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Hi all, our concerts are upon us! Tomorrow I would love to get through everything, but the priority is Dark Night as we have our violinist, Ellie, coming so this is our chance to hear it in its finished form and make sure that we are all together.

We also need to check over the pieces for Holly Lodge, and we have a couple of extra singers coming at the end of practice to sing through those pieces.

So, can I please ask that we try to be ready to start warm-up right at 7.45? And at 9.30, can I have an extra 10 minutes with the Holly Lodgers please, to sing through LLL and ItS one time each with just that group, and to confirm other music, logistics and getting on and off stage.

If you have a black folder, now would be the time to get your music in it and get used to singing from it. The program order was in the last post I sent.

I know how much extra practice has been going on in sectionals and on your own. Well done all, and thank you for that effort. I hope you have listened to the recordings that Lesley made last week – you genuinely sounded good last week. I am looking forward to hearing how fabulous everything sounds tomorrow. See you then.

Chris

COULD EVERYONE WHO HAS A COPY OF CAROLS FOR CHOIRS 1 (GREEN ONE) PLEASE BRING IT ON TUESDAY? For those singing on Thursday – might we please stay on for 10 minutes after 9.30 on Tuesday to go over logistics?

Thursday Dec 8:
For those who can make it we will be rehearsing with the children at 10am in CC. I expect it to take no more than an hour. Please do be there if you possibly can.
Doors open 7pm. Please be there no later than 7.15. We take our seats at 7.25. The concert starts at 7.30. It will last 2 hours.

Singers:
Could you please liaise with your section to confirm who is going to be there so that we have a final count for each part?

Concert running order:
Once in Royal David’s City – solo by Sheen Mount, verses 1,2,5,6 (descant)
Clarendon School choir
O Holy Night (all 3 choirs together)
Reading
While Shepherds Watched their Flocks
Reading
Sheen Mount School choir
Good King Wencelas – verses sung by upper/lower voices as traditional in book
Speech
INTERVAL
Sheen Gate Choir – In the Stillness & Lully, Lulla, Lullay
Reading
O Come All ye Faithful, verses 1,2,6 descant, 7 – born THAT happy morning in second line please!
Vocalist solos
Closing remarks
Hark! The Herald Angels, all verses, descant

Music to have with you:
The three carols from our Dec 17 program plus Carols for Choirs book 1. If you have the loose sheets it in a black folder so much the better, the books I think we just hold as books.

Seating:
We will be in the choir stalls when not singing. For everything except While Shepherds we will come out on to the dais (where we normally stand) to sing, so getting in and out with minimum fuss is important. If you arrive late, hang around to the side of the dais until we are next on stage and surreptiously join from the side then.

Dress:
Same as for our concert, black with red/green if you wish

Grandees:
The names on the programme, who may mean something to you, are: Adrian Mills, Jacki Piper, James Middlehurst, Weng Soon Tee and Tey Kamal.

After the splendid 2021 Christmas curry held in April, we are taking the radical step of holding the 2022 event at the unusual time of Christmas week.

Same venue – Black Salt Sheen. Address – 505-507 Upper Richmond Road West, East Sheen, London, SW14 7DE. Date and time – Tuesday December 20, 8pm.

As last time, feel free to come for a pre-dinner drink in the restaurant bar, from 7pm. We have the conservatory again booked, so that can take around 20 of us. Let me know if you wanna come – roger.blitz@ft.com. Santa hats semi-obligatory, tinsel – why not. Crackers – I should say so.

Dear All

One thing I forgot to mention at rehearsal: we need to sell tickets for our concert!

As usual we ask everyone to sell at least three tickets (including one for themselves) to cover the costs of hiring the church etc. Tickets are £10 each.

If you are able to sell tickets in advance please transfer payment to choir account and include your name and ‘tickets’ in the reference.

Tickets will also be sold on the door.

Many thanks

Those who ordered folders: 

Peter, Tim, Gareth, Angus, Barbara, Ivy, Clare, Claire, Hannah, Sarah, Anna, Judith, Natalie, Camilla & Sharon

The price I quoted you was without the VAT, so the unit cost for the folders is £5.98 and the insert sleeves are £3.00.  Please all have £8.98 for me next Tuesday. 

If you have lots of photocopies then you will need a second insert pack, which I have.  If like me, you have the original copies of the music that Chris ordered then you can just get in all in with 1 set of inserts. A second set will definitely be useful for other concerts though.  

I’ll have them with me next Tuesday. 

Tricia    

Commiserations to our Welsh and Iranian friends. Despite other attractions and a frigid church, another encouraging run-through last night. Lesley made a recording of the Gjielo and the Rachmaninoff. So you can hear for yourselves what sounds good and what could be improved. Overall, especially given it’s just recorded on a phone, I hope you are happy to hear just how nice you sound.

On the hot topic of church temperature, please know that Siobhan has been trying repeatedly to get the churchwardens to respond to our request that the heating be turned up an hour or two before our rehearsal time to get the church to a workable temperature. At the very least, we will have this solved for the concert itself.

I have put the concert running order in a separate post. For the purpose of the recap, here is the order of our sung pieces and some thoughts from me. Sorry if it is a bit long, and please don’t feel that there is loads being marked as imperfect. You have done an amazing job learning a whole load of notes in a wide variety of different styles. The comments are now just last little details to take pieces from good to amazing. It really does sound very promising and, with the traditional SGC last couple of weeks panic extra effort it can be something very good indeed. Confidence, so you sing out and without hesitancy, is the only ingredient that we could use a bit more of.

		Sounds good	Could be better
O Nuit- Rameau	Accompanied	Entries at starts of each verse; solo verse beautifully delicate; words are good; notes all confident	Soprano top notes bars 22, 48, 74; watching for Rit end of each verse; sing out a little more, it’s the opening of the concert.
Bogoroditse Dyevo from Rach Vespers RECORDING	Unaccompanied	Notes are all good; big climax bar 20 very strong; ending nicely peaceful, no unwanted Shhh	Togetherness is everything – so looking down is bad, which means being confident you know both notes and words; DON’T RUSH, especially, quavers after a long note eg T & B bar 8; altos could sing out more bars 14-24; and you can never have too much dramatic expression in this piece. More is more.
Sure on this shining night – Lauridsen	Accompanied	Generally the tone is great. V1 much improved last night by lower parts. Keep doing that. Soprano line bars 31-48, the big climax, very good indeed. Most tempo changes and entries fine. Lots to like here.	Basses – the tempo at E bar 48. No looking at music, you just have to watch.
Abendlied, Rheinberger	Unaccompanied	Notes seem fine now, words too. Expression nice, especially last 4 bars; entries all good. Big improvement over the last 2/3 weeks	The piece is all about precision. A very strict, regular beat which can’t be rushed and requires everyone to be together. Just a little more confidence required.
Sleep – Whitacre	Accompanied	This has become a very strong piece in the last few weeks. It sounds confident. The big climax from bar 43 is very impressive, culminating in the beautiful top A flat in sop 1.	Watching so that we can pick up the pace slightly at bar 14; keep your tone focused and spooky bars 27-43; watch out for too much ssssssleep at the ending
Dark Night – Gjeilo RECORDING	Accompanied	Plenty to enjoy, as you can hear. V1 good, entry at 69 very nice. Notes all sound fine, you are picking up the tempos and changes fine. The ending is great. Can’t wait to hear it with the violin	Make the sound big throughout. Sing BIG! SOPRANOS – check your note at entry at A, you are coming in on an F. Big swells at bars 42/3 and 51 – more please. Chords at bar 73 – more confidence, the notes are good. Timing at bar 77 – on me, but it is slower than you think. Just watch and count. Alto and tenor G# in final chords – more please.
In the stillness – Beamish	Unaccompanied	This has really come together. Low notes at ends of verses are good. Intonation is fine. Expressivity and words are what Ms Beamish would appreciate. It sounds very nice.	The coda is slower – you have to be watching bar 22. Big crescendo here, from pp to f in a few notes. Really watching for ‘and the presence of a child’ – everyone is singing the same rhythm so any out-of-timeness will show up as raggedness.
Lully, Lulla, Lullay -Stopford	Unaccompanied	Ditto. Sounding very good. Expression good, nice variations, ending very calming and lullaby-esque	Sops, never relax on the jump up bar 7, bar 15 and similar, or you will undershoot the top E flat. Be thinking about tuning every single note, everyone. Every repeated note is pushed up a tiny bit from the previous.
O Holy Night	Accompanied	Notes all solid, entries pretty good, expression fine	Watching for rits bars 26 (little one) and 38 (big one). Lower parts, go over the words for V2 to get them to fit the tune please. Still a bit tentative on entry at 17.
Underneath the stars, Rusby	Unaccompanied	Much better at the liltier tempo. Notes mostly good. Sounding rather lovely and a nice way to end the concert.	All about the rhythm. This is one where practice with the music would be very helpful. S & A – v3 bar 27, you have to be ready for the alternate first line rhythm. Basses bar 38, double check that E. Sop 2 bar 44 – more A please. And if you need work on the notes of V3, we will find time to look at that next week. EVERYONE – with the rhythm of Gent-ly, don’t be tempted to move too soon, especially on the last page. The Gent was getting cut a little short, sops especially.

One more rehearsal before the Holly Lodge concert on the 8th, then one more again before our own concert.

