Daylight Ahead

The answer to our quiz question is at the bottom.

This term there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel which is great news! We intentionally planned our schedule in an open-ended way, in the hopes that we might be able to convene in-person rehearsals toward the end of the term in early July. With vaccines continuing apace, we’re still holding out hope that this will be possible. Because it will be so nice to get to see everyone again in person for the first time since our picnic last September, and even nicer if we can sing together!

Like many choirs, we were disappointed by the recent guidance provided by the government for amateur choirs. We’re more fortunate than many choirs in that we’d always planned to start the term virtually, whereas many had geared up for in-person meetings with all the risk-assessments that entails, only to be told at the 11th hour that their plans would be considered illegal. The silver lining has been the rallying on social media around the hashtag #ChoirsMatter. It’s been amazing to see testimonials from all the people who are passionate about singing and participating in choirs for the love of it. One of our own members, @schopflin, shared a heartfelt thread about all the many benefits of choirs as a hobby. We hope this lobbying will eventually yield positive results and that the many individuals affected will be able to be back singing together before too long.

This term started off with some folks songs. We continued to delve into musicianship theory, with Adam providing practical instruction on pitching harmonies and vocal warmup, plus further tips and tricks for sight-reading. We put these to the test with folk songs like I Know Where I’m Going, Scarborough Fair, and The Last Rose of Summer – Adam shared a favourite version of the last with us which we all really enjoyed, but subsequently I associate it with this recent SNL sketch.

We also continued to work on some solo repertoire to put skills we’ve been learning into action while also keeping our voices in good shape. Sarah Burston returned for a second vocal workshop with the choir, and furthered our progress on these solo pieces including The Salley Gardens (Britten setting Yeats), Simple Gifts (arr. Copland), and my personal favourite, Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (Arne setting Shakespeare) – I like how saucy it is in its Tudor-ness.

The choir revisited Sarah’s enjoyable SOVTs including singing while blowing bubbles with a straw in a glass of water (or gin!). As Sarah inspirationally quipped ‘You have to keep the air flowing to keep the bubbles blowing.’ This is a very useful technique for building support for breath control, and you can feel the benefits almost instantaneously. Sarah also coined the term ‘eagle-eared’ as in ‘the eagle-eared among you may have noticed…’ and I have to say I think it’s going to catch on, in choral circles at the very least! Another very practical tip from Sarah that we will certainly use going forward is the suggestion to practice continuing a certain phrase beyond the end a few times. Then when you come to sing the shorter phrase as it’s written, you’re more prepared and supported. We also spoke a lot about the correct attitude for singing, and striking the balance between being timid and being overly confident.

We devoted an entire rehearsal to Bach’s Cantata No. 64, Seht welch’ eine Liebe. Adam broke down the different elements of this piece for us bit by bit, highlighting where certain themes repeat to save time in learning the piece. He also included a very enlightening segment on how to learn fugue sections efficiently, and it all ended in a rousing sing of the piece. Another session focussed specifically on English folk music, and we made our way through some favourites including Greensleeves, Linden Lea, and Cornish folk song I Love My Love.

Upon our return from our half term break, it was time for our termly social featuring a virtual quiz. The theme this time around was summertime, as the summer solstice approaches and we’ve been enjoying some very sunny weather! In addition to questions about things like the origin of British Summer Time and traditional celebrations of the summer solstice, there were also some questions about music, both pop and classical. It’s been nice to take the time to vary our programme during this period of virtual rehearsals, and devoting one evening a term to the social side of things has been a welcome deviation. It’s helped us stay connected to our community, and it’s been lots of fun too!

We’re looking forward to our virtual ‘Bring and Sing’ of The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins next week (Thursday 10 June, 2021). If you’re considering joining a choir and would like to know more about us, this would be a good opportunity to come along for a session, with no commitment at all. If you’re interested, let us know. Hope to see some new faces then!

Social media sample quiz question
 QUESTION: What is the American name for a British 'crotchet'?
 HINT: It's NOT a whole note
 ANSWER: quarter note