Hello everyone, I hope you’re well and have had a good start to the week. What a good term this has been – we’ve continued to develop brilliantly as a choir, and I look forward to our concert on Saturday 16th immensely! I’ve provided some notes on what to look at between now, the next rehearsal, and the concert, and there’s a lot of useful information below.
What we’ve done this term
I wanted to start by thanking Janet and Fiona for leading last week’s rehearsal. I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there, migraines are utterly debilitating sometimes, so thank you for your patience, and again to Janet and Fiona for being brilliant and stepping in at such short notice! I heard it went really well and good progress was made.
Over this term we’ve spent a lot of time securing notes in our pieces, particularly in the Songs of the Fleet, which are quite challenging. If you still don’t feel 100% confident with your notes, please do go through your parts with the Learning Resources below to help you.
On the whole, there’s been really good progress made on each piece, and I look forward to putting it all together on Saturday. There are just a few moments I’d like you to think about to support what we’ve done in rehearsals:
- Pages 7 & 8 of Bible Songs – this is one of the hardest counterpoint sections in the piece.
- Number 6 of Bible Songs – the most tender and beautiful movement, so make sure it’s gorgeous!
- The ending of Song of the Sou’wester, particularly after the key change end of page 13.
- All of movement 3, The Middle Watch, because, again, it’s so tender and beautiful, and needs lots of focus to help with the 6/4 time signature and exposed entries.
- Page 24 – the final entry in The Little Admiral – confidence with those entries.
- Beautiful singing in Fare Well this term! Just think about keeping the chords in tune, especially on page 27.
To Catch Up: If you missed any rehearsals, please go through the music and check which sections you personally need to work on between now and Saturday.
What we’ll do – Thursday 8th February
We’ll begin with numbers 2 and 3 of the Bible Songs, working on the tricky counterpoint sections and the rhythms. Then I’d like to top and tail movements 5, 4, and 3 of Songs of the Fleet.
Full Score
Fiona passed on some comments about some members wanting the full score with the piano part, which is absolutely fair. The full score costs more than 5x the price to hire of the choral parts, so this is why we made the decision to save you money. However, if you would like to use the full copy, with markings, either on an iPad/tablet or print it at home, please find the full score below.
Learning Resources
Your last chance to use the resources below!
The Spotify playlist HERE contains the whole programme. To get an idea of the music, this is your best place to start. Alternatively, feel free to search for the pieces on YouTube.
I’ve found two free sources for Learning Guides for Songs of the Fleet, so you can choose which ones will help you most in learning the music:
The first is HERE.
The second is HERE.
I also created some learning guides for the Bible Songs. I’ve had to remove all other parts from them, so it’s a little rudimentary, but hopefully it’ll help at home. You can find them HERE.
Concert Details
All the details for the concert are below. Any other questions please ask on Thursday.
Timings
Rehearsal: 14:00-17:00.
Concert: 19:30.
Rehearsal Schedule
13:45-14:00 – Choir arrive and get seated.
14:00-14:10 – Warm up.
14:10-14:50 – Bible Songs (choral hymns in order).
14:50-15:00 – Break.
15:00-16:00 – Songs of the Fleet (in order).
16:00-16:15 – Safety time.
16:15-17:00 – Choir depart, and soloists rehearse solo numbers of Bible Songs.
Concert
19:10 – Choir arrive and warm up.
19:25 – Ready to go on.
19:30 – Concert begins.
21:15 – Concert ends, buffet begins.
Running Order
Bible Songs
– Interval of 20 minutes –
Songs of the Fleet
Venue
Thursday 14th’s rehearsal is in St Andrew’s Church, as normal.
Saturday 16th’s concert is in St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Botley.
Concert Dress
Either all black (black shirt/blouse, trousers/dress, socks/tights, and shoes) or Dinner Jackets (black jacket and trousers, white shirt, black bowtie, black socks and shoes).
Additional People
I thought you might like to know about our soloists, accompanist and friends joining in advance of Saturday.
Our accompanist is Andrew Knowles of the Abingdon Piano School. He’ll play the organ for the Bible Songs, and the piano for the Songs of the Fleet.
Our soloists are Harriet Smith, Celia Butterfield, Ashley Turnell, and Robert Nicholas. Ashley hasn’t sung with us before, but the other three performed with us at Christmas.
We’ll be joined in the choir by at least two friends: Fiona will sing tenor, and I’ve asked a good friend of mine, Matthew Holmes, to come and support the basses too, to help bolster the lowest notes.
Summer Term
It’s been fun going through your suggestions and talking to a few people too, and I’ll share the spreadsheet when it’s complete. However, I’ve used your ideas to come up with a few programmes already, and I’ve already implemented your ideas into our Summer half-term, culminating in a Come-and-Sing on Saturday 18th May.
More details about this all will be shared next week, including the full list of music, but the programme will be choruses from the works of Gilbert and Sullivan! Perfect for a summer come-and-sing event!
That’s it for now! See you all on the 14th March – keep practicing!
Ben
Cumnor Choral Society 