Rudsamblog

First of all, this is the order for the concert on Saturday:

• Bogoroditse Djevo (N.B. this is an addition - wasn't on either the original list or Ollie's email this morning)
• Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder
• Dormi Jesu
• Margot labourez les vignes (changes to how we're singing this described below)
• Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu
• Lulling
• If Ye Love Me
• Lullaby Carol
• Dindirin (old Spanish words)
• Sfogava Con Le Stelle
• Uśnijże mi, uśnij
• Thuma Mina/Akanamandla
• Jede Sedlák Do Mlejna
• Green Fir Forest
• En Une Seule Fleur
• *Encore*: La la la, je ne l'ose dire

Introductions - not yet assigned but if you've done a particular one before my guess is you'll be doing it again (so I get Dieu).

Now for this evening's notes. The small group had a good bash at "She moved through the fair" - sounding a lot better but we need more confidence.
Ollie then gave us a quick warm-up, inspired by Claire1's tale of the terrors of having to give a lecture to 55 postgraduates. (You had to be there. I am not going to write down what we sang in case this falls into the hands of one of the afore-mentioned PGs). We also sang an African round which we sort of remembered from a long time ago.

We then sang as much of Saturday's programme as we could manage.

Bogof
Fine - but Ollie wants more welly when the basses join in

Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder
Remember there's no breath after the first Dieu.
Bars 12-13 - the triplets should be little ornamentations so keep them light and hold back the volume a bit.

Dormi, Jesu
We need a bit more energy when Ollie says so, so watch him. The beginning was beautifully quiet but we need to warm up in bar 3. In general sing through the phrases and give them more shape. E.g. basses cresc from bar 22 - make sure you're going somewhere because you have to come back down by end of bar 29.

Margot
Oh dear. No amount of earworm installation on Margot's part seems to get this into our thick skulls.
*N.B. NEW INSTRUCTIONS for Saturday.*
Verse 1: Quartet 1 (Alison, Natalie, Robin and John) were good so they will continue to sing verse 1 as a quartet as rehearsed. Non-quartet people - remember you sing the repeat of line 1 (marked Tutti) and the last line of the verse - "Margot, labourez les vignes bientot".
The rest of us were rubbish so there won't be any further quartets. We will ALL sing the Soli sections according to our parts, as well as the Tutti bits.
This applies to all the remaining verses which we are singing, i.e. 3, 5, 7 and 8. We end with a final chorus.
Verse 7 is being sung very slowly and legato. We will start to slow down during the previous chorus so watch Ollie! The last note of the chorus (where there's a fermata marked) should be held on this time so that
there isn't a break before verse 7 starts. Otherwise the audience is going to think we've reached the end and might even clap. (Yes, it's possible ...)

If Ye Love Me
Not at all bad considering we haven't sung it for ages. The "a" in commandments should be "ah". "Sprit", not "Spirit".

Lullaby Carol
Start a big crescendo from bar 52 - we need to be mf by bar 55 so that the ff isn't too sudden.

African Set
No pauses or Rits. Every line is sung twice only.
We start Thuma Mina very softly but by the time we get get to Roma nna we should be very loud. Don't hang on to final note of Morena too long so that we can hear Claire1 coming in with the first Akanamandla. Sops - remember we all join in with the first Haleluya.

Green Fir Forest
Opening chords - entries must be clear and firm, even though they are mp. Apart from that we did OK.

Dindirin
This would originally have been sung with fewer voices - probably one to a part - so we need to keep it bouncy when there are a lot of us so that it doesn't get mushy.
Note that in the line that actually reads "Facteme aquesta embaxata" the important words are Facteme and embaxata and each syllable is to be pronounced. You have to leave the "a"s off aquesta (which is not so important) in order to fit the music. So the line effectively reads "Facteme quest embaxata".

No notices, but we gave Douglas his 60th birthday card a day early!
See you all at 6pm at Falkland Parish Church on Saturday.