Another fantastic evening! I was so tired at first from the long weekend, but at the end of the evening I left invigorated, high and happy!
The evening started with Rainbow Connection, the small group at 6:30. Love that song!
Our warm-up included a little twisting, and so many people know the words to Let's Twist Again- fun! We did a bunch of "Maybe my mummy will go to Miami, and maybe my mummy will not".
1. Hallelujah is always wonderful. We reviewed a few tricky bits that some of us sometimes miss. There are the three alto tricky bits: page 3 "the baffled king composing Hallelujah", page 6 "the holy or the broken Hallelujah", and "with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah". When everyone comes in, there's almost always someone who forgets that our version has a different rhythm on "It goes like this". Circle that if it's you who gets carried away right from the beginning. And, there are often sopranos who go up, up, up in a different way than what's written. Try your best. If someone beside you makes these mistakes in a performance, don't panic. It's not horrible, and everyone loves this song. I promised we'd sing it again at the end of the night if everyone was good ;-) We did, even though we went over time past 9:30. It was so worth it, right?
2. Nella Fantasia is also wonderful, one of my alltime favourites. I know some of you disagree. It's hard, but you're getting it. We spent time on the first page, getting the sopranos together, clear and strong. We reviewed the ahhs for everyone and repeated the in "fondo al l'anima" for everyone several times so that it's strong and clear. There was a brief moment of discussion on the ending of Nella Fantasia, and whether it was a Renate ending or should we add something. Although I appreciate the thought, I do like it, and one thing that I like is how it reminds us of this moment in the first verse, but it's a bigger version of this one. We spend time getting the tenors and basses together at bar 23, and in bar 35. Please review this if you can.
3. Rewrite the Stars: Wow! We tried a few different soloists and Lorraine and Tab nailed theirs! Can they be our star-crossed lovers? Maybe! We spent time on the tenor and bass entry at the beginning at bar 18. I often yell "one two" here so you come in strong on beat 3 with "What if we". There are a bunch of these pick-ups where the bass clef folks come in before everyone else. It's so important that you do, and do so with confidence and volume. The next one is right there in bar 20: "Say you were". I suggested that you circle all of those in pencil on your music. I have them all circled. The last time we sang this, we added the altos to these bits, but I'm confident that the bass clef sections can do this. This is another of my favourite pieces. If you haven't seen the movie The Greatest Showman, please do. The music is outstanding. The story is beautiful. The love story of the star-crossed lovers is powerful. For this song, see this video.
4. Power of the Dream: Yes! We're getting it. It's hard, but it's coming together. We spent time just saying and then singing the rhythm of the first couple pages. Those melodies are repeated. We reviewed the top of page 4 "special part every one of us will play" I marked the beats in this phrase. "one" comes on beat 3 and "us" on beat 4. On page 6 "Every one of you, as you come" is a little confusing because of the new words- a little like the Italian and English in Nella. E---vry-one-- of--you. Slow, fast, fast, and 3. The next thing we spent time on was page 8. We'll go over that again. We added a beat at the bottom of the page, changing the 3/4 bar to a 4/4. So, you hold that lst note "can" for two beats in that bar, then rest a beat before coming in on beat 4, for the pick-up "feel the". The ending will be a Renate ending, with the bass clef voices added and then on the last note, "dream", we'll have a big crazy harmony with everyone singing a note they feel like singing. I love those. It's goinig to be fabulous.
Next week, Tuesday, April 9th
6:30 Rainbow Connection Small Group
- Nella Fantasia
- Power of the Dream
- Sing-alongs: Catch a Falling Star, (Somewhere) Over the Rainbow
- Rewrite the Stars?
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