We must keep on singing. It's necessary for us; we choristers need song. We thrive when we can meet once a week, gathering to sing together and to remember in our bodies and souls that we are alive in a beautiful world and can survive passing storms. We make harmony when we sing our songs together. Harmony is created when people sing together. How can we keep from singing? And, like the band on the Titanic, we feel a responsibility, a mission, an honour, to sing for others. I've written a post on the song How Can I Keep From Singing/My Life Flows On and I encourage you to read it. It's also not too late to join that small group.
Big heartfelt thanks to Tabatha who came to play piano for us! We missed Donna, but were in very good hands, and loved to catch up with our former (hopefully returning some day) Alto friend too. Thank you to the good folks who helped set up and take down at Trinity! Thank you to those of you who braved the thunderstorm and got soaked! I was lucky to arrive before the storm and leave after, but many of you had to deal with very heavy rain and powerful thunder and lightning. Mother nature reminds us that Spring is not just sunshine, baby bunnies, and flowers.
6:30 My Life Flows On (How Can I Keep From Singing) had the full pre-choir time to learn the 4-part choir version, with the slightly fancy ending that I added (of course).
1. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing: A word on this title. Something I dislike strongly is the idea that we need to be taught how to sing, as if we don't all sing before we can talk! We sing already. Of course we can learn to sing different styles of music, and specific songs, but we must stop telling people that they can't sing, or don't' sing well. Give us songs to sing together all the time. Let us join our voices in song. I would like to teach the world that we should sing together more and with kindess, inclusivity. We determined the new ending: We divide into SA TB at bar 89. Tenors join the Basses repeating "I'd like to teach the world to sing". Sopranos start with "peace throughout the land" and then Altos echo that in bar 90 (write that in), then "standing hand in hand" same, then "peace throughout the land" again. And stop. Altos hold their last one with the Tenors and Basses, so an extra bar. It's a little messy, but effective.
2. Hymn to Freedom: It's very very good! We worked with dynamics, when to be soft and when to be loud. We're following the dynamics as marked. On the last page, there is a slow-down a "rit." at bar 64 with a fermata (love those!). So, "har-mo-nyyyyy" cut! and then the piano plays a little ba-ba-bap! We come in very strong right after that. ba-ba-bap That's when. At 66, we're suddenly (sub.) quiet, but we need a big crescendo towards the end, so mpwe'll mf be f free, f we'll f Beee ff FREEEEEE!
3. Grand Night For Singing: We worked on getting from the Interlude to the chorus again. Last page, second last bar, You moves on the first beat of the last bar in the alto part and the bass part. Write in a fermata on that beat one. I want that held a little longer, and we'll cut // there. Donna will give us a little run, or something to bring us into "It's a grand night". Tab was a wonderful help on getting that worked out. It worked perfectly.
4. Song for Canada: Excellent. I'm thinking of keeping the French verse singers in their usual positions among the ah singers, so nobody has to move, except Robyn who will move to a microphone with her flute at the end of the French verse. We tried that, but it was difficult to determine if it worked since there were a number of people missing. We'll try it again.
5. Thank You For the Music: Excellent! We had no problem getting from the third verse solo to the chorus. Our fix worked wonderfully.
We talked about:
Tickets! We have tickets ready to buy at the discounted rate of $20 for choristers, for friends and family. Buy in advance for your folks, and you/they save $5 on each ticket. Tickets at the door and online will be $25. You can pay by credit card/tap using Square. Or, you can write a cheque to York Region Community Choir. Or, you can pay cash. We hope to get lots of tickets sold in advance this way, so talk to your friends and family and book them in. We're cooking up a deal for seniors homes too.
Next week: Tuesday, April 7th We're in Aurora, at Trinity Anglican Church (79 Victoria St.)
We're back in the basement (Binion's Hall) where we rehearsed after COVID, while our room was still closed. It's the church where we perform our concerts, just downstairs. There is an elevator by the Victoria St. doors. We usually enter from the other side, by the parking lot off of Metcalfe St.
- Here's To Song
- One Voice
- Thank You For the Music
- I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing
- Song for Canada
- O Canada
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| A peek at our concert poster- so cute! |
