Conductor’s Notes

It’s October... and so we must begin our Christmas rehearsals! Plenty of important things below, so please read through.
For our new members who may not know about Conductor’s Notes, they will be posted weekly as a reminder of what we did, a heads-up about what we’ll do in the next rehearsal, and any other bits of information. If you do miss a rehearsal, please check here to find out what you missed, and what you need to catch up on.

To preface these Notes, I just want to say a huge thanks to the committee for helping these rehearsals run so smoothly, especially Susannah, Mark, Christophe and Nick, who have been on ‘music-duty’, handing out all of the Christmas music as well as the Brahms... thank you all!

What we did on Wednesday 5th October

We began with the ‘latter half’ of the Fantasia on Christmas Carols, reading from letter H. We sporadically learnt the melodies and some of the broader harmony sections towards the end, and channeled our ‘Britten-National-Anthem’ vibes for the final section at letter Gg. After the break we looked at the more florid section after letter E, and spent some good time building our sense of ensemble – something super important when singing in a choir with 100 people! A good start, so well done, and we’ll keep doing excellent work on this.

We ended the rehearsal by looking through as many movements of the Corp as possible. This was a great read through; for those who don’t read sheet music fluently, please don’t be put off – we’ll do plenty of work on these over the next couple of months and really break everything down to learn it inside-out!
We covered all movements but the Benedictus (page 27 onwards) and the Agnus Dei (page 30 to the end).

What we will do on Wednesday 12th October

Plenty to get going with, so we’ll work efficiently and quickly.
It’s Vaughan Williams’s 150th anniversary to the day, so I think it’s appropriate to begin with the homophonic section after letter E, and then sing through the rest (almost all of which we looked at last week). We’ll then learn the beginning of the piece, so we’ll have then sung it all.

After the break we’ll look at the Sanctus and Benedictus (page 24), then the Agnus Dei (page 30) of the Corp – the movements we didn’t cover last week. We’ll sing these through and then do some detailed work on them.

If you can name some of the Christmas carols in these movements, I’d be glad to hear... I reckon I only have about half of the total 70 in the whole piece...

Marked Scores

Here are all of the Marked Scores you’ll need for this term. Over the next few weeks I suggest sitting down with a glass of wine/gin/hot chocolate (your drink of choice) and putting these markings into your parts. The guide at the beginning should help you understand what each marking means. With everyone doing these markings – such as putting a breath in the right place – it saves us so much precious rehearsal time as I don’t need to stop to tell you what to do.

It took me many hours to put them all in, so I’d really appreciate it if you just find 30 minutes to mark up your own part... it really makes all the difference.
I’d be very grateful if they could be in by the time we come back from half-term in 4 weeks (this is my nice way of saying “I expect these to be in by then, please!” – haha!)

Playlist for Christmas

The Spotify playlist is designed to help you become more familiar with the programme, and to help you learn the music over the term; I often listen to these playlists in the car as I drive to and from Oxford! You can listen to it HERE.

If you’re new to Spotify, you can sign up really easily for a FREE(!) account, and listen to the playlist.

Learning Resources

As well as the Spotify Playlist above, there are a couple of helpful learning resources for our two main works in the programme:

John Fletcher Music – A Christmas Mass
This is a paid-for site, but certainly a useful one, and one of the only places you can find rehearsal tracks for the Corp. Worth investing in if you know you might need the help with note-learning outside of rehearsals.

Choralia – Fantasia on Christmas Carols
It’s very, very rough and ready, but it might help in learning the notes... take it with a pinch of salt...

Concert Poster

Sharing the fabulous Mozart Oboe Quartet poster, as promoted at last week’s rehearsal. Do go and support this music series.

This Week’s listening

Something Eric shared with me – a beautiful piece by Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt; his stunning Immortal Bach. Based on Bach’s funeral song “Komm, süßer Tod” (Come, sweet death), we hear the music twice – firstly, the chorale as a whole, as harmonised by Nystedt; secondly, where all the singers perform the chorale again, but at different speeds, creating an amazing wash of sound, before everyone comes together on the final chord.
I was very fortunate to perform this in Berlin while on tour with the Birmingham University Singers and we did, as the composer suggests, sang this amazing work surrounding the audience.
You can listen HERE.

See you on Wednesday.
– Ben

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all looking forward to the weekend. I’ll start these notes off by saying another MASSIVE thank you to Rowena for stepping in to lead the first half of the rehearsal as I was stuck in traffic – 0.7 miles in 25 minutes... such fun! When I walked into the back of the rehearsal I just beamed as it sounded so great!

What we did on Wednesday 28th September

We did some great work on Movement 4 – it was so much fun being to explore the full range of expression with the text and musical ideas.

We started off with Movement 1, and got all the way through, with a little bit of note-bashing on the final section. I was told it went very well.

Then you learnt the 5th Movement, during which I arrived and managed to catch the end – it sounded great. I love the simplicity of that movement as the choir sits underneath the soloist singing a chorale-like melody. And the end, which we worked on, was just sublime.

After the break we had a look at the fugue section in the 3rd Movement (from page 38) – well done on picking this up; fugues are hard, and this is one of the hardest. I hope you’ll all remember the ‘subject’ and ‘counter-subject’ that we spoke about... it begins with the tenors, and everyone sang it through brilliantly.

Finally, to close off our ‘Brahms month’ we sang through the whole of the 2nd Movement. I still think this is my favourite, and I hope to perform this one at the Chipping Norton Music Festival next year, as it’s the perfect length and demonstrates so many impressive bits of singing!

What a joy it’s been to start on such an incredible piece with you all. Please do keep looking at the Brahms Requiem in anticipation of January, as you all know how hard it is now, and how much work we’ll need to do on it.

What we will do on Wednesday 5th October

October already... goodness me! We’re putting the Brahms to bed until the new year, and starting to look at our Christmas programme.

We’ll just be looking through the Corp A Christmas Mass and Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols this week, so if you’d like to do so, give those a listen in preparation, as well as looking at the marked score below.

Susannah will be in the church from around 7pm handing out music, so please do make sure you arrive in plenty of time to collect your copies.

Marked Scores

Below are the marked scores for Corp’s A Christmas Mass and Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Over the next few weeks I suggest sitting down with a glass of wine/gin/hot chocolate (your drink of choice) and putting these markings into your parts. The guide at the beginning should help you understand what each marking means. With everyone doing these markings – such as putting a breath in the right place – it saves us so much precious rehearsal time as I don’t need to stop to tell you what to do.

It took me many hours to put them all in, so I’d really appreciate it if you just find 30 minutes to mark up your own part... it really makes all the difference!

Marked scores for all of the pieces in ‘100 Carols for Choirs’ will follow.

Do give these a look as a heads-up before next week, and a listen down below.

Playlist for Christmas

HERE is the Spotify playlist for the Christmas programme. It’s designed to help you become more familiar with the programme, and to help you learn the music over the term; I often listen to these playlists in the car as I drive to and from Oxford!

If you’re new to Spotify, you can sign up really easily for a FREE(!) account, and listen to the playlist.

This Week’s listening

A very different musical musing, as I never normally share piano works.
As some of you may know, one of my other musical passions is orchestration – transforming a piece from one instrumentation into another. For example, the Verdi Stabat Mater we did in Spring I had orchestrated for our chamber orchestra, sizing it down from the huge symphony orchestra for which it was originally written. I’m currently working on Rachmaninoff’s 10 Preludes, Op. 23 – my favourite being Number 5. You can listen HERE.

See you on Wednesday.
– Ben

What a lovely week last week was, and I’m so sorry for the delay in getting these notes out – it’s been a very busy week!
I’m so pleased with how the Brahms is coming on, and once again a huge thanks to Rowena for all of the hard work on learning the notes, allowing me to do some really detailed work on the music with you all. Some important information below so do please give it a read.

What we did on Wednesday 21.09.22

We did some great work on Movement 4 – it was so much fun being to explore the full range of expression with the text and musical ideas.

Then, we sang through Movement 7, doing lots of work on the melodies, the text, and also sight-reading through the hardest bits – always a great challenge to embrace!

We finished with a brief sing through of Movement 6, including an exciting read of the turbulent “Denn es wird die Posaune” on page 65.

What we will do on Wednesday 28.09.22

I’d like to look at a few things:
– We’ll warm up with re-looking at Movement 1.
– Movement 3, from the fugue on page 38.
– Movement 5.
– And we’ll end this term’s early look at the Brahms Requiem with a sing through of the 2nd Movement.

Marked Scores

We have marked scores for what we’ll be looking at at the start of October! Below are the marked scores for Corp’s A Christmas Mass and Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Both of these pieces we’ll be looking at on the 5th October, and Susannah will be handing out music for these pieces then.

Marked scores for all of the pieces in ‘100 Carols for Choirs’ will follow, and Susannah will be handing out those copies soon. On this, we’re hoping some of you will own your own copies of ‘100 Carols for Choirs’ already – could you let us know via email if you have your own copy – I think Susannah has asked this already, but a reminder to let us know if you will be using your own.

Do give these a look as a ‘heads-up’ before next week, and a listen down below.

Playlist for Christmas

Here’s the Spotify playlist for the Christmas programme. It’s designed to help you become more familiar with the programme, and to help you learn the music over the term; I often listen to these playlists in the car as I drive to and from Oxford!

If you’re new to Spotify, you can sign up really easily for a FREE(!) account, and listen to the playlist.

newChoir workshop, and Friends’ concerts

It was great to see some friendly CNCS faces at my Open Workshop with newChoir on Saturday, entitled ‘and Breathe...’ – I hope those attending found it interesting and useful.

I’m always keen to support our friends in other choirs, and so I’d like to promote the concert by international touring choir ‘Sine Nomine’. Please see details on the poster below.

If you ever have a concert you’d like to promote, I’d be delighted to share it in rehearsals and here on Conductor’s Notes.

This Week’s listening

On Sunday at the Birmingham Oratory I sang one of my favourite settings of the Mass text; Rheinberger’s beautiful Mass in E flat. I suggest listening to all of it if you have time, or just the Sanctus HERE – it opens with a heavenly chord progression, featuring a delicious suspension (which we spoke a lot about last week in rehearsal) in bar 6. I thoroughly recommend a listen!

