solid, entries pretty good, expression fine | Watching for rits bars 26 (little one) and 38 (big one). Lower parts, go over the words for V2 to get them to fit the tune please. Still a bit tentative on entry at 17. |
| Underneath the stars, Rusby | Unaccompanied | Much better at the liltier tempo. Notes mostly good. Sounding rather lovely and a nice way to end the concert. | All about the rhythm. This is one where practice with the music would be very helpful. S & A – v3 bar 27, you have to be ready for the alternate first line rhythm. Basses bar 38, double check that E. Sop 2 bar 44 – more A please. And if you need work on the notes of V3, we will find time to look at that next week. EVERYONE – with the rhythm of Gent-ly, don’t be tempted to move too soon, especially on the last page. The Gent was getting cut a little short, sops especially. |
One more rehearsal before the Holly Lodge concert on the 8th, then one more again before our own concert.
Thanks to David for the flyers, and to Simon and others for the work on the programme and spoken intros.
Have a good week and see you in December….
One thing that was on my To Do list for yesterday was to finalise the program and running order. Here is how it goes. There is no interval, but our singing segments are separated by Robert’s pair of Chopin Nocturnes in the middle of the program. Running time is expected to be around an hour and 15 minutes including tumultuous applause and introductions.
| Introduction (Simon Renton) |
| Rameau, Hymne a la Nuit (O Nuit), Soloist Sarah Mackenzie |
| Rachmaninoff, Bogoroditse Dyevo from the All Night Vigil |
| Lauridsen, Sure on this Shining Night |
| Introduction (Camilla Hall TBC) |
| Rheinberger, Abendlied |
| Whitacre, Sleep |
| Introduction (Robert Bridge) |
| Piano interlude – Chopin Nocturnes |
| Introduction (Siobhan Jones TBC) |
| Gjeilo, Dark Night |
| Christmas segment: Introduction (Lesley Morley TBC) |
| Beamish, In the Stillness |
| Stopford, Lully, Lulla, Lullay, Soloist Tricia Joshi |
| Adam, Cantique de Noel (“O Holy Night”) |
| Thank yous (Chris Hawkins) |
| Encore: Rusby, Underneath the Stars, Soloist Claire Michelet |
Morning all. We have 2 rehearsals left before the Holly Lodge Concert, plus one more for our own concert. Last week was very encouraging, but there is still plenty of work to do to make everything as good as it can be. So if we can please try to be ready to sing on time, that would be very helpful. I am especially grateful to those of you who have been getting to church early so that the chairs can be set up and ready to go.
I am also very much aware that there is a sporting event taking place this evening. I did contact FIFA to ask them to change the time of the match, but while they were more than happy to entertain the request, the invoice they sent back was out of our price range. Please feel free to consult your phones to stay current on the score, but kindly refrain from openly taunting the Welsh members of the choir.
See you this evening.
Hello all
Last week you sang this very well in terms of notes. But the offbeat rhythms of this piece are a challenge. Every note is either on the beat (it sounds at the same instant you tap your thigh) or off it (in between two taps). Early in the year I suggested you might like to go through your music and mark which are which as I have in my own copy. There are also a handful of notes which are unusually long. The temptation is to move off these particular syllables too early.
In my own attempts to learn this properly, I found that following these words works. Of course, you need to know the notes too. But if you are confident of the notes, then the words alone laid out as below give you all you need.
If you’d like to do the same, here is the plan. On the beat in caps. Long syllables underlined.
SOPRANOS
oh GO GENT-ly, oh GO GENT-ly
UN-derneath THE stars I’ll meet you
UN-DER-neath the stars I’LL greet you
and THERE be-NEATH THE stars I’ll leave you
be-FORE YOU go of YOUR own free WILL
go gently
UN-derneath THE stars YOU met me
UN-DER-neath THE stars YOU left me
i WON-der IF THE stars RE-gret me
At LEAST you’ll GO of YOUR own FREE WILL
go gently
Here BE-neath THE stars i’m landing and
HERE BE-neath THE stars not ending
Oh WHY on EARTH AM i PRE-tending?
I’m HERE a-GAIN THE stars BE-friending
They COME and go of THEIR own FREE WILL
go gently (same each time)
OH GO GENT-ly, GENT-ly, GENT-ly to end
ALTOS, TENORS AND BASSES
oh GO GENT-ly, oh GO GENT-ly
UN-der-NEATH THE stars I’ll meet you
UN-DER-neath the stars I’LL greet you
and THERE be-NEATH THE stars I’ll leave you
be-FORE YOU GO
GO GENT-ly, GO GENT-ly
UN-der-neath THE stars YOU met me
UN-DER-neath THE stars YOU left me
i WON-der IF THE stars RE-gret me
At LEAST YOU’LL GO
GO GENT-ly
Here BE-neath THE stars i’m landing and
HERE BE-neath THE stars not ending
Oh WHY on EARTH AM i PRE-tending?
I’m HERE a-GAIN THE stars BE-friending
They COME and go of THEIR own FREE
GO GENT-ly (same each time)
OH GO GENT-ly, GENT-ly, GENT-ly to end
Hi, I know I said I wouldn’t bother you all with this, but to avoid the risk of omitting someone, here is the list of people who I believe have said that they would like to go to Vienna July 6-9 next summer. IF YOU ARE ON HERE AND SHOULDN’T BE, OR NOT ON HERE AND SHOULD BE, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH ASAP. Thanks
Patricia Joshi, Caroline Cuss, Trish Bulmer, Camilla Hall
Agnes Corless, Clare Wright
Teresa Henderson, Sue Eustace, Douglas Brewster, David Corless, Barbara Brown
Roger Blitz, Simon Renton, Chris Hawkins
CH
Fantastic job tonight, thanks to all for a turnout so massive that latecomers had standing room only.
