What an excellent rehearsal! I had several moments of absolute bliss. The harmonies, the songs, the people... bliss.
The altos met at 6:30 and Lauren and Donna helped them out with tricky spots in a number of songs, including looking ahead to Song for the Mira and Imagine, which was impressive.
We had a brief warm-up, just getting kinks out, relaxing and stretching our instruments.
1. Blue Skies: We have snaps, jazz hands, and there are two solos. We discovered that we'd been singing bar 22 wrong all these years. We now have recordings of parts, so if you sing alto, tenor, or bass (part ll), please review "shining so bright" at bar 22. Also, a number of part ll people forgot about the last blue skies; landing on skies at bar 73 is different. I'm hoping to have everyone snap at the beginning, not just the sopranos. It should be possible. You can snap and sing, right? There is no page turn there.
2. We Rise Again: We have a soloist! Melinda can do it, and does it well. I would love to have a back-up, so please give it a try and let me know. We have stressed over this song in the past, and I don't want to stress over it. It's always been excellent, even though it's never been perfect. There are all those oohs, and then the first chorus is especially difficult for the tenors and basses. We might try to do that first chorus as written, but we might not. When everyone except the first sopranos is on the melody, it's powerful. We'll work on the mm-ooh-ahhhs. They're cool. The tenors move a lot, down to the bass line whenever that divides, and back up to the tenor clef/treble clef an octave down. Second sopranos are on the alto line singing the melody most of the time (the chorus, and page 9-bar 61. At bar 62, last system on page 12, there's a little bit of shuffling for the big ending. But, again, don't stress it. It's big and loud and awesome, always excellent, even when it's not perfect.
3. Imagine: We have an option to have 2 short solos at the beginning. I'm not sure if we will. I like that this arrangement gives everyone the opportunity to sing the song with good strong and simple harmonies. There are a few bars that have rhythms we'll need to work on. We all sight-read through the whole thing, and it's already sounding good.
4. On Eagle's Wings: We worked on all the different "make you to shine like the sun" sections. They're so good! We are excellent on the choruses and the ending now. Even though we haven't spent time on the rest, it's also excellent. This song is beautiful. You sound fantastic.
5. Shenandoah: Same thing here. We haven't worked on this, except for the oohs at the beginning, but people remember it, and new folk are following or studying or just amazing, and it's really very beautiful.
6. Song for The Mira: Such a pretty song! We only had 10 minutes, but we went over the parts on pages 8-11 where the choir sings the chorus and the last verse in SATB. We have recordings if you want to review that at home. Again, the new folk are excellent at following or they're studying or just amazing. I was impressed. Reminder: we're not going to learn the oohs. Just like Song for a Winter's Night, it's going to be a solo piece with the choir coming in at the end. It worked well and I liked the way the focus is on the soloist and their words. Here, we have more solos and very good lyrics to listen to.
At break time, Juergen treated us to a German love song, as a Valentine's Day gift. Will you be singing a love song to your sweethearts?
Next Week: Tuesday, February 18
6:30 Anthem Small Group (I would love to see 12 or more people in this group)
- Canon of Joy
- Imagine
- Shenandoah
- Song for the Mira
- Wonderful World
- Hallelujah/You'll Never Walk Alone
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