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I am happy to pass on the news that Lesley is out of hospital and recuperating at home after her emergency appendectomy. But altos, don’t expect her back for a few weeks.

She asked me to pass on the advice that you ignore NHS-111 and your GP if you have acute abdominal pain. Just go straight to A&E!

Lesley, we wish you a pleasant recuperation and a speedy return to health and singing.

Dear all

Many thanks to those who came to last night’s rehearsal – we covered a lot of material.

We started with the Faure Requiem, working backwards from the last movement. In Paradisum is mostly being sung very well, but particularly tenors and bases may need a little more familiarity with the notes, especially when the T&B parts split. This is true in quire a few places throughout the whole requiem (tenors and bases split far more than altos or sopranos do), so if you have any time this week focus on this. The Libera Me is sounding very competent and the notes are more secure – the key to this piece iOS the performance, notably at the end when we sing the main theme in unison. Follow the dynamics in the score, and exaggerate to the point of it feeling silly! Agnus Dei is sounding good, but again, could use more familiarity.

We’re then spent the rest of the rehearsal on the Vaughan Williams Festival Te Deum, note-bashing through the bits we have not done before (large 13 to the end), which generally sounded very good. We will keep going over these bits and will likely need to break them down again a few times – the notes are quite tricky at first but mostly follow patterns, which make it easier as you get to know it. We have now covered all the notes in this piece and it is already sounding convincing, but it needs a huge amount of energy to pull it off. It’s loud and high most of the way through, and even the quiet moments need a sense of drama, so it will feel like much longer than 6 minutes to perform start to finish! It will be worth it though!

Auditions

As per last week’s roundup, please let me know by next week’s rehearsal if you would like to sing for any of the solos in the Vivaldi or the Faure. We have a few so far but not enough! Details are in last week’s email.

Also please be reminded that next week, Tuesday 5th April, is the last rehearsal before Easter. We will resume on Tuesday 26th April.

Best

Dave

The long-awaited choir Christmas curry, postponed more because of reasons to do with competence than covid, is upon us. Alternatively, this could charitably be viewed as an exceptionally well-planned early choir Christmas curry.

Venue – Black Salt Sheen

Address – 505, 507 Upper Richmond Road West,East Sheen, London, SW14 7DE

Date and time – Tuesday April 12, 8pm

A table for 15 is booked. It’s in the conservatory of Black Salt, to avoid upsetting the regulars.

Let me know if you’d like to come, by email, please – roger.blitz@ft.com. If you tell me in person at rehearsal, I promise you I will forget.

Love, Rog

Dear all

Rehearsal tonight was very productive – well done to everyone there! We started going over a couple of movements of the Vivaldi (numbers 2 and 4 to be precise) as a warmup – I really want to get the dynamics I want in the second movement, so we will keep working on that!

We then spent some time on the Faure Requiem which, considering we only sung this for the first time last week, is already sounding very good. We went through the first movement again before looking at the the ones we didn’t try last week, in order. There’s not much to say about this piece at this stage as we are still note-bashing (and the notes are not the most complicated) but we need to get much better at contrasts in dynamics to make this piece effective!

We then looked over the bits we have already done from the Vaughan Williams Te Deum, which is starting to sound a lot more confident each time we do it! Tenors and Sopranos’ impressions of trumpets were very good tonight! Sopranos and altos could still be more confident with their entry at the bottom of page 10, but the triplets on page 12 and 13 were excellent!

Finally, we sung through the Vaughan Williams Antiphon, which could use some more familiarity work but is generally fine. We are coalescing around these 4 pieces for the concert in June, which are about 1 hour 10 minutes in total.

Solo Auditions

There are solos in both he Vivaldi and the Faure, which we hope to ‘cast’ from within the choir. We will look to hear some people for this at the last rehearsal before Easter on 5th April. Please let me know in advance (d.ansticepim@gmail.com) if you would like to come along so I can plan enough time at the end of that rehearsal. We need a minimum of 2 sopranos, and alto and a baritone, but it would be nice to split them up further:

Vivaldi:

Laudamus Te (2 sopranos)

Domine Deus, Rex Coelestis (soprano)

Domine Deus, Agnus Dei (alto)

Qui Sedes (alto)

Faure:

Offertorium – Hostias (baritone)

Pie Jesu (soprano)

Libera Me (baritone)

Dear All

Our concert will be held on Saturday 18^th June which the marginally better date for members. Apologies to anyone who can’t make that date.

We’ve added on an extra two rehearsal dates to this term so our last rehearsal will be on 5^th April.

There’ll be a two week Easter break covering  12^th & 19^th April

Summer term will run from 26^th  April – 14^th June with a week’s break covering 10^th May

Dear all

Many thanks to those present at tonight’s rehearsal, and many thanks to Michael Diaper for stepping into Robert’s shoes for the evening. Robert has been unwell and I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing him a speedy recovery.

This evening, we spent a little time at the start warning up with the Vivaldi Gloria. In the first movement, please make sure we are not adding letter to the Latin text – “Gloria in excelsis” not “Gloria-r-in excelsis”, and “De-o” not “De-y-o”. We also looked at the Qui Tollis/Suscipe – ignore whatever the dynamics in the score are telling you and arch me for this one!!

We spent most of the rehearsal making a start on a few parts of the Faure Requiem. There is a fair amount of note-bashing to do here but the piece is fairly straight forward and very singable once we get into it. The first movement is only tricky for how slow it is at the start – at such a slow tempo, it is hard to stay in tune and not to speed up.

