YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review November 19

This past rehearsal was unexpectedly upstairs in the sanctuary at Trinity Anglican in Aurora, where we have our concert! It was cool to be there and Donna got to play a nice real piano, but the pews are not the best place for a choir to sit. So, luckily, Melinda was there to help and together with the tenors and basses who were there early, we gathered the chairs that were here and there and set them up for rehearsing. We did have a chance to use the "stage" for a couple things, but we were still working on stuff quite a bit, so there weren't enough opportunities. Thank you to everyone who helped to move furniture and make the rehearsal work. We spent our time on cleaning things up and made excellent progress.

1. All That Holiday Stuff: Both soloists were excellent. Sopranos, make sure you're ready to come in on beat one of bar 54 at the page turn from 7 to 8. "All that stuff" is special there. Have fun with this song; it's meant to be light and a little wild. 

2. Your Song: Be sure to read the notes you've made about the tricky spots. We've gone over them so many times. You got it on the second try, but at the concert, there's only one shot. 

3. 12 Groovy Days: It's even more fun than All That Stuff, a little crazy and funny. The sign holders are: 8-track=Nadine, 2 shoes=Lynn, 3 headbands=Colby, 4 bugs=Robyn, 5 rings=Jane, , 6 suits=Blair, 7earrings=Peggy, 8 disco balls=Philip, 9 blankets=Kit, 10 doorbeads=Lauren, 11insence=Winston, 12 lamps=Kim. I thought that would be a big challenge, but they did great! It's going to be very effective. (wait 'till you see the actual signs Jane made, which I regrettably left at home). Watch me to stay in time at the Complete Disco section. 

4. Song for a Winter's Night: The soloists are excellent, and we did pretty well on page 9 and 10, but I think we'll have Donna play our parts as we sing instead of singing a cappella. 

5. Santa's Wish: This will be fine. It's a lovely story and it introduces our encore song, which is a huge theme in our concert. Our soloists will have the most work, but they're going to be great. 

6. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing: I confused the poor Tenors. They stay on Part l with the Sopranos throughout on this song. No moving. Alto and Bass on Part ll. Remember the "that echos on" part is the Tenors on the first echo and Altos and Basses on the second one. Everyone sings the first one. 

Please keep checking the website and calendar for updates about where we're supposed to be and what time, and all that. We do announce things at rehearsals, but there's always a chance you'll miss that moment, busy talking or looking at your music. 

The concert order was emailed to everyone. If you missed that email, let me know. But, you can also pick up the order from the website. 

Next week, Tuesday, November 26 is our run-through rehearsal at Trinity Anglican in Aurora. We run through the whole concert to make sure the order works, to make sure we're standing, sitting, walking with ease and grace, and so that the sound guy, Doug, can figure out how to make us sound best. People who will be using microphones: soloists, small groups, duets, will be coming early-6:00 please. All others come at 7:00 and be prepared to stay late, as late as 10:00. This rehearsal prepares us for the show next Sunday, so we feel confident and look spiffy and polished. 

Put your binder in concert order, so that when you arrive at 7:00, you can get on stage and be prepared to sing one song after the other without searching for the music. It's got to be handy. You might want to put a flag/sticky note on the songs that come after we sit and stand up again, and after intermission. Make sure the flags will not be visible to the audience. 

Tuesday, November 19th 2024: YRCC Rehearsal Moved again

This is a good move and a small one. Trinty Anglican is moving us upstairs to the sanctuary.

That's where we will be performing, and where we're meeting next Tuesday as well!

I've sent an email to everyone. 

See you soon! 

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review November 12

The small groups made excellent progress but we ended up starting a little late. We did a very quick physical warm-up, seated, did a couple rollercoasters for a vocal warm-up and started on our work. We did a lot of work!

1. We Wish You a Merry Madrigal: we hadn't sung this in ages, but it was very good! We sang it with accompaniment and then without. We did it! I'd like us to perform this a cappella, to provide the audience with a very different sound. It's a cool little piece. We seem to have lost the parts recordings, so I've inserted by link a recording of a concert performance of ours. Remember to watch at the end, as usual. I conduct in two throuout  (cut time,   ), except for the 3/4 section which is one beat per bar, but the last bar is in four (common time  ). 

2. Peace on This Silent Night: Beautiful and pretty easy. It's in 2 parts. l is ST, ll is AB most of the time. At the beginning, Tenors start alone, then Sopranos are alone at 11. Everyone comes in at bar 23 with a crescendo to bar 27. At the quiet section at 67, S is alone on part l and everyone else sings part ll, Silent Night, softly. We'll ask the audience to sing along at 91, so Tenors have to join Sopranos on part l. I'll cut the audience off for our ending. 

