Woo-hoo! We had a bunch of new people come to sing with us. It was great. I love sharing our wonderful thing, our choir (therapy) evening, this beautiful community of friends who love to sing.
We danced a little to "shake the sillies out". We did the twist and the mashed potato (sort of) with the song Do You Love Me? I made a point of singing "work, work, work" because it was going to be a busy rehearsal with lots of work. We have lots of work to do before our concert in December, but we have lots of time, too. If you need to miss a rehearsal, be sure to read my blog post following the rehearsal so that you can get caught up. There are some recordings on the website and on my YouTube channel.
After a brief vocal warm-up, featuring very loud (double forte ff) "wow!" and "what!?", we got straight to work.
1. Angels Among Us: this one is not only new to almost everbody, but also a song that many people have never heard! That put us all on an even level for a change. We started learning this song by doing it part by part starting at the chorus, bar 18. Bar 18 marked as the segno. We talked about how the segno (which means sign) marks a spot that we will need to return to. It's ofen used in conjunction with a coda, a symbol to indicate a special ending. We found the place where we have to go back on page 9, also the page with the coda. I love the oh-oh-oh before the chorus. We get to sing the chorus 3 times. The third one is in the ending, and it's in a key change. It looks different but it sounds the same, just a little higher. We even did the ending! I'm thinking about having soloists sing the verses, maybe with a little bit of choir back-up? I'm not crazy about how the verse is divided up between parts. Just an idea now. Let me know what you think.
2.Let There Be Peace on Earth: So special! We did really well. I've decided we're doing the "quiet ending" It's so much better than the loud one. It's bigger, and we don't have to sing it that quiet ;-) Don't forget to write in pencil the alternative words "With Earth as our mother, her children all are we. Let us walk with each other in perfect harmony." We're going to have 2 sopranos sing the extra top line, the descant-like echo part. I think that's all we can spare. I'll need a back-up for each part though, so 4 sopranos to learn those. I was happy to see the coda symbol on the endings of this piece to reinforce your learning. Notice also that the first bar of the coda is the same in both endings "me", after "let it begin with." In the same way, our coda in Angels Among Us starts with the same "love" as after the first "light of love".
3. Song for a Winter's Night: We are all singing all the way through this time, and we learned the oohs under the first two verses! Last time we didn't start until page 9, having soloists only up until then. This is what gave me the idea to do that with Angels. It was excellent, and doing that made this year's version different, very easily. This Gordon Lightfoot song is super-Canadian, and I love it so much!
4. For Unto Us a Child is Born: Wowza! Some strong feelings about this one. It's hard and we have to "yodel" (Colby's word for when we sing the wild melismas/runs/ornamentation on the word "born" for example.) We almost finished this piece last Christmas, but had to put it on hold. Now, we're going to finish it. There are videos for each part to help you learn your part. You will probably need to spend a little time outside of choir nights learning this piece. It's super cool, though, impressive, and we don't have to be perfect. Just listen to any recording of a choir singing it, and you'll have a hard time discerning whether or not they're singing it accurately. We're not judges and we're not going to be judged. Yay!
5. Various Themes on Fa-la-la: Wheeee! it's so much fun! Memories of Bugs Bunny, right?! We learned the parts of the Deck the Halls sections. Remember that the la-la-las are short and weird, and they will get weirder as we go from song to song in this medley. The audience will laugh and they'll love it.
We talked about:
- Getting signed up on the website. Carol will send emails to the new folks who will complete their profiles on the website. Access to the website is very important. Please keep up to date by taking a look from time to time in addition to reading this blog weekly.
- Small Groups are starting next week. Sign up in "Events" and come early, at 6:30, if you want to sing Dona Nobis Pacem.
- Friday's Theatre outing. This Friday, a bunch of us are going to the Aurora Theatre to see A Grand Night for Singing, a Broadway revue of Rodgers & Hammerstien songs from their many musicals. Sign up online. We still have 2 tickets available. Sign up in "Events". We will have to pay Robyn for our tickets (only $22.50 if we get 10 people).
- Peace on this Silent Night
- Song for a Winter's Night
- For Unto Us a Child is Born
- Various Themes on Fa-la-la
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