A choir is a team, a wonderful, excellent team. Melinda was away, so Lorraine carted the equipment around, and, as always, people helped to carry in and carry out all the stuff and helped to plug in and unplug things too. Donna was sick, so Tabatha stepped in. We helped each other learn our parts. We had lots of lively conversation. We had a two-hour break from the worries of the world. We are so lucky to have our choir!
6:30 The Anthem small group met and did very well. It's a beautiful song and a lovely arrangement.
We did a brief physical warm-up, just to get the kinks out and to release some tension.
1. Blue Skies is a fairly gentle warm-up, especially after practising finger snaps first. I surprised a couple soloists, and they were game. Let me know if you'd be interested in one of those scat solos. Remember, you're not snapping for great sound, you're snapping so that we all look synchronised. Your hand goes away from your body, where it can be seen.
2. O Canada/ The Hockey Song: The O Canada will be a surprise for the audience. The program will say Hockey Song, but we will start with O Canada, and I think it will be a cappella, like we sang at that hockey game. We will go straight into The Hockey Song but we'll skip that intro and start at C (Verse One). "Hello out there! We're on the air" We will also skip most of page 7. We go straight from "the good old hockey game" at the top of page 7 to page 8, at H with a big "Oh! The good..." Colby can whistle so loud! Wild.
3. All the Little Rivers of Canada: We learned the a cappella section on pages 5&6. Also, there's a "fancy ending" double forte "over this land so strong and free" at the top of page 7. Be careful and watch for the timing of that a cappella section. It's quite a bit slower, and dramatic. Very cool.
4. Monday, Monday: We did really well, many of us remembering how this goes. It's special because the altos get the melody most of the time, and it's special because Monday used to be our choir night. It was Mondays for a very long time. I loved Mondays when almost everyone dreaded them. We'll slow it down a bit so that you can all get those "every other day, every other day" parts. Hey, did you know we have recordings of this for practice on our website and on my YouTube Playlist? Here's the Soprano video.
5. Shenandoah: We got to the end! And it was excellent. I love our arrangement of this pretty song. I love endings with fermatas and caesuras. You have to watch me.
7. You Raise Me Up: This is a fan favourite. Everyone loves this song, and our arrangement is, again, outstanding. We changed it just a little bit, to make the last two repetitions of the chorus broader. On pages 6&7, we don't observe the rests after mountains and between 'up to'. On pages 4&5, mountains is short and up is short in 'up to walk' and 'up to more.' We observe those rests, as written.
It was fun to have Tab play with us, and she'll be playing You Raise Me Up and Anthem at Bill's Celebration of Life in May.
Next week: Tuesday, March 11, 2025
6:30 Anthem Small Group
- Imagine
- Song for the Mira
- We Rise Again
- Thanks for the Musical Music
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