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Hello again. Three updates for you. First, from quizmistress Teresa regarding the quiz tomorrow:

Dear All – if you’re joining the choir quiz on Tuesday, please let me know your favourite composer and favourite piece (not necessarily connected) soonest! Zoom invite to follow in due course. Big surprise for the interval you will not regret it! Thanks
Teresa X.
PS – 7.15 meeting start for 7.30 first question.

Second, on the Media section of the website there are now practice recordings of all 8 parts of Danny Boy. Hope they are helpful – any feedback, please let me know.

And third, we have a good start in terms of sign up for our first reconvening on Tuesday July 14th, but we would love to see many more. Don’t forget to drop me a quick email to tell me that you are able to sing that night. Look forward to seeing you then.

Chris

Well, sort of at least. We have plans for each of the next three Tuesdays, and hopefully beyond. So please read on carefully. There is loads of stuff in here, sorry for the massive post.

First, thanks to all who took part in the garden/Zoom sectionals this week. The idea of laying some solid foundations in the pieces we are hoping to perform in the Autumn seemed to work pretty well given the circumstances, so we are looking to continue on that path.

BUT FIRST, on Tuesday June 30th at 7.15pm we have the FIFTH SGC QUIZ NIGHT.
With Teresa as quizmaster and some special features promised, this is not one to miss. Teresa has asked that people RSVP as soon as possible – I suspect she has found a way to deliver delicious nibbles through Zoom and needs to know how many to cater for. Please can you mark your calendars and confirm with Teresa that you will be joining as soon as possible. And in your mail (which must only go to Teresa) you need to answer two preliminary questions: name your favourite composer, and your favourite piece of music (which does not have to be by your favourite composer). Intriguing, huh?

Next, for the first two Tuesday evenings in July, we are looking to continue with the work on the traditional songs for the Autumn concert. The next piece is an arrangement of Danny Boy which was done for the Kings’ Singers. You can hear it on YouTube. We all need to buy this sheet music. It is only £1.99, postage included. There are no bulk discounts so each singer can go to MusicRoom and order their own copy. Here’s the link: https://www.musicroom.com/product/HL08741129/KS.aspx When my own copy arrives I will make some of the recordings like for Linden Lea so you can rehearse against a backing with your own part picked out.

Tuesday July 7th we will have another garden/Zoom sectional to look at Danny Boy, check we have not forgotten Linden Lea, and we may add a simple arrangement of Amazing Grace in as a warm-up option. You will get an email from your section host in due course. (And if you would like to volunteer to host please let Lesley know.)

Tuesday July 14th is the evening that we are aiming to sing together again in some form. Depending on numbers, we will either meet as one group, suitably spread out from each other in a public place. Or else we will split into mini-choirs of 1-2 per part and stay in back gardens. (This won’t work for Zooming because of the lag.) All with strict observance of current guidance on distancing. It would be helpful if you could let us know if you will be able to join for this so we can figure out the right plan. Could you email Chris H to let him know if you will be there please?

Recap:
* Tuesday June 30th – Quiz night – come and be part of a team!
* Tuesday July 7th – Sectional in gardens or on Zoom
* Tuesday July 14th – singing together again, as one choir or mini choirs in locations TBC

To do list:
1. Block out Tuesday evenings in your calendar again.
2. RSVP Teresa today to say you’ll be at the quiz, with your favourite composer and piece.
3. Buy copy of Danny Boy and have a go at it. Watch out for practice tracks on the choir website.
4. Look out for email from member of your section inviting you to sectional on July 7th.
5. Email Chris re Tues July 14th, and be ready to sing again, even if not in our usual size or setting, in just a couple of weeks!

Phew. Well done and thanks if you have read down to here. Sorry it’s so much, and looking forward to singing with you very soon.

Finally, if anyone has any thoughts, concerns or general inputs into the questions of how choirs work in the post-COVID world – rehearsals, face masks, concert attendance, hopes and fears, whatever – we would love to hear your thoughts. Please email Lesley or Chris.

Chris

Dear all – apologies for this long post, you’ll need to log in to read.

I hope everyone and your families are well. Many of us are very much missing singing together and it’s now been too long! Given the relaxation of lockdown, we are going to try to establish some choral activity within social distancing rules, ever hopeful that we will be able to be together again from 8^th September as planned.

We are offering you experimental distanced sectional rehearsals on Zoom next Tuesday evening. This will start at 7.45pm and endure for around 45 mins. We will focus principally on one of the pieces chosen by Dave for next term (Linden Lea: R Vaughn Williams)

We may add something else very straightforward which Chris H and I are in the process of selecting to help us relax into some easy harmonious singing when we are able to be together again.

