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
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