Thanks to David for the flyers, and to Simon and others for the work on the programme and spoken intros.

Have a good week and see you in December….

One thing that was on my To Do list for yesterday was to finalise the program and running order. Here is how it goes. There is no interval, but our singing segments are separated by Robert’s pair of Chopin Nocturnes in the middle of the program. Running time is expected to be around an hour and 15 minutes including tumultuous applause and introductions.

Introduction (Simon Renton)

Rameau, Hymne a la Nuit (O Nuit), Soloist Sarah Mackenzie

Rachmaninoff, Bogoroditse Dyevo from the All Night Vigil

Lauridsen, Sure on this Shining Night

Introduction (Camilla Hall TBC)

Rheinberger, Abendlied

Whitacre, Sleep

Introduction (Robert Bridge)

Piano interlude – Chopin Nocturnes

Introduction (Siobhan Jones TBC)

Gjeilo, Dark Night

Christmas segment: Introduction (Lesley Morley TBC)

Beamish, In the Stillness

Stopford, Lully, Lulla, Lullay, Soloist Tricia Joshi

Adam, Cantique de Noel (“O Holy Night”)

Thank yous (Chris Hawkins)

Encore: Rusby, Underneath the Stars, Soloist Claire Michelet

Morning all. We have 2 rehearsals left before the Holly Lodge Concert, plus one more for our own concert. Last week was very encouraging, but there is still plenty of work to do to make everything as good as it can be. So if we can please try to be ready to sing on time, that would be very helpful. I am especially grateful to those of you who have been getting to church early so that the chairs can be set up and ready to go.

I am also very much aware that there is a sporting event taking place this evening. I did contact FIFA to ask them to change the time of the match, but while they were more than happy to entertain the request, the invoice they sent back was out of our price range. Please feel free to consult your phones to stay current on the score, but kindly refrain from openly taunting the Welsh members of the choir.

See you this evening.

Hello all

Last week you sang this very well in terms of notes. But the offbeat rhythms of this piece are a challenge. Every note is either on the beat (it sounds at the same instant you tap your thigh) or off it (in between two taps). Early in the year I suggested you might like to go through your music and mark which are which as I have in my own copy. There are also a handful of notes which are unusually long. The temptation is to move off these particular syllables too early.

In my own attempts to learn this properly, I found that following these words works. Of course, you need to know the notes too. But if you are confident of the notes, then the words alone laid out as below give you all you need.

If you’d like to do the same, here is the plan. On the beat in caps. Long syllables underlined.

SOPRANOS

oh GO GENT-ly, oh GO GENT-ly

UN-derneath THE stars I’ll meet you
UN-DER-neath the stars I’LL greet you
and THERE be-NEATH THE stars I’ll leave you
be-FORE YOU go of YOUR own free WILL
go gently

UN-derneath THE stars YOU met me
UN-DER-neath THE stars YOU left me
i WON-der IF THE stars RE-gret me
At LEAST you’ll GO of YOUR own FREE WILL
go gently

Here BE-neath THE stars i’m landing and
HERE BE-neath THE stars not ending
Oh WHY on EARTH AM i PRE-tending?
I’m HERE a-GAIN THE stars BE-friending
They COME and go of THEIR own FREE WILL
go gently (same each time)

OH GO GENT-ly, GENT-ly, GENT-ly to end

ALTOS, TENORS AND BASSES

oh GO GENT-ly, oh GO GENT-ly

UN-der-NEATH THE stars I’ll meet you
UN-DER-neath the stars I’LL greet you
and THERE be-NEATH THE stars I’ll leave you
be-FORE YOU GO
GO GENT-ly, GO GENT-ly

UN-der-neath THE stars YOU met me
UN-DER-neath THE stars YOU left me
i WON-der IF THE stars RE-gret me
At LEAST YOU’LL GO

GO GENT-ly

Here BE-neath THE stars i’m landing and
HERE BE-neath THE stars not ending
Oh WHY on EARTH AM i PRE-tending?
I’m HERE a-GAIN THE stars BE-friending
They COME and go of THEIR own FREE
GO GENT-ly (same each time)

OH GO GENT-ly, GENT-ly, GENT-ly to end

Hi, I know I said I wouldn’t bother you all with this, but to avoid the risk of omitting someone, here is the list of people who I believe have said that they would like to go to Vienna July 6-9 next summer. IF YOU ARE ON HERE AND SHOULDN’T BE, OR NOT ON HERE AND SHOULD BE, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH ASAP. Thanks

Patricia Joshi, Caroline Cuss, Trish Bulmer, Camilla Hall
Agnes Corless, Clare Wright
Teresa Henderson, Sue Eustace, Douglas Brewster, David Corless, Barbara Brown
Roger Blitz, Simon Renton, Chris Hawkins

CH