Arrived and it appeared to be starting to get dark outside, autumn is definitely on the way. Nice to be back in our group looking at new music for the upcoming winter season, although Christmas seems along way off!
After the communal warm up we began with “Scarlet Ribbons“, written in 1949. My singing neighbour knew this because her mum used to to sing it to her as a child. Katy has been waiting for years to produce this - it was one of her favourite pieces and she loved playing it on the piano, (an unusual choice for such a young child).
What a lovely surprise for us all, one of our long standing friends and fellow choir member came to see us after an absence due to illnesses. It was great that she was able to visit: really I think she was just checking up on us, making sure we were still behaving, it gave us all a real boost.
“White water hymnal” came next. What an unusual choice this is , both words and music. It is going to take a while to get on top of this, nobody has any idea what it is about, but we will persevere, with gentle encouragement and try to master the different feel of this.
“Christmas Lullaby “ is much more traditional and unusually Soprano 1 and Alto‘s start together. We then split into 3 parts and there follows a lovely melody that rises high then falls low, it is necessary to look at the music to see where the notes go, sure it will soon come with practice. Lots of the choir don’t read music as such but we know that we can look at the notes on the stave and follow the notes higher or lower. It doesn’t hold anybody back from enjoying the experience of singing together: there is something very magical about that. It is a lovely sound, almost prayerful.
“I’ll be home“ by Meghan Trainor followed next, another song that Katy has been preparing for along time for us and she hopes that we like it as much as she does. It is quite a sentimental sounding song - with words that make a lot more sense to us than the previous piece. Can’t say that I have ever heard it performed by anyone before. We had a conversation about whether or not it needed to be speeded up a little bit (Katy is always open to hearing our thoughts about anything). She said that sometimes she needs to put another coin in the meter, then at other times it feels like we are chasing after a steam train with the speed she is playing! It does sound beautiful, again prayerful in places, but still a modern piece.
A beautiful version of “Mary’s Boy Child“ to finish a good rehearsal. Alto’s have lots of the tune and it is known to us all and we like that. It is very comfortable when you already know what the proper version should sound like - it definitely gives you more confidence to really sing out and enjoy the performance.
Written by Maria Baxter