3. Song for a Winter's Night: Lauren wasn't able to sing her solo, but luckily we have a back-up and Robyn did a great job. Bill was absent again, so I asked Philip to try the second solo, and I'm so glad I did. It was excellent. It's so good when someone with a voice I like is willing to sing a solo! Philip will be that soloist, with Bill as back-up. We worked on page 9 again, reviewed the Alto part again. Altos, you can look at your part with the recording on the website for homework. At the top of page 10, the oohs that we turned into words should be very soft and fade away. The Alto melody can be strong. I changed my mind about the last line. All Sopranos can sing that, softly, instead of having the soloists come back for that line. The last note is now an ooh instead of a mmm, and louder. We can try a sfz?

4. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing: Easy-peasy Part l is Sopranos and Tenors, Part ll is Altos and Basses. We don't have parts recorded, but it's not difficult and many of you know it well. It will be our encore song. There's one part where Sopranos and Tenors divide, at bar 81, the echos part. Tenors have a 3 beat rest in bar 82, then come in with an echo. The Altos and Basses do that last echo. Watch out for dynamics, when to sing louder or softer. 

5. Santa's Wish: Every time I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing comes up in this song, sing melody. Disregard the notes with harmonies. Simple is good. All you need to do is pay attention to when you sing and when you don't sing. The Storyteller will be Melinda with Jane as back-up. Jane did an excellent job singing that solo! The Santa role will go to Colby with Winston as back-up. Winston did a fine job as Santa, very convincing. 

6. Grownup Christmas List: This is going to be Robyn's solo. Cathy is the back-up. Just remember that the solo goes all the way to the first chorus, and that first chorus is very soft. Then at the repeat, the Sopranos and Altos take that note "As" (as children we believe, second verse) and the Tenors and Basses come in on beat one with oohs. The second chorus can be louder, and every subsequent chorus is louder still. We reviewed the bottom of page 7, bars 40 and 41 (tricky) to the end. We have recordings of all parts on the website. 

7. Why We Sing: Cathy will be the soloist. Kim is back-up. Solo goes from the beginning up to the pick-up to 26 where everyone comes in quietly. This will be very dramatic. Just before this we sing When You Believe, with its big drama and big ending. Then we start this soft and clear so that they listen to the words, and we do a straight-up powerful version, with no descant, but a good loud ending that should give us a standing ovation. 

8. When You Believe: Sang it right through to the end but didn't have time to review any parts. It's going to be fantastic!

Wow, did we ever get a lot of work done! 

Next week, Tuesday, November 19th

6:30: Tenors and Basses sectional help 7:15 Christmas Lullaby

Next week is our last learning week. So, we'll get any last messy bits cleared up. Think about what you'd like to review. We will be meeting in the basement of Trinity Anglican in Aurora, where we have the concert, and where we were rehearsing while our room was being renovated. Take a look at the YRCC Calendar, it's been updated. Buy your tickets and pay for your poinsettias. Remember to get your friends and family booked, hook them in with a dinner invitation. They'll be full from the bake sale so it'll be a light dinner. 

• All That Holiday Stuff: Soloist is Melody, back-up is Kit (we need to give her a chance to rehearse it). 
• Your Song 
• Santa's Wish
• Twelve Groovy Days
• Christmas Auld Lang Syne?
• Star Canon??
• When You Believe?
• Song for a Winter's Night?

The week after next is our run-through rehearsal, where we sing the whole concert, small groups and soloists and everything, making sure we can enter and exit with grace and we know where to stand and sit. I'll  make sure you have the concert order before then. Beware: it has happened that when we go through the order, something doesn't work and I have to change the order. Don't panic. For the concert, you'll need to have your binders in concert order. And you will have the final order by the end of the run-through rehearsal. No scrambling to find the music on stage! Small groups and soloists come early to work with the stage and microphones.

NOV/DEC YRCC Schedule: Check our Calendar regularly

Please keep checking the YRCC Calendar for info on where you're supposed to be for the next little while. 

Here's a link

Here's a screen shot:

YRCC 2024 Rehearsal Review November 5

I’m feeling very positive about our upcoming concert. I have to admit, I was feeling a little frightened. I was worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to get all of our songs in shape for performing in less than a month. But, I’m happy with the progress we made yesterday. I was thinking I’d have to scrap Santa’s Wish in addition to For Unto Us. We still have work to do, for sure, but we’re going to be fine.

Partly, the time I spent with the Alto section in our early rehearsal starting at 6:30 helped me to feel better. Those Altos are truly a special group of singers. A little bit of focus on the tricky bits in When You Believe and Song for a Winter’s Night, Groovy Days, and Your Song made a huge difference. Well done, team!

Christmas Lullaby was also much better in our short rehearsal before choir. One thing that made a difference was standing up closer together. Also, having Donna there was a huge help. 

1. After a brief stretching and stress-releasing physical warm-up, we went straight to work on Why We Sing. This is our finale piece, and one we’ve done very often. So, we need to shake it up a little. We’re going to have a soloist on the first section, where we sometimes had 4 soloists. Just one clear voice singing those words will have a special power and tenderness at the same time. We will use little lights on this song, right after When You Believe which introduces them. The soloist alone will hold the light up, and the rest of us will join in after. I’d like to add some movement with this too. I have to figure out how and when. I’d like us to move on the chorus, stop for the “music builds a bridge” part, then start at the chorus again. Maybe we sway two times per bar to match the cut time, or just one per bar? I’ve removed the descant for this season. I want this to be clear and strong, not too showy. I think that the descant is cool, but I want a unified sound instead of a fancy one. 

