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Dear all

We had a split rehearsal on Tuesday this week, as we worked with sops/altos and tenors/basses separately on their movements in the Britten Choral Dances. Both groups managed to cover the whole of their movements and both are sounding fantastic! I can feel a sing-off coming on…

We also did some detailed work on the Rutter Birthday Madrigals, both separately with the split parts and together. These are starting to sound very good indeed, but definitely need everyone to have a look over in between rehearsals to ensure we don’t lose momentum. Each part has demonstrated that they can sing their line, but it is complicated to put together in some places so the more familiar and comfortable with what you are doing the better.

Finally, we also starter singing through the Mozart Ave Verum. This is excellent preparation for the Requiem next term, as they were written at around the same time and share the fact fact that the difficulty is not the notes but the performance. Remember NEVER to breathe after the second ‘ave’ at the start – breathe literally anywhere else!

A reminder that we are still rehearsing as normal next week, with everyone called from 7.45pm.

All best

Dave

Evening all

We had a fantastic rehearsal on Tuesday! You sang superbly and are really starting to respond to what I am trying to achieve, which was really great for me. I came home buzzing!

We worked quite a lot on dynamics, which is something I feel we can get much better at. we certainly had flashes of what we could achieve in the rehearsal this week, but it took quite a lot of work on my part (my arms ached all day today) – I would love to get to a stage where we all respond to dynamic changes more quickly. But that will come.

We worked on Locus Iste and Cantiqur de Jean Racine, both of which are sounding excellent, but both of which require very secure quiet singing. Singing quietly takes far more effort than singing loudly – we need to remember that quieter does not mean less energy for these two!

We then looked at Zadok the Priest, which was sounding excellent in the homophonic passages but the third section need more work, familiarity and confidence, especially the fast runs – if you look at one thing before next week’s rehearsal, have a look at those semiquaver runs!

Finally, we worked very hard on the Antiphon, which is really starting to sound very good indeed! We need to be more familiar with it so you can watch me more than your copies, so I can help you come in at the right times.

Please be reminded that for next week, you will need to have printed movements 4 (sops and altos), 5 (tenors and basses) and 6 (all) of the Britten Choral Dances, as well as the Mozart Ave Verum. All are available in the music library on the website. Also for next week, slightly different timings:

7.45 – sops and altos

8.30 – tenors and basses join

9.00 – sops and altos finish

9.30 – tenors and basses finish

Please also be reminded that all Tuesdays from now until 30th November are rehearsal days (ie we are not taking a half term break)

Thanks all, see you next week!

Dave

Sorry for the SGC email flurry this morning, but a quick reminder re scores as announced on Tuesday: if you have not told me that you would like a copy of the Rutter Birthday Madrigals and/or the Mozart Requiem (for the summer term concert) you need to do so by 5pm today so that I can place the orders. My email is stephanieandmichaelwood@gmail.com.

Estimated costs:

Rutter £8.55

Mozart £8.00

but final price depends on quantity.

Thanks very much!

Stephanie

Evening Morning all!

I want to get into the habit of rounding up the rehearsal each week, with a note about things to work on before next week when you have those spare few minutes. So, here goes…

This week we worked on the two pieces from the Rutter Birthday Madrigals that are available on the music materials page (no3 and no4). We managed to get all the way through no4, and most of the way through no3. These are challenging pieces but you continue to impress me with how well you are coping with them, especially the stylistically different no3! If you can, do have a listen over these two pieces before next week – familiarity with how they sound overall will be the difference in mastering these in the time we have. Plenty of recordings on YouTube/Spotify to choose from, and my project for this week will be to set up a public access playlist with all the music for this concert. Watch this space…

We also looked at the Britten Choral Dances, especially the first piece (Time). This is starting to sound really exciting! But we could all do with more confidence on our own parts, especially the sopranos – don’t be scared of the high notes! If you find yourself with a spare minute to look over this movement this week, focus on page 4 and the first 3 bars of page 5 (ie the bit that’s slightly different from the rest). Again, just familiarity is key.

We looked briefly at no’s 2 and 3 of the Britten at the end. No2 just needs tidying up (Tenors and Sopranos – watch tuning on the last notes of each phrase), but no3 needs another look over – it’s been a couple of weeks since we did it, so that will be ok with another go over.

I have been reliable informed that we have 7 rehearsals left before the concert, assuming we rehearse every week. There is still a lot to cover, but I am very much looking forward to it!

Best,

Dave

Dear all

In the Downloads section of the website you will find two new additions to your burgeoning photocopy collection with music by Handel and Rutter. 

