Updated: Apr 1, 2023
Because we're having such a good time.
We all send our best wishes to Eamonn for a speedy recovery.
However, having missed choir last night, don’t stop practising. We now have a repertoire of nine songs we have been through completely and it is essential we keep them fresh in our mind.
Muscle memory has been mentioned many times and it is important to keep what we have learned embedded in our brains so it becomes second nature. This is why Eamonn will go over songs we’ve previously covered each week and gradually polish them ready for performance.
Don’t stop now because we’ve had a week off! The more we remember the more time we can spend on learning the new numbers, like Nights in White Satin, which is already in Dropbox and .
This is a song by the Moody Blues, written and composed by Justin Hayward. It was first featured as the segment "The Night" on the album Days of Future Passed. When first released as a single in 1967.
Band member Justin Hayward wrote and composed the song at age 19 while touring in Belgiumand titled the song after a girlfriend gave him a gift of satin bedsheets. The song itself was a tale of a yearning love from afar, which leads many aficionados to term it as a tale of unrequited love endured by Hayward. Hayward said of the song, "It was just another song I was writing and I thought it was very powerful. It was a very personal song and every note, every word in it means something to me and I found that a lot of other people have felt that very same way about it.”
Although you won’t know the nuances Eamonn will put into it, you will have clue as to the notes! Always a good start.
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, written between 1895 and 1897, first serialised in 1897.
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a studio double album by American-born British musician, composer, and record producer Jeff Wayne, released on 9 June 1978 by CBS Records. Jeff Wayne chose Justin Hayward, of The Moody Blues, to sing Forever Autumn saying that he wanted that voice from 'Nights in White Satin'.
In 1938 Orson Wells narrated and directed War of the Worlds as a radio broadcast . The first two-thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of news bulletins, often described as having led to outrage and panic by listeners who believed the events described in the program to be real.
Don’t stop looking in Dropbox for new songs. I understand Waterloo Sunset will be on its way soon.
Remember to print off your copies and iron out any 'Kinks'.
There are only two spares sets of music scores I bring each week.
It is best to have your own music so you can mark them with your pencil (which I’m sure you bring each week) to personalise it.
We each have our own way of marking things to remind us of the interpretations Eamonn wants us to use. Mine is full of lines and smiley faces! I’ve seen other members with colourful highlighted areas. Whatever works best for you!
Only one more week before we have a two week break for Easter, so don’t stop now.
Keep up the good work and let’s amaze Eamonn next time.
Because we're having such a good time!
all that Eamonn has told us, not always easy but help is here!
Now we have a humungous section with the lower voices and they have now been divided into Tenors and Basses, try to remember the new seating arrangements with the ladies sitting at the front, the Tenors in the second row and the Basses in the third row.
It would be helpful if the gents remember to try to keep to the parts they have chosen and stay there and not to jump from Tenor to Bass or vice versa.
Remember, Eamonn has a good ear and can hear each and every one of us and will know when someone is singing in the basement when they shouldn’t be!
Eamonn will try to remember not refer to the Tenors as Lady Tenors (as they formerly were known), so not to cause confusion. A hard habit to break after seven years!
Charlie Chaplin through to Lady Gaga who would have thought!
We sang through Smile, which Eamonn hoped would be indescribably beautiful, so not too much work would be needed.
Everyone needs to remember to give shape to the phrases in this simple song which will keep it flowing
Basses and Sopranos, who are on the tune and like the bread on the outside of a sandwich, need to turn down the volume, so the Altos and Tenors, who are like the delicious filling, can be heard.
Try to remember to put a crisp ‘L’ on the last Smile so the ending is a beautiful as the beginning.
Blowing in the Wind was next, with the Sopranos starting gently. Remember to keep this light.
Everyone should remember to mark the Dunce Hole on Bar 25; here you will find long ‘ears’. Don’t be the one to trip over them and fall in!
Altos be brave and sing strongly, but not like a church choir!
Although most of us try to remember not to breathe, there is still a tendency to give the phrases a ‘choppy’ sound. Keep the phrases languid and beautiful with a yearning quality.
That is until you crescendo with “how many deaths” in verse two which needs great emphasis before melting back into the chorus.
Connect the consonants at the ends of the words onto the next word. This keeps us all singing together without any hisses!
Then we were back on The Slow Train. Try to remember to keep everything clipped and well enunciated.
