Well, we are not sure if the last minute arrival of a quartet of simpering sopranos was due to the excessive traffic between Beverley and Hutton, or more to do with the presence of a lorry load of strapping firemen in the SRA car park. I’ll let you decide. But what a welcome sight they were ( the sopranos that is, not the firemen, unless of course you were one of the aforementioned ladies….).
Anyway, the evening started with what must surely go down as probably the best warm up the choir has ever seen, made all the more entertaining by our venerable MD singing with the basses. ‘This Old Man’ was a musical masterpiece. a triumph of timing, harmony and vocal prowess. In fact, it was so good that next week, we are going to go all the way up to 10 and then back down in reverse in a soaring 4 part harmony………..maybe.
So on to the main event. In case you hadn’t heard, Christmas is coming, which means a dusting down of some of our favourite carols. AOTH was complicated somewhat by a certain member of the bass section, who shall remain nameless, trying to explain how we sang it last year, but not quite getting it right (surprise, surprise!). Eventually, we just had a go and perhaps somewhat mystifyingly, it actually sounded alright, thanks to some well placed ‘oohings’ from the sopranos. We just have to remember that after we ‘gotta go down, down, down’, we don’t, as the next line is all on the same note (‘before the Child who wears a crown’). So, no change for the basses who are past masters of the one note lines.
AC is a more complicated affair altogether, with some pretty tricky timings and parts, but after a couple of attempts, it really was starting to come together. A little more work required, methinks, but we are definitely getting there. I think we should be able to get to the end of it next week and then it’s a case of polishing it up to performance standard. Easy.
Christmas was then left behind as we tackled some of our base repertoire numbers, although some of which will feature in our Festive performances. Always a crowd pleaser, Anthem was sung with its usual gusto and brought smiles to many a face, with the odd grimace thrown in here and there! TYFTM is just about there. A touch more confidence required, but all in all some, lovely harmonies.
WWIDWMM made a bit of a stuttering start, but once we got into the swing of things, there were, again, some beautiful sounds ringing round the room.
SSS rounded off the evening. We just need to hold the glissando for 4 bars and then count another 4 before we start sing, sing, singing again. Nevertheless, a rollicking way to end the rehearsal.
Thanks once again to Mathew for his dexterous fingers and joyful accompanying.
It was good to stay behind for a little while and have a chat. We will make sure we leave some chairs and tables out next week so that we can converse in a bit more comfort.
Thanks to everyone for making the effort to come along, even if it was only to see the firemen. Might see if we can book them again next week…….
In harmony
Haz
Opmerkingen