Hi all, another very encouraging rehearsal last night. Thanks to all who made it, some nice noises being made despite three out of four parts being thin on the ground. There are some nasty bugs going around – I hope everyone is well.
Here’s the recap of what we sang.
Abendlied ~ we spent some time on the second half of the piece, which uses a repeating canon on ‘Und der Tag.’ It was coming together pretty well. Those entries, part by part, need to be 100% confident – worth 5 minutes of practice time if you have the urge. And when you work on those entries, please think carefully about the idea of singing repeated notes (und der Tag is a prime example) with each note slightly higher than the last. Soon enough we will be pulling the piano support out from underneath us, and when we do, staying in tune will become the next major challenge for this and other works.
Sure on this Shining Night ~ this was our biggest chunk of time last night, and again, our focus was on the middle and end sections. The middle, from D on p5, covers the climax of the work at the top of p6 – where we worked on note security, which was excellent, including plenty of complex 8-part chords. Great job by the 5 Sops hitting top A flats repeatedly. Bars 42/43, which is the extra-long ‘shining’ was the one little segment that was slightly shaky – another useful place for 5 minutes’ work. We also worked through the coda, from E to the end. Again, the notes were very good in every part. Clearly some homework has been going on, and it is paying off. Thank you!
Bogorditse Dyevo ~ Again, we focused on the middle and end passages. Bars 20-25 cover some intricate moving lines, in Altos and Basses and then in the Tenors. It was good – nothing more to say here. If you want to practise this piece, work on singing in smooth phrases, and with a nice focused tone as you cement your notes.
Underneath the Stars ~ yup, it was the middle and end that we worked on. Bars 33-34, with the one tiny section of unexpected harmonies, received extra attention. Those few notes are a place for anyone with time to practise. From p6 to the end for ATB, the piece is really just a repeated ‘go gently’ to accompany the tune. Not hard, but needs to be precise. When we sang the whole thing through, once again the knowledge of notes and rhythms was excellent.
Dark Night ~ just to upset Lesley after saying you didn’t need to bring the music for this one, we took our first look at this piece. You learned the first theme instantly, and sang it impressively ‘bigly.’ Then, so as to stay consistent with the rest of the rehearsal, we looked at the end passage, from F to the end. Nothing too tricky, but it is in 8 parts, and counting or watching – or preferably both – is essential as the time signature is 3, 4, 5 or 7 in a bar in the space of a dozen notes.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Holly Lodge Concert – right now we do not have enough people who have said they can make that night (Thursday Dec 8) to be able to commit to do the concert, and we do need to get back to the organisers and tell them one way or another. Can everyone who has not already done so please reply to Siobhan’s mail/post asap? Thanks.
Half term – we ARE rehearsing on Tuesday October 18th. There will NOT be a regular rehearsal on Tuesday October 25th.
Finally, if you have any requests for pieces that we can sing for fun at the end of a rehearsal, please shout them out.
Have a good week, see you next Tuesday.
Chris