See you on Wednesday.
– Ben

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all well! Lots of useful things in this one, so let’s crack straight on.

What we did on Wednesday 14.09.22

Firstly, a HUGE thank you to Rowena for covering for me at such short notice! It’s such a terrifying thing to do, and it sound like it was a brilliant rehearsal. I knew we’d be in safe hands with Rowena on the team. I was absolutely gutted to miss the rehearsal, and I missed you all a lot!
Secondly, thank you for all of the well wishes – migraines aren’t pleasant, so thank you for you kind words.

I gather that, from the feedback I’ve had from some members and from Rowena, the ‘note-bashing’ was really helpful and well received. You covered:

Movement 1 “Selig sind” from the start until the bottom of page 7, including the fiddly chromatic section at the bottom of page 6 with it’s interesting harmonies.

Movement 4 “Wie Lieblich sind” all the way through, firming up the start from last week and learning the rest of the movement. I look forward to hearing this next week!

What we will do on Wednesday 21.09.22

We’ll be looking at:
– A sing through of Movement 4.
– Movement 7.
– Movement 3, from the fugue on page 38.
– And if there’s time, the start of Movement 6.

Marked Scores

Due to my migraine I was unable to pick up the Christmas music, so the Marked scores for the Christmas Programme will be provided next week, so you can have a heads up for the start of October.

Learning Resources

A few people have already been in touch for help with the learning of this Brahms, which is great to hear people are putting in the hard work now in preparation for the Spring. Below are some resources that should help, as recommended by your fellow singers, or by myself and Rowena. I hope they help in the process of learning your parts.

Choralia:
A great, free, online resource to help learn the music. You can isolate your part, with or without accompaniment, slow it down, and have a supporting metronome. It’s very ‘robot-y’ so take it all with a pinch of salt.
CHORALIA

Cyberbass:
One recommended by our lovely Chair, Eric – Cyberbass is a lot nicer to listen to, and is more like a ‘standard rehearsal’ as the piano plays your part for you. Same great functionality as Choralia to help you learn your part.
CYBERBASS

ChoraLine:
Another great resource that many people recommend, even though I’ve not personally used it. Presto Music are also giving a 25% discount until 30th September, so do check it out!
CHORALINE
25% off via Presto Music

John Fletcher:
Rowena has recommended this, and it’s a great resource brilliantly broken down to help with each movement. He also includes some pronunciation guides, both audio and PDF, giving lovely examples of similar sounds in English.
JOHN FLETCHER

Pronunciation guide:
And finally, one found by Keith, our Venues Manager – a brilliant recording on YouTube of the authentic pronunciation for all the text. It’s said in context, then slowly, to help everyone get their head around the German.
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

Just a small point about the pronunciation, which is fundamental to the German language, as I gather people are a bit confused:

‘i’ before ‘e’ is always pronounced as “eeeeee” – as in “Sie” (Z-eeee)
‘e’ before ‘i’ is always pronounced as “eye” – as in “Leid” (L-eye-dt)

With this ‘ie’ rule, always go by the second vowel.
I hope this helps a bit!

Chippy News

We were asked to provide a small piece for the Chippy News, to pay tribute to The Queen:

“In June this year the Chipping Norton Choral Society celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a concert of music from her Coronation, opening with the magnificent Zadok the Priest. The audience joined the choir with joyful renditions of Parry’s Jerusalem, Vaughan Williams’s All People That on Earth Do Dwell, and Britten’s stunning arrangement of the National Anthem. Earlier, we all picnicked together in the beautiful evening sunshine in St Mary’s Churchyard.

The evening will remain in our memories as a timely and warm tribute to a much-loved Monarch”

This Week’s listening

I’m running an open workshop with NewChoir next Saturday, and I wanted to share with you one of the pieces we’re doing in that session – it’s Harris’s Holy is the True Light. A short and simple four-part motet, the work is so delicate and beautiful, and features an incredible build up to its climax, before ending with a gentle “Alleluia”.
Listen HERE.

– Ben

What a week it’s been this week. A quick one to update you all on what we’ll be doing.

What we did on Wednesday 07.09.22

A very good start to our term. As well as welcoming many new members, we had a great turn out to being learning Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem.

We started by learning sections of the 2nd movement Denn alles Fleisch, 3rd movement Herr, lehre doch mich, 4th movement Wie lieblich sind, and the very opening Selig sind.

What we will do on Wednesday 14.09.22

We’ll be looking at:
– The 4th movement from where we got to last week – bar 46 onwards.
– The 1st movement.
– The 7th movement.

If you want to be really ‘on it’ do give these movements a listen and a sing through with this recommended recording HERE.

Other information

Marked scores for the Christmas Programme will be provided in the next notes, and the Brahms by the end of the term.

This Week’s listening

On the evening of the death of HM the Queen the Philadelphia Orchestra were supposed to be performing Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. Instead, dressed all in black, they gave a short and emotional performance, as summed up by their post on social media:

“Upon our arrival in London this afternoon for planned concerts at the BBC Proms, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin had the honor to perform the British National Anthem and “Nimrod”, from Edward Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations.
We would like to express our deepest sympathy to the British people on the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
It is our sincere hope that this music, with its profound meaning, will serve in some way as the United Kingdom and the world mourns the passing of this remarkable leader.”

So, for you all, Elgar’s Nimrod.

– Ben

Hi everyone, just a quick post on here to update you all on a few things before we begin in less than a week! I’m so excited to get going again, and have missed all your smiling faces over the summer... but where has the time gone?!

First rehearsal back

I’m really looking forward to our first rehearsal back on Wednesday 7th September. A quick reminder that we’ll be rehearsing the Brahms Requiem in September, not our Christmas programme just yet!

We’ll have new music to give out, and I believe Susannah will be at the church from around 7pm, so please arrive in good time to pick up the music. Don’t forget your pencils! And, if you’re using your own scores, please note we’ll be using the Peter’s Edition.

I’ve been told we’ll have around 15 new members joining us for the first rehearsal, with more coming in the first few weeks (brilliant!), so I know we’ll all extend a warm CNCS welcome to them and help them feel at ease. Please wear your name badges if you’ve got them.

The first rehearsal will be an informal and (hopefully) fun introduction to the Brahms Requiem, so there’s nothing to prepare – only to listen to the recommended recording HERE. If there’s anything you’d like to have a look at in particular, we’ll certainly be having a look at movements 2 and 4.

Next Season

Just a reminder about our forthcoming ‘22/’23 season. Please note the changed concert date for the Spring concert – this was to avoid a clash I had overlooked, so apologies for this!
(Click on the piece to hear it)

Christmas ’22
Programme: Corp’s A Christmas Mass, Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and other favourites from 100 Carols for Choirs.
Term dates: Wednesday 7^th September – Friday 16^th December 2022.
Concert: Saturday 17^th December ’22 @ St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton.

Spring ’23
Programme: Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem.
Term dates: Wednesday 4^th January – Friday 24^th March 2023.
Concert: Sunday 26^th March ’23 @ St Mary’s Church, Banbury.

Summer ’23
Programme: A selection of Madrigals, Part Songs, and Folk Songs. Specific pieces to be shared soon.
Term dates: Wednesday 19^th April – Friday 16^th June 2023.
Concert: Saturday 17^th June ’23 @ St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton.

Please note that specific rehearsal dates, times, locations, etc. will be shared with the choir for each term.

Other information

Eric will be sending/has sent out an email with all of the information you could need in, but if there’s anything you have any questions or concerns about, do drop Eric an email here: eric.clubley@braidholm.com

Marked scores for the Christmas Programme will be provided in the next few weeks, and the Brahms by the end of the term.

Finally

Ruth (Tenor) has asked me to publicise a concert – it looks like amazing repertoire, and if I weren’t going to the Prom that day I’d attend. Do go along and support.

This week’s musical musing is following on from the last; this time, my favourite symphony by Mahler, his Second Symphony “Resurrection”. We actually saw this live at the Proms last week with Simon Rattle conducting, and while the recording doesn’t quite do justice to the overwhelming power of the orchestra and choir, it’s still an incredibly moving and emotional performance. If you’re pushed for time, just listen to the 4th movement, Urlicht (this recording of Leonard Bernstein conducting).

– Ben

Greetings from Giggleswick (is what I wrote when I drafted these notes a couple of weeks ago when I was staffing the NYCGB Boys’ Choir course)! However, I’m still in Yorkshire but am now sitting in the garden in lovely Ripon enjoying the gorgeous weather. I hope you’re all well and are having a great summer break. Lots to cover in these notes about what we’ve done, and what we’ll be doing in the future, so please read carefully.

Sing Day Success

Firstly, a huge thank you and congratulations for such a successful Sing Day on the 23^rd July! We had 116 people sing on the day, about half of whom weren’t already members of CNCS. 11 people have now signed up to join us in September – I couldn’t be more proud of how wonderfully warm and welcoming this group is!

I hope you all enjoyed the day as much as I did. It was a pleasure introducing people to the piece, or shedding a new light on it for those who had sung it before. I’ve had so much great feedback from people saying how much they enjoyed the day, the singing experience, and the whole community feel of the day. Our soloists, Harriet Smith and Eoin Funnell, were also delighted to have joined you all for the day, and said what a privilege it was to sing with you all in such a fun day. Thank you everyone!

It goes without saying that the day wouldn’t have been half the success it was without the hard work, time and dedication the committee and numerous volunteers put in! A massive thank you to everyone who worked so diligently behind the scenes making my job of focussing on the music so easy! A huge thank you to Rowena, whose playing was exceptional and supported the day so brilliantly. And a special thanks in particular to Kate, Annabel and Mark for all the exceptional catering during and after, and of course to all those who brought in cakes.

We’ve had lots of requests to do more Sing Days soon, so stay tuned as we’ll definitely be planning more in the future.

Next Season

Following our recent committee meeting and having met with the Section Reps (more on that below), I’m so pleased to announce our forthcoming ‘22/’23 season. While the details are still a bit ‘rough around the edges’, programmes and concert dates are all confirmed, so please put them all in your diaries and start getting excited!
(Click on the piece to hear it)

Christmas ’22
Programme: Corp’s A Christmas Mass, Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and other favourites from 100 Carols for Choirs.
Term dates: Wednesday 7^th September – Friday 16^th December 2022.
Concert: Saturday 17^th December ’22 @ St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton.

