YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review Tues. Mar. 26

What a fun rehearsal! Ending with the whole Joseph Medley was so good, and the choir sounded so good that I was dancing on my riser/platform thing. (I want to day dais or pedestal, but that's too grand)

And the elation started right away with the small group singing Anthem so beautifully. It took some work, but in the end it sounded excellent. Second Tenors, watch out for those As. 

We started off before warm-ups listening to The Seal Lullaby by Eric Whitacre (that's a link to the video with the sheet music). It's so special and lovely, and we're going to sing it with the Newmarket Citizens Band! Yay! I've been listening to it on repeat. I can imagine that it will be very powerful to sing it with a band. And, I think we'll want to sing it ourselves in the future. I have videos of the parts in my YouTube playlist. (There's a link to that playlist on the website so you can find it any time.) It's a piece that lends itself to many themes: childhood, parenthood, home, safety and love, diversity (empathy with others living in other climates, dangerous environments, animals), etc. And, it's a big "Choral" piece, unlike mosot of our stuff. Eric Whitacre is a big name in modern choral music. 

1. City of Stars is ready to perform, we just have to get more consistently confident. There's a little bit of messiness on page 5 that we reviewed in the bass clef: "there in the bars and the crowded restaurants". Tenors and basses, please review that. 

2. You'll Never Walk Alone. I absolutely love this. I love it from the very beginning where Donna has that powerful gospel intro, to the very end which is my kind of really big ending! We spent time on this for all the newer folks who have been patiently following along. We reviewed the swing notation and the different feel of the eighth notes in the triplets and the regular eighth notes, in pairs and alone (at 65, for example). We looked at the second soprano part at bar 31, the special "though your dreams be tossed" and noticed that it helps if you start thinking about staying on the C for "your dreams" at the C on the word "rain". Try that. We divided the sopranos instead of the altos because we always had more sopranos than altos. We maybe could have looked at dividing the altos this time? We also looked at page 7 for everyone. Observe your rests; this is key. Look at all the parts, how they go back and forth. Your part needs to be clear and tight so that the other parts come in at your rests. Look at the accent marks on "never". Punch those. 

3. Power of the Dream. I love this song, but it's not very lovable yet, is it. Have patience. We haven't tackled a piece like this in a long time. We studied page 8 and page 11 and half of page 12. It will come together soon. At the top of page 8, because of the revision of the words, we're going to keep only the B in the pick-up to bar 48. "It's time that we began." So, "it's" will be one syllable. But, we can keep the two syllable "we" in the treble clef (where child had two syllables). Page 11 is cool! The alto line finishes the thought "It's the power of the dream that brings us here" while the rest go on to next section at 66. Interesting transition. We left the ending because I'm writing in notes for the tenors and basses. I need a bigger ending there. It won't be pp, LOL. 

4. Joseph Medley: from Close Every Door to the end, but we didn't review any parts. It was good! And, we sang the whole thing from the beginning, and it was exhilirating. Lauren sang Carol's solo wonderfully, Winston is an awesome Jamaican, and Blair and Winston both sang Colby's King solo. Fantastic. This piece is so much fun and such a great variety of songs! I'm sure our audience will love it too. 

We talked about:

Posters and ticket sales! Lauren and Jane had posters for us to take and post wherever we have space to do so, and we can buy tickets starting now! $20 each and you can pay by cash, cheque (to York Region Community Choir), or credit card (tap, Square). Get your friends and family tickets and if you like, we can hold them at the door for you, as long as they're paid for, otherwise, there will be ticket sales at the door too. 

I had posters for the Sunday, May 19th Piano Recital at Trinity United Church in Newmarket (my church) at 3:00, pefect for an uplifting concert followed by a nice dinner on Main Street. The award-winning Austrian pianst, Cornelia Herrmann will be playing Bach, Mozart, and Schubert. The church recently was gifted a beautiful new piano, so this will be the first of many ways that this piano in this beautiful building will be shared with the community. You can buy tickets at Eventbrite here. 

