Tuesday 27 January 2009

CARILLON WITH FLUTE

We began with BRAND NEW DAY, singing it many times, getting the feeling of Time's never ending flow. Long notes in this song allow us to feel our own voices strengthening with each repeat.

The beaters were bouncing today as we rehearsed the instrument parts for CARILLON DE VENDÔME and it was
quite special to have Diana playing the flute, completing the ensemble. The basses on the DIN DON worked on blending their bell sound and it gave a good support to the upper register voices in two parts.

BEAUTIFUL AFRICA, a song from the musical AFRICAN JIGSAW was our final song of the morning. In the news we see so much sadness and suffering in Africa that it's easy to forget what a beautiful country it is, rich in so many wonderful ways, and that not all Africans are 'victims'. This is a song about that. I know we will enjoy it in the coming weeks.

Wednesday 21 January 2009

OUR MUSIC FOR WARM UP MOVEMENTS

Lucilla Galleazzi sings Voglio Una Casa, with the instrumental group L'Arpeggiata, led by Christine Pluhar.

INSPIRATIONAL SONG FOR OBAMA DAY

We warmed up the voices with the call and response: LOVE SOMEBODY YES I DO eventually producing the good strong sound, needed for our next song.

Having introduced it last week, we worked at the song of celebration 'BRAND NEW DAY' which turned out to be completely appropriate with respect to the Inauguration Ceremony taking place across the Atlantic later that day.


Tides of time and rivers of song _ legends that whisper from days long gone _
Rocks of ages make us strong _ as the years go rolling away _
Celebrate the power they bring _ turn to welcome strangers in _
Coast to coast the bells they ring _ to mark a brand new day _ .

Paul Wilson and Marilyn Tucker.

After coffee, we returned to the Orff's CARILLON DE VENDÔME, the two voice parts blending nicely together over the basses intoning the DIN DON. Some practice on the instruments followed leading to making a start on the instrumental parts for the piece. Flutes (or glasses, as in the score) will be added next week.

Tuesday 13 January 2009

ITALIAN HOUSE AND FRENCH CHURCHES.



Our warm up music this morning was the Italian song Voglio Una Casa _ I Want a House _ composed by Lucilla Galleazzi, and sung by her in an arrangement by Christine Pluhar with the ensemble Arpeggiata.

The gentle but intense 3 beat metre suited our movements but it wasn’t until we sat down to listen again while following the text that the song could be fully appreciated. Beautiful voice and tender sentiments.

Awakening our voices after the long break we tackled some scales and breathing exercises before launching into the new song ‘Brand New Day”, written by Paul Wilson and Marilyn Tucker for the Milennium but definitely a good sing at any time. This piece will take some time to bed in but it will be worth the effort. (Don’t I always say that?)

The noisy as ever coffee break was followed by some practice on the instruments, up and down scales, stoating the sticks.

Then, continuing on the ‘new’ theme, we began a new Orff piece with French text, Carillon de Vendôme, arranged for 3 part voice ensemble with glockenspiels, metallophone and flute. We made a good start, singing the 3 parts.

I didn’t interrupt the flow of my blog to mention the fire drill which came smack in the middle of our listening to ‘I Want a House”. Suffice it to say that we all made a quick exit, out beside the pond, on a lovely morning, happy there was no real fire in our house (pictured above)

Thursday 1 January 2009