Spring ’23
Programme: Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem.
Term dates: Wednesday 4^th January – Friday 31^st March 2023.
Concert: Saturday 1^st April ’23 @ St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Deddington.

Summer ’23
Programme: A selection of Madrigals, Part Songs, and Folk Songs. Specific pieces to be shared soon.
Term dates: Wednesday 19^th April – Friday 16^th June 2023.
Concert: Saturday 17^th June ’23 @ St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton.

Please note that specific rehearsal dates, times, locations, etc. will be shared with the choir for each term.

Next Term

This brings us neatly on to this Autumn term, starting on September 7^th. Rowena pointed out that it’s way too early to be singing Christmas music – I completely agree! So, we’ll be making a start on the Brahms Requiem, before looking at the Christmas programme.

In September we’ll break the back of the Brahms, getting an overview of the piece, roughly learning each movement, and beginning work on the oodles of German text we have! Then we’ll put this to bed until January, and pick it back up in 2023 having already done some of the initial hard work. From October onwards we’ll be looking at the repertoire for our concert on the 17^th December.

Susannah will be in touch soon to ask you all about music for both the Autumn ’22 term and Spring ’23 term. More from her anon.

Section Representatives

When we thought of the Sections Reps idea, we knew how important it would be to feedback information from our meetings, and to let you know your ideas are being listened to and acted upon. We had a great first meeting with the Section Reps following our June concert, where lots was discussed. There were loads of good points made about the concert, and some brilliant suggestions on how we can improve for next time. We had some really good discussions about repertoire, and I introduced them to my proposed programmes for the season, on which they gave great feedback. I can tell this is going to be a wonderfully symbiotic relationship, and something which will benefit the whole choir.

As I’ve said before, I’m always happy to be contacted or have a chat if there’s anything you’d like to raise or talk about, but the Section Representatives are also there for you all – any concerns, questions, problems, suggestions, feedback, etc. they’ll be happy to chat or to pass it on to me and/or the Committee. We want everyone to have a voice in this choir, so don’t hesitate!

Finally

Thank you all for reading this all. It’s so exciting what we’ve already done this year, and what we’ll be doing in the future. I’ll do another post before the start of term, and I look forward to seeing you all in September.

In the meantime, my suggested listening is what I’ve currently got going on as I write this – Mahler’s Third Symphony. You can listen to it HERE.

– Ben

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all having a lovely summer enjoying this wonderful weather. I very much miss our regular Wednesday rehearsals (I hope you do too), so I thought I’d whet your appetite for our Sing Day in 2 weeks time. We’ve already had an outstanding number of singers sign up (82 as of writing this post!!), which is very exciting, and I can’t wait to take you all through this incredible piece. More info about the day below.

About the Day

It’s so exciting that we get to do a discrete event in the summer, working hard for one day, and introducing the fabulous Faure Requiem to everyone in the choir, as well as our regular supporters and anyone who might be interested in joining us or seeing what we do. It’s going to be such a fun experience.

The schedule for the day is:

10:00 – 10:30 – Arrive at the Town Hall (please arrive in good time as we’ll have a lot of people arriving and collecting music)
10:30 – 11:45 – Rehearsal 1
11:45 – 12:00 – Break
12:00 – 13:00 – Rehearsal 2
13:00 – 14:00 – Lunch
14:00 – 15:15 – Rehearsal 3
15:15 – 15:30 – Break
15:30 – 16:30 – Rehearsal 4
16:30 – 17:00 – Pre-concert talk (for the ‘Friends of CNCS’ plus anyone else interested)
17:00 – Informal concert
17:45 – Drinks Reception
20:00 – Event finishes

Breaks:

There will be coffee and tea breaks in the morning and afternoon, with cakes/biscuits, and we are looking for support to run the tea and coffee breaks. Could you let Eric know by Friday 15th if you are willing to bring cakes or run the tea counter, etc.

Lunch:

Due to only having an hour’s lunch break we’re encouraging people to bring their own lunch, but there are lots of pubs and tea rooms nearby if you can squeeze in a quick trip.

Scores:

Scores will be provided, free of charge. If you own the OUP published 1893 version, edited by John Rutter, please do bring that.

Dress Code:

There’s no dress code as this is an informal, fun day – maybe take a leaf out of my book and wear your ‘loudest’ shirt? Haha!

Under 18s:

If there are any under 18s signed up, we require that they should be accompanied by an adult/guardian please.

Publicity

The Committee and publicity team have been hard at work, and have put together some amazing promotional material for this. You can check out the event on Facebook, and you can sign up for your spot HERE.
We’re delighted to have continued support from our Friends of CNCS, and in this case, Wise Investment have sponsored the day, allowing us to offer the day free of charge to everyone, including the drinks reception at the end.

Please share this electronic poster far and wide. You’ll see that posters are up around Chippy, as well as our brilliant banners.
(It’s also worth pointing out that Brian has ‘set’ the Town Hall clock for our start time of 10:30 – what a brilliant little detail!)

Finally

You can listen to my recommended recording of the Faure HERE.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all on the 23rd July!
– Ben

Hello everyone, I hope you’ve had a wonderful week! I’ve been on a high this entire week, and it’s been really good to reflect on how brilliant the Pomp and Pimms concert was.

I want to start by thanking you all so much for your incredibly hard work, and all of your focus not just in the concert but the entire term. I’m so grateful to each and everyone of you for learning the music in the rehearsals and working on it at home in a fairly short space of time, which led to an incredibly exciting and powerful concert.

There were a few moments I’d like to highlight, if I may:
The first is exactly what I’d hoped with Zadok the Priest, which was the long, drawn-out introduction really got the energy bubbling amongst the audience, and when you all came in it was completely overwhelming and breathtaking. Afterwards, an audience member describe it to me as being pinned back in their seat, and having a wall of sound encompass them. What an excellent way to open the concert.
The second was during the National Anthem; after you had so beautifully sung the first verse, and the brass and organ had joined for the ‘build-up’ to the second verse, I turned around to face the audience to bring them in and saw tears in so many peoples’ eyes! It was a really emotional moment, and that was purely down to how tenderly and magically you sang the first verse. I was genuinely incredibly moved by it.
And finally the joy of Auld Lang Syne (ssssssyne) – Thank you all for humouring me in doing the first verse again, I think it was a lovely way to end the concert, and I could feel the smiles from the audience as we sang it again, but more importantly I could see your smiles, and the happiness you were all exuding... that’s what makes working with you all such a pleasure, and why I enjoy my job so much. The morning of the concert I had a call with Eric about the final two numbers, during which he suggested we move the National Anthem to be the final number as this was a concert for the Queen’s Jubilee. I persuaded him that Auld Lang Syne was the best way to end the concert because, although the celebration was for the Queen, the most important aspect of our musical lives is to bring people together to enjoy themselves, and to continue the sense of unity among us all – to me, Auld Lang Syne represented this, and hence why I wanted people to go away on a really happy note. I think it’s safe to say you proved my point with this by the way you sang it.

This is by no means exhaustive of the best parts of the concert, and I’m sure you all have your individual moments that shone to you, but for me these were my highlights. Following the success of the Chipping Norton Music Festival in March and the Puccini concert in April, I thought it would be hard to top that first term... but this concert was an absolute gem!

Finally, our Pomp and Pimms concert couldn’t have gone ahead without all of the people who put in the hard work behind the scenes. Your Committee do so, SO much to ensure everything runs without a hitch, and the success of this term is completely down to them. They’re all too humble to accept praise by name, so I’m sure I speak on behalf of you all when I say a massive thank you to them.
I’d also like to thank all those who put in the hard work on the day. Everyone who puts up and takes down the staging, the seating, makes food for the guest players, chopped fruit for the pimms, sold tickets and programmes; the list of jobs is endless and, again, without their dedication on the day, none of this would work! Thank you!

I’ll end this ‘wrap-up’ by sharing a line from a lovely email I received from a member of the choir, who shall remain anonymous, about the concert and the choir, as I think it truly sums up how brilliant you all are: “CNCS is a very special choir and I feel immensely fortunate to be part of it“.

Sing Day

When we were planning this concert, and the Christmas concert this year, I noticed there was a huge gap between the June concert and when we’d start up again in September. I wondered what we could do to bridge this gap, and decided to put on a ‘Come-and-Sing’ day, as a way for us all to sing together again before the summer, increase our publicity and presence within the community, and to encourage anyone and everyone to see the joy of being a part of CNCS (which may lead to more people joining us in September).
The Committee and publicity team have been hard at work, and have put together some amazing promotional stuff for this. You can check out the event on Facebook, and you can sign up for your spot HERE.
We’re delighted to have continued support from our Friends of CNCS, and in this case, Wise Investment have sponsored the day, allowing us to offer the day free of charge to everyone! So, there’s no excuse not to be there, haha!

Please share this electronic poster far and wide, and I look forward to conducting a choir of at least 100 people!
(It’s also worth pointing out that Brian has ‘set’ the Town Hall clock for our start time of 10:30 – what a brilliant little detail!)

You can listen to my recommended recording of the Faure HERE.

Finally...

A friendly reminder that one of our lovely altos, Tara, is raising money for Cancer Research. In her own words:
“This June, before the end of the month, I will complete 300 miles on my bike for Cancer Research UK. 10 miles per day, every day in June. I will be pedalling harder than ever because I want to raise money for life-saving research and help bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.
Every penny makes a huge difference to vital cancer research so please show your support with a donation to my page.
Thank you so much for your generous support.”

Go and support Tara HERE.

Thanks for reading, see you all very soon!
– Ben

Just a couple more sleeps away. I’m so pleased with how this term has gone. It’s been so different to the long Spring term, but everyone has really stepped up to the plate and I’ve been so impressed at the rate of progress in such a short space of time. What it tells me is there’s going to be a really good Autumn term too!

