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Dear all

Many thanks to those present at tonight’s rehearsal. Unfortunately I feel I must plea again for everyone to come to rehearsals if at all possible. We now only have 2 left before we perform in front of an audience and we are far from ready – if the number of people absent from rehearsals remains as it has done for the last few weeks we will struggle to be ready in time. For the second week running, fewer than half of the tenors and altos were present. We are beyond the stage where this can be accommodated – I am not willing to present an unprepared choir in front of an audience. EVERYONE who intends to sing in the concert on 14th December MUST be present for the remaining rehearsals for it to be feasible.

Those who were present achieved a huge amount. We sang through the entire programme in order (see below) and it was really encouraging to hear how secure we were with the music. However, we need to be far more familiar in order to give convincing performances. Next week we will focus on the pieces we have spent less time on recently.

Running Order (for the concert of December 14th) – feel free to set your music in order for remaining rehearsals:

Linden Lea

Turtle Dove

Swansea Town

All Through the Night

Skye Boat Song

Down by the Sally Gardens

Danny Boy

Ellen Vannin

Battle of Jericho

Shenandoah

On the Day:

Arrive – 6:45pm (or as close as possible)

Rehearsal – 6:45-7:45pm

Concert starts – 8pm

Concert ends – 9pm (approx)

I will send a separate email to those performing in the Holly Lodge concert with details.

Apologies for slightly ranty roundup this week. Thanks and well done again to all those at tonight’s rehearsal – it sounded fantastic in places!

Dave

Dear all

Many thanks to those present for a fantastic rehearsal tonight! We achieved a huge amount, including note-bashing through the final 2 pieces for the concert. My now-usual please for everyone to prioritise attending the remaining rehearsals – we don’t have any more time for note-bashing as we really need to start tidying the pieces for performance now, so if you don;t know the music, learn it in your own time!!

We sang all through Down By the Sally Gardens, which is a reasonably simple 2-part arrangement which we generally found quite comfortable. We need to tidy up breathing/dynamics etc, but this will be a very popular piece in performance!

We then looked at the Skye Boat Song, our Scottish contribution to the UK tour of folk songs. Again, this arrangement is fairly simple and we picked it up quickly, but the simple things need to be really clean and tidy to be effective!

Next we looked at Ellen Vannin, which we have not touched for a few weeks, but was not as rusty as I was worried it might be (in fact, it was rather good). The texture in this piece remains quite thick throughout, which means it can sound a little stodgy – keep the energy up, especially in the middle verse, so it doesn’t sag!

We then looked again at All Through the Night, and I’m pleased that we are now managing the Welsh fairly confidently (at least, that’s how it sounds, so good acting if it isn’t!). Watch me for ends of phrases in this – a lot of them end with consonants (especially ‘s’) which all need to be together or it will sound messy. Keep revising from my transliteration from the email a couple of weeks ago.

Finally, we had a sing through The Turtle Dove, after some brief revision of the middle verses. This is going to sound lovely, but really does need to be a Capella and we dropped pitch a little. It happens in the third verse when we are all singing the words together – keep thinking high!

I will send another message round later this week (work permitting) with more details about both concerts, but we agreed today that for our concert on Tuesday 14th December we would arrive at 6.45, with a view to starting the concert at 8pm and be insisted by 9.

Have a good week!

Dave

Dear All

There are two more (last two!) songs to download for tomorrow’s rehearsal:

‘Down by the Sally Gardens’

& ‘Over the Sea to Skye’

Both pieces may be found under Music and Media Library, Repertoire Outline for Autumn 2020 Concert etc, at the top of the page below Linden Lea and All Through the Night.

Please download and bring them (along with all the other pieces) to tomorrow’s rehearsal.

See you there!

Dear all

Many thanks to those who were there for tonight’s rehearsal. We were very well stocked for sopranos and quite well so for tenors, but distinctly lacking in bases and altos, which made the balance of the choir tonight interesting to say the least! As last week, can I please urge you all to come to as many of the remaining rehearsals as possible. Of course I understand that life happens, and that this is the cold/flu/COVID season, but we only have 4 rehearsals left before our 2 engagements now and we do not have time to go over bits people have missed any more.

