News
Next up: The Rio Grande
Our summer concert in June will feature two early 20th century works: The Rio Grande by Constant Lambert, and Songs of Farewell by Hubert Parry.
Mass in C ahoy!
With a week to go to our Mass in C everything is in place for another successful concert. The line up includes the Talland String Quartet and four impressive vocal soloists. Read more below to see the full concert programme. Meanwhile, we have a few corners here and there to polish, of course, and we’ll be topping and tailing it with the soloists at the final rehearsal. Otherwise, all the studying and hard work is paying off – as it usually does.
Onwards to Beethoven
Our Christmas concert on 9 December attracted one of our biggest audiences ever. Instead of processing on to perform we suddenly had to rush over to the church hall to get extra seats. And the size of the audience was reflected in the warmth of its reception for our performance.
Now it’s onward and upward to our Spring Concert on 24 March when we will be scaling the heights of Beethoven’s Mass in C. It’s a big sing with lots to get our teeth and voice boxes into.
A Joyful Night – promise!
We’re on course for our winter concert. Morten Laudridsen’s moving Lux Aeterna will provide the emotion while Celia McDowell’s A Winter’s Night add a bit more with added festive jollity.
Summer time news
We’ll fire up again on 9 September, starting to wind up to our December concert. The choir committee will Zoom in from here, there and everywhere during August to choose what we’ll sing so and to get the scores lined up for us.
Brahms’ German Requiem- big audience for big piece
You’re never alone with a learning track
We’ll all need to practice plenty between rehearsals for because the Requiem is a mighty endeavour with lots of singing to enjoy. That’s where learning tracks for different voice parts come in. They include all parts but emphasise the soprano, alto, tenor or bass variously according to which one you choose. It helps a lot to hear what’s happening around you so that you can avoid being put off. Even better they can help you to learn how other parts cue in your own entries to complement watching Clara’s direction – and to save reading the score when you’re not singing.
Take your pick from John Fletcher Music Rehearsal files or Cyberbass. You don’t need a membership to access the John Fletcher Requiem files. Cyberbass allows you to gradually adjust the speed of the tracks.
If you haven’t read music before, read on
We don’t ask people to audition for the Phil Choir, but just turning up and jumping in at the deep-end can be daunting. So, here’s some practical help if you fancy giving it a go but don’t read music, or want to brush up on how to do it: Reading sheet music in a choir: a beginner’s guide. It’s been put together by Making Music, UK’s membership organisation for leisure-time music, which we are a member of. Apart from the guide it offers several other ways to increase your knowledge and confidence in reading music. These include the EarMaster app with exercises to learn reading music.
Wunderbar! One less excuse.
Help is at hand if you’re not too sure about how to pronounce the German text in Ein deutsches Requiem, or if you’ve got no idea at all. Our membership secretary, Fran, has found this pronunciation guide which gives us all one less excuse for not getting it near enough dead-on. It’s well worth studying because there’s plenty else to stumble over when you’re learning a piece such as pitch and rhythm without also struggling with the language. So, “vielen Dank”, Fran!
Brahm’s German Requiem
Rehearsals start on Tuesday 7 January for our concert on Tuesday 25 March when we’ll feature Johannes Brahm’s beautiful German Requiem – but as we’ll be singing it in German it’ll be Ein deutsches Requiem, of course!