Next week, Tuesday, April 2nd

6:30 Rainbow Connection Small Group

• Nella Fantasia
• Power of the Dream
• Rewrite the Stars
• Hallelujah

YRCC Choir Keeps our Brains Agile and Resilient

Everyone in the York Region Community Choir knows intuitively that singing in the choir is good for us. 

We know this, feel it, experience it, and, more and more, published research is supporting it with data. One example of a study is the PROTECT Study in the UK which has been collecting data since 2015, aiming to understand how healthy brains age and why people develop dementia. Researchers are analyzing the data and discovering that playing an instrument or singing in a choir can help us age better. 

A new study has found a connection between brain health in old age and playing a musical instrument. Significant associations were also found between singing and executive function, and between overall musical ability and working memory. The research, published recently (January 2024) in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, concluded that education and engagement in musical activities throughout life are a valuable "means of harnessing cognitive reserve as part of a protective lifestyle for brain health." I'm always saying that we're having fun while protecting ourselves from cognitive decline, warding off dementia. 

This recent study was the subject of a couple of articles that you can read. One is here, on Fox Media.  They know that we know. "There’s nothing like a nostalgic song to transport you back to a special time and place -and now a new study has shown that music could help protect those memories for a lifetime." Catchy statement. Doctors involved in the study stated that engaging in music can help maintain and even improve cognitive functions, serving as a protective measure against cognitive decline. Yes. I'm positive that's what is happening with us and our audiences. 

Another article that shared the results of that study, here on Forbes, states that cognitive reserve, the agility and resilience of the brain, is "harnessed" by musical activity. We're making sure our brains stay agile and reslient. I feel that. They had this wonderful quote from a musician: 

    “I learnt to play the accordion as a boy living in a mining village in Fife [in Scotland] and carried on throughout my career in the police force and beyond,” 78-year old accordion player Stuart Douglas told the University of Exeter. Currently, Douglas still performs with an accordion band. “We regularly play at memory cafes so have seen the effect that our music has on people with memory loss,” he says. “As older musicians ourselves we have no doubt that continuing with music into older age has played an important role in keeping our brains healthy.” (my italics and bolding )

Once a week, at our choir rehearsals, we feel great for a couple hours, and it often sets the tone for the rest of the week. We're out of the house among other people, moving our bodies, stretching our minds, benefitting from and contributing to something positive and beautiful. Our concerts twice a year are the cumulation of hours and hours of preparation, the consummation of our work together. And, they're an opportunity to share this musical side of our life with friends and family. Then, we go out to care homes and retirement homes to share our music and to sing along with our audiences there. We have no doubt that we're doing a very good thing. 

Performing after months of preparation, study, and teamwork.YRCC 2023

My Singing Night at Trinity 2024 Thursday, March 21st

We talked a lot more than usual, but it was excellent, and we still sang a lot, and danced! 

It was an evening of music, connection, harmony, and spirit.

Here's the list of the songs we listened to and sang. 

• True Colors by One Voice Children’s Choir, video with Holi theme
• Dooset Daram  by 7th Band video, with English and Farsi lyrics
• I’m Coming Out DanceTHE D SORAKI  video
• Christ the Lord is Risen Today by Amen Choir &National Philharmonic Orchestra
• Christ the Lord is Risen Today  by PraiseCharts
• Power of the Dream by Celine Dion
• Nella Fantasia by Celtic Woman, and videos by YRCC, and Jackie Evancho
• Gabriel’s Oboe by Ennio Morricone
• Karma Chameleon by Culture Club
• The King of Wishful Thinking by Go West
• Wishful Thinking by China Crisis
• Someday by One Republic
• Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us by Starship
• Computer Love by Kraftwerk
• Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind & Fire
• Too Much Heaven by Bee Gees
• You Make My Dreams Come True by Hall & Oates
• All Out of Love by Air Supply
• Kiss From a Rose by Seal

