Warm-ups included watching and following exercises.
1. A-Men was messy, but we seemed to have solved the unbalance by adding Altos to the Tenor/Bass part. Sopranos have to watch out at the end. We have more energy when we sing it faster, so that helps too. Remember to mark the high notes at 61 so that they're not a surprise when you turn the page. Same notes. Not difficult.
2. 12 Songs of Christmas is fantastic! It's so much fun that we sound like we're having fun, and sound great. You can hardly tell when there's something wrong. We need to find this kind of enthusiasm for all of our pieces. We reviewed lots of the parts, starting at the end, with the Hallelujah chorus. We spend a fair amount of time on the bottom of page 18. If you weren't there, review this part. We don't have parts recorded for this so you have to let me know where you need help on your part. I think we covered all the tricky bits. Sopranos: Silent Night has a dramatic 'holy night'. Sopranos watch out: Joy to The World starts on straight Cs, and harmony, not melody. Tenors: at 14, you BRRRMMMM like bagpipes. Come in hard and strong. BRmmBRmm Fallalala...You need to come in strong also on the pick up to 117 and at 121 again. Your big moment. Review the top of page 11 "Peace". If you lean on the A of Heavenly (He-), you'll get back there for the A (the first note) of Peace, then you just go downstairs from there.
3. 12 Days After Christmas is quite difficult. We learned section E finally. The du-bas are great! One tricky bit is the part right after I say "Well, actually I kept one of the drummers." Sapphire will give us a chord, and then we'll sing, broadly and evenly, "And sent them back col-lect" (4-1-2-3-4-1) then we can take a breath (2-3) before singing, " I wrote my true love" (+4+1-2) This sounds really great when it's done as written. I thought we had all the parts recorded, and I totally remember do the recordings but it looks like we don't. Sorry.
It looks like we didn't do much, just 3 pieces, but we got through the whole medley, which is 12 Songs! I'm really happy with how well you're all learning your songs! Great work, Choristers!
Roxanne sold tickets for our show and for the Amadeus Choir performance at Trinity United in Newmarket on November 15th. I've got my ticket. I hope to see some of you there!
Next week:
Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth meets at 6:45
- A-men
- Button Up Your Overcoat
- 3 Folk Carols
- 12 Days After
- Bleak Midwinter
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