Hello everyone, I hope you’re all well and have had a good start to the week. A little bit of info for you all, as well as feedback from our run. Thanks for reading.
What We Did – Wednesday 28th February
- We started by refreshing the ending of the Kyrie, with its changes in time, and scrunchy chords at the end. Worth doing.
- Then we ran the Mass in Blue:
- The Kyrie started off well, we just need to work on confidence of entries, especially at figure 4 in SAT. Last bar of page 8 needs more confidence too, but the sound was good when going. Please note the text at the top of page 16... last time I’ll ask for this. The ending was good as it was fresh in our minds.
- The Gloria started off well once we’d found the tempo. Rhythms were excellent throughout, well done! A little more confidence needed with some notes, so we’ll go through those in sectionals. The 5/8 section was brilliant! The ending needs a lot of work, as it’s been a few weeks since we last did it.
- The start of the Credo was great – full of energy, dynamics were perfect, and it had a great vibe. We still need to work on the timings on page 36. Be ready for all entries from figure 40 – text here is really important. We’ll work on the changes of pages 43 – 48 – these are tricky!
- The Sanctus was, on the whole, very beautiful. Some lovely long lines through here helped, we just need, again, confidence in starting the entries. We’ll clarify a few moments in here, such as the basses being higher than the tenors bottom of page 52.
- The Benedictus was fab! A few minor tweaks and this will be great for the Festival and the concert. I loved the energy it had, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. We’ll do a tiny bit of work on the entries at the end from page 64 onwards.
- Finally, the Agnus Dei had some lovely moments in it, but we need to ensure the musical lines are confident and flowing. We’ll do a lot of work on this in the next few weeks. Similarly, the ending is something we all know (it’s almost identical to the Credo), but we need the confidence to sing it.
- After this we did a tiny bit of work on the Benedictus and Who is Sylvia for the Festival.
Thank you all for your post-it notes with sections you’d like to work on – I’ll be incorporating these into the rehearsals.
Thank you also for the questions about your Cotswold Youth Choir. There’s such enthusiasm for this, and we look forward to keeping you all updated.
To catch up: If you missed this rehearsal, please sing through the whole of the Mass in Blue at home, to get a feel for going through it from start to end.
What We’ll Do – Wednesday 6th March
- We’ll start with some spot checks of the Benedictus for the Festival.
- Then we’ll do some blending work on Who is Sylvia, also for the Festival.
- After this we’ll spit into sectionals to go through the ending of the Gloria (pages 24 onwards) and work on the Agnus Dei (start, and ending). S/A will be with me, T/B will be with Ro.
- At the end of the rehearsal, about 21:10, I’ll ask all those not singing in the Festival to leave, so we can get used to the smaller sized group who are singing on Saturday. We’ll run Who is Sylvia and the Benedictus.
Chipping Norton Music Festival
Here’s all the information you’ll need:
- It’s in the Chipping Norton Town Hall.
- Our set begins at 12:30. Please be there by 12:20, so we can get seated. We’re last on, and then there will be the feedback session.
- The music we’re singing is Who is Sylvia and the Benedictus. You won’t need a folder.
- The dress code is all black with a splash of colour – something like a scarf, tie, or earrings, for example.
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.
Forthcoming Events
There’s loads going in in the Chipping Norton Music Festival over the next couple of weeks; too many to list, in fact. But, here are some highlights!
I’m sure you’ll see familiar faces at Folk night! Then, our friends at The Adderbury Ensemble have a couple of concerts. And, you can go and hear some of our very own members singing in the NC3 concert on Saturday 16th March. Plenty to get stuck into, so do check out the Festival website HERE.
This Week’s Listening...
A few people have said how much you enjoyed the Bobby McFerrin video from last week, so here’s another... It’s an incredible video of him singing Bach’s famous Prelude in C major. It also features the Gounod Ave Maria sung over the top by the audience... how on earth he does it all I have no idea! It’s well worth the listen HERE.
See you all on Wednesday.
–Ben