The Christmas in Our Hearts small group met at 6:30 and made excellent progress on their first rehearsal!
Nobody meets next week, but this group will meet again the following week, Oct. 20th. The accompaniment recording is now online :-)
Warm-ups included stretches, breathing and "scooby-doos"
Blue Skies warmed us up, on a dark and rainy night; it was just what we needed. I forgot about adding the "jazz hands" ending. At the end, on the word "on", everyone does a jazz hand with their right hands. Don't forget, Sopranos snap at the beginning and everyone snaps during the solos in the middle.
Button Up Your Overcoat is done! Well, we got to the end. It will take some review, but I'm very happy with the work we did! We learned everything from page 9 to the end. Be sure to pay attention to the dynamics (fff, mp hushed, etc)! It's very dramatic. Oh! I forgot to decide what to do about the spoken parts in the soprano line. And, I meant to do that to announce it as a solo. That will have to be Trix, of course, and Carol can back her up.
We started In the Bleak Midwinter and learned the whole second page (4). We did a sight-reading through the whole song, and some of you remember it very well from a few years ago! It's really quite difficult, but very rewarding. It's beautiful. The timing is hard, as every part has its own special timing. I make every beat clear and try to give you in-between bits too (hair). But, you have to know which beat is yours. The recordings are up, so you can review your part. Yay!
O Holy Night is similarly difficult and also very, very rewarding. We had gone through the whole piece a while ago, so we went straight to bar 60, "Fall on your knees". It's exceptionally powerful. I especially love singing "His power and glory" because I really feel the power and the glory in the music! Our arrangement is spectacular!
Things to note (really; note them on your music in pencil):
Altos at bar 68 have a rest on the +of 4, under the Soprano note for "di". You might want to scratch out that Soprano note, so it doesn't bother you.
SAB at bar 71 sing "vi-ine-O-night" So, on the + of 4, it's kind of like "no-night"
Altos at bar 72 your "night" moves up on beat 1 of bar 73. Cool.
Sopranos, at the top of the page at bars 78 and 79, it says "sing cues 2nd time". Everyone can ignore them and just sing the regular part, except for Mary Ellen who will sing those cues the 2nd time as a descant part.
SAB bar 80 and bar 81: the cues are for the words of the second chorus that starts "Christ is the Lord" at 60. Here, there's an extra syllable that needs a note. For the first chorus, we sing "night" on beat 1 of bar 80 and hold it briefly until "O" on beat 1 of bar 81 (ignoring the cues). For the second chorus, we sing the cues: the word ever divides: "e" on beat 1 of bar 80 and "ver" very quickly just before "mo" on beat 1 of 81. The word "more" also divides into two notes. So it's kind of like, e--vermo--or proclaim. Don't worry; we'll review all of this (probably a few times).
Welcome, Welcome Winter was fabulous, but not perfect. That's okay. It was nearly perfect. Here's what you need to do: Look at the words in bars 46-52 and 83-84. They need to be clear and the timing has to be crisp and together. Don't add any syllables, and don't hesitate on the words and smush them up (technical music term?). If you do nothing else, read the words and get them clear and confident. The recordings for this are online. You can review your part.
Thanksgiving Monday, October 13th
Nobody has to be there early. Set-up will be at 7:15.
- Baby it's Cold Outside
- Button Up Your Overcoat
- Hockey Song
- In the Bleak Midwinter
- O Holy Night
- On Eagle's Wings
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