I love my choir. Thank you for giving me a wonderful evening of respite from my grief. My brother passed away after a 10-month battle with Leukemia on Monday. I was not sure I would be able to manage choir night, but also needed it so badly. I'm always telling people to come to choir if they're feeling rotten, because I know it's such a good escape. It sure is.
The Rainbow Connection small group met at 6:30 to work through the revised arrangement. It was great. I tried to play my ukulele, but it was not great, and one cute instrument alone is just a little weird. So, we'll just work on the singing. I can conduct.
Our warm-up involved picking up the music that Peggy brought for us (Thank you, Peggy!), the words for the concert sing-along pieces, Over the Rainbow and Catch a Falling Star. We sang Catch a Falling Star with Perry Como. So smooth. We'll do a straight-up version like we do with seniors, easy-peasy.
1. Over the Rainbow will be a choir and band collaboration. So, we have their arrangement, and I've entered the bar numbers on the lyric sheet so we don't have to worry about the sheet music, or copying it, but can be "on the same page" as the band. If their conductor calls out "Let's go back to bar 21", we'll know where to go. There's a big instrumental section, and after that a repeat at bar 53, and then a little fancy ending, a Coda at bar 54. Donna was so impressive, sight-reading the arrangement for us to sing to. Wow! It was pretty easy for us. For our concert, we'll do an easy straight-up version that everyone will be able to sing easily.
2. We took a quick look at Seal Lullaby, the choral piece we're singing with the band. We will sing the parts with lyrics, leaving the oohs and ahhs to the band. You can find recordings of your part on YouTube, and I've collected them on my playlist for the choir. (screenshot below). We will have a whole rehearsal to learn this on May 7th.
3. Nella Fantasia was excellent! All of your hard work is paying off.
4. Power of the Dream was also very good. We spent a little time reviewing some of the tricky bits: top of page 10, and top of page 11 where it's easy to get lost when your words have moved, the low notes and rhythm at bar 13, and the ending with the bass clef folks singing pretty much whatever feels good, the melody with the sopranos or a harmony, and then the last note, a real Renate ending where you can all choose a good landing note. We just have to repeat this piece a couple more times for your confidence. Sopranos, sing out loud, especially where you're the only ones on the melody. This is big: With support, we can make dreams come true- like Olympic dreams, reach for your own star, but also, the flame burns forever for us to unite in peace. This is our big message along with with Nella Fantasia, a fantasy of a world of peace, justice, honesty, and freedom. Dreams, fantasies, wishes are related to hope, and they're vital to keep us going with positivity toward better futures for ourselves and for the world.
5. Joseph Medley: Wow!!! It's so good! The soloists nailed their solos and we all got it all in one shot. We just spent a quick moment on the timing of the Go, go, gos. From the end of Benjamin Calypso, those la-las, you count La-2-3-4-1-2-3 and 4 and Jo-seph! Go, go, go is "and four and". Take a quick breath on the beat 3 just before. Bam. It was perfect.
6. Star Canon: Wow! It's so good. This will be our first song, a sweet hug for our audience, and it will also be impressive. You sound great. Keep the beginning sweet, only getting a little stronger when there are two or more sections singing together. When we're all in, for that last part, it's big and awesome.
7. You'll Never Walk Alone: Our big finale song, this will leave the audience uplifted, inspired, and impressed. We briefly reviewed the tricky second soprano bits. It was fantastic! We would for sure have gotten a standing ovation on that performance.
8. Hallelujah: Our encore. They're going to be so satisfied! Your performance brought me to tears. Thank you, my beloved choir!
Next week, Tuesday, April 16th
6:30: Rainbow Connection small group
- Al I Have to do is Dream
- City of Stars
- Nella Fantasia
- Power of the Dream
- Rewrite the Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment