Elgar Festival Chorus - Rehearsal 1 - Feb 1st
Thank you to everyone for making our first rehearsal such a positive and rewarding experience! I feel like we are off to the best possible start and I look forward to the remaining rehearsals.
In case anyone missed our rehearsal on Saturday – I have asked for the following notes to be made in your copies of the Ireland –
Page 1 – All dots to be taken out of the dotted crochets, leaving you with a full crochets worth of rest.
Page 2 – Please keep the dots in place on ‘bring’ and ‘gone’
Page 3 – Tenors, bottom line last bar, a full crochet out of ‘days’
Page 4 – Bottom line, 3rd bar, please take out the dot on ‘days
Pages 11/12/13 – Please chop off the tied quavers where they occur on ‘be’ and ‘race’
And..bottom line of page 13, last bar, take a quaver out of ‘known’ adding in a quaver rest
Page 14 – Bottom line, first bar, chop off the tied quaver on ‘souls’
Page 17 – Top line, third bar, chop off the tied quaver on ‘strong’
Page 18 – Top line – no breath after ‘brave’ and in bar two a quaver out of ‘strong’
Bottom line – remove all traces of dots from both ‘strong’ and ‘blood’
Page 19 – top line, first bar, chop off the dot from the tied over ‘strong’. Also a quaver out of ‘dare’, top line last bar. Bar 150 – ‘dare’ is full length.
Page 20 – Top line – Sop/Alto quaver out of the tied ‘firm’. Tenor/Bass take a crochet out of ‘firm’
Page 21 – Everyone take a full crochet out of ‘sea’
I think that covers everything we agreed.
Approach – This piece by Ireland is not very long – BUT – in a relatively short space of time he gives his chorus plenty to think about!
There are many points when the orchestra is not playing and it is up to you to maintain the energy and forward motion. Ireland also offers up challenges with tuning. The distribution of the third of a final chord can sometimes be found in the alto and tenor parts (page 3, bar 20 on ‘them’) or on the bass line (page 5, bar 36 on the word ‘gaze’) This is not your typical SATB layout!
Like Elgar, Ireland goes from super legato to fantastic rhythmic energy in a mater of bars – pages 12 to 21 from ‘A loftier race…’ this is a veritable tour de force for the choir parts.
Remember – Breathing is not just a means to end! It is also just as important as any quaver, crochet or minim. And, finally – remember that we communicate through our faces when singing. The Cathedral offers up its challenges when getting the music across and I urge you to get heads out of your copies as often as possible.
Thank you again for all your hard work last Saturday and see you in a few weeks time. We will revise what we learnt and I hope to finish learning the rest of the piece as well.
Stephen
PS- DO listen to the Ireland piano concerto, particularly the slow movement.