At last it seems that we will be allowed to resume singing, indoors at our regular venues in September. We have to wait until the Performing Arts guidance from the DCMS is published to see whether there is a “sting in the tail” but I think we will be fine.
A massive vote of thanks is due to Cathy and John Charles-Jones for gifting us the use of Woodborough Park to enable us to to meet and sing together through this difficult time. Thanks to all of you for your cheery tolerance of the unique circumstances of the past year and a half.
There are two more Fridays left of the current session. Friday, 16th July will be a Singers Request evening in which you will chose the pieces from the current repertoire that we sing. You can either tell me in advance or wait until the spur of the moment. Those of you not able to be there can chose as well – just send me a message. It will be recorded and sent out as a sort of informal concert.
All things being equal the first rehearsal of next season will be on 10th September; the venue will be confirmed nearer the time. The plan is to rotate between the Carnarvon Rooms, Burton Joyce and The Institute, Woodborough (as before).
Last week’s rehearsal was very successful. It was pleasing to have such a good turnout – very good to see Jane. Once again I positioned the camera in an inappropriate place – it was too close to John H and Ellie. The video is worth watching, especially for the pronunciation of the Abenlied text.
Here are some notes:
| Nada te turbe | Nicely together but lost pitch. Make sure ascending intervals go far enough and descending ones don’t go too far. Keep the air flowing. |
| Ave verum | Bars 13/14 still need keeping together. Worked on crescendo and diminuendo at same rate. Esto nobis very good ensemble. |
| Abendlied | Went over pronunciation. Pitch held better in this. Work on unifying vowel sounds. |
| Hosanna to the Son of David | One or two timing problems initially – keep quavers steady. There was a tendency to oversing at times. Much improved on last time. |
| Harvest Moon | A satisfactory first go. |
| The Rose | Good on the whole; just needs a bit of tidying up on the key changes. Very good soprano blend in first verse. Words need to be clearer. |
| Goin’ Home | Sing through to finish. |
I’m afraid that the video of 25th June managed to record in very slow motion so is useless, sorry. I’ll just about get the hang of it by next week. I’ve found the rehearsal videos very useful so will keep doing them from September; perhaps not every week but regularly.