Those who were there achieved a huge amount today, with complete sings through 3 pieces, including one we only started working on 2 weeks ago. Not only that, but those sings through were really rather good!

We first spent some time on Swansea Town, which we have not touched for some time. We are now pretty comfortable with the nots, so need to start making this a performance piece. Try to make sure you know this well enough that you can watch me while you are singing, as well as glance at your copies, especially on the last page where we will pull the tempo around a little. Remember also that the middle ‘storm’ verse will be a little slower.

We then worked on the second verse of Danny Boy, which we picked up much more quickly than I thought we would, which is fantastic! Again, keep an eye on me for the tempo changes towards the end, and also for the general pauses in the first verse (after the word ‘hushed’) and second verse (after ‘warmer’). We also need to do far more with dynamics in this piece.

Finally we looked mainly at the last verse of All Through the Night, making sure we know the Welsh pronunciation and the notes. This has the potential to be a show stealer so we need to start polishing now, and trying to worry more about the music and less about the language!

For those able to sing at the charity event on Thursday 9th December, firstly thank you very much for giving your time for this, which looks like it will be a fantastic thing to be part of. As a brief outline of the timings for the day:

6:00 – 6:15pm – arrive

6:15- 6:50pm – rehearse with the pianist/organist

6:50pm – break

7:20pm – in seats ready to start

7:30pm – start

8:50pm (approx) – finish

We will be singing 3 pieces across 2 slots (to be confirmed, but likely to include All Through the Night). More details next week.

Have a lovely week all!

Dave

Dear all

Many thanks to those who braved the chilly autumn night to come to rehearsal this evening. We achieved a heck of a lot, but by my count we now only have 5 rehearsal left before the planned concert – it is really important that everyone comes to all rehearsals from now on. If we only have ¾ of the choir each week, we need to keep going over notes rather than actually rehearse the music and get it performance ready.

Today, we spent time on Battle of Jericho, managing to perform more than half of it without music. This piece, more than any, needs to move on from note bashing so please look at your part during the week if you can. I won’t spend any more time going though the notes with this piece! Rhythm is far more important than notes in this kind of music – we need to make sure the rhythms are really accurate and snappy.

THe rest of the rehearsal was dedicated to the new arrangement of All Through the Night (Ar Hyd y Nos). It’s sounding lovely – the notes are relatively straight forward. Of course, we are hoping to sing the majority of this piece in Welsh, so we need to get our heads around the words! I thought this edition of Rehearsal Roundup might be best used to transliterate the 2nd and 3rd verses for you. Remember the different pronunciations:

ch – no direct English equivalent, pronounced as in the Scottish loch

dd – voiced ‘th’, as art the end of the word breathe

th – unvoiced ‘th’, as at the end of breath

ll – no direct equivalent in English (or any other European language), it’s a bit like a cat’s hiss, produced with the tongue between the sides of your teeth

ff – ‘f’ sound as in off

f – ‘v’ sound as in of

u – pronounced like the letter ‘I’ in English

w – used as a vowel in Welsh, equivalent to the English ‘u’ or ‘oo’

y – also used as a vowel, usually either ‘uh’ or ‘ee’ sound

So, here’s the Welsh words, with a rough transliteration in italics below. I can’t transliterate the ‘ll’ or ‘ch’ letters, so I’ve left them as they are!

Holl amrantau’r ser ddywedant

Holl am-ran-tyre sair thu-wed-ant

Ar hyd y nos

Are heed uh nos

“Dyma’r ffordd i fro gogoniant,”

Dum are forthe ee vro go-gon-yant

Ar hyd y nos

Are heed uh nos

Golau arall yw tywyllwch

Goh-lie ar-all ew tuh-wuh-llooch

I arddangos gwir brydferthwch

Eee are-than-gos gweer brid-ver-thooch

Teulu’r nefoedd mewn tawelwch

Ty-leer nevoyth mehoon (as a diphthong, ‘meh-oon’) ta-wel-ooch

Ar hyd y nos

O mor siriol, gwena’r seren

Oh more seer-yol gwen a seren

Ar hyd y nos

I oleuo’i chwaer ddaearen

Eee o-lay-oi ch-wire thy-are-en

Ar hyd y nos

Nos yw henaint pan ddaw cystudd

Nos ew hen-aynt pan thou custeethe

Ond i harddu dyn a’i hwyrddydd

Ond ee har-thee deen aye hoyr-theethe

Rhown ein golau gwan i’n gilydd

Rown ayn goh-lie gwan een gill-eethe

Ar hyd y nos

Happy learning!