This is the final post I’m doing before the concert, so it’ll contain details for both the Friday rehearsal, and the Saturday rehearsal and concert. It’s going to be such a good day, so thank you for your time and energy this term.

What we did on 08.06.22

A great rehearsal, with lots of good final touches done on Jerusalem, the National Anthem, and Auld Lang Ssssssyne (haha!), as well as a thorough reminder of Thou Wilt Keep Him, and a touch-up of the Te Deum. As it’s our longest (and hardest?) piece, we won’t have time to do all of it on Friday, so please make sure you’re happy with it all before coming to Saturday, especially if you’ve missed a couple of rehearsals. I trust you all to be in tip-top shape for Saturday.

What we will do on Friday 10.06.22

This will be a relaxed rehearsal, just going through a few things in the venue. Although we won’t have been able to put the staging up yet due to the wedding on Saturday morning, we will be doing a touch of rehearsing in the right space, and mostly in the pews.

19:30 – Warm up.
19:40 – Thou Wilt Keep Him.
20:00 – Jubilate.
20:25 – Break.
20:40 – National Anthem.
20:55 – I Was Glad.

Saturday 11th June Rehearsal

Again, nice and relaxed, with a couple of breaks, especially so we can enjoy listening to the brass quintet rehearse. Unfortunately though, we do need to run everything, in the same way we did for the Spring concert, so we can hear it all in the venue and with the right instruments. But, please note that these timings are very flexible, so sing well and we won’t have to rehearse for as long, haha!

15:00 – Warm Up.
15:10 – Thou Wilt Keep Him.
15:20 – Zadok the Priest.
15:30 – Brass arrive.
15:35 – Blaenwern.
15:45 – Old Hundredth.
16:00 – Auld Lang Syne.
16:10 – Choir break, Brass rehearse Londonderry Air.
16:30 – National Anthem.
16:45 – I Was Glad.
17:00 – Jerusalem.
17:10 – Brass leave, Choir rehearses Jubilate.
17:25 – Break.
17:40 – Te Deum.
18:00 – The Lord Bless You and Keep You.
18:10 – Final touch-ups on any pieces.
18:30 – Absolute latest rehearsal finish.

Spotify Link

The Spotify playlist for the term is HERE. Final chance to listen!

Marked Scores

If you don’t have the markings in by now I think I might cry...

Concert Details

Time and Location
The concert is at St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton on Saturday 11th June, starting at 19:30.
– Friday 10th rehearsal is 19:30-21:30.
– Saturday 11th rehearsal is 15:00 – 18:30, though this will be very flexible as there’s a wedding in the church prior to the rehearsal, and we may finish sooner to give a bigger break for the picnic.

Picnic
The audience will be invited to join us at 18:30 for a picnic outside the church before the concert, with refreshments being served then (and in the interval, of course).

Dress
Either:
All black, either a long-sleeved shirt, dress or blouse, skirt or trousers (i.e. usual concert dress), but with a splash of colour.
Or: DJs – White shirt, dinner jacket and black trousers, also with a splash of colour (coloured cummerbund, waistcoat or bow-tie).

Any questions, please do get in touch.

Concert Publicity

At the time of writing, we’ve sold 94 tickets according to the website, so well done... but let’s pack out the church, you deserve it!

Check out the Facebook page, and the event for our concert, which you can access HERE.
I’m so grateful for all the work our team does towards advertising our concerts, but it also takes all of you – selling tickets to friends, loved ones, and even strangers on the street – to pack the venues. Let’s all push to sell as many tickets as we can!

Thanks for reading, see you all on Friday!
– Ben

How exciting, the concert is less than a week away! I’m really looking forward to Saturday’s concert, and I’m so pleased with the amount of work you’ve all put in this term.

Below are all of the final details for the concert, so please read carefully. I’ll post one more ‘Conductor’s Note’ on Friday giving a detailed rehearsal schedule for both Friday and Saturday... stay tuned.

What we did on 01.06.22

It was great to have an old friend of the Choir Chris Brown join us this week, and he led some fabulous work in the sectionals, as I heard glowing reports from the Tenors and Basses.

Well done all on the hard work in the sectionals. I feel like the Zadok and I Was Glad are in a much better, more stable place now, especially all of the fiddly bits. If you’re still unsure of any of the bits in those, please do take a moment to look through it.

What we will do on 08.06.22

Final touches now. I’m trusting you all for some hard work on Wednesday, that way Friday and Saturday can be a lot more relaxed and chilled.

19:30 – Warm up.
19:40 – Jerusalem.
20:00 – Thou wilt keep him.
20:25 – Break.
20:35 – National Anthem.
20:45 – Te Deum.
21:20 – Auld Lang Syne. – I’m hoping Eric may be able to give us some authentic pronunciation tips...

Spotify Link

The Spotify playlist for the term is HERE. Still time to have a listen.

Marked Scores

I trust you all have the markings in by now... Thank you!

Concert Details

Time and Location
The concert is at St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton on Saturday 11th June, starting at 19:30.
– Friday 10th rehearsal is 19:30-21:30.
– Saturday 11th rehearsal is 15:00 – 18:30, though this will be very flexible as there’s a wedding in the church prior to the rehearsal, and we may finish sooner to give a bigger break for the picnic.

Picnic
The audience will be invited to join us at 18:30 for a picnic outside the church before the concert, with refreshments being served then (and in the interval, of course).

Dress
Either:
All black, either a long-sleeved shirt, dress or blouse, skirt or trousers (i.e. usual concert dress), but with a splash of colour.
Or: DJs – White shirt, dinner jacket and black trousers, also with a splash of colour (coloured cummerbund, waistcoat or bow-tie).

Any questions, please do get in touch.

Concert Publicity

The poster is below, so share it far and wide! According to the website, we’ve only sold 67 tickets... Let’s sell some more!!

Check out the Facebook page, and the event for our concert, which you can access HERE.
I’m so grateful for all the work our team does towards advertising our concerts, but it also takes all of you – selling tickets to friends, loved ones, and even strangers on the street – to pack the venues. Let’s all push to sell as many tickets as we can!

Thanks for reading, see you all on Wednesday!
– Ben

Not long to go now until our concert – it’s come around very quickly! We have just 2 Wednesday rehearsals left, as well as the Friday rehearsal, so I’m incredibly grateful for all of the work I know you’re all putting in at home. It’s going to be a fabulous concert.

Slightly longer post this week so thank you for reading it all!

What we did on 25.05.22

A great ‘warm up’ in Old Hundredth – yes, the notes are easy, but we managed to put in lots of musicality and meaning to the text; this is what will take it to the next level, so make sure we’re keeping confident with what we covered.
The majority of the rehearsal was on Stanford’s Te Deum. Not only did we correct notes and build confidence, but really started to put some expression into the music, and create some excellent colours and contrasts to the sections. A little reminder to watch the rhythms...
We finished with Rutter, and I can tell you all enjoyed singing the cheese. It’s just the smallest details to work on with this now, so keep up the good work, thank you!

What we will do on 01.06.22

Oh gosh... June already!
This week we’ll be welcoming back the wonderful Chris Brown, who’s depping for Rowena this week. We’ll be doing sectionals, as below:

19:30 – Tutti warm up.
19:40 – Tutti Blaenwern (Love Divine).
19:50 – Sectionals on Zadok the Priest. Tenors and Basses downstairs with Chris, Sopranos and Altos upstairs with me.
20:25 – Break.
20:35 – Sectionals on I Was Glad (same as before).
21:00 – Tutti run of Zadok, I Was Glad, and Te Deum.

Lots to cover this week, but I know we’ll do some brilliant work on this all.

Spotify Link

The Spotify playlist for the term is HERE. Keep listening as helps in learning and internalising the music for this term.

Marked Scores

Here’s the marked booklet for this term. I hope everyone has got the markings in by this point – we need to make sure breaths are in the right place from now on.

Concert Details

We firmed up the concert details the other day in the committee meeting, and I’m sure Eric will send these out in an email too.

Time and Location
The concert is at St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton on Saturday 11th June, starting at 19:30.
– Friday 10th rehearsal is 19:30-21:30.
– Saturday 11th rehearsal is 15:00 – 18:30, though this will be very flexible as there’s a wedding in the church prior to the rehearsal, and we may finish sooner to give a bigger break for the picnic.

Picnic
The audience will be invited to join us at 18:30 for a picnic outside the church before the concert, with refreshments being served then (and in the interval, of course).

Dress
Either:
All black, either a long-sleeved shirt, dress or blouse, skirt or trousers (i.e. usual concert dress), but with a splash of colour.
Or: DJs – White shirt, dinner jacket and black trousers, also with a splash of colour (coloured cummerbund and bow-tie).

Any questions, please do get in touch.

Concert Publicity

The poster is below, so share it far and wide!

Also, here is a photo from Eric of the banner outside of St Mary’s, advertising the concert.
As well as this, Charlotte is doing an excellent job on the Facebook page, and has even created an event for our concert, which you can access HERE.
I’m so grateful for all the work our team does towards advertising our concerts, but it also takes all of you – selling tickets to friends, loved ones, and even strangers on the street – to pack the venues. Let’s all push to sell as many tickets as we can!

This Week’s Listening

As I was driving back through the countryside on Wednesday, I noticed how clear the sky was, so stopped to admire the stars. Immediately, I was reminded of a piece I sang at University by Ēriks Ešenvalds called Stars. Written in 2011 for Salt Lake Vocal Artists/Salt Lake Choral Artists, the words are written by Sara Teasdale. Tuned wine glasses are a constant presence in the piece, a glistening accompaniment to the glowing simplicity of this vision of ‘beating hearts of fire’ seen overhead on a still, dark night. The wondrousness of a ‘heaven full of stars’ is evoked by a radiant chorale before a repeated oscillation of a pair of chords, adding to the magic, recedes into silence. Listen HERE.

Tara’s Fundraising

As you’ll hopefully know, one of our lovely altos, Tara, is raising money for Cancer Research. In her own words:
“This June, before the end of the month, I will complete 300 miles on my bike for Cancer Research UK. 10 miles per day, every day in June. I will be pedalling harder than ever because I want to raise money for life-saving research and help bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.
Every penny makes a huge difference to vital cancer research so please show your support with a donation to my page.
Thank you so much for your generous support.”

