Mary is busy recruiting and auditioning choir members for solo parts. Please come forward if you have done this sort of thing before or want to try out solo singing for the first time. After warm up activities which, as Mary reminded us, usually includes exercises directly related to the music we are singing, we looked at the following pieces:

Speed your journey

• Write in the English words against your own part
• From beginning Bar 12, all voices sing in unison. Sing smoothly and sing p to end of p4
• Bar 24, crescendo to f on ‘Zion’ at A. No breath after ‘Zion’
• At B in harmony and sing ff and staccato. Back to pp in Bar 30
• Bar 36 sing mf and crescendo to f in Bar 40
• In Bar 40 sing pp and decrescendo further to the end. Do not sing staccato
• Be careful to keep ‘s’ and ‘ts’ sounds late, short & quiet at ends of words

Gypsy Rover

• Be careful to observe the changing dynamics throughout.
• From Bar 12, sops sing mp whilst other alto, tenor and bass sing mf or f
• From Bar 34 decrescendo from mp to p to pp and sing staccato

Love Call Me Home

• This was a new piece for some members of choir
• We learned the notes and rhythms for each of the 4 parts
• Note the rest at the end of Bar 12 – watch Mary
• In Bar 4 note tenors sing different rhythm – dotted crotchet, crotchet
• In last verse v5, after the printed chord, sing on and hold a new final chord on sound ‘mm’ of ‘home’ – sops move up to ‘A’, altos to ‘F’, tenors stay on ‘C’, basses move up to ‘F’

Halima pakasholo

• To be performed from memory
• In v1, callers sing with drum only
• In v2, callers and drum with sops and altos singing response
• In v3, callers and drum, with all 4 parts singing response

This is Me   

• We practised pp 14,15 &16 from Bar 78 with the 3part harmony for the small descant group over the parts from rest of the choir. Count and listen!
• We sang through the entire piece from Bar 17 to end.

West Side Story

III America

• This piece starts at Bar 170 on p42.
• Bar 178 to 203 may be solos in concert. (We practised sops singing v1 and altos singing v2. Note rit at Bar 202)
• All in at Bar 208 – be ready after page turn pp44/45
• From Bar 220, solos sung by sops or altos – mark them up. They are:
• Bar 220 alto, Bar 222, sops, Bar 225 sops, Bar 227 alto
• Bar 276 alto, Bar 278 sops, Bar 281 sops, Bar 283 alto
• At Bar 241, cut to Bar 264
• Bar 286 – 292, clapping and spoken ‘Aye’ are all off the beat