Thursday Thoughts

I once had an organ teacher who I greatly respected ask me what I was doing during my daily sessions at the instrument. I looked at him as if he had two heads and replied, "practicing!"  He looked at me shaking his head, and offered these words of wisdom "no you're learning, you can't practice anything until you learn it."

Interesting philisophy and likely applies to most things. Right now we're at that tough (but exciting) stage of preparing for a concert. The time between learning the score and now practicing performances - albiet of various levels of success. With four rehearsals left we should be ok, but I would like to take some in each rehearsal and work the SNSC repertoire of the second half of the program. My rehearsal plaaning reflects this but on Tuesday the plan went out the window with the extra work we had to do on the Whitacre.

So for next Tuesday the list is as follows:

i thank You God - Whitacre (everyone needs to review carefully)

Lay A Garden - Pearsall (if you have not sung this please learn it throughly as most of the choir have recorded the piece.)

Then Shall I Leap Into Love - Enman

Totus Tuus - Togni (performance run through only - the piece is learned)

Nunc Dimittis - Part (the notes are learned.  However I want to "practice" balancing the chord functions in the divisi sections - m. 43-105; shape the opening up to m. 39; and see if we can be a little more consistent in that exquisite SA blend at the end.

Rosa Mystica - Balfour (the style needs a vibrato-less sound reminicent of the Middle Ages, even in the forte sections. Be certain of the rhythm - the combinations of the quarter/eighth note are always changing in the individual parts. I would like this to be as close to memorized as possible as you will be recessing and singing as you go down the asile to close the first half. Let's begin next week)

Agneau de Dieu - Lang (I may not get to this as the piece is nearly complete, however there are some issues re text. Hopefully we will get a mp3 of the text up on the website. The quartet will be: Christina, Laura, Chris and Lynn)

Agnus Dei - Barber (depending on what happens on Saturday, I may spend time on this)

Stuff to remember:
Due to the AGM next Tuesday from 9-9:30 pm at FBC, we will begin the rehearsal at 6:45pm. Please arrive on time. (Tristan - please limit the warm up to 5 minutes)

SNSC rehearsal for all HCS this Saturday from 10 am-12:30 pm  at Bethany United.  

Finally, no excuses but apologies for not doing my best work the last two rehearsals. I think it has to do with my health. My concentration, energy level and hearning have all been affected as up to last night, I was sleeping for a maximum of 4 hours. Re the hearning, my left ear has been buzzing in the forte sections - much like a speaker with a tear in it, or an ear full of water after a shower. It comes and goes but is improving. I had a minor set back all day yesterday with a nasty stomach flu, but am feeling much better now. For those of you who are struggling with this cold/flu you have my sympathies and thank you for contributing what you can.

Easter is over! Spring is here! On to a better week! See you Saturday.