Category: Choir Updates

Evening Morning all!

I want to get into the habit of rounding up the rehearsal each week, with a note about things to work on before next week when you have those spare few minutes. So, here goes…

This week we worked on the two pieces from the Rutter Birthday Madrigals that are available on the music materials page (no3 and no4). We managed to get all the way through no4, and most of the way through no3. These are challenging pieces but you continue to impress me with how well you are coping with them, especially the stylistically different no3! If you can, do have a listen over these two pieces before next week – familiarity with how they sound overall will be the difference in mastering these in the time we have. Plenty of recordings on YouTube/Spotify to choose from, and my project for this week will be to set up a public access playlist with all the music for this concert. Watch this space…

We also looked at the Britten Choral Dances, especially the first piece (Time). This is starting to sound really exciting! But we could all do with more confidence on our own parts, especially the sopranos – don’t be scared of the high notes! If you find yourself with a spare minute to look over this movement this week, focus on page 4 and the first 3 bars of page 5 (ie the bit that’s slightly different from the rest). Again, just familiarity is key.

We looked briefly at no’s 2 and 3 of the Britten at the end. No2 just needs tidying up (Tenors and Sopranos – watch tuning on the last notes of each phrase), but no3 needs another look over – it’s been a couple of weeks since we did it, so that will be ok with another go over.

I have been reliable informed that we have 7 rehearsals left before the concert, assuming we rehearse every week. There is still a lot to cover, but I am very much looking forward to it!

Best,

Dave

Dear all

In the Downloads section of the website you will find two new additions to your burgeoning photocopy collection with music by Handel and Rutter. 

Handel’s Zadok The Priest will be familiar to many of you no doubt, a pretty straightforward shout with lots of homophonic singing – although of course Sheen Gate continues to welcome and  embrace all textural diversity.

The other files contain two of Rutter’s Five Birthday Madrigals, with Rutter at his most harmonically ingenious paying jazz-inspired tributes to the legendary pianist George Shearing whose 75th birthday these were written to commemorate. Each is a setting of a folk tune but with contemporary twists and needing a little swinging of those hips to get into the jazz rhythms. Certainly more tricky but a lot of fun – guaranteed earworms – and maybe worth a listen on YouTube.

Robert, on behalf of Dave and the Repertoire group

Birthday Madrigals III

We look forward to another cracking rehearsal tonight with Dave. If you are a new member, your password for the website is Choir2016 and your log in is your email address. If you are still in our mailing and no longer wish to be, that is very sad but please let us know to Lesley.morley1@gmail.com

I am delighted to confirm subs for this term are now due and that we are able to stick this term on £70 despite inflationary factors. Please transfer to the choir account at Natwest with your name as identifier – sort code 60 01 39; account 47107324. Feel free to let me know you have made the transfer.

Lesley

Hi all,

After rocking through two old pieces and one new one in half a rehearsal last week, Dave asks that we print and bring Britten’s Six Choral Dances from Gloriana along with us on Tuesday, please. These are available in the Music and Media section of the website. As always, any tech problems let me know.

Chris

Hello all! I am honoured to have been invited to be your new Director of Music. I really enjoyed working with you during the selection process and am excited to be getting started with you all next week.

This year, I understand, is the choir’s tenth anniversary year, making it an extra exciting time to be joining you all! This autumn we are looking forward to a programme of old favourites and new challenges as we work towards a concert on 30th November based loosely around a theme of Celebration. I am told that the soloist pieces in the summer concert were very popular and I am keen to support young singers starting their careers as musicians by offering them the opportunity to perform alongside us. More details on this to follow. Plans are still being finalised around our summer programme, but you will not be disappointed!

Dave

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Admin from your admin team:

On Tuesday 10^th September,  we will start as is traditional with a few drinks to welcome Dave, new members and ourselves. We have wine left from the summer party but do bring a few nibbles and soft drinks if you prefer. IMPORTANT: Please print and bring copies of Bruckner’s Locus Iste, Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Vaughan Williams’ Antiphon from Five Mystical Songs. These can be found in the Downloads section of the website. Old hands will know the first two. The last is new to the choir.

Our normal rehearsal start time will be 7.45pm sharp at Christ Church. That means warm up starts at 7.45pm, even if there are latecomers. We will have  a short break approximately 10 mins part way though the evening. We will finish at 9.30pm.

Dates for this term are as follows:

September 10^th, 17^th, 24^th

October 1^st, 8^th, 15^th, 22^nd , 29^th (sectional)

November [5^th]*, 12^th, 19^th, 26^th, 30^th CONCERT

December [3^rd, 10^th]*

*Dates in [square brackets] are to be confirmed.

You will find these all in the new Calendar section of the website, where you can export them to your own calendars. Woo hoo!

And finally, if you would like to be more involved in the running of the choir, planning our events, marketing and publicity, membership management, communications, scores/sheet music management and treasury – please let Chris Hawkins know. We are looking to formalise our group and establish some sub-committees to share the load and the fun more widely.

Dear all,

As noted in Dave’s welcome note, you need to print off and bring music for the rehearsal on Tuesday, please. Going forward this will be the way of things. Unless someone is volunteering to print and collate 50 copies of everything and bring them along, we will each be responsible for our own music.

The music for the first rehearsal:

Cantique de Jean Racine, Faure

Locus Iste, Bruckner

Antiphon from Five Mystical Songs, Vaughan Williams. (Just pages 23-34 as recognised by your printer, pages 22-33 in the book.)

Hello choristers, I do hope you have enjoyed your summer holidays.

Our new term will start on TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 10TH, and ahead of that date we will be receiving the first bulletin from our new Director of Music, Dave Anstice-Pim, with details on dates, repertoire for our tenth anniversary season and a call for volunteers to help with some important functions.

But first, our travails to get our website to communicate with us all so that we can use it as our sole means of contacting everyone continue. We have updated some software, which hopefully has fixed the incomplete sending problems. To confirm that everyone is receiving these updates, could you please click on the link below? It won’t infect your computer, it is just a link to our Facebook page and the act of clicking updates the statistics in our mail service. No need, then, to email me to tell me you got it. And apologies for the constant mails on this boring topic. With luck this will be the last.

Thanks, and see you all soon.

Chris H

https://www.facebook.com/Sheen-Gate-Choir-1715552855215527/

Please open this email! I have been trying to resolve some issues with our website and sending out emails – they have been reaching some of us but not others. By opening the mail you will update the statistics and I can see if this new method is now reaching the parts that other email sending services cannot reach.

Thanks to Sue M for pointing out that I didn’t actually put the recordings anywhere that you can find them. Here they are:

Dido’s Lament, arr S Renton

Voyagers’ Chorus from Idomeneo, soloist Joanne Whalley

Qui Tollis Peccata, from Puccini Messa di Gloria

Hi all,

A couple of our kind audience members recorded our recent concert on their phones. A couple of excerpts are now on the website, in the Media Library section.

If you send me your requests for other pieces to include I will find time to edit them down and post them up.

Hope you’re enjoying the summer.

Chris