2. Song for a Winter’s Night is so beautiful! We reviewed page 9 and 10, with some time at the page-turn and top of page 10. Remember that you are singing the words that the altos have, just with your notes, and adding a finishing note on the last word, drifting. You need to watch me for the timing of those words. I’ll give a beat for each word, they slow down somewhat, and we need to be together. You can watch the video linked from the website. It's lovely. The soloists were excellent. Both were the back-ups. This is why we have to always have a back-up soloist. 

3. Your Song had a few messy parts that we fixed! I’m very happy with how well we did. At the top of page 4, before bar 36 on beat 4. It's weird how the I comes on beat 4 and then you have a rest on beat one before the rest of the sentence. Maybe listen to the tenors and basses singing "Show" and count show-2-3 "I". Or, sing your oohs: ooh-1-2-3-I/ or ooh-sho-oh-oh-3-I? Also here, we did a little bit of math. Two eighths equal one quarter. The words "not much but it's" are all equal in length (look at the tied eighths) and on they fall on the off-beat. Middle of page 6, Soprano solo on the word "how" of how wonderful life is. You have to come in strong on that beat 4 too. Think "words-2-3-HOW wonderful". That one happens twice. Altos, Tenors, and Basses, please support this timing but observing that rest accurately-don't hold that note too long! You must stop singing to give the Sopranos time to come in on beat 4. Sing with them "I" in your head. We worked on the CODA too. The notes for "Words" needed fixing, and from that moment on, you need to watch me for the timing. Things slow down and speed up and slow down again. That last note is not P as written but a sforzando piano. Hit the note, come off of it to soft and a quick crescendo-diminuendo. Watch. Watch throughout for those sforzandos. Donna has recorded parts for you. Go to the website to download yours and listen to review. Watch the video and sing along. I'll post the video below again. 

4.Santa's Wish: Soloists tried their parts and sounded very good. We're looking at this song as a solo/duet with a choir singing back-up. We're just the back-up vocalists. This is going to be simpler than written. Whenever the choir comes in, we sing the melody, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing and softly at first, only getting "choral" toward the end. Here, we are interpreting "in perfect harmony" to mean peace and unity rather than musical harmony, so unison is stronger anyway. There's a little bit of special stuff at the end, but no harmonies to learn. Please watch the video of the Tenors singing Santa's Wish, below. It's sweet and it will give you the ooh and ahh part. I'm happy that we're going to be able to perform this. 

5. Twelve Groovy Days: It’s a little chaotic, but that’s part of its charm. Jane is making signs to hold up so that the audience gets the words, which are funny and sweet. That will add a little timing craziness which will hopefully put the audience on our side, feeling our challenges and proud of our successes. I’m pleased with the work the sections are doing on their parts, coming in on time. The key changes are something to look at but not worry too much about. Donna has those under control but you need to listen to her and to each other too. We had to review that “leventh day of Christmas” section. (Complete Disco!) If you’re stressed about it, or missed the rehearsal, listen to the recording please. Boogie down, chicka-chicka.

At break, tickets were sold, for cash and cheque, but some of us waited for the Square machine to pay with a credit card next week. Please be sure to invite family and friends to the show! Buy them tickets in advance to make it easy for them. Paid tickets can be left at the door for people. Pay for your poinsettias too with a credit card next week. 

Liz handed out paper to write your top three YRCC choir songs of all time to help the Music Selection Committee choose our 30th Anniversary season music. 2025 is the 30th Anniversary of the YRCC. You can provide input until next Tuesday. 

Robin has booked our seniors' tour! I'll have those entered on the calendar and in the Events section of the website as soon as possible. Please start watching the calendar for details on timing in the next few weeks, and up to the end of the year. 

Remember to hand in your binder before you go away for the holidays! The Music Selection Committee and Peggy and Anne will be working hard to select and order music for the spring and to fill your binder with the spring music. Please cooperate with this huge task by getting your binder in as soon as you're done (after the concert or after your last seniors' visit). 

Next week, Tuesday November 12th Buy tickets and pay for poinsettias

I want to be able to appoint all the soloists and back-up soloists.

6:30 The Twelve Pains of Christmas (please bring props) 

7:15 Christmas Lullaby

• Grownup Christmas List (soloist)
• Peace on This Silent Night
• Santa's Wish (two soloists)
• Song for a Winter's Night (two soloists)
• We Wish You a Merry Madrigal
• Why We Sing (soloist)

(note: All That Holiday Stuff soloist is Melodie with Robyn as the back-up, When You Believe soloists are Mona and Stanley with Robyn and Blair as back-ups)