Members' page Updated 9 January 20010
- The choir is seeking to recruit some more tenors
and basses. Gentlemen of those voices, if you are interested in joining the
choir, please come along to our open rehearsals on 11 and 18 January at
8 pm in Verulam School Hall, Brampton Road, St Albans
AL1 4PR. We'll be working on
Handel's Solomon. Further information from the choir secretary,
Karen Morrish on 01923 263939.
- Note learning tool. For those who don't have a
piano or keyboard at home you can find a virtual one
here.
So there's no excuse now for not bashing out those tricky passages!
- Don't forget to support the choir by ordering from
Amazon via the choir home page.
Rehearsal and events schedule'In music, more than
in any other branch of the arts, understanding is given only to those who bring
to it an active effort.' Stravinsky
| 2010 |
|
|
| Mon. 11 Jan. |
Handel: Solomon |
Verulam |
| Mon. 18 Jan. |
Handel: Solomon |
Verulam |
| Mon. 25 Jan. |
Handel: Solomon |
Verulam |
| Mon. 1 Feb. |
Handel: Solomon |
Verulam |
| Mon. 8 Feb. |
Handel: Solomon |
Verulam |
| Mon. 15 Feb. |
No rehearsal |
— |
| Mon. 22 Feb. |
Handel: Solomon |
Verulam |
| Mon. 1 Mar. |
Handel: Solomon (Concert
choir only) |
Verulam |
| Mon. 8 Mar. |
Handel: Solomon |
Verulam |
| Mon. 15 Mar. |
Handel: Solomon |
Verulam |
| Thu. 18 Mar. |
Handel: Solomon (with
orchestra). Time tbc. |
Abbey |
| Sat. 20 Mar. |
Concert |
Abbey |
Rehearsal timetable
| 7.30—8.00 pm |
Set up venue and hire or purchase music |
| 8.00—9.00 pm |
Rehearsal |
| 9.00—9.15 pm |
Notices and break |
| 9.15—10.00 pm |
Rehearsal |
| 10.00—10.15 pm |
Clear up |
Voice representatives
| Soprano 1 |
|
|
| Soprano 2 |
|
|
| Alto 1 |
|
|
| Alto 2 |
|
|
| Tenor |
|
|
| Bass 1 |
|
|
| Bass 2 |
|
|
Repertoire resources Information and links
relating to works in the current repertoire.
Handel: Solomon
News and reviews
- Download the
Herts Advertiser review of the November 2008 concert as a PDF.
- Read the Herts
Advertiser review of Haydn's Creation
here.
- Read John Manning's review of the Blake & Vivaldi
concert
here.
-
Review of Blake
concert in the Church Times
- Read Liz Berdinner's epic tale of reaudition
here.
- News archive.
The Silvis Woodshed If you don't have access to a
keyboard but would like to do some 'note bashing' at home, you might like to
visit this website. To quote George Silvis, who created the site:
"In
the old days a singer would hide out in the woodshed to learn his notes. Now we
have tools like midi to help us along. I hope for this page to be a collection
of midi files and tools to help singers learn their notes so that they can be
ready to turn it into music when they go to rehearsal."
In order to
make use of the site you need to have software that can play midi files through
your computer's speakers. This comes as standard with many recent machines, but
if you don't have it, the site lists download sources of suitable free or cheap
programs.
Click
here to be taken to the Woodshed!
Contributions
Mike Oldroyd (Bass 1)
supplied this helpful tip:
- In preparing for the latest round of reauditions, I
have been hunting around for music progams for my PC that could help. I came
across NoteWorthy
Composer. I tried a few other music programs in a similar price bracket
but most of them only offer limited scoring facilities and are really more
aimed at producing Drum and Bass than Duruflé and Bach. Talking to a
friend who works full time producing sheet music, the truly professional tool
is 'Sibelius' but that costs around £400, compared to $39 (c. £21)
for NoteWorthy Composer.
A set of public MIDI files for
the Mass in B minor can be downloaded from
http://www.laurasmidiheaven.com/Classical-Bach-Johann-Sebastian.shtm
I loaded the MIDI file for the Kyrie into NoteWorthy
Composer. Happily it correctly separates the music into different parts and the
resulting score is almost identical to the Barenreiter Urtext version. Turning
down the volume on all parts except the Bass, I can now practice at home with
that true 'sitting in the middle of the Basses' effect.
- Pat Stewart adds: Members might be interested
in a postcript to Mike Oldroyd's recent contribution. I already have a small
mp3 player (goes in my pocket) for listening to music or speech recordings
while commuting. I wondered whether I could use that to learn music parts, too.
Unfortunately my version of Sibelius music software doesn't have all the bells
and whistles of the latest edition, so it can't write mp3 files from a score or
from a MIDI file. However, a bit of Googling revealed that I could use Apple's
ITunes programme to convert MIDI files to mp3 files. ITunes is available as a
free download from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.
(You don't need an Apple pc or an IPod to use it.)
Now I
can do my choir homework away from home, too – provided I don't forget
myself and start singing along with the recording. Thameslink passengers may be
prone to eccentric behaviour but I suspect that would be going too far!
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