Wednesday 16 November 2011

WE BOOGIE INTO CHRISTMAS.

We learned THE CEREMONY BOOGIE, a short song by Helen Yeomans, last week and sang it for the special birthday of one of our members. Coming back to it today, we soon settled into the boogie rhythm and by the end of the morning the three part harmony was sounding good. Since our lead in the tenor group was missing today we left that part for next week.

Donald Swan's and Arthur Scholey's setting of BABOUSHKA was our new song this morning. The six verses tell the story beautifully and the contrasting high and low melodies for Baboushka and The Kings respectively will allow us to show off especially the high voices in our group that haven't had a chance to shine lately.

We set ourselves quite a task today, getting our tongues round the Catalan words of the Orff- Keetman arrangement of
CATALAN CHRISTMAS DANCE. There is a singable English translation but the Catalan is much more interesting _ and who would ever sing 'Fum, fum, fum' in English?

A vinticinc de desembre
Fum, fum, fum!
Ha nascut un minyonet
ros i blanquet, ros i blanquet,
fill de la Verge Maria,
n’es nat en una establia
Fum, fum, fum!

We'll build this up gradually to what will be an exciting piece for Christmas.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

LOVE, A TEAR AND FOOLS IN A BARROW.

Getting the beat -- Click to enlarge

AMORE and UNA LACRIMA _ these Italian words give the opportunity to concentrate on forming good vowel sounds and we took full advantage this morning, warming up our voices until we were singing out with gusto as we moved up the scale.

We continued with the round:
Hungry hunters sing a song
And bring along a banging gong.

The ng sounds of this allow us to feel the resonance in our voices and as we are singing it well now, it also results in beautiful harmonies.

Following the coffee, it was all hands to the beaters. After adding the missing instrument, the whip and learning the concluding section of the piece, we played, right through, FIVE FOOLS IN A BARROW, understanding for the first time I think, how exciting this piece is.
It will be wonderful now to come back to it in the coming weeks and begin to enjoy it in a deeper way.