We started off with the video of True Colors by the One Voice Children's Choir. We've seen that choir before, and they're amazing. We sang True Colors by Cyndi Lauper last week for PIE Day. This video referenced the Hindu festival of colour, love, and spring, Holi, which falls on Monday, March 25th this year (the full moon). Holi marks the end of winter, celebrates that light conquers dark, honours the triumph of good over evil. And, there's this, from Wikipedia: "There is also a popular symbolic legend behind the festival. In his youth, Krishna despaired whether the fair-skinned Radha would like him because of his dark skin colour. His mother Yashoda, tired of his desperation, asks him to approach Radha and ask her to colour his face in any colour she wanted. This Radha did, and Radha and Krishna became a couple. Ever since, the playful colouring of Radha and Krishna's faces has been commemorated as Holi." I love this! Love. Of course they loved each other no matter what colour. We talked about the coloured powder being natural and safe, hopefully. There are natural and synthetic dyes of course. These powders go into faces and into the environment. Surely they are safe?

We had to talk about the Persian New Year, Nowruz, which my family celebrates. Nowruz means new day, but it's a weeks-long festival that celebrates the beginning of the new year, the new cycle of seasons. The countdown to the new year doesn't happen at midnight but at the moment of the vernal equinox, which was March 19th at 11:06:26 this year. I've written about Nowruz traditions in other posts. What we talked about today was the love of dancing. Iranians celebrate everything with lots of dancing, in addition to lots of food and flowers and dressing up. We listened to some music that reminded us of other kinds of dance music and the words were so passionate, about love and heartbreak ("you're the reason I breathe... I die without you"), words we've heard so often in the songs we sing. 

We listened to two very different versions of Christ the Lord is Risen Today. The first was a big, bombastic choral and orchestral recording. Trinity's beautiful organ can sometimes sound like an orchestra and this is the kind of Easter Hymn we're accustomed to. The second was a big, energetic "Praise" song. We wondered if our congregation would like it, or would only want the traditional version. We thought they probably would. It was excellent and full of the positive passion that Easter Sunday inspires. We've enjoyed lots of Contemporary Christian Music at our church, including some fun and energetic songs like My Lighthouse and Fix My Eyes. I think we're going to have to have more of that. 

We talked about how the dancer THE D Soraki moved to the percussion part of I'm Coming Out rather than to the melody, which made it surprising and creative. It opened our eyes to the fact that we don't all experience music the same way. Some of us love classical music and others hate it, same with country music, or bagpipes. Electronic music, opera, musical theatre, bluegrass, folk, CCM, traditional hynms, traditional music from any other culture, all can sound pleasing or exciting or calming or upsetting. Something we felt strongly about was that to be inclusive, our church should include a variety of musical styles each Sunday, because people's taste in music is so varied. We can be turned off by some kinds of music just as we are empassioned by other kinds of music. And, we can't become bland or neutral and stay inspiring. Difficult.

Some of the music we listened to and sang reminded us of important life moments: a trip to Europe, falling in love at 18, when our young husbands had a moustache, and dancing dates. This is good for our cognitive function, remembering the past connected to music. We're keeping our brains working.

As often happens, we were surprised by the lyrics of some of the songs we thought we knew so well. We sang these songs, danced to them, heard them many times, without paying attention to the words, the meanings (or seeming lack of meaning, LOL!). This is a really interesting and fun part of our evenings. We didn't have the lyrics to all the songs back when we were young, and even if we did, we didn't take the time to think about them like we are doing now. 

Something we often end up talking about is our current concerns about our health: knee surgery, hair loss, skin tags, pain and stress, dental health and mental health, our own and in our families. We worry about our spouses, our parents, and our children and friends too. We usually have a break, time for tea and discussion, and I often bake. This time, I had banana chocolate chip muffins that I had made earlier in the day. This aspect of our evening is a treasure too. 

We love the little group of Thursday friends that we've got, but at the same time we wish we could share this experience with others. Other singing friends from church or choir and others in Newmarket and the surrounding communities would love this and could benefit from it. I'm thinking about how to get the word out that this is good and we welcome more people. I think we could rebrand, change the name, advertise, maybe change the format, announce the theme the week before with some titles? We're not meeting next week, so maybe I'll spend some time on that. 