It was absolutely delicious until it was absolutely ghastly. No surprises that it all fell apart when the middle section of Oohs was reached!
A quick recap of the Oohs, enjoying Dog Dyke and remembering this middle section has a slightly quicker tempo before getting back on the slow train again.
A new song for some, Try to Remember. It is a song of nostalgia from the musical comedy play The Fantasticks (1960).
The Sopranos start quietly and the Altos join in and remember to smile through the ‘callow fellow’.
At the end of each verse we follow, follow, follow, but not at the same time. Remember to watch Eamonn, especially the Tenors and Basses, who come in like a cuckoo echoing in the woods, so keep it light.
The Altos have the challenging rhythm with a yearning quality.
In verse three Altos, tenors and Basses hum.
Humming is not easy. Try to remember to keep the space in your mouth as open as possible, although your lips are closed and work hard to create a good sound that can be heard under the Sopranos singing.
On the last Follow, melt into the Ooh at the end.
Remember to try all you’ve learned and practice at home. Just a little each day is all you need to do and next week we can be absolutely delicious throughout!
And Try To Remember. NO choir rehearsals on 11th and 18 April
Yes, you’ve guessed it – it’s Blowing in the Wind (but that’s for later!), but there is more than one answer, my fellow Trillers:
Answer: it’s in the regular homework.
By practising a little each day (rather than a long review the night before we meet), it will help build up the memory muscle and the notes (once learned) and nuances (marked with your pencil on your music scores) will become embedded in your brain and you will sing and perform naturally.
Answer: it’s always watching Eamonn.
Getting that professional sound, it is important we are all singing the same rhythms and start and end at the same time.
This can only be done by watching Eamonn, especially for the cut off points (and the famous Eamonn dunce holes) and dramatic endings.
If you see Eamonn give a Big Nod it means SHUT UP!
The hard work we have been doing at rehearsal and at home is paying off.
Going through Slow Train (with Jan now promoted from Station Announcer to Station Mistress) and The Impossible Dream, we now know our respective tunes and can now concentrate on annunciating the words, leaning into the diction and telling the story.
Altos be brave and sing out as if you are fighting for a cause in The Impossible Dream
Now we have arrived at Blowing in the Wind – a song previously sung at our concert in 2019.
Eamonn has changed his arrangement slightly for 2023, by adding a bass line and changing the Tenor line.
Although this song was written over 60 years ago, the words are true today as the day it was written.
Blowin' in the Wind is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was released as a single and included on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. It has been described as a protest song and poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".
Dylan originally wrote and performed a two-verse version of the song; its first public performance, at Gerde's Folk City on April 16, 1962, was recorded and circulated among Dylan collectors. Shortly after this performance, he added the middle verse to the song. Some published versions of the lyrics reverse the order of the second and third verses, apparently because Dylan simply appended the middle verse to his original manuscript, rather than writing out a new copy with the verses in proper order.
The theme may have been taken from a passage in Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Bound for Glory, in which Guthrie compared his political sensibility to newspapers blowing in the winds of New York City streets and alleys. Dylan was certainly familiar with Guthrie's work; his reading of it had been a major turning point in his intellectual and political development.
Dylan's comments:
“There ain't too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain't in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it's in the wind – and it's blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh, I won't believe that. I still say it's in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some ...
But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know ... and then it flies away.
I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it's wrong.
I'm only 21 years old and I know that there's been too many wars ... You people over 21, you're older and smarter”.
Blowing in the Wind contains ‘scotch snaps’ which are syncopated musical rhythms in which short, accented notes are followed by longer ones. This reverses the pattern normally associated with dotted notes or notes inégales, in which the longer value precedes the shorter.
It certainly gives it an interesting sound rather than just a regular rhythm which would be boring.
Lean through ‘friend’ when singing “the answer my friend is blowing in the wind” and DO NOT take a breath!
Sopranos and Basses, of course, are on the tune. However, making the distinction in the verses and emphasising certain phrases are important. Do not be complacent.
The Tenors are the trumpet section and with the Altos have triadic lines that go up and down around the linear lines of the Sopranos and Basses as the song builds from the quiet gentle Soprano start to a glorious harmonious middle and end until the very last three notes where the Sopranos finish quietly “in the wind”
The concert on 12 July is going to themed around songs from the 60s.
Will we be concert ready?
The answer, my friend, is in your hands (or voices).