You can support Tara HERE.

Thanks for reading, see you all on Wednesday!
– Ben

As short as this term is, and as few rehearsals as we’ve had, I feel as though the progress has been fantastic so far! I’m so excited to be putting on this concert with you all in a few weeks.

We had a great rehearsal on Wednesday in St Mary’s Church (thank you all for bearing with as we adjusted to new seating positions and different acoustics) and we were joined by Peter, who told me afterwards how impressed he was with the sound of the choir – and rightly so, you sounded fab!

What we did on 18.05.22

Brilliant work on the Parry; I realise now it was a slight shock to the system – I thought that warming up with the slow, slushy section would be good, but didn’t take into account the top B-flat at the end (sorry Sopranos!). But, we did some really good, detailed work on the latter half of the Parry.
We remembered the Stanford Jubilate well, and continued to do some really detailed work on the whole thing. Notes were perfect, and we were able to put some great musicality throughout the work, especially with the “Gloria” at the end.
The rehearsal finished with a sing through and a bit of work on the National Anthem.

What we will do on 25.05.22

We’ll warm up with Old Hundredth, before doing some really good work on Stanford’s Te Deum. We’ll then finish with Rutter’s The Lord Bless You.

More details for the concert coming soon.

Online Learning Tracks

As before, there are some useful resources out there to help with learning the music. Choralia, the same website as last term, has some of the repertoire we’re doing – you just need to search their catalogue here.

Eric has very kindly shared another website that he finds useful for learning the music: John Fletcher’s Files. If you have any more questions about it, please do email Eric and I’m sure he’d be happy to chat about it.

Spotify Link

The Spotify playlist for the term is HERE. I hope it also helps in learning the music for this term.

Marked Scores

Here’s the marked booklet for this term. Please do put the markings in as it’s SO helpful for in making rehearsals run more efficiently. I’m sure it won’t take you much time at all.

See you all on Wednesday!
– Ben

What a brilliant start we’ve had to this term. It’s lovely to see so many of you, and to have so many so enthused about this concert. Wednesday’s rehearsal went really well and we covered a lot of the hard bits of some of the trickiest pieces.

What we did on 11.05.22

We did some really good work on Zadok the Priest‘s fiddly passages, created a great sound in the homophonic passages, and worked on the style of the work (including the “Amen”s and “Alleluiah”s). I’m really impressed with the quality of the singing in Parry’s I Was Glad; we did lots of detailed work on the antiphonal and homophonic sections at the beginning. Finally, we finished with Thou Wilt Keep Him which was beautiful. We still need to do a bit of work on the style and just solidify some pitches, but the progress made in the rehearsal was very impressive.

What we will do on 18.05.22

We’ll work on the Parry from the “Vivats” to the end; Stanford’s Jubilate, looking in particular at the style of the work; and finally a bit on the National Anthem.

Updated Important Information for Wednesday 18th

A note about this rehearsal: due to the re-carpeting of the church, we thought we’d have to be in the room downstairs. However, we’ve managed to move the rehearsal to St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton, which is much better for maintaining Covid precautions. We understand that the room downstairs would’ve been a bit cramped, so we’re delighted to be having the rehearsal in St Mary’s. See you there!

Online Learning Tracks

As I posted last week: there are some useful resources out there to help with learning the music. Choralia, the same website as last term, has some of the repertoire we’re doing – you just need to search their catalogue here.

Eric has very kindly shared another website that he finds useful for learning the music: John Fletcher’s Files. If you have any more questions about it, please do email Eric and I’m sure he’d be happy to chat about it.

Spotify Link

The Spotify playlist for the term is HERE. I hope it also helps in learning the music for this term.

Marked Scores

Here’s the marked booklet for this term. Please do put the markings in as it’s SO helpful for in making rehearsals run more efficiently. I’m sure it won’t take you much time at all.

Summer Come-and-Sing day

As I mentioned last week, we’ll be having a Come-and-Sing day on the 23rd July (venue tbc), working on Gabriel Faure’s Requiem. It’s a cracking piece, so listen here to whet your appetite. Susannah will be giving us a sign-up list so we can get an idea of numbers, in order to hire scores. More details anon...

See you all on Wednesday!
– Ben

I can’t believe how long it’s taken me to post the first Conductor’s Notes of the Summer Term! It’s been a fabulous start to the term, and I’m so pleased to see so many of you enjoying such a fun set of music, and a huge welcome to our new members this term.

This is a bit of a long one with lots of helpful information, and a few interesting bits.

What we did on 27th April and 4th May

It was great to run through everything on the 27th April. I hope it was a good introduction to the programme, and well done to all for keeping up as we rattled through all of the pieces.

On the 4th, we did some work on the Old Hundredth, as well as both bits of Stanford (the Te Deum and Jubilate). The bits of Stanford, as challenging as they are at times, went really well, and over the forthcoming weeks we’ll explore more of the tricky harmonies and harder rhythmic sections. We then finished with Rutter’s The Lord Bless You and Keep You, which was a beautiful way to end the rehearsal.

Just FYI about the Vaughan Williams copies: all of those with photocopies, they are all legal as Susannah was able to get a photocopying licence. There seems to be a massive Vaughan Williams shortage this year due to it being his 150th anniversary.

What we will do on 11th May

We’ll be working on Parry’s I Was Glad, Handel’s Zadok the Priest, and Wesley’s Thou Wilt Keep Him.

Online Learning Tracks

As with last term, there are some useful resources out there to help with learning the music. Choralia, the same website as last term, has some of the repertoire we’re doing – you just need to search their catalogue here.

Eric has very kindly shared another website that he finds useful for learning the music: John Fletcher’s Files. If you have any more questions about it, please do email Eric and I’m sure he’d be happy to chat about it.

Spotify Link

The Spotify playlist for the term is HERE. I hope it also helps in learning the music for this term.

Marked Scores

Here’s the marked booklet for this term. Please do put the markings in as it’s SO helpful for in making rehearsals run more efficiently. I’m sure it won’t take you much time at all.

Section Reps

A massive thanks to our new Section Representatives. I’m looking forward to working very closely with them over the next year to keep moving the choir forwards. Just a reminder of who your fabulous new Section Reps are:

Soprano: Rachel
Alto: Naomi
Tenor: Peter
Bass: Bill

Any feedback, questions, or comments, please feel free to talk to them, or of course email me or Eric directly – we’re always here to chat.

Listening For The Week

Last weekend I went down to Cornwall to sing with a group called Man(n) Singt! – a German male-voice choir – as part of the Cornwall International Male Choral Festival. We came second overall (another German choir came first...) and we also won Best Single Piece of Music, with Poulenc’s O mes tres chers freres – which begins with a solo sung by their Artistic Director of the group and my good friend Peter Gortner. You may recognise a couple of the Acafellas in there as well.

Check out our performance HERE.

See you all on Wednesday!
– Ben

Wow! What a concert! I think we can all agree that that was something special. Well done to you all for your commitment and dedication to an incredible term of rehearsals and to such a high-level performance. I’m so grateful to you all for putting in those countless hours learning the music, marking up the scores, and practicing your parts; it paid off with a concert you should all be so proud of!

The Verdi was such a great opening to the concert – I could feel the audience pinned back in their seats (that feeling of when you hurtle down the runway in a plane) when the choir came in at the beginning. It was an arresting start, and you only gained momentum as we went on. The soli entries, such as the altos’ luxurious passage in the middle, were a pleasure to listen to, and the tutti sections were so full-bodied and committed. Safe to say I’ve revised my orchestration to take out the text “play if choir need” in the score – what was I thinking, of course you didn’t need support! The climax at the end was truly... truly breathtaking! I had the largest grin on my face, seeing and listening to you all give it your all on that fortissimo chord! An absolute success!

At this point, I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say how lucky we were to have the Adderbury Ensemble playing with us! Chris did an absolutely stellar job in fixing a first-rate orchestra who supported the choir with such delicacy, but also shone when we wanted them to. It was an absolute privilege to have them with us, and I can’t wait until our next performance with them. I say this because I’ve been overwhelmed by choir members’ comments on how much they enjoyed Crisantemi. I honestly think that if I weren’t focusing so hard on my conducting I would have just broken down in tears because it was just that moving! The playing from the whole orchestra throughout the concert was impeccable, but the strings truly shone in that bit of Puccini.

And of course, the star of the show, the Messa di Gloria – the whole performance was just filled with life, character, and enough energy to power Deddington! The Kyrie was beautiful, but where the second half came alive was in the Gloria. All throughout the opening I could tell how much fun everyone was having, and I could feel the tingle of excitement from the audience behind me. I’m incredibly grateful to our soloists Michael Gibson and James Berry for their incredible solos in the piece; everything was world-class, and from my point of view they were a dream to follow. I also hope they don’t mind me saying how much they enjoyed singing with you all too. To sum up the Gloria (and the concert as a whole) – someone just behind me, at the end of the Gloria, exclaimed “what an incredible sound!”

The Credo had such passion, and I felt like we really connected all the way through in our interpretation of it. It’s moments like that which I wish everyone could experience from a conductor’s point of view; a choir, orchestra, soloist, and conductor all working in harmony, sharing the same interpretation of a piece of music – truly something magical. The Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei were just perfect. Contrasting those movements with the bombastic, truly ‘Italian’ movements which came before were just such a lovely way to end our concert, and really provided such wonderful distinction and character to the bigger sounds we explored earlier in the work. I’m putting the lack of immediate applause at the end of the work down to the audience being stunned... rather, profoundly moved... by the performance as a whole.

I’m incredibly proud of everyone involved in the performance, and can’t wait to see what else we can achieve!

I think it goes without saying that I’m incredibly grateful to the hard work and diligence of everyone involved “backstage” to ensure we put on a brilliant concert. The committee, for all of their work in organising the rehearsals, venues, music, concert details, among so many other things; all those who publicised the concert, through posting online, designing posters and programmes, selling tickets; and those who came early and stayed behind late to help set up the church, and the rehearsals, and put in so much ‘manual-labour’ to ensure everything happened so seamlessly. We couldn’t put on a concert like that without an incredible team of volunteers who ensure everything actually happens, so thank you all!

