YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review February 25th

 It felt so good to be back together! Thank Heaven it didn't snow or rain or anything for a change!

The small group singing Anthem (from the Musical, Chess) met for the first time and apparently they did really well! The arrangement is beautiful. 

We started our rehearsal with a warm-up done to Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly. Stretching and relaxing is nice and easy when you've got a great song playing and can sing along. Roberta Flack passed away on Monday.

1. What a Wonderful World: yes, it is. And, this arrangement of Wonderful World is too. We only reviewed how the top of page 5 has a little bit of drama. We sing the"the bright blessed day" brightly, and get softer on "the dark sacred night" to highlight the moody notes of that second phrase. You can use the recordings on the website to review those notes, and the whole song. 

2. Song for the Mira: We've learned all of the choral parts. The rest is up to the soloists. We start at the bottom of page 8, softly, and then get louder at "I'll trade you ten of your cities" The 5th verse, starting at the bottom of page 9 is fairly dramatic, and quite tricky in the bass line. Basses, we changed a couple of the notes to the octave up, so we don't have to worry about those big intervals."I'll trade you ten of your cities." "of your" will both be the upper A, and "cities" will both be the upper F. The 6th verse is sung by a soloist, but the choir comes back at the end of the second system of the last page, in unison: "I'm going to be with them again." and then in harmony for the end, singing ooh instead of hmm, so it's not too soft. Watch for dramatic dynamics at the end, as usual.

3. Imagine: We just started, and we're almost done! This arrangement is very good, not too difficult but sounds very strong. There are some timing issues. I suggest you listen to the recordings on the website. I'm not sure if we want soloists or not. Let me know if you have thoughts or would like to sing one of those 2 solos at the beginning. 

4. Canon of Joy: I just discovered that Ode to Joy is the European Anthem, the Anthem of the European Union. We learned our 4-part section of Ode to Joy, at the top of page 7. It was good to do, as it leads to the DS al Coda, where we go back to page 5, sing it twice again, and then in the middle of page 6 we skip to page 8, the Coda/ end. We had a good amount of practice turning pages. 

5. Shenandoah: We reviewed the oohs at the beginning (bounce a little on the beginnings of notes so that we feel how the beats move around the sections) and got to the top of page 6! We're almost done with this one too. Recordings on the website will be useful if you missed tonight's rehearsal. 

6. Hallelujah: It was awesome, as always. Soloists were Stanley and Melodie. Think about whether you'd like to have one of these solos. I haven't decided yet. 

We talked about not wanting to sing "Great Wayne Gretzky". I have a solution. We will skip that whole extra section, which happens twice. The original starts with "Hello out there" and that's where we'll start too. You'll see. It will be fun and we'll avoid any political stuff. 

Next week, Tuesday, March 4th. (What?!!! March already?)

6:30 Anthem Small Group 

• All The Little Rivers
• Blue Skies
• Hockey Song
• Monday, Monday
• On Eagles Wings
• Shenandoah

News Article

YRCC 2025 FEBRUARY 25th: We're on tonight!

 Looking forward to singing tonight. 

6:30 Anthem Small Group

7:30 Rehearsal Start

Another Cancellation- Tuesday, February 18th

 

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review February 11th

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

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review February 4th

 My birthday was yesterday, and it was wonderful. The joy started the evening before, Feb. 4th, at choir. My beautiful choir sang Happy Birthday, and it is a little thing but it felt really special. Also, the awesome way you sang You'll Never Walk Alone was so powerful, I was high for hours. I love my choir!

The small group singing Together Wherever We Go met at 6:30, and they were amazing! We created a little choreography for it, and it's sweet!

We had a brief warm-up and then sang O Canada. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. We love being Canadian and we are singing quite a few Canadian songs, as we always do. We represent our community, York Region; something I am always mindful of.We added our national anthem to our binders because we need to sing it more often.

1. All the Little Rivers of Canada is one of our obviously Canadian songs. It's pretty hard but we're making good progress. We learned sections, A, B, and C. So now we can sing the whole thing except for section E, which is a cappella, and a little bit of F where it's special. If you feel like you want to work on this song, we have recordings on the website. Please make good use of them. Make sure you're accenting the word HEY, and then ride and rapids in C/F. It's very effective. Be very dramatic with the dynamics in G/E, the chorus which we learned last week. Coppermine Winnipeg Porcupine is very loud and then suddenly you're very soft for Saskatchewan Columbia. It should feel to the audience that they're riding waves up, up, up and then whoosh! down, then up, up, up agian. 

2. Canon of Joy is not difficult. The challenge for me is getting the right tempo that's not too slow for the Canon and not to fast for the Ode to Joy. The challenge for you is turning the pages (repeat page 5, then DS al Coda and repeat page 5 again, skip to page 8 for the Coda/ending), and not getting bored with your Canon notes. If you get bored, you'll sound sloppy and the opposite of joyful. Try to put some emphasis on beat one every time, so you kind of bounce on the J of joy. We spent some time on page 7 where everyone has the Beethoven. 

3. Song for the Mira is more Canadian content. We will have up to 6 soloists. We're going to omit the oohs, even though they're pretty. We're going to have a flautist play with us, because it's sooo prettty and it will add an element of surprise for the audience, a lovely special sound. We didn't start learning the song, but just looked at what to expect. There is one chorus and one verse in 4 parts, and the rest is solos. However, we might add some choir bits. If you want to get a head start learning this, you can use the recordings on the website. 

4. Hockey Song is soooo Canadian, and our audience will love it. We learned parts, but don't stress over it. (If you must stress, there are recordings of all the parts on the website that you can study) The chorus is so powerful that the rest is more about the words. We'll make sure that the audience hears those names and we'll try to enunciate well throughout. Remember to watch in between the sections for entries. Sometimes, you'll need to wait a little longer. You'll see on page 4, there's a note for the accompanist "vamp if necessary".  I found this definition: "A vamp is a section of music that is repeated several times while dialogue or onstage action occurs. It is usually directed by the conductor's cue." Theatre. You hear choral vamps a lot in gospel music, where the worship leader/soloist tells a story while the choir repeats a short phrase, and sometimes a bridge in a song is a vamp of a phrase, sometimes sung in changing keys that lead to the final chorus or a coda. I love vamps. You'll sometimes hear me saying, "We'll repeat that as often as it feels good; just watch."

5. You'll Never Walk Alone was fantastic! It's one of our most powerful songs. We could perform it today, it's so good. If you haven't sung it with us before, you might want to listen to the recordings on the website. 

We talked about Bill's funeral. We have a tentative date of May 4th, the Sunday after our concert. We are going to sing You Raise Me Up and Anthem, from Chess. There is a sign-up in Events for the Small Group Anthem.

Next week, Tuesday, February 11th

6:30 Alto Sectional: your chance to do extra review of your parts by yourselves

• Blue Skies
• Imagine
• On Eagles Wings
• Shenandoah
• Song for the Mira
• We Rise Again