It was good to see some new faces again this week – welcome! We hope to have a new rehearsal venue very soon so look out for updates about this.  Please return any outstanding Christmas music as soon as possible.

We ‘warmed up’ with vocal and rhythm exercises as usual.  The focus of the rest of the rehearsal was on learning notes, rhythms and part singing by revisiting repertoire from September 2022. We looked at the following:

1. West Side Story
2. IV – Somewhere p53. We sang through the solo section on p 53 and the choir harmony section Bars 10 – 17 practising notes and rhythms.
3. Sing with a gentle mp style and a crescendo in bar 16. Note a quiet and late ‘s’ at the end of words eg u(s).
4. Look out for triplets and sing rhythmically eg Bar 14
5. Note the 3 part harmony from Bar 18. Observe the decrescendo to pp at Bar 24
6. Note the 3 part harmony at Bar 34 and the f and ff to finish
7. II- One Hand, One Heart p34. All men sing the baritone part throughout.
8. Note the pp gentle style (molto tranquillo!). Take breaths for good phrasing in Bar 59, Bar 61, Bar 63, Bar 65, Bar 77 and Bar 81 – not in other places.
9. Note dynamics, crescendo to Bar 62 and decrescendo to Bar 66
10. Note 3 part harmony from Bar 85 and changing dynamics to pp from Bar 90.

• The beat of a different drum
• Observe the handwritten instructions at the start of each line for which part sings which line 
• We practised the section starting at Bar 57, fitting the notes and rhythms together. Beware the page turn and sudden crotchet stop at Bar 92
• We sang the piece through to the end being careful to count accurately so the parts fit together neatly.
• Note from Bar 115 to Bar 129, the basses sing the tune and words whilst the sops, tenors and altos keep the ‘dum tikka’ rhythm going 

• Let love shine through
• See separate sheet emailed out by Mary for who is singing Melody/Backing (or Harmony ) 1/Backing (or Harmony) 2/Backing (or Harmony) 3. In Backing 1 and 3 there are upper and lower notes of the chords 
• At first time Bar 35, go back to top p2 Bar 8 for second verse
• First time at Bar 52, sing Harmony 1,2 3 lines through to Bar 59 below the Melody line
• At first time Bar 59, go back to Bar 52. Second time at Bar 52 sing Backing 1/2/3 below the Melody line
• We all practised the Bridge section from Bar 36 to Bar 52 – counting the rests carefully to get the rhythm accurate
• We sang through the piece fitting the parts together!  Mary asked that we started next week by sitting in the correct singing group places for this piece