Hello everyone, another great rehearsal on Wednesday! I hope, like me, you’re really beginning to feel it coming together. Quite a lot of stuff below, so please do give it all a good read through over the weekend.
What We Did – Wednesday 21st February
- We started by refreshing the themes of the Credo, including the very opening (keeping it energetic and moving forwards), then the main theme (also solidifying the notes in the chords), and finally the fast section in the middle (making sure we got all the text in and it’s really accurate).
- Then we sang through the Sanctus (a lot remembered from last week, well done), as well as the Benedictus. This was full of energy and a really exciting sing!
- After the break we split into sectionals to go through moments in the Gloria, as well as Hey, ho, the wind and the rain. Good work here, firming up notes, rhythms, and tuning in chords. T/B did well with the Shearing, we just need to prepare for each verse by looking ahead.
- Finally, we came together to sing Live with me and be my love and Hey, ho. A good look at this, working on the odd chord and melodic line, and the energy of the songs.
To catch up: If you missed this rehearsal, please look through the Sanctus and Benedictus, go through moments in the Gloria you find tricky, and look at the 1st and 7th movements of the Shearing.
What We’ll Do – Wednesday 28th February
- This week we’ll be running the Todd. We’ll begin with a small refresher of the Kyrie, and then run the Todd.
- After the break, we’ll look at the Benedictus and Who is Sylvia.
I’m going to bring along some post-it notes – after the run, I’ll have a clear idea of what we still need to work on, but I’d also like to hear from you if there are any bits you’re really stuck on. Please do let me know on these post-its!
Tomorrow, it’s exactly a month to go until the concert – keep working hard at home, it’s really coming together and will be a very exciting concert!
Cotswold Youth Choir Q&A
For the last 15 minutes of the rehearsal on the 28th Feb, we’ll be having a Q&A about the Youth Choir project. A number of people have asked me and Annabel for an update and to answer your questions, so we thought this would be useful. It is OUR youth choir, and we want you all to be involved and proud of it, so if you have any questions, queries, or concerns, let’s have a chat next week.
Chipping Norton Music Festival
Just to confirm, we’ll be singing Who is Sylvia and the Benedictus (in that order) in the Festival this year. We’re singing on Saturday 9th March, and we’re the last on in the Senior Choirs slot at 12:30, so please turn up by 12:20 so we can all get seated for the warm up.
For those who haven’t done it before, it’s in the Town Hall and is a really great occasion to perform and get feedback which we can apply to our concert! Please let Mark know when you sign in next week if you can make it so we can ensure we know final numbers.
Poster and Tickets
The tickets are now live on the website, so get sharing with family, friends, and all your contacts! Let’s get a good audience for this one! Check out tickets HERE.
The poster is also available, so share that digitally too, and physical copies should be with us for next week’s rehearsal!
Todd Learning Guides
OUP have published free learning guides for the Todd! Please do use them! You can also find it on our good friend Choralia.
Fiddle Fingers
This weekend, Bec and I are heading up to Ripon to take part in the Fiddle Fingers Musicathon. Fiddle Fingers is a youth string group set up by Bec’s mum 25 years ago, and to celebrate this occasion, we’re playing music continuously for 25 hours! They started at midday today, and will continue until 1pm tomorrow (we’ve got the nightshift while the kids sleep... yay!) This is all to raise money for 2 fantastic charities: Cancer Research UK and Ehlers-Danlos Support UK.
If you want to support this Musicathon, please consider donating via the link HERE.
Forthcoming Events
A few events to share this week. Next week I’ll be sharing a load of events in the Festival, so if you’d like to check any of them out now, they’re up on the Festival website.
It’s not too late to catch Sounds Historical and their concerts The Bird Fancyer’s Delight. There are a couple more concerts you can make it to in time. Secondly, is the next CRAG concert. And finally, there’s the Joy of Singing workshops – those who went to one similar last year said it was great!
This Week’s Listening...
Another follow on from the Theory Workshop last weekend. We spoke about pentatonic scales (worth a read, if you’re interested), and Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the universality of the scale brilliantly. It’s well worth a watch HERE.
Have a great weekend and see you all on Wednesday.
–Ben