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Anyone using the cyberbass practice track for The Creation will have noticed its movement numbers don’t tally with our edition of The Creation, so I’ve drawn up a quick reference guide for anyone who might find this useful. The pages, movement numbers & ABCs all refer to the Carus edition. I’ve included the title of the movements for those using other editions & bar numbers where helpful. Hope it’s clear!

Key:  C 1(2) = cyberbass part 1, (2)……p7, 1, Im Anfange etc etc = page 7 (Carus Edition), movement 1 (Carus), title of movement

C 1(2)……p7, 1, Im Anfange schuf Gott

C 1(3)……p12, 2, Nun schwanden vor dem heiligen Strahle

C 1(5)……p22, 4, Mit Staunen sieht das Wunderwerk

C 1(11)…..p38, 10, Stimmt an die Saiten

C 1(14)…..p47, 13, Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes

C 2(19)…..p76, 18, Der Herr ist groß

C 2(26a)….p98, 25, Vollendet ist das große Werk (I)

C 2(26b)….p107, 27, Vollendet ist das große Werk (II)

C 3(28a)….p116, 29, Von deiner Güt, o Herr und Gott (nb individual parts start in bar 23, tutti starts in bar 1 with chorus starting @1’43”)

C 3(28b)….p122, 29 bar 82 (D) Von deiner Güt, o Herr und Gott  (nb starts @0’ in bar 82 (D), then @2’ bar 146 (G), then @4’ bar 214 (K), then @5’30” bar 263 (M))

C 3(32)…..p151, 33 Singt dem Herren, alle Stimmen

Dear All 

As mentioned before we are looking for volunteers to help ahead of the concert and on the night itself. I’ve listed below the jobs we still need to fill – please email Siobhan if you’d be happy to help out with any of them (jonezfamily658@virginmedia.com):

Set-up              – from 12:30 on day of concert

Clear–up         – this if for EVERYONE!! 

Managing Concert Directions – plan covering timings and logistics for orchestra, soloists, SGC & Ad Libitum

Manning door on the night

Interval Tea and biscuits for orchestra 

Flowers for soloists

Flyers               – as you will have seen David Corless has produced the flyers for this concert – please share them far and wide! If anyone thinks they could take this on for future concerts please let Siobhan or David know and he can run through what’s involved.

Programme     – Simon Renton has taken this task on again but we’re also looking for someone to shadow him so they can take it on next time

Bar                  – Douglas Brewster

Tickets             – Tricia Joshi – email Tricia when you’ve sold tickets and pay directly to choir bank account – remember to concert ticket in reference)

Many thanks

Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well. Bit of a nasty cold going around the Hawkins children, hopefully it is limited to this house and that age range.

If, like us, that gives you some down time this weekend, can I suggest that you take 15 minutes with a pencil to go through your Haydn score and make some markings? I hope you already have lots of pencil marks in there with entries, articulations, expression and so on, but we also need stage markings and excerpts as we are not doing the entire 100-minute-plus work. I would very much prefer not to use valuable rehearsal time to do this.

I have laid it all out in the table below. Line 1 says find bar 58 on p7 and write in STAND. On p26, at the end of the movement, you need SIT and ‘to p44’ or something to tell you to turn (quietly!) forward to p44 as we are skipping some intervening movements. The movements shown as struck through are ones we will be missing out. Hopefully all quite straightforward.

Have a good weekend, and see you on Tuesday.

Chris

Page	Bar
7	58	STAND
8	End of movement	SIT
11	51	STAND
18	End of movement	to p21
18	Movement 3
26	End of movement	SIT
26	End of movement	to p44
27	Movement 5
27	Movement 6
33	Movement 7
34	Movement 8
38	Movement 9
38	Movement 10
44	Movement 11
46	36	STAND	Quick
59	End of movement	SIT
59	End of movement	to p69
60	Movement 14
60	Movement 15
75	130	STAND
84	End of movement	SIT
84	End of movement	to p102
85	Movement 19
85	Movement 20
88	Movement 21
92	Movement 22
93	Movement 23
97	Movement 24
98	Movement 25
106	93 (Penultimate bar)	STAND	Quick
113	End of movement	SIT
115	End of page	STAND
137	End of movement	SIT	Slow
137	End of movement	to p139
137	Movement 30
150	End of movement 31	STAND

Hello everyone,

Tickets request

Please email Tricia Joshi on patricia@joshifamily.co.uk.  You will need to make the payment to the choir account – using your name and ‘Concert’ as the ref.  Don’t forget you need to buy a ticket for yourself. Tickets are £15, £5 for under-12s. There won’t be physical tickets again this year but a list at the door works well we’ve found.