We also looked at the end, In Paradisum, which has a few difficult entries at the key shifts, so we will need to make sure we are comfortable with the nots, especially for the altos, tenors and bases (who are effectively the soprano’s backing singers in this movement…). If you only look at one thing this week, make it this!

Finally we bashed through the notes of the penultimate movement, the Libera Me (with probably the most famous baritone solo in the choral repertoire). In the tutti sections, much like In Paradisum, there are some unexpected key shifts which make entries a bit awkward on some places, so we will need to become more secure over time.

Charity Performance for the British Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal

I mentioned at the end that on Sunday (20th March) I am performing in a scratch performance of one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most famous comic operas, HMS Pinafore, to raise money for the above charity, and it would be great to see some friendly faces in the audience. I’m sure we’ve all seen the news about the awful situation in Ukraine and that we have all asked the question of what we can do to help. Well, this is your chance to do just that, and all you have to do is be entertained for an evening!

The show is being organised by the New London Opera Group, one of the groups i perform with regularly. It will begin at 7:30pm on the evening of Sunday 20th March in Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington (next to the Royal Albert Hall). Nearest stations are South Kensington and Gloucester Road. Entry is only £10 and all performers are also contributing £10 to take part. The company is covering all costs and so all proceeds will be donated to the charity. Details can be found on the FaceBook group – https://fb.me/e/1w3NwloVw

I’m sure many of you have at least heard of HMS Pinafore before, or perhaps you saw the recent production by the English National Opera at the Colosseum (starring Les Dennis), bit for those that don’t it is a wonderfully farcical story featuring some of Sullivan’s most catchy tunes. Common sailor Ralph Rackstraw (played by yours truly) has fallen in love with Josephine, his Captain’s daughter. Despite requiring his love, they are from different social classes and so she is forced to refuse him. Her father is hoping to marry her off to Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty who has never been to sea in his life (a thinly-veiled dig at the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time the piece was written, one WH Smith (yes, the stationary guy)) who, despite being a nobleman, believes that ‘love levels all ranks’. In taking this stance he unwittingly encourages Ralph and Josephine to elope together, but unpopular sailor Dick Deadeye is determined to get in their way. Will he succeed? Or will Ralph and Josephine get their happy ending? You’ll have to come along and find out!

Hope to see many of you there!

Dave

I will have a box of music with me tonight and the names I have as having told me that they would like a copy are:
Barbara
Jane
Caroline
Marilyn
Alison
Anna
Siobhan
Roger
Sue

£5 each please!

Chris

Hi folks – based on a show of hands at the rehearsal last night, it seems that we have enough people to make an order of 10 or more copies of the Faure Requiem. I am happy to do so, but maybe those who need a copy could shoot me an email so I can order the right quantity please! Cost is a little under a fiver.

And if anyone needs any other sheet music ordering, I am happy to add it to the order and save you the shipping cost and effort!

Chris

email: chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com

Dear all

Congratulations to those present at tonight’s rehearsal – it certainly contained the best singing I’ve heard from the choir this year so far!

We spent about half of the rehearsal on the Vivaldi, which included an (almost) complete working run through! We sang through the movements in order (skipping the solo-only movements), with some notes on each one:

• I – Gloria – make sure the loads are loud! Breathing where the commas are, not breathing where they aren’t (“Gloria, [breath] Gloria, [breath] Gloria, [breath] Gloria-[no breath]-in excelsis…”)
• II – Et In Terra Pax – Forte-piano entry at letter D. In general, exaggerate dynamics – it’s the easiest way to stop a slow piece becoming dull
• IV – Gratias Argimus Tibi / Propter Magnam Gloria – this was very good, watch for crescendos, especially at the end when the notes are easier!
• VI – Domine Fili Unigenite – keep it happy and bouncy! Sopranos – don’t slide the octave drop in your first phrase (it sounds ugly)
• VII – Domine Deus, Angus Dei – the notes are easy, but need to be concentrating through the solo sections – the entries are never in the same place, so need to be ready each time!
• VIII – Qui Tollis / Suscipe – again, dynamics are key, especially the crescendi in the Suscipe
• X – Quoniam – don’t forget there is an extra phrase at the end which we always seem to forget (bar 20)! Make sure the volume doesn’t drop for this last phrase – it’s very noticeable if it does!
• XI – Cum Sancto Spiritu – COUNTING! Some of the entries are very close to other parts’ entries and I probably won;t be able to cue them all, so you all need to be 100% confident with when you start singing what! Sopranos – loud as you possibly can on the last entry (bar 72)

The rest of the rehearsal was dedicated to Vaughan Williams, in one form or another. We did some detailed work on the Festival Te Deum, focusing mainly on the section from page 9 to page 13. We spent a long time making sure the notes were secure, and once they were the sound was quite magical! We then built backwards adding sections we have already looked at, working to a full performance as far as page 13. This is a significant way through this (challenging) music, with much of what is to come variations on what has already happened, so it is now in a very good place! This will need a bit of TLC moving forward, to make sure we don’t lose that security with the notes – if you only look at one thing in your own time this week, make it this!

Lastly, we sang through the Antophon, which is sounding very competent, if a little unsure towards the end. This will come with more practice, but I think the notes are there now.

See you next week!

Dave

Dear all

Just a gentle remind to engage with the doodle poll in the next 2 days please! Here’s the link if you can’t find it: https://doodle.com/poll/kkg8c95cxn5btakn?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link

It’s really easy!

See you on Tuesday

Dave