How have we reached the last rehearsal of the month? January feels as though it has been both six minutes and six months long.
As there is no rehearsal next week (boooo, but Katy deserves breaks from our antics), tonight was very heavy on music theory and note perfecting. And also cake theory. I'll come back to that.
We started - rather appropriately given the weather - with "Singing in the Rain", and its dastardly timing traps and notes that aren't what we're expecting. There's some really lovely harmonies in this and it's going to sound marvellous, so we took some time to pick over every tricky section until it felt easier. It's an arrangement that really holds the original feel, and also keeps things interesting as a chorus piece.
Next up, "Any Dream Will Do," which I'm sure so many of us sang in primary school choir. (Personal note: I have finally been vindicated in my childhood insistence that there was a bit in the show version that wasn't in the version my school choir teacher taught us.) This is another number with a fantastic soloist, and we are all more than happy to do the swaying and angelic-sounding echoey part.
We had a very in-depth review of "Tomorrow" (from Annie). This is where the cake comes in. Not, as you might imagine, to celebrate our third birthday as a chorus (we... may have sort of... forgotten to mention it once we got to rehearsal...), but in the context of music theory. Adding on layers of cake makes the cake bigger. Just as adding bits and pieces to notes (in the form of dots and so on) makes them longer than other notes.
Honestly, it's as good an explanation as any for things. This calming arrangement rounded out the musically mellow portion of the session - perfect for a rainy evening. I would say that all we were missing was blankets, but some chorus members had even thought ahead there, and the heating ended up keeping us pretty toasty even before we had a little bop to "Without Love" (Hairspray) to finish off the evening with a more upbeat energy.
Tonight we also began sectional rehearsals: a bit of time at the end of some rehearsals for each section to really dig deep into a tricky part or two. Tonight was the Sop 1s’ turn, which worked out very nicely for everyone in the other sections who to wanted to leave early to watch The Traitors.
Roll on February! In the meantime, there's definitely some homework to do...
Written by Aeryn Isherwood