I love the accordion. If you don't, you haven't met the right accordion player.

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review Tues. Mar. 19

Happy New Year! Nowruz Mobarak! 

It's the first day of spring, and a really good time to celebrate new beginnings. Persian new year makes sense, and it's been celebrated for more than 3 thousand years. I spoke a little about the Persian new year traditions, and my favourite part is the symbolism of the items of the 7-Seen spread. If you're interested, here's a link to what Wikipedia says about it. My husband, Harry Hooshang Naghavi was born in Iran and this is one Iranian tradition that I love maintaining. Our grown children have created their own haft-seen spread in their house in Ottawa.

The Anthem from Chess small group, tenors and basses only, met at 6:30. This group sounds so special! If you've missed the first two rehearsals, you can still join and sing the melody in the four-part sections, up high if you're a tenor, or an octave down if you're a bass.

We had a brief warm-up with deep breaths, some of our usual stretches and arpeggios on la, mi, ho, and ha.

1. Somewhere Out There: We reviewed the way the D.S. al Coda works.  D.S. al Coda is an elegant way to repeat a section. It stands for "dal segno al coda." It means repeat from (go back to) the 𝄋 sign, the segno at bar 25, sing that part again until you come to the bar marked To Coda, 36, then jump to the coda on page 7 (so second time, we skip page 6). Coda means ending or conclusion. Musical notation is a little like a road you follow, or a map, and the segno is a navigation marker like an inukshuk or a buoy or a blaze on a tree. When you see a segno, take notice, because you'll need to find it again. We also looked at the way the lyrics are written at the top of page 7 right at the Coda. It's just like last week's Power of the Dream section where the lyrics suddenly appear in three places instead of only in the middle. Look at how the lyrics match your section's notes. The altos have a special little melody here while sopranos and tenors and basses are holding a note. The middle line is for the altos, and you'll see the syllables match the melody there. Soprano, tenor, and bass words have moved. Sopranos go up and tenors and basses go down. Be careful to sing "love can see us through, then we'll be together. Altos sing "love can see us, love can see us through. We'll be together."

2. Joseph Medley: From Angel to Calypso. We reviewed the timing at the bottom of page 12 and top of 13 in the bass clef. Make sure you're coming in on beat 4 and observing the rest in "well, now that's __not quite true." make "that's" short. For the sopranos, we reviewed the ahs at the bottom of page 13 and top of page 14. It's very important to come in on beat one after you turn the page. At the bottom of page 18, we reviewed the hum-uh part for the basses. It's a super-cool moment for the basses. The transition from Close Every Door to Benjamin Calypso, will not be long, as written. We're cutting out a bar. We don't have drums, so Donna has to play the pick-up to that second bar at the bottom of the page, but we'll put that in the last 3/4 bar. Luckily, Donna will take care of us through all of the transitions, as always, watch me for beginnings and endings. 

3. Power of the Dream: Oof! This is harder than it looks. We started at the beginning, where the melody gets passed between the treble clef and bass clef voices, mostly in unison. Looks easy, but the rhythms are difficult. Winston asked what the word marcato means in the performance note at the top of the first page. It usually means accented, coming from the Italian "marked" (not march), and is applied to a note. In this case it says a mercato feeling. Which Donna and I interpreted to mean the rhythm should be strong and regular. In the accompaniment, there is a focus on beats one and three. However, having thought about this for a bit, I think the instruction is to not let the slow tempo influence a relaxed approach, nor to speed up to make it more animated, or passionate. The tempo is slow, but the feeling is intense, so mark the words, stress the meaningful parts of words, enunciate them well, and resist speeding up. There are some phrases which I've changed to make them more gender-inclusive. They are marked on the pdf on the website, and I've listed them in the last two review posts.

4. Nella Fantasia: It's getting closer and closer each time! You're getting really good at this. It's a really hard piece, but it's one of my favourite songs ever. The Italian is excellent, and the oohs changing to ahhs is perfect. We just have to keep at it. 