What we will do on 27th April

Obviously there’s nothing for you to actually prepare yet, so all I ask is that you check out this term’s Spotify playlist below, and keep you eyes peeled for when a marked-up score becomes available. It’s going to be such a fun summer term!

Spotify Link

The Spotify playlist for our “Pomp and Pimms” concert is HERE.

Have a lovely Easter break, and see you all on the 27th April.
– Ben

Well done for our final Wednesday rehearsal of this term! I think you can all agree it’s really coming together, and I can’t wait to put it all together with the orchestra and soloists. This will be my last “Conductor’s Notes” post before the concert, so if I haven’t answered any questions here, please do drop me or Eric an email.

What we did on 23.03.22

Everything in the Gloria ‘run’ went very well. We topped and tailed small sections to make sure they were really secure.

I feel like we’re all a lot more confident with the Verdi now, especially once we’d worked on the final couple of sections, as well as finding our notes for the starts of sections and working on the text.

What we will do on 01.04.22

How is it April already?! Friday 1st’s rehearsal will be a ‘top and tail’ of everything – we should know which bits will challenge us individually, so please come prepared. Having said this, I don’t want to work you too hard as to tire you out for tomorrow, so we’ll need lots of focus to work efficiently.

A reminder that the rehearsal will be at ST PETER & ST PAUL’S CHURCH, DEDDINGTON!

Concert Day Rehearsal Schedule – Saturday 2nd April:

Set-up and Arrival:
14:00-14:30
• Choir arrive and in seats by 14:20.
• Orchestra arrives and tunes by 14:25.
• Soloists arrive.

Rehearsal 1:
14:30-15:10 – Puccini Gloria.
15:10-15:30 – Puccini Credo.
15:30-15:45 – Puccini Agnus Dei.

Break:
15:45-16:00

Rehearsal 2:
16:00-16:20 – Puccini Sanctus.
16:20-16:40 – Puccini Kyrie. (Soloists free to leave.)
16:40-17:15 – Verdi Stabat Mater.
17:15-17:30 – Puccini Crysantimi. (Woodwind, Brass, Percussion & Choir free to leave.)

Concert:
19:10 – Choir arrives, warm up, and ready to go on by 19:25.
19:30 – Concert begins.

Concert Dress

is either Tuxedos (Dinner Jacket, White Shirt, Black Bow-Tie, Black Trousers and Black Shoes) or All Black.

Marked Scores

As always, the marked scores are here. I’d be very sad if you hadn’t put these markings in by this point, haha!

Spotify Link

And the Spotify playlist is HERE.

See you all tonight!
– Ben

What a great rehearsal on Wednesday – the whole programme is in a really good place, and now we’ve got the final push towards the concert on Saturday.

I’ll be sending out a detailed rehearsal schedule for the concert day and any other final bits in time for our rehearsal on Friday.

What we did on 23.03.22

Some really good work on the hardest bits of the programme; the Credo and the Stabat Mater. The Credo is now performance ready, and we’ll cover it again on Friday and Saturday – keep this one ticking over until then. The Verdi is almost perfect and we’ll perfect it on the 30th.

What we will do on 30.03.22

19:30-20:15 – A run of the Gloria – it’s in such a good position, we just need to check it all the way through.
20:15-20:30 – Verdi, working on each section starting from the end.
20:40-21:30 – Verdi continued.

This is going to be such an exciting concert, and I can’t wait to bring it together with the orchestra and soloists.

Concert Details

Eric will be sending out all of the concert details for Saturday, but just a quick reminder of the timings and locations for both days:

Friday 1st April:
19:30-21:30
St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Deddington.

Saturday 2nd April:
Rehearsal: 14:30-17:30 (please be ready for baton-down at 14:30)
Concert: 19:30-21:45 (ready to go on by 19:15)
St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Deddington.

Piece of the Week

Following a successful newChoir concert on Saturday, I can’t stop listening to the Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare by George Shearing. They’re such fun pieces and a joy to sing and listen to! Have a LISTEN HERE.

Marked Scores

As always, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.

Spotify Link

And the Spotify playlist is HERE.
– Ben

Greetings from Karlsruhe, Germany... is what I was hoping to write. Unfortunately my connection to the internet was incredibly limited, and most of the time was spent singing; not the worst thing in the world! So, I’m writing these from boring old Birmingham instead. I’m sorry to only just get these posted, but I did have a wonderful time!

I was really impressed with Wednesday 16th’s rehearsal, not only because of the standard of singing, but of the quality and commitment by the depleted numbers who could make it, especially in the tenors!

What we did on 16.03.22

A great recap of the Agnus Dei to warm us up. I won’t cover this until a ‘sing-through’ on Friday 1st’s rehearsal, so make sure you keep it fresh in your memories.
Good work on the Credo – a few more bits to cover this week, but we did some excellent rehearsing of the final ‘Coda’ at the end.
The Gloria was great. We’ve now covered that end section pretty extensively, so will be top-and-tailing it for the remaining few rehearsals.
Finally, good work on the Verdi – it’s been a few weeks since we covered it, and you remembered it well, with some prompting, haha! We’ll keep working on this over the forthcoming weeks.

What we will do on 23.03.22

19:30-20:15 – Straight in with some hard work in the Gloria, page 21-33. Lots to cover and lots to remind ourselves of.
20:15-20:30 – Verdi, bar 143-End, working hard on pronunciation and performance.
20:40-21:00 – Verdi continued.
21:00-21:30 – Finally we’ll finish with the Credo, pages 51-67.

Another long evening, but you’re all doing amazingly and it promises to be an amazing concert.

Section Representatives

A little reminder about what was said about trialing our idea of Section Representatives.

Title – Section Representative.

Purpose – to form a Group with the MD to act as a conduit for conversations between the MD and the choir in order for both to flourish.

Scope – to be agreed by the Group and might include repertoire, concert arrangements, the location and handling of rehearsals. The Group might extend it’s scope to include the Accompanist.

Meetings and reporting – to be agreed, but should arrange to meet at regular intervals. The MD should report on the discussions to the CNCS Committee and then communicate actions via Conductor’s Notes.

Term –  Our initial thinking is that people will be SRs for a year and then hand over the role to another singer from their section. We’ll get this off the ground by asking people to volunteer at the rehearsal on Wed 23rd as they sign in; if there are several names, we’ll draw one for each section out of a hat but keep the other names on a list and either nominate them next time, or, if there are several, draw names as before.

New Accompanist

It’s with great pleasure that we announce Rowena Gibbons as our new accompanist, following a very positive selection process. Rowena will be joining us at the end of April, and I’m sure you’re all looking forward to welcoming her into the CNCS Community as much as I am.

I’d like to also take a moment to thank the wonderful Bernard and Terry for their incredible work over the past term with us, as well as their many years of fantastic service to the choir!

Piece of the Week

So you can hear the sort of thing I was getting up to in Germany, the group with which I was singing – Man(n) Singt! – recorded a CD a few years ago, and it’s available on Spotify. Some of the repertoire we sang over the weekend is on the CD, including Herr, lehre doch mich and Der Lindenbaum – have a LISTEN HERE.

Marked Scores

As always, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.

Spotify Link

And the Spotify playlist is HERE.

Have a lovely weekend.
– Ben

It was lovely to see you all again, especially following our success on Saturday at the Music Festival. I think I’m only just beginning to come down off the high of the day! Well done to our second candidate, and to you all – safe to say you made both of our candidates feel incredibly welcome and comfortable during their auditions, welcoming them with warm smiles and responsive singing.
We’ll hopefully have a decision by this coming Wednesday, along with some other news, so stay tuned!

What we did on 09.03.22

What a good way to start the rehearsal, by refreshing the Sanctus. This easy movement was remembered well, and it got us nicely into the Puccini mood. We then did some excellent work on the Credo, pages 60-67, before consolidating the opening of the Gloria and working on the Fugue in the Gloria. At the end there was some brilliant singing in the fugue, and I’m so pleased with how we left it at the end of the rehearsal.

What we will do on 16.03.22

We’ll be catching back up with the Verdi for a lot of the rehearsal, as well as running the Credo and the end of the Gloria. Lots to get done, but we’re in the final push now!

19:30-20:00 – We’ll warm up with the Agnus Dei from the Messa – let’s refresh our memories on this.
20:00-20:25 – Credo – starting with a run of the movement, followed by bits of work on the sections we’re not quite as comfortable with.
20:35-21:00 – We’ll run the Gloria from page 33 to the end, ie the fugue that we worked on last week.
21:00-21:30 – Finally we’ll finish with the Verdi bars 89-158.

Long evening, I know, but it’s so exciting to be doing such great detailed work on all of this now.

Piece of the Week

I was listening to the morning programme on BBC Radio 3 on Tuesday morning and, being International Women’s Day, they were playing music exclusively by female composers. There was one piece that really stuck out to me, due to its beauty and incredible harmonies; a piece by Ukrainian composer Galina Grigorjeva called In Paradisum. I just found listening to the piece profoundly moving, almost welling up as I sat in my car about to teach. One doesn’t need to believe in God, but the text was striking, especially when listened to in the current crisis, as set by a Ukrainian composer:
“May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.”
Do please have a listen to this absolutely gorgeous piece HERE.

Marked Scores

As always, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.

Spotify Link

And the Spotify playlist is HERE.

Have a lovely weekend.
– Ben

What’s this?! Another Conductor’s Notes in the same week?! How exciting!

A massive congratulations to you all for the success in the Music Festival yesterday. I’m so, so pleased with how it went, and am so proud of everyone who took part. It’s always a scary experience working with a new conductor/choir in performance for the first time, but I think you all handled it perfectly, and the performance was just wonderful. The other Acafellas were incredibly impressed with both the quality of the sound and the level of sophistication of the performance.

For those who couldn’t stay for the feedback, Steven Roberts, the adjudicator, said some brilliant things – a lot of great observations and ways to enhance our performance (some of which I’ve been telling you for weeks... haha!), as well as some very nice commendations. To achieve a ‘Distinction’ for our first performance together is something we should all be very proud of.
(If Eric lets me keep the feedback sheet, it’ll go in a frame on my office wall, next to the Puccini poster)...

