Updated: Nov 18, 2021
Many thanks to Laurence for guiding us through the past two weeks. He took us for his last time tonight as he is travelling to Inverness and then Plymouth to play live in the Musical 9 to 5 https://theatreroyal.com/whats-on/9-to-5/.
Yet another talent our choir has attracted!
As the keyboard was rather loud coming through the speakers, we played unplugged and went through The Logical Song in a logical way with the Tenors singing all their part first, followed by the Altos and then the sopranos. Then we were ready to stand and sing it from the top in perfect harmony.
Only You was next with a quick recap on last week and we really remembered it well.
Mr Blue Sky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQUlA8Hcv4s was a real test as we had previously learned it on Zoom, where, of course, no one else can hear us sing, so it was interesting to hear it sung together live. “Where did we go wrong?” seemed very apt lyrics! Laurence put us right and we covered most of the song until the Ba bas at the end. To be continued next week……
Although our resident MD, Eamonn O’Dwyer is busy with Brief Encounter and Beauty and the Beast, he still found time to find us a temporary MD for the next two weeks in Laurence Stannard.
A good warm up with some challenging tongue twisters had us all ready to sing some of Eamonn’s beautiful arrangements beginning with The Logical Song. Not only lots of words, but very small print in the music. Laurence went through the individual parts gradually building up to the whole song. This was followed by Only You with the tenors and altos doing the backing with “Ba das”. While they were practicing their parts, the sopranos waited patiently and listened. It sounded absolutely spine tinglingly wonderful!
Just before the break we started Sing Out, a good old favourite of our choir, which bought back memories of our time doing a pop-up session at St Pancras Station on a battered old piano and an audience of eclectic people. However, to newer members, this was a totally new song to be learned.
After our tea/coffee/wine break we resumed and went through the rest of Sing Out putting a lot of emphasis on loud and soft and long and short notes. A good reminder for all of us.
The evening was ended with us singing all three songs standing up and “From The Top”. Laurence looked very pleased and will be back next week to tackle Mr Blue Sky, a song we haven’t sung together in person. Watch this space!
Updated: Nov 5, 2021
Tonight, a mini concert as tradition does dictate
A little mini poem with which to celebrate
It is Elliot’s last night with us, so after a run through
We had our wine and tea break, then we knew just what to do
Perform all the songs we’ve learnt so well over the past few weeks
That we’ve practiced and perfected with some extra little tweaks
Ensure we get expression, hang on to notes so long
Don’t forget to leave ever longer gaps in the Sound of Silence song
A Crazy Little Thing Called Love was fun, who is part one or two?
An encore with the Fields of Gold our confidence just grew.
Our audience was very small; well it only consisted of one
As in Elliot who will know how well the special performance was done
We made him smile and heard him applaud, we really felt so proud
Our biggest gathering for a long time singing together strong and loud.
