Hello everyone! Thanks for a great first few weeks to the term, we've seen all of the music and have started some excellent work on some of it. Apologies for missing last week's notes, it completely slipped my mind! Now we've seen it all, the marked score is below, so thank you for working hard at home to put all the markings in. Have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend!
What we did on Tuesday 25th April
We continued to look through the rest of the programme, beginning with Rutter's Birthday Madrigals (movements 3, 4 & 5), and then we sang through Tea for Two, Deep Purple, Blue Moon, Begin the Beguine, Night and Day, and 'S Wonderful, all from the 'Pink Book'. We did little spot checks on certain bits from these, particularly when it comes to the rhythms; dare I say that's going to be our biggest challenge this term... jazzy rhythms!
What we did on Tuesday 2nd May
We started with the Kyrie of the Chilcott, looking at the harmony of the ATB chords, and the melody in the Sops (please make sure you've got bar 12 corrected to a B as the first note, Sops). Great counter-melody Soprano 2s, on page 9! We also checked notes, and harmonic clashes, on page 12, so please make sure you feel confident with those.
After this we started work on the Gloria, focusing especially on the rhythms. Please keep making sure you're happy with page 13 to page 14 - listen to it a few times to solidify what he does with the harmony. We finished at bar 85.
After the break we looked at Ain't misbehavin', again, thinking mainly about rhythms! The triplets are incredibly laid back, and everything has a lovely swing to it. We did the most work on bars 37-45, particularly on those syncopated 'stabs' on page 5 - think about the strong down-beat (bap-BAP) and then take the down-beat out.
Then we made some really solid progress on Autumn Leaves, really getting into the new texture and atmosphere; keep the text rolling forwards at the beginning, and make sure we're thinking about ensemble with the homophonic texture. The blend at the 'main melody' is gorgeous. S/A - a gentle "oo" on page 15 please. Keep everything supported and nicely joined up on page 18; it's all down to the support and the preparation of the breath. We'll work on bar 51 onwards soon.
Finally, we finished with Over the rainbow, working on the opening section: the warm hug from ATB, the blend of the chords as the music progresses, the soprano melody (please make sure you know those notes in bars 16 and 18!), and the direction towards that pause. Excellent rehearsal.
What we'll do on Tuesday 9th May
The rest of the Gloria, from bar 87, so please refresh this and listen forwards, and then we'll do the Sanctus. I'd then like to recap 3. Come live with me from the Birthday Madrigals, before working on the rest of Somewhere over the rainbow, In the mood, and Blue Moon, if we have time.
Spotify Playlist:
The Spotify Link only includes the Chilcott and the Rutter.
Music from 'The Pink Book' will be shared via email as a private link.
Marked Scores:
Please start putting these all into your copies. It takes me hours to decide what we should do, and then marking all parts - you only need to copy in yours, so maybe do it while you watch the Coronation!
See you on Tuesday 9th!
- Ben