5. Star Canon: So pretty! All you have to do is remember when and where you're singing, which by the second time, you did perfectly. Sopranos were much better coming in on beat one throughout. Maybe all you needed was a reminder to sing in Part l and not in the top line on pages 6, 7, and 8. 

Next week, Tuesday, March 26th

6:30 Small Group: Anthem

• City of Stars
• Joseph Medley: King to the end
• Power of the Dream
• You'll Never Walk Alone

D.S.al Coda

2024 May 19 Classical Piano Recital at Trinity in Newmarket

 I'll remind you again, but do go ahead and buy tickets asap.

This will be exquisite

My Singing Night at Trinity 2024 Thursday, March 14th PIE Day

Our PIE day Singing Night was humble but wonderful! We wish we could have shared it with more people. We still had pie left to share, and I would have loved to have had to buy more pies. 

It was an evening of music, connection, harmony, and spirit.

Here's the list of the songs we listened to and sang. 

• The Village by Wrabel, the video ft. UNITY, and the song to sing with
• This is Me from the Greatest Showman, video, and the song to sing with
• Born This Way by Lady Gaga
• Beloved by Jordan Feliz
• You Are Loved by Stars Go Dim
• You Are Loved by Josh Groban
• True Colors by Cyndi Lauper
• Same Love by Macklemore 
• Bad at Love by Halsey
• I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross, and video clip of THE D SoraKi dancing to it
• Faith by George Michael
• Express Yourself and Vogue by Madonna
• You Need to Calm Down and Cardigan by Taylor Swift
• Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat
• Constant Craving k.d. lang
• Grace Kelly and Elle Me Dit by MIKA
• Livin’ la Vida Loca by Ricky Martin
• Raise Your Glass by P!nk
• Appalachian Spring Vl by Aaron Copland

As I was preparing my playlist, I Googled "queer composers" and there was a huge list of classical composers who were gay but had to hide it because it was illegal at the times and places they lived in. So sad. We listened to a couple samples of classical music, including a larger snippet of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring that featured the melody that we know as Lord of the Dance. We wondererd if Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet was so beautiful because of his understanding of star-crossed love. It brought to mind the song Rewrite the Stars that we're singing this season in the YRCC.

We talked about misinterpretations of Bible verses out of context, and the fact that the word homosexual wasn't in the Bible until 1946. We talked about how everyone wants to be seen and known and loved. The theme of being seen and known has come up many times in love songs and songs about God's love that we've been singing. We want to be loved just the way we are and not need to change things or hide things about ourselves. We noticed that nothing in nature is perfectly symmetrical, and each of us is unique, and thought that this could be God's way of letting us know that imprefection is beautiful and we shouldn't strive to be the same as anyone else. Quilting teaches us this as well. 

Dancing became a theme of discussion and we decided it would be good to end the evening with dancing. So, I turned off the lights, as I did with my Teen Choir (TTC), back when my kids were teens, at the end of every evening, and we moved our bodies. Dancing to disco-type dance music is a wonderful way to release stress, to free yourself, let go of inhibition, to lose yourself to the music and just be. It was form me in my 20's a kind of therapy. 

We didn't pay much attention to the meanings of the words of songs when we were young, even if we sang along. We use music for our own reasons and miss some of its elements. That's okay. Now, looking at the words, and in this context, it's surprising and illuminating to look at the words and see the messages. And, it's wonderful to talk about it with lovely, open-hearted friends. 

I'm including here a video of a dancer, THE D SoraKi, dancing to I'm Coming Out. It's astonishing and fantastic to see dance that is so brilliantly original! It reminds us that beautiful and good are ever-changing concepts, that creativity is hugely important, and an open mind is vital. 

 

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review Tues. Mar. 12

Fantastic rehearsal! We really got a lot done.

At 6:30, the Anthem small group started, and got to the end of the song. I've adapted the SATB score that Blair gave us to TTBB and to provide solos for the two people who came to me to offer this song as a solo, and to take advantage of our bass voices. There are 3 solos. Everything up to page 6 is solos. From page 6 on, I've created a new 4-part arrangement which you have on a one-sheet copy. You should not need to use both the score and that 1-page. I hope the soloists can memorize their parts. 

