After the warm up exercises we practised the following pieces:

Calm and deep peace/Simple Gifts (Blue book p25)

• V3, Bars 33 – 46 on p28/29.  Men have tune sing mp, flowing and clear. Put in commas and only breathe in Bar 35 after ‘simple’, in Bar 37 after ‘free’, in Bar 41 after ‘be’, in Bar 45 after ‘right’.

Sops and altos, use ‘choral breathing’ for long flowing lines and sing p as accompaniment. Observe rest in Bar 37 and Bar 40. In Bar 42 no break after ‘gossamers’, breathe in Bar 43 after ‘twinkle’.

• Bars 50 – end. Sing p, clearly and sustained. In Bar 51, leave ‘s’ of ‘sustained’ as late as possible. In Bar 57, tenors to sing a top A. For all, a comma (breath) in Bars 53, after Bar 58, after Bar 62.

The Rose

• We revised the notes and parts.
• At E to end, sops have tune sing out at mf. Bars 46 – 50, altos, tenors and basses have accompaniment on ‘Ah’ sing quietly on p.
• In Bar 57, no breath and decrescendo to p at the end. In last bar, sing the ‘se’ of ‘rose’ as late and lightly as possible.
• From B, sops observe the quaver rests in Bars 17, 18, 19.
• From C, tenors and basses in bar 28, no breath – join ‘never takes’.   Altos sing out the tune in Bar 29

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation

• Sops sing v1 – sing Bar 13 accurately
• In v2 sops and altos sing accompaniment at mp
• In v3, sang through to check notes and parts. Sing through (no breath) on Bars 43/44.
• Coda from Bar 67, count and listen for how parts fit together.  Crescendo to f for last 2 Bars and note 3 parts for 1^st sops, 2^nd sops/1^st altos and 2^nd altos.  

Zadok the Priest

• Section 3 – God save the King. We sang through parts of this section to practise notes and rhythms. Note altos are in 2 parts. Keep all the quavers (Amen Allelujah) very short and detached
• Basses 1&2 when singing the semiquaver runs– take staggered breathing to keep continuity.
• Section C – sops 1&2 to sing 2 part harmony in the semiquaver runs for ‘Amen’.
• Section D- altos and tenors sing the semiquaver runs on ‘Amen’
• Throughout observe dotted quavers, rests and keep all quavers detached.
• Final Bars -sing rhythmically, at ff, and watch Mary!

Like a Rainbow shining

• We sang through this piece to revise notes, rhythms, how parts fit and dynamics
• At A sing each phrase separately observing quaver rests between them
• Bar 28, sing through the dotted crotchet to join phrases
• Bar 78, write in dotted crotchet and quaver rest before ‘We’

Goodbye until we meet again

• Omit opening section, start at Bar 9.
• We sang through the piece to revise notes and structure.