Fantastic job tonight, singers. This was rehearsal 4 and already you are have learned the bulk of the notes of around half of the chorus works. Still plenty of refinement to do, for sure, but extremely encouraging. Thank you all for your hard work. Note bashing is never a whole lot of fun, but tonight was excellent. Special shout out to our two new singers and young Des, and to Gareth, the one-man bass section.
This is the listing of the chorus movements:
| 1 | 7 | Im Anfange schuf Gott Himmel und Erde | Recitative & Chorus |
| 2 | 12 | Nun schwanden vor dem heiligen Strahle | Aria & Chorus |
| 4 | 22 | Mit Staunen sieht das Wunderwerk | Solo with chorus |
| 10 | 38 | Stimmt an die Saiten | Chorus |
| 13 | 47 | Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes | Chorus and Trio |
| 18 | 76 | Der Herr ist groß in seiner Macht | Trio and chorus |
| 27 | 107 | Vollendet ist das große Werk | Chorus |
| 29 | 116 | Von deiner Güt, o Herr und Gott / Gesegnet sei des Herren Macht | Duet with chorus |
| 33 | 151 | Singt dem Herren alle Stimmen! | Chorus |
Tonight we spent good chunks of time on numbers 10, 33 and 29, with a quick dabble at the H-A-P-P-Y bit of 2 just to give our voices a break. There is plenty of challenging fugal/contrapuntal stuff (ie not all singing in hymn-like harmonies and coming in and singing individually) in these, and you coped with it brilliantly. When everyone has their own score you will be unstoppable.
Please keep on with Cyberbass or whatever you like to use at home – just listening to the work is good practice in its own right.
Next week we rehearse, then we are off for half term, or Valentine’s Day, whichever applies to you.
CH