We did a brief physical warm-up and a little vocal warm-up before singing Hallelujah as our main vocal warm-up. 

1. City of Stars was great! We looked at the swing notation and talked about how that gives the song its jazzy bum-ba-bum-ba feel. The moody/wistful/dreamy quality is there too, but comes more from the slowish tempo and the soft low voices at the beginning. At 29, we brighten up with the treble clef voices on "It's love" and then at 35 when we're all together it's big and swinging and positive culminating in the "rat-tat-tat" on our hearts, the crazy feeling of love. Remember, you're watching at the bottom of page 7 (bass clef voices) and at the end (treble clef voices) where we  slow down dramatically.

Swing Notation on City of Stars

2. Power of the Dream: We all have good copies or scores now. We learned the section from bar 52 to 66. There are a few spots where the words move around.  We saw this at bar 58/59 and 64/65. Most of the time, the words are in the middle of the treble and bass clefs, so treble folks are reading down, and bass folks are reading up. But, in these special places, the middle is for the altos. Sopranos words moved up, and, bass clef voices, your words moved down, to match your notes. We looked at the places where I've changed the words to make the language inclusive. These are: page 3, "since time began"; page 6, "Every one of you, as you come into this world, you bring the gift of hope..."; page 8, "... in all of us, it's time that we began." The pdf on the website is a scan of my score with those changes. Remember to make your notations in pencil only, or make yourself a working copy to mark up in pen or with highlighter. 

3. Rewrite the Stars: We slowed this down, not only for the soloists, but also for everyone when your eighth note rhythms change depending on the words, so you can pay attention to that. For example: "It's up to you, and it's up to me" changes to "It's not up to you. It's not up to me".  "When everyone tells us what we can be" and "No one can say what we get to be" is even harder. Soloists did a great job! I put you on the spot at the front, but hearing the other soloists was effective. Eventually, I have to pick a soloist for each part and choose a back-up for each as well, so there will be 4 of you. And, we have to think about logistics, where will you stand in the concert, and whetger or not we use microphones (I'm thinking not- you can stand in the front row or first step up?). 

4. Nella Fantasia: We slowed this down too. Sopranos, when Donna starts playing, start singing in your head "io ve-e-do un mo-on-do giusto" or "li tu-ut-ti vi-i-vo no" or even just ba-ba-bas on quarter notes to make sure you're ready to sing those triplets and can come in confidently. We sang aahs instead of ohs, and it sounded stronger. We reviewed the alto ahs. We reviewed the special soprano part at the top of page 7. I love this song, and it's sounding beautiful. We talked about the recordings on the website. The ones where you hear Richard singing are really very helpful, except for his "nella fantasias" all the way through, even though it's all English. It was really nice to sing it that way at the time. Please take advantage of this excellent resource to help you if you're feeling unsure of your part.

5. Joseph Medley: We sang to the end of the Elvis song. We were meant to focus on the first two songs today. The first was excellent, Jacob and Sons.We added a cut-off with the fermata in Donna's intro to move to a sudden change of tempo. The intro is big and showy, broad, and grand. Then, when we come in, we move with a driving energy. You'll see that the notation is for a broad, slow (92) intro which speeds up "accel." to (138) "with energy". Much better when we sing as written (haha). I'm still not hearing enough tenor on Ja-cob. I'm thinking of adding some altos there. Otherwise, this is perfect. Any Dream Will Do has one little thing. The beginning is medium loud, with just the sopranos and tenors, no altos and no basses. This is important because it makes bar 47 more dramatic, and louder, when we're all together at medium loud.  We kept going, with One More Angel in Heaven, where we had a little issue in the bass clef with timing at bar 96/97. "Well now that's--not quite true" is 1-2-3-4-1-2- 3 and-a-1. You'll get it if you start on beat 4, stress that's and keep it short to observe that rest. Not quite is the second two notes of a half-note triplet. So, the rest is the first part of a half-note triplet, which is not quite a full beat. Sopranos, try to come in on beat one on page 14. It's a page turn, so maybe you need to write it in on the bottom of page 13? It's your second aah phrase. 123a41. Song of the King is fun, except the basses have very little to do for the first 3 pages. There's the solo, which is Colby (and we'll need a back-up, so it's not horrible that you've been singing it), and the sopranos, altos, and tenors sing the bop-shu-wah parts. Basses only come in at bar150 with "hum-uh-hum-uh-hum-uh-hum-uh" I want to hear all the basses there except Colby. 