We sang everything in the programme except Bogoroditse Dyevo. The three Christmas pieces were good. Lully, Lulla, Lullay sounded very nice and musical, and In the Stillness was excellent, by far the best you have sung it. Just a little more security on the notes of the coda, ‘There’s a patience…’ O Holy Night was fine, but the full choir entries, even if they are sung quietly, can be made to sound a little more deliberate, if you know what I mean.
Dark Night – after an initiallly tentative verse 1, it came together very well. Basses, you rarely get a tune, let alone a rather nice one. Make more of that opening passage please! Overall very exciting to hear. I am looking forward to adding the violin part. O Nuit was nicely sung. The solo worked perfectly, thanks not just to Sarah’s lovely singing, but to the whole supporting choir. Your sensitivity in listening for the soloist was perfect. We need to tidy up the rits at the end of each verse, that is on me.
I told you my worries about Abendlied. You rose to the occasion and sang it much better, but it is still short of the sort of precision that the piece deserves. That can only come with total confidence on the notes AND the words. If you’re looking down for either – or both – you can’t be watching and singing as a choir. So for any homeworkers, this is a place to spend some time.
Underneath the Stars was note good but rhythmically shaky. You sang it better last week, beautifully in fact. Much of the problem is with me – conducting such a syncopated piece is difficult because half the time the place you sing your note is between beats. One thing you can do to help is really study it and know which words come ON a beat and which come OFF the beat. We will spend more time on this next week. And, by popular demand, we will take it a shade quicker.
Sure on this Shining Night started with a lack of conviction and belief, but grew into it. The end was very good. Sleep was really excellent. Every bit of it worked. The beginning block chord stanza was on the note and on the beat. You picked up the tempo slightly for verse 2. Then the spooky middle section was sung with great expression. My favourite bit is ‘What dreams may come…’ – that built up the tension. The tenor / bass ‘Dark and deep’ were good – they can be more dramatic. Then the huge rising scales in the sops to the top A flat were outstanding. Before you dropped down to the final ‘Sleeps.’ With no unwanted sibillances. It was very good indeed. An excellent end to a very good rehearsal.
Two more rehearsals before Holly Lodge, plus one more before our own concert. In the words of Dory from Finding Nemo, ‘just keep singing.’
That may not be an accurate quote.
Chris
Morning all. To prepare for O Holy Night with the children’s choirs we have a window to get into Christ Church on the morning of the concert. I know many won’t be able to be there in the 10am-12pm slot (exact time TBC) but as many as possible would be great.
Thursday December 8th, 10-12am (not all that time needed, precise time TBC)
Could you please let me know via the Doodle Poll link whether or not you can come? Thanks
Hi everyone, an excellent 90 minutes of singing this week, very encouraging. I must apologise for forgetting to bring the stand for my phone, which means that I don’t have recordings of your performances. But the fact that we are now talking about dynamics, phrasing and sound rather than notes is great.
We started with our encore piece, Underneath the Stars. Note-wise, this now seems pretty much learned. Rhythms are the thing here. There are a couple of spots where we are not quite together. If you can, sing along to it with your hand tapping your thigh. But overall a very nice sound.
Another piece we have not spent a lot of time on, O Holy Night, we tidied up knowing which notes to sing, and making sure we can hit them. The harmonies are pretty simple, but need to be totally solid. Again, it sounded close to where it needs to be for the concerts.
Lully, Lulla, Lullay is one that we need to be doing without the piano, and although we drifted a little flat, the sound was good. Plenty of dynamics, including the entire second verse in loud and angry mode. And thining about phrasing – Lully Lulla – COMMA – Lully Lullay; By by lully lullay without a break.
In the Stillness was a big improvement on last time. Those last lines of each verse, which go very low, were much better. Keep checking that you know your notes there. And keep those lines moving. The slower ‘in the calmness’ and ‘in the quietness’ can make the music drag and that makes it harder to keep the harmonies together. Sopranos, the rising arpeggio of the coda, ‘There’s a patience as we wait for a new morn’ is still a challenge – getting up high enough on each note is hard. That phrase for everyone could be improved, so if you have time sing that a few times.
The big Dark Night came together very well. The piano part will mask a few bits of uncertain notes, but it would be better if we felt 100% certain that we know them. But again, the sing through from start to finish was almost performance-ready.
In place of our repertoire piece, we sang the two pieces that we worked on last week at the end, once through in performance ranks. Sleep was the best we have sung it. While I would love to be able to sing it without Robert’s support on the piano, I think we have found a way to do it that sounds right. And Sure on this Shining Night was also very nice. Speeds were generally ok – basses and tenors, just make sure you don’t lag in the very first section, and everyone needs to be watching me as we ‘meno mosso’ our way down to a ‘sense of wonder’ towards the end. No breath where Mr Lauridsen specifies no breath, and we are fine tuning for a performance rather than worrying about notes.
Very encouraging, but not there yet, so keep using the practice tracks if that is your thing, and please do your best to be at as many of the THREE remaining rehearsals before the Holly Lodge concert kicks off our winter season.
Have a good week
Chris