Category: Choir Updates

Dear all

Many thanks to those who were there for tonight’s rehearsal. We were very well stocked for sopranos and quite well so for tenors, but distinctly lacking in bases and altos, which made the balance of the choir tonight interesting to say the least! As last week, can I please urge you all to come to as many of the remaining rehearsals as possible. Of course I understand that life happens, and that this is the cold/flu/COVID season, but we only have 4 rehearsals left before our 2 engagements now and we do not have time to go over bits people have missed any more.

Those who were there achieved a huge amount today, with complete sings through 3 pieces, including one we only started working on 2 weeks ago. Not only that, but those sings through were really rather good!

We first spent some time on Swansea Town, which we have not touched for some time. We are now pretty comfortable with the nots, so need to start making this a performance piece. Try to make sure you know this well enough that you can watch me while you are singing, as well as glance at your copies, especially on the last page where we will pull the tempo around a little. Remember also that the middle ‘storm’ verse will be a little slower.

We then worked on the second verse of Danny Boy, which we picked up much more quickly than I thought we would, which is fantastic! Again, keep an eye on me for the tempo changes towards the end, and also for the general pauses in the first verse (after the word ‘hushed’) and second verse (after ‘warmer’). We also need to do far more with dynamics in this piece.

Finally we looked mainly at the last verse of All Through the Night, making sure we know the Welsh pronunciation and the notes. This has the potential to be a show stealer so we need to start polishing now, and trying to worry more about the music and less about the language!

For those able to sing at the charity event on Thursday 9th December, firstly thank you very much for giving your time for this, which looks like it will be a fantastic thing to be part of. As a brief outline of the timings for the day:

6:00 – 6:15pm – arrive

6:15- 6:50pm – rehearse with the pianist/organist

6:50pm – break

7:20pm – in seats ready to start

7:30pm – start

8:50pm (approx) – finish

We will be singing 3 pieces across 2 slots (to be confirmed, but likely to include All Through the Night). More details next week.

Have a lovely week all!

Dave

Dear all

Many thanks to those who braved the chilly autumn night to come to rehearsal this evening. We achieved a heck of a lot, but by my count we now only have 5 rehearsal left before the planned concert – it is really important that everyone comes to all rehearsals from now on. If we only have ¾ of the choir each week, we need to keep going over notes rather than actually rehearse the music and get it performance ready.

Today, we spent time on Battle of Jericho, managing to perform more than half of it without music. This piece, more than any, needs to move on from note bashing so please look at your part during the week if you can. I won’t spend any more time going though the notes with this piece! Rhythm is far more important than notes in this kind of music – we need to make sure the rhythms are really accurate and snappy.

THe rest of the rehearsal was dedicated to the new arrangement of All Through the Night (Ar Hyd y Nos). It’s sounding lovely – the notes are relatively straight forward. Of course, we are hoping to sing the majority of this piece in Welsh, so we need to get our heads around the words! I thought this edition of Rehearsal Roundup might be best used to transliterate the 2nd and 3rd verses for you. Remember the different pronunciations:

ch – no direct English equivalent, pronounced as in the Scottish loch

dd – voiced ‘th’, as art the end of the word breathe

th – unvoiced ‘th’, as at the end of breath

ll – no direct equivalent in English (or any other European language), it’s a bit like a cat’s hiss, produced with the tongue between the sides of your teeth

ff – ‘f’ sound as in off

f – ‘v’ sound as in of

u – pronounced like the letter ‘I’ in English

w – used as a vowel in Welsh, equivalent to the English ‘u’ or ‘oo’

y – also used as a vowel, usually either ‘uh’ or ‘ee’ sound

So, here’s the Welsh words, with a rough transliteration in italics below. I can’t transliterate the ‘ll’ or ‘ch’ letters, so I’ve left them as they are!

Holl amrantau’r ser ddywedant

Holl am-ran-tyre sair thu-wed-ant

Ar hyd y nos

Are heed uh nos

“Dyma’r ffordd i fro gogoniant,”

Dum are forthe ee vro go-gon-yant

Ar hyd y nos

Are heed uh nos

Golau arall yw tywyllwch

Goh-lie ar-all ew tuh-wuh-llooch

I arddangos gwir brydferthwch

Eee are-than-gos gweer brid-ver-thooch

Teulu’r nefoedd mewn tawelwch

Ty-leer nevoyth mehoon (as a diphthong, ‘meh-oon’) ta-wel-ooch

Ar hyd y nos

O mor siriol, gwena’r seren

Oh more seer-yol gwen a seren

Ar hyd y nos

I oleuo’i chwaer ddaearen

Eee o-lay-oi ch-wire thy-are-en

Ar hyd y nos

Nos yw henaint pan ddaw cystudd

Nos ew hen-aynt pan thou custeethe

Ond i harddu dyn a’i hwyrddydd

Ond ee har-thee deen aye hoyr-theethe

Rhown ein golau gwan i’n gilydd

Rown ayn goh-lie gwan een gill-eethe

Ar hyd y nos

Happy learning!

Dave

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

Reminder that choir is back tomorrow after the half term break.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Dear All

Reminder that there is no rehearsal tonight – half term break.

See you all again next week 26th October.

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 

Reminder that we have a rehearsal this Tuesday 12^th October and the week after will now be the half term break.

Please bring the following music to rehearsal:

Danny Boy

Linden Lea (Dave to find RVW accompaniment for Robert)

Ellan Vanin

Turtle Dove

Swansea Town

Shenandoah

Battle of Jericho

All music may be found on the website as follows:

Look at the menu bar at the top of the choir website homepage

Find ‘Music and Media Library’

Click on the arrow to the right-hand side of ‘Music Media Library’ to reveal dropdown menu

Select (click on)  ‘Repertoire Outline for Autumn 2020’

You will find all the songs listed above (as well as some more)

To find the music click on the name of the song which you will see is blue.

Practice recordings are listed as such below each named song.

Let me know if you have any problems.

It was fantastic to see how enthusiastic everyone was about putting on a concert this term. Dave has every confidence in us sounding great on the night but with the date now set for 14^th December we need to really pick up our practice between rehearsals to minimise the time spent note bashing on Tuesdays. Dave sends out a rehearsal summary each week which should help. And if we keep on top of the pieces we’ve done so far we’ll have no problem learning 4 news ones that are to be added to the programme! Dave is finalising the running order and we should have these on the website after half term.

See you on Tuesday

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

Thank you for all your responses about this term’s concert. They were unanimous and enthusiastic! We have picked a concert date that we hope will work for most people: Tuesday 14^th December, evening (start time to be confirmed) at Christchurch. The aim will be for an informal and celebratory performance and as such we will ask guests for donations rather than charge a set fee for tickets.  

As we will not have an afternoon rehearsal beforehand, we will aim to go through the programme logistics the week before so it would be helpful if you note the 7^th December rehearsal as an important one to attend if you can.

See you tomorrow!

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