Below are the “Adjudicator’s Remarks”, along with my comments (credit to Eric for helping me decipher some sentences...):

Adjudicator’s Remarks

Kyrie

A beautifully shaped piano introduction. – absolutely. I think we can all agree that Bernard played phenomenally, and we’re lucky to have both him and Terry with us this term.

Choir – why are you looking at your copies? Faces forward will build your rapport with the audience and your conductor. – agreed. He spoke about not following along the introduction and that I will be nice and clear to bring you in. Big smiles too! Having said all of this, I felt like the connection we had as choir and conductor was tenfold what we have in rehearsals because you all watched me like hawks! I loved it!

A lovely rich sound – nicely shaped phrases. – yes! So musically shaped.

Some positive dynamics – emphasise a little more your < – I thought the contrast between the “Kyrie” and “Christe”, especially with the dynamics, was fab. Even more though!

Clear diction – watch word endings. – Most of the time this was good, it’s just the odd quaver (I know I held the final quaver on too long, sorry!)

You have a warm tone and you sing with passion and consideration to the text. – Perfect!

Emphasise articulation ^ and >. – Yes, but I’m not too worried about these, haha.

Some lovely phrasing and shaping, your control is good – your bigger dynamics are well handled and controlled. – 100% agree, the musicality was excellent! Let’s see if we can control the quieter dynamics now.

Gloria

Nicely sung Sops and Altos – now dance a little more. – Haha, yes!

Ensure full value on crotchets on “Glorias” – Exactly what we worked on on Wednesday...

You feel the excitement and energy in the full choir. – Yes, yes, yes! It looked like you were having fun, too, adding to that wonderful performance!

Support your Ab Sopranos at the Andante. – We’ve done a lot of work on well-supported high-singing... I’m going to put this down to a lack of warm up...

There is some lovely shaping coming from your conductor, ensure you follow every gesture. – What a lovely thing to say, haha!

Ensure a full forte chord at “Laudamus Te” – ATB, support the Sopranos here. – Absolutely, and I think we’ll just do a tiny bit of work on that on Wednesday, especially while we’re nice and fresh.

You build dynamics very successfully through the “Adoramus Te” section. – I though this was particularly exciting, and was a real pleasure to conduct this section in particular.

Give long notes their full value. (A small point) – Small but important...

An excellent accompanist! – I think we can all agree how lucky we are to have Bernard!

A rich and secure performance with lovely attention to detail. Good luck with your performance. Well done! – I’m so pleased with this everyone, well done indeed!

Well done all, and I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday.
– Ben

What an interesting evening we had; thanks once again to Pete for stepping in on about 24 hour’s notice as Bernard was unfortunately still testing positive – we wish Bernard back to full health soon, and look forward to seeing him on Saturday. Well done to our first candidate, and to you all, particularly in having to react to the sectionals situation. We look forward to Wednesday when we welcome our second candidate.

IMPORTANT – Details for the Music Festival are below (please do read them)!

What we did on 02.03.22

Great work on the Kyrie and opening section of the Gloria – these are in a really good position for Saturday’s Music Festival. For those who missed the rehearsal, but will be singing on Saturday, please do have a look at the Kyrie and up to page 16 of the Gloria to make sure you’re all really happy with it all.

What we will do on 09.03.22

Following our inevitable success in the Music Festival, we’ll be welcoming our second potential new accompanist to the piano, and they’ll be working with us during the rehearsal as part of the selection process. The schedule for the rehearsal will be:

19:30-19:45 – Ben and Terry will do a warm up and quick sing of the Sanctus to get everyone going.
19:45-20:15 – Our second candidate will accompany the Credo, page 60 to 67.
20:20-20:35 – Our second candidate will lead the Sopranos and Altos in a sectional on the Gloria, beginning to page 16.
Terry will take the Tenors and Basses through the fugue in the Gloria, page 33 to 43.
20:40-20:55 – Our second candidate will lead the Tenors and Basses in a sectional on the Gloria, beginning to page 16.
Terry will take the Sopranos and Altos through the fugue in the Gloria, page 33 to 43.
21:00-21:30 – Ben and Bernard rehearse the full choir through the fugue in the Gloria, page 33 to 48.

I hope this is all okay, and we’re very grateful to you all for your help in finding our new accompanist.

Details for the Chipping Norton Music Festival

I’m so delighted we’ve had so many people sign up for this (around 55!) – the sound you all made at the end of Wednesday’s rehearsal was brilliant!

To reiterate some details:

Dress Code: All Black.

Timings: Arrive latest 15:45 for a 16:00 session start – if you’re able to, go and support any of the other events that day, in particular the other senior choir session starting at 13:30 (all sessions are free for participants!!)

Acafellas: Stick around after you’ve sung to hear me and some friends sing some silly barbershop.

Covid Advice: The Festival Committee have asked that we please test before attending, and mask up when moving around.

Any other questions please don’t hesitate to email Eric or myself. See many of you on Saturday!

Piece of the Week

My piece of the week was actually sent to me by Brian – a work I hadn’t heard for a few years, and one that is so striking in it’s composition: Arvo Pärt’s Te Deum. Composed in 1984, it’s peculiar instrumentation, featuring a prepared piano and compositional make-up stand it out from other settings of the text. Pärt uses his own compositional technique of Tintinnabuli to great effect in the work; a form of minimalistic composition where one voice arpeggiates a triad, and the second voice moves in a stepwise motion, creating a distinct harmonic language. Possibly the most famous use of this is in Spiegel im Spiegel.

Look at that, two pieces for the price of one!...

Marked Scores

As always, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.

Spotify Link

And the Spotify playlist is HERE.

See some of you on Saturday, and the rest on Wednesday.
– Ben

Wow! How is half term already over?! I hope you’ve all had a lovely break, and also weren’t too affected by the storm last weekend. It’s been a very odd week not seeing you all, so I’m very much looking forward to Wednesday.

What we did on 23.02.22

Nothing! Well... I hope you all did some practice, or at least looked or listened to the music, haha! I’ve had a few emails from people saying how helpful the Choralia links are, so I’ll keep them up here for you all to use.

What we will do on 02.03.22

This week is exciting as we’ll be welcoming our first potential new accompanist to the piano, and they’ll be working with us during the rehearsal as part of the selection process. The schedule for the rehearsal will be:

19:30-19:45 – Ben and Bernard will do a warm up and quick sing of thee Kyrie to get everyone going.
19:45-20:15 – Our first candidate will accompany the Kyrie.
20:20-20:35 – Our first candidate will lead the Sopranos and Altos in a sectional on the Gloria, beginning to page 16.
Bernard will take the Tenors and Basses through the fugue in the Gloria, page 33 to 43.
20:40-20:55 – Our first candidate will lead the Tenors and Basses in a sectional on the Gloria, beginning to page 16.
Bernard will take the Sopranos and Altos through the fugue in the Gloria, page 33 to 43.
21:00-21:30 – Ben and Bernard rehearse the full choir through the opening of the Gloria and Kyrie in preparation for
Saturday’s Music Festival.

I hope this is all okay, and we’re very grateful to you all for your help in finding our new accompanist.

Here’s a link to the Choralia site. As I said in last week’s Notes, it’s a very crude audio quality, but it allows you to hear your own part, slow it down, and loop it for detailed learning. I highly recommend at least checking them out to help your learning specific parts – please don’t rely on it though... I worry you may all come to the next rehearsal sounding like computers!

Verdi Stabat Mater

Puccini Messa di Gloria

Piece of the Week

My piece of the week this week is inspired by a chat I had with Eric, about our favourite pieces and recordings, and we both agreed that Brahms’s First Symphony is a work of true beauty.
Inspired by – yet in the shadow of – Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony, Brahms spent well over a decade writing his first symphony, always doubting himself and his work as a symphonic composer. I hope you all agree with us that this is one of the greatest symphonies written in the Romantic era.

Check it out HERE.

Marked Scores

As always, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.

Chipping Norton Music Festival

Just a reminder of our involvement in the Music Festival on Saturday 5th March, beginning at 4pm. We’re on at 4pm exactly, so Eric and Sarah will let us know on Wednesday about where we need to be and when, ready to perform! I hope you can all make it!

See you all on Wednesday.
– Ben

Good afternoon everyone! I hope you’re all staying safe and well in this nasty storm! We’ve fortunately not been too badly affected, but are now a bit apprehensive about moving our furniture in a van tomorrow...

I was really pleased with this week’s rehearsal, especially with the run of the Verdi – not perfect, but a really good thing to do at this point in the term! I’d also like to say a massive congratulations on the money raised for Brain Tumour Research – £300 is amazing. Although Eric may not trust any of my dinner invitations from now on, I think he was very touched by everyone’s commitment to wearing a hat/donkey ears for his birthday and in support of the charity. A huge thanks to the committee for organising it all.

What we did on 16.02.22

As I said, it’s an incredible achievement to have got all the way through the Verdi at this stage in the term. It was then great to dissect the first half of it and do some hard work on the notes, text, and character of the piece – Basses, I’m still not afraid of you!
We made some good progress with the Puccini Credo, and have now sung the entire piece in a good amount of detail. Well done with the amount we covered; I feel as though we’re in a really good place with it all.

What we will do on 23.02.22

Nothing! It’s half term, so enjoy the week off. Please do keep listening to the music, ensure your score is marked up, and keep practicing the parts you’re least familiar with. It’s going to be a really good second half to the term, I can feel it, so let’s come really on top of the music in March.

I’ll do another Conductor’s Notes next week letting you all know about the rehearsal on the 2nd March.

To help with any specific parts, please find two links below, to a site called Choralia. It’s a very crude audio quality, but it allows you to hear your own part, slow it down, and loop it for detailed learning. I highly recommend at least checking them out to help your learning specific parts – please don’t rely on it though... I worry you may all come to the next rehearsal sounding like computers!

Verdi Stabat Mater

Puccini Messa di Gloria

Piece of the Week

The final bit of shameless self-promotion – you can still catch the NYCGB Showcase 2022 on YouTube until the end of March. I hop you’ll all check it out, not just to hear some incredible new music sung by yours truly, but to hear all about the phenomenal organisation I’ve been a part of over the past year.

