Rudsamblog

Ollie handed out CDs of Mihi Autem Nimis which Chris has prepared - it has the whole piece and then the various parts. If you wanted one but didn't get one, please see Ollie or Chris.

Started off with Miks ei mulle tulnud.
There will be one 4/4 bar of drone at the beginning, before Susan comes in.
Pronunciation - Ollie has heard actual Estonians singing this and they do a very quick vowel change on the 'ai' of 'ai-li', so the long note should be more on the 'i' part of the diphthong, rather than on the 'a' sound as we've tended to sing, if that makes sense. Attack the sound!
Generally there should be a hard, attacking sound throughout; hard consonants apart from Gaelic 't'; please roll all 'r' s, even in middles of words e.g. 'pardsi'.
Soloists sing out! Accompanying parts don't drown them out, especially in Susan's verse, and sops remember in verse 7 it's the altos who have the tune so sops should take it down a notch (their words not mine).

Aurora rutilat
Bar 8 - this should be forte, and remember the 6/8 rhythm. Descant shouldn't be too loud here.
It's very difficult to keep pitch when singing in unison so watch the pitch during the plainchant! It's ok to break between Columba and venerabilis at end of plainchant, but NOT in the middle of the word venerabilis.
Bar 30 - legato sound is 'beautiful' but don't forget the dynamics!
Should be up to mf in bar 36 and f by bar 37.
Timing - watch Ollie! It's faster than before. Don't wait too long to come in at bar 22.

New song - Hide and Seek.
Copies (in various sizes of print!) available next week. This is A Popular Song!! It's a bit scary (even Ollie admitted he was a bit scared of it) so we just looked a bit at some of the rhythms, which are syncopated and quite tricky, to get a general feel for how it might sound eventually. Chris has found a recording of the song - see his email for link.
Where parts split, do same split as in 'Sleep'.

Vårvindar friska (Swedish)
New to most people. Note to 'oldies' - if you have a copy, it may not be the definitive version so there will be new copies for all (is that right, Susan?). We had a brief whizz through the pronunciation but didn't do it properly as not everyone had a copy to write it on, so there'll be another chance. Failing this, just sing the Ikea catalogue as it sounds pretty much the same! Seriously, if you want to hear how it sounds there is a recording of it on Citrus & Honey I think.
Went through it a couple of times. If you think you know it, you may well be in for a shock, as it's a surprisingly long time since we last did it, and it was a lot more complicated than I remembered! Watch bar 32 where sops & altos cross over (in fact the altos sing the sop tune two bars after them, for this line only). Breezy sound; intro bars (underneath parts) whispery; start p, then all up to mf in bar 13. Each bar should have a little crescendo through it (< >). Full dynamics next time when we've all got copies.

Once Through section

Dle dle
Very good - even the bass entry!! There was a slight hiatus at one point where the women waited one bar too long to come in, but we'd probably have got away with it in a concert, eh Ollie?

Island Spinning Song
With surprise solos!
Altos split in bar 3.

Sleep
All I've written down here is 'Very good'!!

VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE RE CZECH VISIT
Due to some mix-up their end, the Czechs will now be coming for THREE nights - Wed, Thurs & Fri, NOT Fri & Sat as planned. This means another night of accommodating and feeding them, on a weeknight, and we're not sure yet of the implications for the concert or the party at John & Susan's, as it's tricky for them to host an event like that on a work night. If the extra night is going to be a problem for anyone, please could you let Anne know IMMEDIATELY. Anne - as an aside to this, it occurred to me that when we all told you how many Czechs we could accommodate, many of us added the proviso that we could only take twos if they didn't mind sharing double beds. I just wondered whether you had checked (pardon the pun!) with them that this is ok? Chris seemed to think their choir was comprised of a large number of couples, but it might just be worth warning them that they might have to get up close & personal with other choir members, especially as it's for 3 nights now!

WHITHORN SEPTEMBER WEEKENDS
Just noticed somewhere that someone was supposed to get everyone's availability for these, but I'm afraid it got forgotten in view of discussion about the above. So, please could you also let Anne know which weekends you are/are not available in September to go to Whithorn - would be away overnight Saturday. (I would probably need to avoid the first weekend in Sept but otherwise we have no plans).

Nothing else to report. It wasn't even anyone's birthday! See you all next week,

Mirren