We talked about: 

The Choir!Choir!Choir! concert (excellent-highly recommended) and what I learned about my own conducting and talking and chorister sitting and standing. I don't think I'll use their "try harder" strategy. 

Bloomington Cove Seniors: we can't sing there in the evening, so we'll try to do an afternoon, a Tuesday in May around 2/3:00 so we can go home and have dinner before our evening seniors' performance. A show of hands looked promising. We need at least one person from each part, 2 or 3 sopranos, so even 10 people would work well. We would sing a half hour of our music and a half hour of sing-alongs. Jane is working on the schedule for May and June, and it will be up soon. I've already set up a peformance order on the website. Log in and click on Members to find "Seniors' Performance Orders" in the left menu. The order can change depending on who is there, what parts we have and how I'm feeling ;-)

Log in, click on Members

Next week, Tuesday, March 19

6:30 Anthem

• Joseph: Angel, King, Close, Ben
• Power of the Dream
• Nella (maybe)
• Somewhere Out There
• Star Canon

Donna's Choir's Easter Cantata 2024

 

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review Tues. Mar. 5

 It was so good! We had a couple new members and discovered a couple of new soloists among us. We had fun visualizing the way we want to sound when we're singing loudly and confidently but sweetly. Also, the opposite. When we're singing sweet words loudly and confidently, it can sound creepy-agressive.

6:30 the small group singing Night of Stars made huge progress. We slowed the tempo down to feel the strong and slow rhythm of the oars of a gondola in Venice. By the end, it was sounding sweet and maybe a little coquettish and maybe a little wistful. We were sure to stress and enunciate clearly the words that are loaded with meaning: Night of Stars, gently, love, floating, light, sing, etc. Watch for the pronunciation of cadenced: kay-dinst, meaning rhythmical, so the cadenced oar is rowing with a musical rhythm. We changed the dynamics to add a few crescendos before the important melodies: Page 5, last bar of the second system (sopranos get louder singing ah over the altos getting louder over Till the dawn and then Night of stars is loud, not soft; and, top of page 6 on the word shore which is marked as a sforzando diminuendo (we want a sforzando crescendo to the soprano run "Night of stars and of love" because those are the most important words and the altos repeat them right after.) Strong, please, so we're moving the forte up a few bars. This was fun!

1. All I Have to Do is Dream was our vocal warm-up, after a brief stretching and breathing exercise, and a vocal fry and some rollercoaster trills. We spent a little time on parts, going through the whole song on the baritone part and then the alto part. We talked about the same kind of challenge with Night of Stars, that the words are sweet and light but we need to sing strongly. So, we want soft sound but not soft volume. It was actually a very clear concept when the men needed to sing loudly and confidently the words "I can make you mine". We don't want that to sound creepy/threatening, so you need to play with your voice to sound wistful/dreamy instead. If you need to review your part, head over to the website and log in. The accompaniment and parts recordings are there.

2. Nella Fantasia is coming along really well. This is our most difficult piece this season, and you're doing great! The sopranos are becoming more comfortable with the Italian in the first verse and the Oos are getting better too. I'm thinking of changing them to ahs, though, because thy're maybe a little too soft. We reviewed the soprano part at the top of page 7, and all the parts at the top of page 9. If you feel a little lost or behind on this piece, you can find your part on the website to listen to. I have posted the other set of recordings, the ones with the words from Richard Heinzle. And now you'll see why I keep singing Nella Fantasia and pronounce it nella instead of nail-la. Please take advantage of this excellent resource.