For Linden Lea, Chris H has recorded each voice line on piano and has loaded them on the website along with the score for Linden Lea and a recording of all parts played together. THANK YOU CHRIS. You will find them on the homepage and in downloads.  We plan to do the same for the other piece, when finalised.

Each section has a volunteer host:

Sopranos – Lesley Lesley.morley1@gmail.com

Altos – Siobhan jonezfamily658@virginmedia.com

Tenors – Teresa Tess47mail@gmail.com

Bass – Chris H chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com

If you would like to participate:

1. please contact your section host asap and they will send you the Zoom link before Tuesday evening. You will need to have the Zoom software downloaded onto your electronic device/computer (see previous posts). Additionally and weather permitting, each host is happy to have up to 5 people attending in person in their gardens so please let them know if you would prefer this option and they will give you the location.
2. Find the score for Linden Lea on the website and print off the score before Tuesday evening.
3. Find your recorded part on the website and listen to it before Tuesday. There is also a four part recording so you can hear what it will sound like together.

On Tuesday, everyone will Zoom in or attend in person at 7.45pm. To start rehearsing, your host will put everyone on mute other than the garden/host venue;  they will share their Zoom screen and play the section recording. If you are not attending in person, you will only be able to hear yourself and the host group. For this reason it will be particularly useful to have more than one person in the host location. We expect to practice for around half an hour with another 15 mins at the start for hellos.
We will plan to do some more in the next few weeks and may refine how this works if possible after trying it out and over the summer to provide some fun for all and so that we can sing with confidence when we are eventually allowed to meet inside. There will be no charge for these sessions over the summer.

But Tuesday 30^th is another QUIZ. Robert’s last week was rather tricky but brilliantly interesting and funny. It’s hard work putting these together but a lot of fun for everyone who attends. I for one am absolute rubbish, so please join us if you have been thinking about it and are not sure. Team work! Teresa is compiling the quiz for 30^th June so please email her if you plan to participate so she can send you the Zoom link. One of the quiz rounds will involve matching a favourite composer and a favourite piece to each quiz contestant. So you need to choose your two favourites and send them to Teresa (only) by Monday 29^th June. Tess47mail@gmail.com

Have a marvellous weekend all.

Lesley

Sorry for the short notice – but Quiz Night is back, by popular demand, and with a new, better quizmaster! Yes, it will be the fiendishly musical Robert ‘Haunted’ Bridge who will be in the chair on this coming Tuesday June 16th at 7pm. As usual, we will be in teams and after a bit of chit chat to say hello, questions begin at 7.15. You will be finished an hour later.

WE WOULD LOVE SOME FRESH FACES!

The quizzes are all about fun and staying connected, not about musical knowledge. Previous rounds have included a GBBO connections question, one about the Magic Roundabout and the most frequent musical contributor is Eminem. Whoever she is.

Anyway, please join us! It will be at least September before we can sing together as one, it appears, so let’s make sure we stay connected.

Sign up by emailing Robert, who will determine the appropriate teams – robertdbridge@yahoo.co.uk

And on Tuesday the link will be:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89579874524

Hope to see you then

Chris

Dear Sheen Gate Choir

I am very sad to have to pass on the news that Jerry Wright died at the weekend. As many of you know, he was diagnosed with cancer last year, but, in keeping with his way of life, he still kept coming to rehearsals. At least until lockdown put paid to that. 

Jerry was one of the original members of the choir, back when it was the choir for parents of boys at Tower House School. His powerful, resonant bass was a feature of the choir for all of our ten years. 

His wife, Clare, is an alto in the choir, and she has asked that I pass the sad news on to you all. At some point, we will for sure be looking to sing something in Jerry’s honour and memory. Until then, please cherish the many happy memories of time with Jerry that make so many of us smile. 

Chris Hawkins

For my farewell quiz on Tuesday June 2nd at 7pm, we have a new format: It’s A Knockout. Yes, complete with Stuart Hall, Genaro, Jokers and the Marathon round. But we only have 5 players so far. Any more for any more? New players especially welcomed. You should allow 90 minutes as this time we are actually going to score properly and add up the totals in a spreadsheet!

And for my talk on Temperament, on Tuesday June 9th, I have re-titled the evening: Temperament: Music, Mathematics and Bloodshed to try to spice it up a bit.

For either, please email me at the usual address, chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Chris

Hello all, hope you are still hanging in there as we start to emerge from our bunkers.

After Robert’s wonderful concert and a couple of chaotic quizzes, we have a couple more events to keep us entertained and connected.