Handel’s Zadok The Priest will be familiar to many of you no doubt, a pretty straightforward shout with lots of homophonic singing – although of course Sheen Gate continues to welcome and  embrace all textural diversity.

The other files contain two of Rutter’s Five Birthday Madrigals, with Rutter at his most harmonically ingenious paying jazz-inspired tributes to the legendary pianist George Shearing whose 75th birthday these were written to commemorate. Each is a setting of a folk tune but with contemporary twists and needing a little swinging of those hips to get into the jazz rhythms. Certainly more tricky but a lot of fun – guaranteed earworms – and maybe worth a listen on YouTube.

Robert, on behalf of Dave and the Repertoire group

Birthday Madrigals III

We look forward to another cracking rehearsal tonight with Dave. If you are a new member, your password for the website is Choir2016 and your log in is your email address. If you are still in our mailing and no longer wish to be, that is very sad but please let us know to Lesley.morley1@gmail.com

I am delighted to confirm subs for this term are now due and that we are able to stick this term on £70 despite inflationary factors. Please transfer to the choir account at Natwest with your name as identifier – sort code 60 01 39; account 47107324. Feel free to let me know you have made the transfer.

Lesley

Hi all,

After rocking through two old pieces and one new one in half a rehearsal last week, Dave asks that we print and bring Britten’s Six Choral Dances from Gloriana along with us on Tuesday, please. These are available in the Music and Media section of the website. As always, any tech problems let me know.

Chris

Hello all! I am honoured to have been invited to be your new Director of Music. I really enjoyed working with you during the selection process and am excited to be getting started with you all next week.

This year, I understand, is the choir’s tenth anniversary year, making it an extra exciting time to be joining you all! This autumn we are looking forward to a programme of old favourites and new challenges as we work towards a concert on 30th November based loosely around a theme of Celebration. I am told that the soloist pieces in the summer concert were very popular and I am keen to support young singers starting their careers as musicians by offering them the opportunity to perform alongside us. More details on this to follow. Plans are still being finalised around our summer programme, but you will not be disappointed!

Dave

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Admin from your admin team:

On Tuesday 10^th September,  we will start as is traditional with a few drinks to welcome Dave, new members and ourselves. We have wine left from the summer party but do bring a few nibbles and soft drinks if you prefer. IMPORTANT: Please print and bring copies of Bruckner’s Locus Iste, Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Vaughan Williams’ Antiphon from Five Mystical Songs. These can be found in the Downloads section of the website. Old hands will know the first two. The last is new to the choir.

Our normal rehearsal start time will be 7.45pm sharp at Christ Church. That means warm up starts at 7.45pm, even if there are latecomers. We will have  a short break approximately 10 mins part way though the evening. We will finish at 9.30pm.

Dates for this term are as follows:

September 10^th, 17^th, 24^th

October 1^st, 8^th, 15^th, 22^nd , 29^th (sectional)

November [5^th]*, 12^th, 19^th, 26^th, 30^th CONCERT

December [3^rd, 10^th]*

*Dates in [square brackets] are to be confirmed.

You will find these all in the new Calendar section of the website, where you can export them to your own calendars. Woo hoo!

And finally, if you would like to be more involved in the running of the choir, planning our events, marketing and publicity, membership management, communications, scores/sheet music management and treasury – please let Chris Hawkins know. We are looking to formalise our group and establish some sub-committees to share the load and the fun more widely.

Dear all,

As noted in Dave’s welcome note, you need to print off and bring music for the rehearsal on Tuesday, please. Going forward this will be the way of things. Unless someone is volunteering to print and collate 50 copies of everything and bring them along, we will each be responsible for our own music.

The music for the first rehearsal:

Cantique de Jean Racine, Faure

Locus Iste, Bruckner

Antiphon from Five Mystical Songs, Vaughan Williams. (Just pages 23-34 as recognised by your printer, pages 22-33 in the book.)

Hello choristers, I do hope you have enjoyed your summer holidays.

Our new term will start on TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 10TH, and ahead of that date we will be receiving the first bulletin from our new Director of Music, Dave Anstice-Pim, with details on dates, repertoire for our tenth anniversary season and a call for volunteers to help with some important functions.

But first, our travails to get our website to communicate with us all so that we can use it as our sole means of contacting everyone continue. We have updated some software, which hopefully has fixed the incomplete sending problems. To confirm that everyone is receiving these updates, could you please click on the link below? It won’t infect your computer, it is just a link to our Facebook page and the act of clicking updates the statistics in our mail service. No need, then, to email me to tell me you got it. And apologies for the constant mails on this boring topic. With luck this will be the last.

Thanks, and see you all soon.

Chris H

https://www.facebook.com/Sheen-Gate-Choir-1715552855215527/