The countdown is on! As of when we left rehearsal this evening, we had just 99 sleeps until December 25th. Now, as this blog post is uploaded, there's only 98 sleeps remaining, and only 71 sleeps until our big 'Kick Off To Christmas' concert on 28 November. Already, I've started to see festive, twinkly, jingley things making their way around the internet, and if you're kicking around in this part of the online woods, I'm going to add to that. Sorry.
We're not stressed. Honestly. The KTB Music Theatre Chorus is a hub of musical dedication and vivacity, and I'm not even being facetious there. There's just sometimes one or two songs that... well... we're not all entirely convinced by. Such is performing arts life. You'd never know it to hear us perform them on stage, and I'll never tell you exactly which ones they are. After all, opinions can be changed, and this became very relevant for one of our songs this evening.
Our first song of the rehearsal was the festive playlist staple for this block. "Sleigh Ride" (The Ronettes) will get everyone bopping along in their seats at concert time, and we're all working to make it a proper singalong. Not only is it one where many people know all the words, the audience members won't need to worry about when they've got responsibility for the lead line. Finishing sentences is a privilege in a choir arrangement, and sometimes, sections don't get a complete sentence for an entire piece. Our tenor and bass sections are left perpetually hanging in this number, and it hasn't gone down with enthusiasm. There's only one person to blame...
(Hang on, why am I the one dodging metaphorical flying objects here?)
Things are a lot more equitable on the chopped-off-sentences front with our next piece. "Rudolph" (Robbie Williams) is 'pass the parcel' for reindeer music, with every section having to pay close attention. This is where the "trusting and listening to each other" part of chorus singing really kicks into high gear, and it really helps that we're such a collective force at MTC. Forty pages flew by faster than Santa's trip around the world (from our dimensional viewpoint), and it's definitely starting to grow on us now that we're able to hear how it all fits. We can't wait to hear how it sounds when everyone gets together. I even caught myself - and a lot of other people - swaying slightly in time to the beat. That's a sure sign we've got a cracking little number in the works.
"White Winter Hymnal" (Fleet Foxes) involves absolutely no instruments and yet we have a beat to follow. "How?" I hear you ask. Body percussion. It's not going to be like that comedy sketch with the "comma carol" and [violence] that you may have seen if your algorithm is anything like mine. Instead, we're going to have local primary school pupils supplying the beat that anchors this piece, and this writer is expecting it will be brilliantly effective. We're working on making it snappy, tight, and perfectly-pronounced so that we don't let the kids down.
We had some additional improvisational percussion for the evening from our MD, whose ability to try to clap a fly out of existence and immediately jump back into playing actually startled us all into stuttering our lines. I'm mentioning this because we were all hoping for a different tiny thing flying across the sky, and it wasn't something we'd have to spend an evening shadow-boxing, music-swatting, and generally fending off. Do you remember, dear reader, that Katy promised us Elf if we behaved last week?
Well. We now have two Elf The Musical songs in our line-up. The Elf has arrived, and brought a friend along for the tiny sleigh ride. It's a real sign of how we've grown as a chorus that Katy occasionally brings back pieces we previously looked at and collectively vetoed on account of complicated bits, uncomfy notes, and tongue-twisters. "Sparklejollytwinklejingley" had quite a few of all of those things last time we looked at it and ran away, so having a quick sight-read through it just to get the gist revealed that we've gained quite a lot of ground here.
Saving the MTC festive classic until the very end of the evening was a great way to close our final rehearsal for September. "There Is a Santa Claus" is one our long-standing members can probably sing in our sleep (and probably will, the closer we get to the show), and for our newbies, it was high time we inducted them into the tradition of the solo line that spiritually belongs to one of our altos. Welcome to MTC festive season, folks! We're so glad to have you on board this sleigh. Especially now that we have (and we can't quite believe it yet) enough basses to split the bass line! (I'm going to add some more !!!! for good measure!) Just about enough basses, anyway. More basses are, of course, always welcome.
October is a more traditional time for festive frivolities, so when we get back into the Studio in two weeks, we're expecting more fun and games, and an influx of more music. We know how this goes by now. All completely necessary work to ensure that we're performance-ready by the time the very first trees are decorated and lights are switched on.
Enjoy a cosy break, everyone. We're going to need it!
Written by Aeryn Isherwood