Next Tuesday, June 2nd, SGC Quiz Night returns despite popular demand. Forced out of retirement by a total lack of willing replacements, I will be scraping the bottom of the question barrel to come up with another ridiculous pile of vaguely musical nonsense. Hopefully this time I will remember to connect the sound so contestants can hear the questions… And applications are open for the vacant post of quizmaster – please confirm your interest to me (Chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com) so I can pass on the baton. Also please confirm your interest in the quizz to me – please give it a whirl if you haven’t before, you will be in a team with others and that of itself is jolly enough. We have now proved this works best on a video WhatsApp call with your team.

Then the following week, Tuesday, June 9th, you are cordially invited to listen to a TedTalk on the subject of Temperament – Where Maths meets Music. If you ever wondered why some notes sound good together and others don’t, or why it is really hard to pitch a major third, or why music from the Eastern hemisphere sounds rather different to that from the Western – there are answers to all of these questions, and there is a spreadsheet for that. Please confirm interest to Chris H as above.

We can’t sing together yet, and are assuming that will remain the case at least until September, so we are thinking that we could informally start some singing/note bashing of our parts on Tuesday evenings over summer on Zoom, getting ourselves familiar with the work for the Autumn. More on this to follow from the repertoire group in due course but we thought you might like something like this to look forward to.

Chris H/Lesley

Hi all

Two quick reminders for upcoming events:

First, this evening at 6pm, Robert will be taking his Knitting Concert series online. If you would like to join, email him at robertdbridge@yahoo.co.uk and he will send you the Zoom link.

Second, on Tuesday at 7pm is our second SGC Quiz Night. More socialisation and giggles than ABRSM-approved learning, don’t worry if you don’t know your Andante from your recapitulation, there are questions for everyone. We will be in teams as last time. Family members welcome! Email me, chris.hawkins2015@yahoo.com and I will circulate the Zoom link on Tuesday.

Chris

Please use this email – robertdbridge@yahoo.co.uk. The one in my previous post will likely go to someone else.

Lesley

Knitting goes virtual. If you would like to listen, please send Robert an email: robertbridge@yahoo.co.uk and he will send you the instructions.

Message from Robert:

We live in unusual times. The immediate dazzling shock and disbelief of lockdown has gradually subsided into dazed bewilderment and dismay about an uncertain future landscape. So many questions; few if any clear answers. This will obviously affect each of us in different ways – socially, financially and also in many simple and unseen ways, impinging on the things we take for granted and which enrich our lives.
For musicians, as for all performing artists, this has obviously been catastrophic, signalling an abrupt end to music-making of any sort – not just the more prestigious public performances but smaller-scale events, amateur groups and even informal private rehearsals. And of course the Knitting Concerts are not immune – although I would like to think that a few determined tricoteurs could put any virus through its paces.
So, how to proceed. Well the prompt for this was that I had announced a putative date at the beginning of March for a mouth-watering concert this May when a clutch of very gifted cellists headed up by Leo Melvin would be working their way through Bach’s Viola da Gamba sonatas. As the date has neared I’ve wondered what we could do. Clearly a live concert in front of a live audience was not on the cards. But then even a live video event was problematic with no imminent likelihood of getting access to All Saints to stream the concert from and more pressingly just too many logistical difficulties facing the musicians who needed to get together to rehearse. For all the wonderful technological aids available, and which many of us are learning about with indecent haste, there is still no clear platform for musicians to rehearse together online without laughable and unworkable time lags. So, regrettably, it seems sensible to put that particular programme on hold, hopefully for not too long, either until it is comfortable for them to get together and give a virtual performance or even invite a live audience.
And so I could, at this point, simply announce that the Knitting Concerts had gone into furlough. But the history of these concerts has always been wedded to the notion of accessibility and so if you can’t come to the music, I felt the music should come to you. So I am proposing to livestream a piano recital on Sunday May 17th at 6pm. This is an audacious gamble. I have yet to master the technology, find a decent microphone, persuade my piano tuner through my doors and figure out how to keep the dog quiet, let alone the rest of the family. And my hair is a mess. It is quite possible that my playing will sound even more garbled and incoherent than it does at the best of the times. But I think it’s worth a go. [I think all these things are sorted now other than the hair and possibly the dog -Ed]
I’d like to play you some Beethoven (the Andante Favori), some Ravel (his Jeux D’Eau) and quite a bit of Schumann (the whole of Carnaval), probably about 45 minutes of music plus a bit of customary chat and banter. You will get no cups of tea. It will be difficult to replicate the buttock-numbing effect of the All Saints’ pews. But if you really enjoy the music you will have the chance to donate a few pennies to one of the UK organisations that support the food banks that have become an ever more pressing need in this new world of ours.