Rudsamblog

We had an almost full turn-out! However, Derrick couldn't be with us,
which made us think seriously about how we are going to manage through
the next few months. We had a brief discussion before we started
singing, and decided -

* We'll get the rehearsal notes system going again. For each rehearsal,
we'll need a volunteer to take notes and circulate them. Technical
details at the end of this e-mail.

* We need to choose some more repertoire to fill out our scheduled
concerts. Susan has already sent an e-mail about this.

Then we got down to singing.

1. Non nobis, Domine (Rosephanye Powell, pronounced ro-SEH-fuh-nee
according to Wikipedia). This is new to us. If you weren't there, you
can get a copy from Susan at our next rehearsal. We spent a while on
this, sight-reading and notebashing, and we got reasonably familiar with
it. Challenges: speed; rhythm; repeats; key changes; dynamics.

* It needs to go pretty fast, with a forceful pulse. In those few places
where we get a held note or a rest, there's a risk of dragging (while
the other parts crack on) or losing count and missing the next entry.

* It's all written in 3/4, but the tenors and basses spend most of their
time singing what are effectively alternate 6/8 and 3/4 bars. At full
speed, this can simplify itself into something that sounds very snappy,
and may for all I know be more stylish than what's actually written. The
important thing is to keep the pace steady for the sake of the Sops and
Altos.

* Repeats: bars 17-24; 25-56; 101-108. We need to be ready for these!

* Keys: G min, G maj at bar 59, A maj at 71, A min at 85. These are the
places where you need some way to find your note!

* Dynamics: what can I say?

2. Se del tuo corpo hoggi la stampa horrenda. We spent some time making
false starts, failing to agree on speed or even whether we were counting
2 or 4 in the bar. However, once we got it going, we managed to run it
from beginning to end. If we lost our place now and then, we managed to
recover it quite quickly. This needs a lot more work, but it isn't going
to present big problems.

3. Envoi. This was a run-through, to keep it  in recent memory. It held
together pretty well, but too often one part or another will slow down
or speed up and lose contact with the rest of us. It's encouraging that
we can get back together, but this isn't fit for performance yet!

4. Im Wald. A run-through. It's beginning to sound good, and it'll sound
better in a bigger space.

5. Nacht liegt auf den fremden Wegen. A run-through, because we haven't
visited this for a while. In particular, we sang the words of the second
verse, which felt like a new experience.

6. Through the house give glimmering light. Sops and Altos only. All I
can say is that it sounds good.

Then we celebrated Claire's birthday.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

How the rehearsal notes work:

Each week, somebody volunteers to take and distribute notes.

After the rehearsal, they type up the notes as an e-mail. All plain
text. No fancy formatting. No MS Word documents, PDF, attachments, HTML
or other tricky stuff.

They send the e-mail to rehearsalnotes@rudsambee.org.uk

We all (including Derrick) get the e-mail.

It's also copied into Rudsambee's private blog at
https://rudsamblog.blogspot.com/

If you follow that link, you can see all the rehearsal notes back to,
well, a LONG time ago. If you miss a rehearsal and you want to catch up,
that's the place to look.