Well that was a struggle! The hardest part of the night was on arrival as we had nowhere to park. There was a bowling doubles competition, a tennis match and football game all sharing the same carpark. Good job there is a quiet road that very soon became an overflow carpark.
We began the evening talking about a communal walk next Saturday in Cuerden Valley park: a lovely spot and central from many directions. Next conversation was about a meal after Carol singing (for St Catherine’s Hospice) in Longton at Christmas. Heard on the radio today there are only 100 days to Christmas, yikes. Katy and her team work really hard coming up with all sorts of different socials and experiences for the choirs: there is always a real community feel at these events and it is a chance to meet others who are on this musical journey too 🎶.
Began with Mary’s boy child and fairly raced through this in fast calypso style. Great for us because alto’s are carrying the main tune with soprano’s supporting with the harmony, which doesn’t often happen. Next came I’ll be home and a revision of the notes we looked at last week. Quite a few new returned voices tonight so there was plenty to revise.
Rudolph followed, a new one for us all, originally recorded by Robbie Williams. It is to be performed at Chorley town hall, Longton Winter Wonderland lights switch on and Chew’s Yard Preston, as well as our own concert. Hard to believe that such a large group of performers, including children’s choirs will be joining us to showcase all this learnt music. What an opportunity for us all. This is written from Rudolph’s point of view - very proud to be pulling the sleigh for Father Christmas. Another one that seems to be very fast and we are always nervous at the beginning about whether or not we will be able to pull it all together, but we always seem to manage it in the end. There are little bits of tune for all the different groups and you have to be brave to jump in when it is your turn. Timings and notes are very important. It is apparent that everyone needs the altos - we are the call and they are the response. It is very “singable“ and we spent some time reading through the words then it makes a bit more sense to us all. Quite difficult in places and Katy suggested that we look at the Youtube video and this will help it all come together smoothly and we don’t need to worry.
Christmas for Cowboys by John Denver was presented to us next. Not one of us owned up to knowing this new song: Katy assured us we would come to love it as it is so pretty. It has quite a laid back melody and some nice words that tell how the working cowboys have to spend Christmas out on the range with the animals. The words paint a nice picture for us and it was easy to follow. It has words that resonate to different people in different ways. Katy has had this song in mind for us for a long time and she is pleased that we can now get on and learn it.
Winter Song, Bum bum bum was a surprising way to start a new song, quite gentle sounding with some close harmony. Katy played it all the way through (as she often does for an introduction) and it was a pleasure to listen to. Lots of repetition to the words building up to a real crescendo. The quote was that "we do do mopey quite well", she was doing her best but not quite selling it to us yet.
Finished off with One more sleep, that we recognised as having been performed by Leona Lewis in the past. This is quite upbeat and will be enjoyable to learn. Scarlett Ribbons ended our evening and it was another good practice.
Written by Maria Baxter