3. Joseph Medly: Benjamin Calypso review and Go, Go, Go all the way to the end! We sang the whole medley from the beginning to the end! With Benjamin Calypso, we found our soloists, but we will need back-ups, so please consider letting me know you'd like to have a go at it. Winston gave it a shot and we were all so happy he did! We discovered that he's been blessed with a strong and beautiful voice. Carol sang the second solo wonderfully, but we were not surprised. We've known about Carol's superlative expressive, storytelling singing forever. 

4. Rewrite the Stars: We discovered a super soloist on this too. Nadine gave the second solo a shot and nailed it! Winston tried the first and did a pretty good job too. We're getting closer with these. We'll try out different soloists still though, because both of these are super-hard and some folks will want a second shot, or want to try the other solo. There are still some timing issues all the way through, which is understandable; it's got unusual timing. Next time we sing this, we'll slow it down a bit. I maybe speed up on this because I love its energy; there's a drive, a push, that the timing gives it that I love. 

5. The Power of the Dream: I just realized that the pdf on the website, which Peggy used to print the working copies, is the problem, is missing pages 2 and 3. I'll fix that. We took a quick look at the changes I've made to remove gender-specific language. On page 3, we'll sing "And since time began", on page 6, "Every one of you, as you come into this world, you bring the gift of hope and inspiration."And, on page 8, "There's so much strength in all of us. It's time that we began. It's the moment that you think you can't, you'll discover that you can. Feel the flame..."

Next week, Tuesday, March 12th

6:30 Anthem from Chess Small Group (all men, please)

• City of Stars 
• Joseph Medly: review ending, and first two songs
• Nella Fantasia
• Power of the Dream
• Rewrite the Stars

My Singing Night at Trinity 2024 Thursday, February 29th

  An evening of music, connection, harmony, and spirit.

Here's the list of the songs we listened to and sang. 

• Breathe by Jonny Diaz
• Beloved by Jordan Feliz
• You Are Loved by Stars Go Dim
• Stars by Skillet
• Dream a Little Dream of Me by The Mamas & The Papas
• Dreaming by Blondie
• You’re the Inspiration by Chicago
• Space Oddity by David Bowie
• Got to Get You into My Life by Earth, Wind & Fire
• Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
• All My Loving by The Beatles
• Holly Holy by Neil Diamond
• Come On Get Happy by David Cassidy
• Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers
• I Love You Always Forever by Donna Lewis
• Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler
• Dust in the Wind by Kansas
• I Love Rock ‘N Roll by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
• Don’t You Want Me by The Human League
• Downtown by the Headstones
• Can't Take My Eyes off of You Frankie Valli

I spend some time compiling my playlist each week, adding songs when I think of them or when they appear on another playlist I'm listening to. Sometimes, I go searching for things in a theme. I use the search function in Apple Music, on YouTube, and Google. Sometimes, I find something and it leads to others when an app recommends things to me. That can also be annoying, but often it's good. I don't remember how the three CCM songs at the top of the list came to my notice, but I'm glad they did. They're such good songs! I really want to sing those at church, especially Beloved on Pride Weekend. I think it would be pefect. We handed out buttons with a rainbow heart and the word Beloved on them at the Pride parade last year, and they were very popular, as well as the God Loves Me rainbow hearts. It felt really good when people got excited about wearing a button that says God Loves Me with a rainbow heart. We'll be making those again, this time with Trinity United Church printed on them as well, so people will remember where they got them. 

On Thursday nights, I start playing songs from my list, and then we look at the list together and choose songs, and sometimes artists, that we feel like listening to. It's always fun to see what the lyrics actually are compared to how we remember them. We can look up the albums to find out what year they were made, and who the composers were. We sometimes find songs that we like even more on an album. Remember when we had to buy a whole album if the song we wanted wasn't a "single" on a 45? 

I'm so grateful for my Thursday nights! It's always good to gather, and sing, and talk about music and life together. We would be happy to share this with more people. The invitation is open. You can come any Thursday that you can. Except, you can't come next week. We've cancelled March 7th because I'm going to experience Choir!Choir!Choir! in Richmond Hill at the RHCPA with YRCC friends.