Wooo Hooo! We sounded fantastic. We are ready for next week's performance.
The small group at 6:30 was Mary Did You Know/Breath of Heaven. It was excellent, but we're going to work on that arrangement to make it a little easier, maybe a little lower for the sopranos, or maybe add a second soprano part on the Mary ending especially. This group will meet next week at 6:15/6:30 at St. Elizabeth Seton before we all start at 7:00.
We warmed up with O Canada. We've been asked to start with this, but we should have known that on Remembrance Day we would sing this. If you don't know the parts for our version, don't stress it, just sing the melody with the sopranos and the audience. If you do remember your part, sing it out nice and loud. Remember: "true patriot love in all of us command." We'll have the words projected.
1. Peace on This Silent Night: excellent. Soloists sounded great. Don't come in too loud right after the solos. Watch for dynamics, when to sing louder and softer. It's mostly as written, but you know me: I sometimes feel a different vibe.
2. Song for a Winter's Night: so beautiful! We went over the soprano and alto oohs and aahs. Remember to switch to aah at bar 37. Something we spent time on was making sure the oohs and aahs started on the first beat of the bar when the melody doesn't. For tenor/bass, the most important one is on page 5 at bar 72. For sopranos/altos, page 6, bar 29 and page 8, bar 41. I want that moment in each verse to be clear when we sing "Ahhh, I would be happy just to hold the hand I love". On page 11, when we're winding down to the end, that line is in harmony, and is followed by a very cool "on this winter's night with you". We spent some time on that line, especially for the tenor/bass part, but also the soprano/altos part has to be unfinished, going up on the you instead of down. All sopranos can sing that last line at 65, but please do not slow down. It's not the ending yet. We have to come in with our oohs at the end. The altos have the best part there, as they sing the theme that Donna keeps playing before we start singing. Just a note about page 9. It starts off choppy, in contrast to the other verses, but just observe those rests, don't make it staccato. Enunciate, but stay legato and pretty.
3. For Unto Us: We didn't go over any parts, just sang it through and we did it. We got all the way to the end together, and it was really very good. It's a little messy, but that's to be expected. If you have some time, go over your part with a recording. There are links on the website, but you can find some on YouTube very easily. We will invite the audience to help us with this. It will be fun.
4. Angels Among Us: We had a fun segue to this from For Unto Us: We all noted with appreciation that Donna has the most work on For Unto Us a Child is Born, and is so impressive, and we're all grateful for her. She certainly is an angel among us. She's not just a talented and hard-working pianist, but also an exemplary human being, a blessing indeed. Angels Among us is excellent. The soloists are awesome. We heard the back-ups, and appreciated the work the main soloists have done to learn their parts. Ellie has a great voice, which we hadn't heard on its own before, and we know that Cathy has a pretty voice, but it's a difficult song. Kudos to them for trying it. The rest of us are superb as well, but we still have people coming in early on "sent down to us" and it's awful because its like a tire is losing its air or snakes are hissing. If you mess up regularly, maybe just wait for the word 'down'? My baton goes up to beat 4 and then down to beat 1 and you don't come in until beat 2, when the baton points to my left, your right. Get right off of "among us" so that you are observing those two rests.
5. Let There Be Peace: Excellent. I think I'm going to slow it down a bit, for some extra drama. Please make sure you're holding your notes for the full value. If you don't see a rest, there's no rest, and you have to hold the note until the next note.There are a lot of breath marks ' like that. You don't get a rest, but you can take a short breath.
6. O Holy Night: Awesome! They're going to love it. Just please come in strong on page 9, at bar 90. It's really important, the line that I believe is most powerful and represents our theme, my message, and we're all singing in 3 part harmony, so special. "His law is LOVE and his gospel is PEACE." I've decided that it's too hard logistically to get the soloists back for that last part, "Sweet hymns of joy..." so the sopranos will sing it. Altos, some will sing the soprano notes and some will sing the alto notes. It's not difficult.
We had pretty glossy posters for people to post if they have a spot. We had tickets to purchase. If you're paying by cash or cheque, please see Robyn. If you're paying by credit card, see Lauren.
Next week, Remembrance Day, Tuesday, November 11th we're at St. Elizabeth Seton on Leslie St in Newmarket for our rehearsal and a performance for the CWG, Catholic Women's Guild.
6:30 (arrive 6:15) Small Group Mary/Breath
7:00 (arr 6:45) Everbody: Rehearsal:
- Do you Hear What I Hear?
- Various Themes on Fa-la-la
8:00 (arr 7:45) Performance (remember to wear black and white and your scarf and a POPPY)
1. O Canada (with audience, standing if able)
2. Let There Be Peace on Earth
3. Dona Nobis Pacem (small group with audience participation)
4. Angels Among Us
5. Song for a Winters Night
6. Peace on This Silent Night
7. When Johnny Comes Marching Home (with audience)
8. Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree (with audience)
9. I’ll Be Seeing You (with audience)
10. We’ll Meet Again (with audience)
11. For Unto Us a Child is Born (with audience support)
12. O Holy Night
13. Why We Sing
The sing-along words will be projected, but there is a PowerPoint presentation you can download if you like.