Dave

Sorry for late post but please bring if you can – those present last week can use those copies for the moment. Thrilled that Dave has made a new setting of welsh traditional All Through the Night just for us! Please come and enjoy!

Dear All

Reminder that choir is back tomorrow after the half term break.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Dear All

Reminder that there is no rehearsal tonight – half term break.

See you all again next week 26th October.

Dear all

Apologies this has come later this week – I’ve been distracted by the sun in Lanzarote.

Firstly a reminder that there is no rehearsal next week (19th October). THe next rehearsal will be on Tuesday 25th October.

Secondly, Solos – The Turtle Dove is written for a soloist in the first and fourth verses. I am planning to finish the rehearsal on 25th October at 9pm, and then use the last half hour to hear auditions for these verses. The score asks for a baritone but any voice part (male or female) is welcome to try out. We may also consider having different soloists for the first and fourth verses. Additionally, I would like to hear from any sopranos who can comfortably sing a high C (C6) for a small bit at the end of Battle of Jericho.

If you are interested in either of the above, please drop me an email (d.ansticepim@gmail.com) or message (07919270624) to let me know, so I know who to expect. You will be asked to sing all or part of the first verse of The Turtle Dove with AND without accompaniment (high sopranos for Battle of Jericho – I will reply to messages with more details)

I last week’s rehearsal, we spent time getting to know The Turtle Dove by Vaughan WIlliams. This arrangement is fairly simple but very effective – we need to make sure the parts are balanced and blended when we sing, especially when accompanying a solo in verses 1 and 4. If you were not at the rehearsal, please take whatever time you can to have a look over the notes in this piece, using the practice tracks available on the website if it’s easier.

We then spent time on Battle of Jericho, learning the final bits we had not looked at previously. We have now note-bashed the whole piece, but I am conscious that not everyone has been at every rehearsal. We cannot continue to spend large parts of rehearsals note-bashing after half term, so please make time to learn bits you missed, especially in this piece, which I still hope to do from memory!

We lastly looked at Shenandoah, having not done so for a couple of weeks. This is really starting to settle into a good performance piece and the sopranos and altos are managing very well with the stretto in the fourth verse. We have a tendency to go very flat in this piece, especially in the first 2 verses, so we will work on keeping the pitch up.

Thanks all, see you on the 25th!

Dave

Dear All 

Reminder that we have a rehearsal this Tuesday 12^th October and the week after will now be the half term break.

Please bring the following music to rehearsal:

Danny Boy

Linden Lea (Dave to find RVW accompaniment for Robert)

Ellan Vanin

Turtle Dove

Swansea Town

Shenandoah

Battle of Jericho

All music may be found on the website as follows:

Look at the menu bar at the top of the choir website homepage

Find ‘Music and Media Library’

Click on the arrow to the right-hand side of ‘Music Media Library’ to reveal dropdown menu

Select (click on)  ‘Repertoire Outline for Autumn 2020’

You will find all the songs listed above (as well as some more)

To find the music click on the name of the song which you will see is blue.

Practice recordings are listed as such below each named song.

Let me know if you have any problems.

It was fantastic to see how enthusiastic everyone was about putting on a concert this term. Dave has every confidence in us sounding great on the night but with the date now set for 14^th December we need to really pick up our practice between rehearsals to minimise the time spent note bashing on Tuesdays. Dave sends out a rehearsal summary each week which should help. And if we keep on top of the pieces we’ve done so far we’ll have no problem learning 4 news ones that are to be added to the programme! Dave is finalising the running order and we should have these on the website after half term.

See you on Tuesday