Good afternoon everyone! Huge apologies for the delay – a busy weekend with an enormous concert that rather took it out of me. Time to focus on what’s next, so thanks for your patience in receiving these notes.
What we did on Wednesday 9th November
A good start, re-looking at Past three a clock, and becoming more familiar with reading words separately to the notes (we did this by doing the notes to “ding” a few times, including without the music, before adding words back to them) – something you can practice at home.
Then we split off into sectionals, working firstly on the Credo. S/A we did really good work on picking up the different tunes, and T/B also did good work with Rowena to page 20. After the break we did some of the Fantasia; S/A we spent some quality time lining up the beginning and ensuring that was all in a secure place, and T/B worked on both the beginning and from letter Aa to around Ee.
Finally, we came back together to do the Kyrie, and put some time into assuring the changes between the 6/8 and the 4/4 patterns were clear.
One thing that both Rowena and I noticed during these sectionals is the number of people who didn’t have the markings in the score. It makes SUCH a difference when everyone has them in, as we don’t need to stop to correct breaths, consonants or pronunciations (etc.), instead everyone can just do them as expected. Please take the time to put the markings in.
What we will do on Wednesday 16th November
We’ll work backwards through the Fantasia to start, this week, beginning at letter Aa. Then we’ll go from letter R, then letter H, and finally we’ll put the start of the piece together, continuing our work from last week.
After the break we’ll sing through the start of the Credo, and if there’s time work on the ending.
Marked Scores
As always, the marked score – it’ll be up on every post, it’s that important! Make sure you’re not the person who breathes (or puts a consonant) in the wrong place!
Playlist for Christmas
The Spotify playlist is designed to help you become more familiar with the programme, and to help you learn the music over the term. You can listen to it HERE.
If you’re new to Spotify, you can sign up really easily for a FREE(!) account, and listen to the playlist.
Learning Resources
As well as the Spotify Playlist above, there are a couple of helpful learning resources for our two main works in the programme:
John Fletcher Music – A Christmas Mass
This is a paid-for site, but certainly a useful one, and one of the only places you can find rehearsal tracks for the Corp. Worth investing in if you know you might need the help with note-learning outside of rehearsals.
Choralia – Fantasia on Christmas Carols
It’s very, very rough and ready, but it might help in learning the notes... take it with a pinch of salt...
RFMS Archives – Music from 100 Carols for Choirs
Susannah very kindly shared with me this website which has all of the guide tracks on for everything in 100 Carols for Choirs! Again, rough and ready, but hopefully it’ll help with the learning of notes!
Poster
As you’ll have seen last week, we have posters and fliers available! Take these and disperse them everywhere! Also, share the one below on social media and online.
Charlotte has also set up the Facebook event, so share that too if you’re on Facebook.
Wednesday 23rd November
Just a reminder that next week (23rd November) is our AGM, so we’ll work efficiently with our rehearsal in order to start the AGM on time.
Other Forthcoming Events
As we get closer to the concert season, I’ll be sharing posters and information about forthcoming events. If you’d like me to put anything up here, please do send something over via email, or give me a poster at the rehearsals. I’ll be sharing them in chronological order, as to not overwhelm you all!
One this week:
This Week’s listening
I’d like to share a piece I’ve been listening to a lot this week in this time of Remembrance – Duruflé’s stunning Requiem. Written in 1947, the thematic material is mostly taken from the Mass for the Dead in Gregorian chant. Similarly to Fauré’s Requiem, Duruflé omits certain parts of the traditional requiem text, such as the Dies Irae (but includes the Pie Jesu), but also includes the Libera Me and In Paradisum from the burial service.
It’s an incredibly beautiful and exciting piece, so worth listening to HERE.
See you on Wednesday 16th.
– Ben