Ideally we’d really like for you each to order 4+ tickets.  It’s going to be an expensive concert to put on and we want to make sure we have a good size audience, so please do your best to get bums on seats.

Thanks.

Tricia

More useful progress last night, well done. Here’s what we did:

Haydn
Von deiner gut p116 – we put all the different segments together and they are all doing well. The trickiest bit is the last passage.
Nun Schwanden p12 – the second movement, the first one we learned all those weeks ago. Good job at tidying up the word ends in the H A P P Y bit. The choppier minor key bit was good too.
Vollendet ist p107 – we worked through the whole thing from back to front at slow speed, then assembled at high speed and it worked well. Good job.

Brahms – still some shakiness around the notes that we need to fix. Basses will help out tenors at their low entries, then resume the bass line. Being sure of the first notes of sections is one focus. The Amen is a highlight. I’d love to get the whole thing sounding as gorgeous as that coda.

Zorongo – Marta focused on nuance and drama, and from where I was standing it sounded good. The second, quick section needs to move – 1 in a bar speed. So get those words nailed down.

The goal for the next week or two is to sign off on pieces and movements as ‘good to go’ – meaning not just that we are properly confident of notes, words and entries, but we know the musicality bits of expression, phrasing and the stuff that takes it from good to awesome. So plenty to do still!

Keep listening, keep singing along, and see you next week.

CH

For those who want to:

Homework pack

Brahms – focus on the first few notes of each section – make sure that you are totally sure of how to hit them with accuracy and confidence. The rest will flow on from there if we start each line well.

Creation – go over the three movements we did today, ideally singing along to a recording so you have the other parts around you, but practice tracks are good too.
If you need more, add to that – Die Himmel erzahen, the last segment especially; and the movements from last week, Der Herr ist Gros p76, Singt dem Herrn p151.

If you have time:
Va Pensiero – practise the words and fitting them to the music. I am confident that the music will take care of itself.

Morning all. Thanks to everyone for a good rehearsal last night. A big improvement on last week at THS. (Sorry Siobhan….) We are still figuring out notes in places, but the good news is that we are getting down to a decreasing number of tricky bits that are tripping us up, in amongst long sections that are getting good. But there is still plenty to do, and in response to requests from some of you, I am including a ‘homework pack’ of bits that it would be great to go back over after what we did together, to make sure that those good bits are remembered and those tricky bits are smoother, and for those who couldn’t be at rehearsal to play catchup. As always, strictly optional, but if you want to feel confident on stage next month, and want to enjoy putting on a quality performance, a few minutes’ practice is definitely a good idea.

Here is what we sang:

Zorongo: much better. Still needs to sound more secure, which will come more easily if you know the words. Siobhan made a good suggestion to help with this: audio files of Marta speaking the words so you know exactly how to sing the words. And Marta has done this for us already. Links in the usual place.
Words (SAT) Words (B)
Habanera: Ditto. Watching at the starts of the choruses, with those pauses that make timing hard, is essential. For both these pieces I am going to start charging £1 to the choir funds for every Z which is sung as an English Z, not as a Spanish TH!
Words (SAT) Words (B)

Brahms’ Geistliches Lied: this has regressed from where it was before Easter when it sounded great, and now sounds nervous again, to the extent that it has been suggested that we should nix it from the program. I’d be very sad to do that. I think it is a lovely piece, a good amuse bouche before the rich Haydn, and is musically well within our reach. But all four parts had bits where the notes were not right, and that leads to hesitancy which in a slow, emotional piece like this, is a problem. For homeworkers, this is a place to devote some time. To know it is to love it.

