We're sounding so good! I think that performance last week gave us some confidence.
We did miss Lauren- such chaos without her! Several people had to help keep me in line (thank you, friends!) And, of course the alto section was not exactly adrift without their anchor, but maybe a little tipsy.
The small group Mary did you Breathe (this is the new moniker for this group) is doing a great job of helping me get caught up. We solidified the second soprano part, and made good progress, but we'll need to meet again next week. It's not easy creating a new mashup arrangement, but we're working together and that's always good, satisfying. The Mele Kalikimaka small group was a little askew, with a few members missing, but also did a great job figuring things out and we recruited some sopranos. Ellie was a good sport and wore the grass skirt I brought. We had a donation of a few leis. It's going to be fun!
Warm-ups included a weird new way of doing lip trills (raspberries) with roller coasters/ sirens. You bend over and face the floor, so your lips kind of hang loose. It works! It looks a little strange, and we decided we would never do that looking in a mirror. (consider that selfies are always angled with you looking up). We did our wow and what exercise without the benefit of exciting sports news.
1. Shine Hanukkah: Super! It's been a while since we sang this, but it's pretty easy and fun, and you all did great! We reviewed the alto part all the way through, and the descan part on the last page. The first sopranos will divide into two to sing those two parts in the top line, careful to come in on beat 1 and to observe the rest in bar 78, so you can jump in again on beat 1 at 79.
2. Somewhere in my Memory: Pretty! We had to review the oohs and la-las, but they ended up sounding awesome! So choral! If you missed this rehearsal, please review this part (pg 4-5). We have recordings to help you. Log in on the website and go to the YRCC Music Library. You can download and listen to your part. There are several key changes that give us trouble. Donna has created extra chords to help us. You'll need to listen for them at these bars: 38 (altos only), 40 (tenor/bass), and 42 (everyone) and 46 (everyone).
3. Do You Hear What I Hear: Yes! So strong. We spent some time on page 7. This is the loudest section (aside from the big ending), and the words help you to know what to do: The king said to people everywhere: "listen to what I say!" And, there's our theme: "Pray for peace, people everywhere!". This is our finale, and that ending is perfect. Well done, everyone! We have parts recordings in our Music Library. Please review your part if you're feeling uncertain.
4. Various Themes on Fa-la-la: So much fun! We went over the last song, the 1812 Overture. You want to go to the bottom of page 9 and circle that last bar, circle the rests. The timing is important there, and sopranos and altos, you might want to write down there that you need to come in on beat 1 on the next page with a good strong Fa in high C. Write whatever will give you a good heads-up so you come in confidently. We have parts recordings for this in our Music Library. You can listen to your part any time anywhere. People around you will wonder what you're doing, especially if you're listening to alto, tenor, or bass.
5. Twelve Songs of Christmas: oof! It's not as easy as it seemed at first. We only have a recording of the accompaniment for this one. We'll spend time on this next week. If you missed this rehearsal, or if you felt lost yesterday, maybe listen to the accompaniment recording, or look up a YouTube video. Here's a nice one.
We talked about: the concert and the "dress" rehearsal at Trinity in Aurora. We have the space on Tuesday, December 2nd for a run-through rehearsal. We'll run through the whole concert (not every single song to the end) to determine how it flows and how we need to stand, and sit, and get on stage and off, ect, all the logistics. I'll post the concert order soon, and you'll all have your binders in concert order on December 2nd. We also touched on the bake sale. The bake sale is a big deal and fun. Be prepared to bring some baking on December 7th. We'll talk about this some more.
Robyn sold concert tickets and took orders for pointsettias. This was the last day to order pointsettias, and some of us ordered but will pay next week, tapping.
Next week, Tuesday, November 25
6:30 Mary Did You Breathe, 7:00 African Noel
- 12 Songs of Christmas
- Do you Hear what I hear
- For unto us
- In our Town in December
- In the Bleak Midwinter
- Somewhere in my Memory
 |
| Here's a look at the page with the recordings on the website. |
No comments:
Post a Comment