Hello everyone! I hope you’re well and are having a good week so far? This term has been going excellently so far, I’m really pleased with how everyone’s tackling the music. I’m particularly proud to know of the little groups people are forming to catch up, note bash, and continue learning the piece. Thank you for all your hard work, this will be an incredible concert!
Meanwhile, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to provide things to assist you in your learning, so I hope everything below is helpful. Please do read these Notes carefully as there are lots of important things.
This term so far
We’ve done some really good work on the piece so far, both in tutti and sectional rehearsals. A huge thank you to Bernard who took the rehearsal on Wednesday 12th when I was away. We’ve been focussing a lot on the first movement, and spending some time in each rehearsal going through the Chorales. If you’ve missed any rehearsals, or would like to remind yourself of what we’ve been doing, please go back through Conductor’s Notes to see the monthly rehearsal schedules.
Rehearsal Schedule
February’s rehearsal schedule was sent out by Annabel at the start of the month, but it’s also below as a reminder.
I understand how helpful it is having the rehearsal schedules for the month – from my point of view though, our success in rehearsals can change things unexpectedly so it makes planning more than a months worth of rehearsals a little tricky. I will do my utmost to have a March rehearsal schedule out as soon as possible following the February rehearsals.
We have a friend of mine, Peter Gortner (director of music at Christuskirche, Karlsruhe) coming to give us some language coaching on Wednesday 5th March – we’ll certainly do movement 1, and then likely work on some Chorales.
The following week (Wednesday 12th March), as you’ll hopefully have seen, we’ll do a run of the piece.
CHECK OUT FEBRUARY’S REHEARSAL SCHEDULE BELOW!
New learning resources
In addition to the resources we’ve already provided, we’ve obtained some more learning resources to help with your practice of the piece. PLEASE USE THEM!
If anyone is struggling to use the resources, please don’t hesitate to ask for help – Nick, our treasurer, usually brings along his laptop to rehearsals in case anyone needs help accessing anything.
Pronunciation Tracks – This is a wonderful resource which slowly speaks through all of the movements we’re singing. I’d go as far as saying that this is the most useful resource we have. Listen to it and practice the pronunciation HERE.
CyberBass – Some people prefer to use this over John Fletcher Music and Choralia, so do check it out HERE.
PDF Guides – David in the basses has put together a wonderful pronunciation guide. He did this for the Brahms Requiem two years ago for some people and they found it really helpful, so please look at his guide below.
Other resources, along with the link to the Marked Score can be found pinned to the top of the ‘Conductor’s Notes’ page, and in previous Conductor’s Notes.
Chipping Norton Music Festival
As you know, we’re performing at the Chipping Norton Music Festival on Saturday 8th March.
Our confirmed time is 3:30pm, and we’re the last in the set! Please get there around 3:15pm so we can get seated.
We’ll be performing Movement 1 Herr, unser Herrscher from the St John Passion, and we’ll also be doing In a Dream Late as I Lay by Jan Wilke, which we did in the Christmas concert.
IF YOU’RE NOT SINGING IN THE FESTIVAL BUT DID SING AT CHRISTMAS, PLEASE CAN WE BORROW YOUR COPY OF IN A DREAM.
Owing to making full use of Peter Gortner visiting on the 5th March, we will be having two short rehearsals 15-minute after the main rehearsals on Wednesday 28th February and Wednesday 5th March to practice the Wilke and run the Bach. If you’re singing in the Festival, please stay for these.
If you’ve not sung in the Festival before, it’s a great opportunity to perform, and show off the choir to other ensembles. Please do join us for this so we can put on a good show.
The Cotswold Youth Choir will also be performing, at the ‘Youth Choirs’ slot in the morning. Please come along to support them at 10:30am too.
Check out all of the concerts in the Festival below, and head to the website for more information: https://www.cnmf.org.uk/
Other events
Its amazing to be part of a community where so much music is happening! We’ve got people involved in all of the below events, so please go and support these events.
That’s it for now, see you all on Wednesday 19th Feb!
– Ben