Haydn: We covered three movements:
Die Himmel Erzahlen p47 – we worked from C to the end. Entries – and there are lots – need to be 100% confident. The trickiest passage is D-E, page 55. Apart from that one bit which has some unexpected timings, it is all getting good.
Von deiner Gut p116 – the long movement with lots of different but short sections. We worked again on D through to the end, that’s D p122; G p125; Kp128; M p130. Then the rambunctious bit from O-Q, p132. It’s getting close to being there this one now, which is great. I’d love to be able to try the entire 10-minute movement through next week.
Singt dem Herrn p151 – although this is all quite intricate and needs study to get it perfect, the tricky bit here is just a few bars after A, 27-34 or so, p154. The way the words fit is a bit unexpected. The other thing to practise and have absolutely certain is the final passage – NOT coming in early at letter D!!! Huge mark on your score there please!

Have a good week. See you all next week.

CH

Homework pack:

Brahms: Sop / Alto / Ten / Bass You can skip the orchestral bits but hardly worth it as it’s only short. Phonetic pronunciation of lyrics here. Learning the words will make your confidence much greater and allow you to be looking up. Expression is everything in this.

Haydn:
Die Himmel Erzahlen: Cyberbass Mvt 14, The heavens are telling Letter C is at 2:45; D is at 3:00.
Von deiner Gut: Cyberbass Mvt 28b, Of stars fairest D is at 0:00; G 2:00; K 4:02; M 5:32; O 6:22
Singt dem Herrn: Cyberbass Mvt 32, Sing the Lord ye voices all Letter A is at 1:20
You can adjust the playback speeds – try it at 1.25x, that is closer to the actual speeds.
If you can get confident in these three, that is a big chunk of the tricky stuff in the whole thing.
Good luck!

Morning all, see you at 19.45 at Christ Church – not THS as previously advertised.

Dear All

Next week’s rehearsal Tuesday 2nd May will be back at CHRISTCHURCH not Tower House.

We’ve decided to switch next Tuesday’s rehearsal back to Christchurch. We’ll have another trial session at Tower House in the Autumn term but on the run up to our concert thought it would be best to rehearse in the more familiar venue where we will be performing.

Have a lovely long weekend. Remember to try to spend some time learning the words if you can and let’s smash next week’s rehearsal!

Morning all

Last night was the two-thirds mark of our practice timetable. We were in an different venue, with acoustics that many of you found unhelpful. We had the pleasure of Anne-Marie Owens joining us. My plan was to spend a chunk of time going through the remainder of the big movement Von deiner gut, and then run through stuff we have done plenty of previous work on and do some brushing up. The first bit of the plan was good, but the review of the Brahms especially, and the other movements of the Haydn, and Zorongo – these were all a long way short of where they were last time we sang them. Laudate Dominum was pretty good, but still closer to the learning the notes and words stage than the making it perfect stage. And Va Pensiero was OK for a first look in a long while. But as a general statement, we are all still figuring out notes and struggling with words. There is a huge amount of music to take on board for this concert, so no suggestion that we should all be able to sing the whole of the Creation from memory. But it would definitely help if we were all a little more familiar with at least one aspect of the music. Learning words is one helpful initiative. There are files with phonetics and translations on the website to help you. And for the music, you have practice tracks if you want to devote hard time to it, or just listen to the choruses on Spotify or wherever.

For the record, the movements we worked on were:
Im Anfange p7
Der Herr ist Gross p76
Von deiner Gut p132 to end
Singt dem Herren p151

See you all, back at THS for a second week, next Tuesday.

Have a good week.

CH

This week we are at Tower House School, Sheen Lane. 7.45 pm as usual.

Please make sure you have all the music, that is:

• Brahms Geistliches Lied
• Mozart Laudate Dominum
• Zorongo
• Habanera
• Verdi Va Pensiero (aka Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves)
  
  Plus of course the Haydn book.

See you tomorrow.

CH