Rudsamblog

Well if you didn't come you probably avoided germs from me, Helen and Douglas! Then again you probably had your own so didn't need any more! Anyway here's what we did or rather they did as I had no voice

1. Apple Tree Wassail

They tried it from memory, pretty well-remembered! Remember it begins with the men [and, when Jenny and Claire 2 -second altos - protested - also "manly women"!]

• S and A1 have a different end to each verse, i.e. bars 15/16, 31/32 and 53/54, although the word "apples" is ALWAYS two As despite all attempts to sing the phrase as though it's up a scale. Claire 2 was the honest one with "I've never sung THAT in all my life!" after Ollie played bars 53/54.
• S and A1 also look at bar 49, wassail is not what you expect.
• The men, having listened to the lovely women's parts then joined us but promptly completely forgot their notes!

MORAL of the evening -look at your part and bash it out on the keyboard if you can before next week.

2. Trees of the Field

I'm sure this WILL be beautiful, when we know it [we always say that, don't we!] So a good note-bash.

• Bar 5 = F# altos
• Bar 22 = C natural, altos
• Last bar, Arno and Robin sing the middle men's notes, the rest sing what you would normally [if you were singing the correct part, that is....!!]
• All need to look at bars 32 to the end, especially altos bar 34 F# and men from bar 36 on.

3. O Magnum Mysterium, Lauridsen

Jenny will sing Tenor 1 with Douglas for this and Rachael will join Claire 2 on A2.
We sang it through after which Ollie ominously asked "Has anyone not sung this before?" No-one admitted this, but he did ask us all to look at it before next week!.

** Page 6, bar 46, sung from the bottom note as follows - I hope!--:

• John and Seb on bottom D,
• Arno and Angus on A,
• Chris on F#,
• Douglas [and Jenny?] on Tenor 2 D,
• Claire 2 and Rachael on Tenor 1 E [with Rachael singing A2 from bar 45 to help the join],
• me and Natalie on alto line,
• sops split as normal.

Don't ask me what happens in bar 51, when we have 9 parts for one bar!!
Ollie was particularly impressed with John's lovely bottom............

Bar 40, more bass on "viscera"

All --breathe where marked [with small commas above your stave, which all parts need to mark as they are sometimes different for each part]

4. Runnnnn, toboggan, runnnn

Yes, lots of nnn on "run" but PLEASE no scooping up to "run" with rrrrun. Men should be quite heavy on their 3-part chords

"Normal people sing tops" [or was it bottom or middle? anyway Chris is normal apparently].
Seriously, men sing as follows:
Bottom = John, Seb and Angus
Middle = Robin and Arno
Top =Chris and Douglas

All -- remember the bright tone of Margot, support the sound well, and put energy into the notes not just noise, I'm sure you know what he means.
Sops, watch you sing the right words in bars 31/32, you have a different layout to the lower 3 parts for "jubilation" and "daring".
Altos watch tuning on the chromatic bits, bar 16 to 22 and same in other verses. Bar 19 seemed to be where you forgot to go up from C to C# on "So"

Again, no scoops or vague approximations to the notes! It needs drilling, or sing like Swingle singers or a synthesiser and sing the correct notes. Sounds like another bit of homework on the keyboard.

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Notices

1. Rachael's sent a separate note re Saturday's party.
2. Watch emails in case we're at Priestfield next Wednesday, I'm waiting to hear from the boss.
3. Tickets available now for Augustine Church Sat 12 Dec.
4. Flyers next week, ***AnnaLauren will come with note of where to take flyers/posters.
5. Susan won't do a mailing, just email advert.
6. We agreed to do tea/coffee and mince pies in the interval of 12 Dec concert, so we need lots of helpers, washing-up etc.

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See some of you on Saturday, with food, drink, wood, scary costume if you want.....

This was a note-bashing rehearsal. What we worked on is all in the printed music. Consequently there's very little to write down in these notes. We worked on

• Huron Carol
• The trees of the field
• Veni veni emmanuel
• She moved through the fair (small group)

We will also be doing the Apple tree wassail, so get that into your folders.

Warm-up: One shake, one LA.

Huron Carol

the melody has a tricky note: the last note of bar 12 is F natural, not F#.

For the altos, there's a hazard in bar 50: an A where the corresponding note in bars 14 and 32 was a B

on page 2,

• Jenny will join the tenors for verse 2
• we will sing "knelt" instead of "kneel", to get a rhyme with "pelt".
• end of bar 30 - no fermata - whereas we will linger over the same notes in bar 48
  

bars 30 and 48, where only tenors and basses are singing and there's a 6-way split: tenors will take the upper three notes, and basses will take the lower 3:

• Angus sings the G and F, Arno sings the C, Sebastian & John sing the low F.

The pace will slow at bar 49.

We will take a breath in the middle of bar 54 before the second in excelsis.

We will observe the dynamics and end ppp.

The trees of the field

We note-bashed this, and got no further than bar 11. I had enough of a struggle without trying to write notes as well. Private practice recommended.

Veni veni emmanuel

We sang through this several times, polishing up -

• notes (there are only a few tricky bits)
• pronunciation (see Claire's notes from last week)
• dynamics (as written)
• balance (e.g., to let Robin be heard)

After the fermata in bar 37, we will not take bar 38 as a full three beats of silence before the upbeat to bar 39. Watch Ollie.

