WE DO BURNS AND KINDNESS

Our first song this morning was SIYAHAMBA, and after our altos learned the harmony part we gathered our forces and sang it giving it our best 'Desmond Tutu full African sound'.
Thinking, on the 25th, about Burns songs and after listening to AULD LANG SYNE, it struck me that kindness is a quality Burns mentions frequently in writing about people and I reflected on the fact that relationships can be based on many different qualities but kindness is an essential component in the mix.

We'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
O this is no my ain lassie, fair tho the lassie be,
O this is no my ain lassie, kind love is in her e'e.
I'll meet thee on the lea rig, my ain kind dearie O.

This thought spurred me on to take two of these songs this morning, AULD LANG SYNE, to the older tune, and THE LEA RIG, both of which we enjoyed singing.
Later we learned the AULD LANG SYNE tune, the first part only, on the instruments but enough to hear that it will be effective played this way. Good to take a fresh approach to the lovely old tunes.

CLICK, STAMP, SLAP, CLAP.

FIRST YOU MAKE YOUR FINGERS CLICK
THEN YOU STAMP YOUR FEET
BOTH HANDS SLAP YOUR KNEES
AND CLAP ON THE BEAT.

This quickened the reactions this morning, the four part round bringing in a succession of body percussion sounds and all that clapping and stamping was just the thing for a cold morning.

We returned to THE NIGHT SHALL BE FILLED, and are now getting the hang of it, the jumps in the melody and the lovely caressing semitones giving the feel of Arab music.
THE WATER IS WIDE, a call and response song, was another challenge to the listening as well as the breath control, with its long notes which create the harmony.

Improvising on the instruments is flowing much better now as our technique is improving and today we did the rounds with six or seven people taking the plunge, improvising a section.

We're working on the Orff piece:

EVENING RED AND MORNING GREY
HELP THE TRAVELLER ON HIS WAY
EVENING GREY AND MORNING RED
BRING DOWN RAIN UPON HIS HEAD.

This involves flutes, solo and together, and solo singer then chorus with xylos, bells and timpani. Should be fun when we get it up to speed.

WE BID FOR THE BLEND

We started this morning by doing some loosening up movements to music from Shaun Davey's piece THE BRENDAN VOYAGE. The track, Water Under the Keel, begins with a melody on the Uilleann pipes and grows to include the full orchestra, giving a wonderful opening up feeling which is exactly what we need to prepare for a good sing.
After some voice warming exercises we then applied ourselves to the Carl Orff piece, Evening Red and Morning Grey.
The four lines of this rhyme are set to a very simple tune which moves stepwise within a small range of notes, allowing us to listen carefully to each other trying for a good blend of the voices. This is a piece to be worked on over a period, involving as it does flutes, xylophones, timpani and sleigh bells as well as the voices.

We then turned to a more challenging sing, a beautiful setting of the last stanza from Longfellow's poem, The Day is Done,

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

The jumps in this melody need careful concentration but express beautifully the sense of the words making it a real pleasure to sing, especially individually, in our quieter moments.

Getting out the instruments after our coffee, we played about with rhythms on the small percussion before lunging into a piece involving improvisation from several members _ an interesting and lively sound as well as good fun.

Finally we gave full voice, again listening as we sang, for a good blend, to GREEN GROW THE RASHES O! (almost, but not quite, from memory).

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR READERS

Wishing all our Readers at ENJOY MUSIC a Happy New Year.

Click on the following link to see your --- NEW YEAR CARD