The small group doing All That Holiday Stuff met at 6:30 and made excellent progress! It’s going to be great! It’s not too late to join this group. They’re meeting again next week and you’ll be able to catch up.
Warm-ups were fun! I didn’t feel like playing by the book, so we did a physical warm-up to an instrumental guitar version of Van Morrison’s Moondance by Zak Rupert. Then, our vocal warm-up was singing along to Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, the 1970 B.J. Thomas version, by Burt Bacharach.
1. Mele Kalikimaka: We had to do this because we’re in a heat wave in October, and Hawaii and palm trees make sense. My weather app says it feels like 31 degrees right now. We got a lot of this song done and it’s sounding good. We sang from bar 22 to 88! We only have the ending and the beginning to learn, and then we’re done.
2. Breath of Heaven: It’s so beautiful! I’m happy that we’re including the men. Tenors and Basses will need to read in the treble clef, but it’s not crazy different. Basses on the bottom, tenors on top. You don’t sing until the first chorus at bar 49. Don’t sing at 70, but come in at 78, softly. Basses stay on the bottom with the altos through to the end. Tenors sing the melody with the first sopranos, on top starting at 78. At bar 109, tenors sing with second sopranos on the same chorus notes as before, while first sopranos go up. Altos: you’ve got mostly melody. How cool is that?!! Sopranos, you mostly have a harmony above the melody. Don’t worry, it’s beautiful and not difficult. First sopranos have some melody on page 5, so second sopranos don’t, and altos don’t. At bar 70, second sopranos have the melody. You need to be strong and solid there. Enjoy your moment. You lose it at 78. First sopranos have the melody at 78 and share it with the tenors. So, seconds, you need to stay loud on your harmony part at 78. Everyone, watch out, and watch my baton, for the timing in the chorus. There are a bunch of 6/4 bars. I always try to give a strong beat one, and here I will also try to give a strong beat before one, so in a 4/4 bar, the 4 will be up high, in a 2/4 bar the 2 will be up high, and in 6/4 the 6 will be up high before I come down to beat 1.
3. Christmas Waltz: We moved back another section, so we were able to sing from 74 to the end! This is a nice, big choral arrangement with a soft ending, which I usually don’t like, but here, it’s effective. At the end we want to look at the audience and wish them the same thing too. I want us to get soft at 121, and clearly sing to our friends and family. Don’t forget, we have parts recordings on the website for this song.
4. Do You Hear What I Hear?: This is such a wonderfully big choral arrangement! Lots of us know this, so you’ll be happy to follow them, but you’ll be happy to know that we have all the parts recorded and on the website for you to listen to and sing with if you need a little boost. We only sang through once as a preview. This has my favourite kind of ending, big and very loud with a fermata for me, and with a powerful piano part with the notation “sempre con forza!” Forcefully, Emphatically, Vigorously to the very end!
5. Winter Song: I love this! We’re doing great. We need to get the treble group together for a special rehearsal, since we didn’t do your part, and once you’re strong and clear on that layering repeat part, then everyone else will be happier with the ending. Aside from the last page where people get lost, it’s excellent!
Next week: Tuesday, October 10 is the day after Thanksgiving
We’re going to have a longer break with decaf coffee, tea, and treats and time to chat. 3 people volunteerd to bring treats, and Kit will bring our coffee stuff and coordinate.
All That Holiday Stuff is meeting at 6:30
- Breath of Heaven
- Christmas Waltz
- Do You Hear What I Hear
- Mele Kalikimaka
- Somewhere in My Memory
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