Announcements

I didn't hear these, since I was making tea/coffee. With Anne being away, I thought there wouldn't be any. However, Jenny did do some organising of food for Rachael's Halloween party. I presume she'll post a separate e-mail about that.

P.S. Small group worked on She moved through the fair, paying particular attention to

• the note clusters BCDF#/CDEG in verses 1 and 2 at the start of the second and third lines of the words.
• Balance - to let the solo lines through.
• Dynamics - giving some swell and fade shape to the nah nah nah phrases
• Support - to maintain good tone in generally quiet singing
• and, for once, we can let a little air into the sound in the opening bars.

Arno warmed us up with an order to relax and then a song about an unpronouncable white-footed sheep.

Two new Christmas songs:

Veni, Veni Emmanuel
Don't sing too loudly at the beginning - we are all singing together in unison and it will come across as louder than it is - if you see what I mean.
Jenny will sing with tenors in high bits.
Tenors you have a tricky last bar on the first page - try to remember the F# from the bars before where you sing it a lot. And watch out for the D in this bar too. Then on the second page the first note of the 2nd stanza is the same as the last note of the bar before (bar 28). Does that make sense?
Bar 32 - less weight on the top notes here (Sop 1s!!!!) and come off the 'gaude's in quite a clipped fashion. Watch Ollie.
All - bar 51 - again, come off the 'Gaude's quite quickly - watch Ollie.
Page four, bar 44 soprano 2 will sing alto part, altos will sing Tenor 1 line (an octave down from what is written), tenors will sing
Tenor II. Claire 1 will sing Soprano 1.
Bar 47 - 'Dirasque' change the vowel sound of the 'dee' by bringing it forward and having a wide mouth. It should be mf.
Bar 59 Altos stop singing....this line is now a tenor solo (Robin) (lovely). I think this is where Jenny joins the girls again - she is not 'manny' enough apparently - which I daresay is a relief.
Bar 71 (page 6) sopranos only on top line. Altos don't sing again until up-beat into bar 78 then sing tenor 1 line again to end. This gets very low at the end - don't worry if you can't manage it, the tenors are singing the same notes here.
Top basses, watch out for your 'Dirasque' at the bottom of page 4 - it is tricky. I have no note of a solution for you. Sorry.
Tenors have the melody here so everyone else keep an ear out for balance - we need to be able to hear them.
Bars 49, 50, 51 (page 5) - try not to breathe between 'tenebras' and 'Gaude'. We need to build up to a good f here and keep the crescendo smooth.
Bar 55, altos and tenors - do not put the 's' on the end of the 'Is' and decrescendo on this last note so it fades away gently.
Page 7 - no scooping on the 'Gaude's. Keep well supported - it is supposed to be p but we don't want 'fluffy' singing.
Pronunciation - Eemaanooel, please, not Imanyooel and Is_rah_el (which sounds more like Isrye-el) not Isray-el. This is important as it is very obvious if the vowel sounds are different (and ugly). Not everyone gets it right so I think we should all really listen to ourselves - even if we think we are perfect - just to make sure.

Coventry Carol
Hardly anything to say here - we got along with it quite well.
I think the tenors have to watch out for F naturals and make sure they are very accurate - but which ones where, I can't say. Take note of them all, chaps.
The verses of this will probably be performed as trios with everyone singing the first and third pages.

Elaine said thank you for the Falkland concert which was very well received - and we said thank you to her for arranging it.
Anyone with travel expenses from the trip, please see Anne for reimbursement.
Concert promotion needs to be got underway. Chris is to produce flyers for early November and Douglas, tickets for the same time. The rest of us need to set about begging and bribing friends and relations to come listen!!!

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.

O QUAM

Oliie wants a catsbum sound - rounded , full and supported. We go flat quickly so stand up straight and give a supported, not lazy sound.

Sing Quocumque instead of Quocunque (and Quam as Kwam) [thanks, Anne], and vowels should be very open. [For the record, quocumque is classical Latin, but quocunque is common in later Latin, as in Quocunque Jeceris Stabit, the motto of the Isle of Man].

SFOGAVA

Not done this since St Giles but it sounded really good with lots of drama and contrast. Keep the notes staccato with no slurs - we sang an Icelandic round with and without slurring to illustrate this.

DORMI, JESU

Entries should be more definite as we sometimes forget the beginning of phrases.

At the beginning of page 4 the basses should try to keep the B natural in their head.

This piece is very nice if we all look up and can enjoy the quiet bits.

LULLABY CAROL

This has 3 tricky bits which you should pay attention to.

Bar 42, Bars 52-59 (chromatic bits), and Bar 60 for the sopranos (B).

This is sounding good. As someone seeing this score for the first time it is ALL tricky!

MARGOT

Practice your quartets/Duos for next week.

Here they are

1 Alison / Natalie / Robin / John
3 Claire1 / Anne / Chris / Arno
5 Elaine / Anne / Robin / Angus
7 Helen (+Susan??) / Claire2 / Douglas / Sebastian (slow verse)
8 AnnaLauren / Jenny / Chris / Arno

The verse starts with

• 3 1/2 bars of lower [solo] parts, then
• 3 bars ALL CHOIR, then
• 3 bars of quartet upper parts only, then
• 2 1/2 bars of top 3 quartet parts,
• then ALL CHOIR [except basses, who don't get to sing until the refrain comes round again].

So the Quartet never sing with all 4 parts together....