Check it out HERE.

Marked Scores

As always, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.

Chipping Norton Music Festival

We’ll be singing on Saturday 5th March, with our set beginning at 4pm. Bernard will be accompanying us for this, and we’ll be singing the Kyrie and the beginning of the Gloria. I would love to have the whole choir there, and to use it as a great opportunity to perform together and to the community, so please put this in the diary.

Have a lovely half-term!
– Ben

A massive hello to you all from our new house! I’m sorry for the delay in getting these notes posted as the past few days have been filled with frantic packing and moving, but I’m pleased to say we’re a lot more settled now (even if we don’t yet know where everything is!)

At the bottom of this post is some more information about the Chipping Norton Music Festival. It’ll be so good for everyone to come and represent the choir, and I hope you’ll all be able to make it. I believe there’ll be a tick-box on the sign-in sheet at the rehearsal to say whether you’ll be attending or not. Alternatively, if you know you can’t make it, please email Eric to let him know.

What we did on 09.02.22

Brilliant work on the Verdi – it was great to cover that final section, and I’m really beginning to get a sense of the text through your expression now. It’ll be great to piece it all together.
I love how well the Credo is coming along; so much was remembered from the previous week, and we were able to do some fabulously detailed work on the opening through to the Bass solo on page 58. Just a reminder to keep the drama alive throughout, and we are the ‘backing vocals’ to the Tenor soloist at figure 3.

What we will do on 16.02.22

Verdi Stabat Mater: All the way through! At this point in term, it’ll be great to see where this piece is, so we’ll sing through it all, then top and tail small sections so we know what to look at over the half term break.

Puccini Credo: Page 60-End – the final bit of the Puccini that we need to cover before the break. There’s a lot here, and a lot of stylistic changes, but you’ll manage it with ease, and hopefully a lot of it will come back from the first week we did it.

Piece of the Week

This week’s suggested listening is a shameless bit of self-promotion: it’s our final Showcase event as part of the Fellowship with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. It’s a free, online viewing, at 6:30pm on Tuesday 15th Feb. I hope it gives you an chance to see what I’ve been up to with my work with NYCGB. ‘Tickets’ via the website have sold out, but you should be able to just watch it on their YouTube channel here.

Marked Scores

As before, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.

Chipping Norton Music Festival

Sarah will confirm this in the rehearsal on Wednesday, but we’ll be singing on Saturday 5th March, with our set beginning around 4pm. Bernard will be accompanying us for this, and we’ll be singing the Kyrie and the beginning of the Gloria. I would love to have the whole choir there, and to use it as a great opportunity to perform together and to the community, so please put this in the diary.

See you on Wednesday,
Ben

It was so lovely to be back! I know I was only away for a week, but I really missed the fun that we have. I thought Wednesday’s rehearsal was excellent, so thank you all for your hard work, and a massive thanks again to Terry for getting some brilliant work done – I came back suitably impressed!

At the bottom of this post is information about the Chipping Norton Music Festival. As I said in the rehearsal, I’m very excited that we’ll have the chance to perform in the Festival, and we can use it as an opportunity to gel as a choir and new conductor in a performance situation.

What we did on 02.02.22

It was great to start with the Verdi today. I usually put it at the end, but I’m sure you’ll all agree (especially Sopranos with those top Bs) that it was beneficial to start with it. Great job!
The Kyrie was fantastic! I’m so pleased with the hard work that you all put in with Terry, and I’m glad we could continue to build colour and character with the music.
We made really good progress with the ending of the Gloria. I feel like the confidence with the chromatic harmonies is getting more solid each week, so keep it up. Great watching for the rall. – I wonder if we can do this all of the time, haha!
Finally, we ended with a solid reminder of the beginning of the Credo. I loved the conviction with the text and the dark mood you created.

What we will do on 09.02.22

Verdi Stabat Mater: Bars 89-158, with a particular focus on the power needed from bar 143 onwards. Please familiarise yourselves with the text for this section, so we can crack straight on with conveying the incredible meaning behind it.

Puccini Credo: Beginning-Figure 6. A lot to cover in here, including the dramatic colour and dynamic changes, but I want to focus heavily on the homophonic stuff at figure 3, accompanying the soloist.

Puccini Gloria: Figures 24-26, looking in particular at the interplay between the parts.

Piece of the Week

This week is simply Verdi’s Stabat Mater. Hopefully you’ll all recognise it, but now’s a good chance to familiarise yourselves with it as a whole, having rehearsed it in sections over the past few weeks. You can find it on the Spotify Playlist for the concert, by clicking the link below.

Listen HERE.

Marked Scores

A few people have asked me to send round the marked scores again. They’re below, and should be available for download. I really appreciate your time in putting these markings into your parts as it saves so much time in rehearsals! I suggest doing it with a nice glass of gin!

Chipping Norton Music Festival

I’ve entered us into the Festival, yay! More details to follow, but the pieces we’ll be performing are the Puccini Kyrie and Gloria (Beginning-Page 16). The date of the performance is Saturday 5th March, so please keep this free in your diaries! If you know you can’t make it, please let Eric know as soon as possible. I’d love to bring along as big a choir as possible to really represent how incredible this choir is!

Ben

Well, this is exciting – my first post on ‘Conductor’s Notes’! I look forward to carrying on this excellent tradition from Peter, providing you with feedback on the rehearsals and what we’ll be looking at in the forthcoming week. I’ll also be sharing my ‘Piece of the Week’ – some suggested listening for your entertainment.

I look forward to seeing you all on the 2nd February!

What we did on 26.01.22

A massive thank you to Terry for stepping in at the last minute; I heard it went extremely well, and we’re incredibly luck to have such exceptional accompanists at our disposal! Thank you for your work on the Gloria – I’ve been assured it’s all slotting into place and that everyone is beginning to feel more confident with it. The introduction to the Kyrie sounds as though it was very useful and I look forward to hearing the progress on it next Wednesday.

What we will do on 02.02.22

Verdi Stabat Mater: Bar 160-End. I look forward to your story-telling with the text, and then creating a rich, warm sound on the build-up from Bar 185.

Puccini Kyrie: Full movement, focusing on the contrast of colour between the “Christe” and the “Kyries”.

Puccini Gloria: Figure 27-End, refreshing memories on the ‘fugue’ theme.

If there’s time: Puccini Credo: Beginning-Figure 3, reminding ourselves of the key ‘themes’.

Piece of the Week

Is actually a shameless promotion of the recently-released National Youth Choirs of Great Britain’s new Album from the Young Composer’s Scheme. As part of the NYCGB Fellowship we worked very closely with these 4 incredible young composers, including singing the pieces they wrote for us. Unfortunately I had a throat infection for the recording, but I’m phenomenally proud of the composers and singers on this album. Please have a listen!

Listen HERE.

Ben

Congratulations to everyone who sang carols in town last Thursday and thank you. Councillor Rizvana Poole said ‘It was such a moving experience and loved by all who attended.’ It is important (and fun!) to support town and community events like this and good of you to put in the time.

And by the way – if you forget your mask when shopping, just sing. Masks are not required when singing. Hurrah.

What we did on 08.12.21

Back in St Mary’s we had to adjust to more changes in seating and acoustics. We are learning to be flexible! Substantial progress on Britten no. 4 (Journey to Palestine), we have nearly nailed it, but it did take up a lot of time, increasing the pressure on the rest. We sang through no.8 (His piety) which was pretty good and held its tuning – fab! This just needs more expression now. The three Messiah choruses were fine – well done. We can ‘relax’ into those on the night.

What we will do on 15.12.21

Britten: Nos 5, 7, middle section of 8 and 9

Messiah: Surely (98) NB ALERT – at the end of page 101, go straight to page 113, fig G (and the Lord…) to finish. Paper clip these pages together for easy turning. He trusted in God (115) .

We won’t sing the three carols until Friday. PLEASE know these, they are so simple…..

What we will do on Friday 17.12.21

The carols and the Britten, no Messiah, and we will be in positions on stage.

The programme running order and timetable for Saturday 18^th can be found in the Conductor’s Additional Notes of November 29.

I am really looking forward to seeing many of you on Sunday for our ‘gathering’. What’s YOUR definition of a ‘PARTY’?!! Whatever it is, let’s have one.

Peter

What we did on 01.12.21

Holy Trinity Church is a marvellous building in which to rehearse – warm, comfortable and spacious. Wonderful acoustic for the right music, but not so easy for rehearsing as the resonance made it challenging to hear each other so our rhythm and ensemble were compromised. Someone admitted in the pub that the only way to keep together was to watch me! Now there’s a thought…… Despite the new hurdles it was a good rehearsal and we covered a lot, thank you.

Parish notices:

Thank you to everyone who signed ‘Peter’s Podium’. It will be available again for everyone to sign. I will treasure having a CNCS rostrum to stand on whenever I conduct in future, and if everyone’s name is on the back, I will feel truly supported by you all.

Concert programmes: These will be available for the choir to purchase at the Friday 17^th rehearsal.

Guests’ refreshments: Thank you in advance to Tenors and Sopranos for providing refreshments for the instrumentalists and soloists after the dress rehearsal. Please sign up if you haven’t already.

What we will do on 08.12.21

Rehearsal will be back in St Mary’s Church at 7.30 and we will sit in the pews for easier distancing.

Warm up with Ding dong, Silent Night & Coventry Carol

Britten: Movements  4,  5  &  7

Messiah: Amen (p 227 to end),  For unto us (p55),  Glory to God (p68)

Keep practising – the end is nigh.

Thank you

Peter

Here is the programme running order for the concert 18.12.21

St Nicolas

INTERVAL

For unto us a boy is born

Glory to God

Silent Night (S/A only)

Surely

He trusted in God

Coventry Carol (T/B only)

Hallelujah chorus

Ding dong merrily on high (+ audience)

Worthy is the Lamb/Amen

The Dress Rehearsal timetable for Saturday 18th is as follows:

2.15 – Everyone seated for warm up and focus

2.30 – Britten

3.45 – Break

4.00 – More Britten

4.30 – Carols & Messiah

5.30ish END