I'm so sorry to have missed this rehearsal!
I had a little business trip which was very nice and quite successful. Still, I hate to miss choir because of work. And, it was the big move to Christmas rehearsal. Up to now, we only did Magic of Winter, and this week, the Christmas music all came out. Lauren sent me this very thorough report:
The small group There's Still My Joy met and all learned the verses and the harmonies for the chorus. The music switches back and forth from 3/4 to 4/4 time and the timing is very tricky.
1. Wonderful World: focus on the louder bright, quieter night. Really just a warm up. But sounded fantastic.
2. Magic of Winter: a couple of hissing s's at wakes and lakes on page 5 that could use some attention but could be performed today and be good.
3. We Need a Little Christmas. We got through to the top of page 9 although we'll need some review, especially the tenors for their special bits.
4. Thank You For the Music: we went over and over the chorus. I offered to break everyone's parts out like I did for Bring Him Home and the offer was gratefully accepted. I'll try to do that this week. (Thank you, Lauren! It's so hard to read three parts squished into one staff)
5. We Wish You A Merry Madrigal: went really well, considering we haven't sung it for a while. Only problem was the tempo slowed throughout when we sang without Donna, although as she pointed out, we stayed precisely on key, which was great. Dynamics were also good but could use a little more drama in my (humble?) opinion. (I will work on drama with you.)
6. Little Tree: we could perform that today and it would be great. Sopranos hesitated at the beginning of your favourite section so that could use a little review. (My favourite section?! We will fix that.)
7. Grown Up Christmas List: we looked at the coda timing -- both bars 26 to 28 and bars 41 and 42. The key change could use some work, and there was some fumbling to get back to the beginning, even though I reviewed the pages before we sang. I suggested to the second sopranos that they sing the alto A flat right before the split for the final "list", bars 44 to 45. It makes their part A, B, C, A (instead of E), B. Also, I realized after that I forgot to mention to anyone with new copies that we are changing every man to everyone.
8. New Year's Blessing: we just went through it a couple of times. Sounding OK but needs more work.
9. Blue Skies: we reviewed because I am hearing harmony in the alto/tenor part in the section starting at 21. Having no alto but me there, it was easy to see the problem is with the altos as the tenors were singing it fine.
10.Why We Sing: I just told people to sing the solos but in twos and threes. I had Lynn and Bev sing the first one, Kit, Rosemarie and Janice sing the second, Blair and Melinda sing the third, Kathy and Nadine sing the fourth, and it built nicely that way and no one felt too terrible about being singled out. (I love that!)
Wow! You did so much AND you had a coffee time social with snacks and decaf coffee at breaktime?!!
I'm so impressed, and happy to know that you're good without me, but I will do my best not to miss any more!
Next week, the small group is meeting again at 6:45.
We will continue to work on Thank You and Blessing, and Grown-up, and Need a Little Christmas, and we'll continue to have fun with the stuff we know well.
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