Challenging Times

With so many newbies it seemed a good idea to have name badges so we can get to know each other.  Please keep them with your music folders and bring them with you for the next weeks until we are all acquainted.

A gentle to reminder to everyone to not only bring your music (and name badge), but also a pencil or highlighter so you can mark your music scores with Eamonn’s instructions in a way that is meaningful to you.

Eamonn has set a challenge for everyone (especially a big one for the Basses and Tenors) to learn The Impossible Dream by heart. I have every confidence you can achieve this and you will benefit from looking up and following Eamonn’s directions with the bonus of your voices being heard as the sound will be coming out and not down into your folders!

The Impossible Dream is challenging as it has long phrases where you do NOT breathe between them.

Keep the oohs bright so they don’t sound sad!

‘This is my quest….’ Should be passionate; you are on a journey

Ensure the is a strong hard ‘c’ on ‘cause’

‘Still….’ has two notes in ‘Still strove with his last ounce of courage’

The next song, Crossing the Bar, is a total contrast and has a more choral sound.  The aim an challenge is to sing this acapella, which we are more than capable of achieving.

Three things you may not have known about Alfred, Lord Tennyson the poet who wrote Crossing the Bar.

He recorded his own voice in the 19th century. When sound recording was brand new, Alfred, Lord Tennyson became one of the earliest poets to have his voice preserved. Thomas Edison recorded Tennyson reading “The Charge of the Light Brigade” on a phonograph—giving us a rare, haunting glimpse of how a Victorian poet actually sounded from eye-witness reports from newspapers during the Crimean War, considered the first media war. Tennyson wrote the poem to commemorate the bravery of the soldiers, with the goal of shaming the British public into offering financial assistance to the veterans who were suffering in old age.

He invented the phrase “airy-fairy.”

The term airy-fairy, now used to describe something unrealistic or impractical, originated in the opening line of Tennyson’s early poem “Lilian” (1830):

“Airy, fairy Lilian …”It’s a small example of how deeply his language has shaped everyday English.

He was so famous he had to hide from fans.

Tennyson was a true Victorian celebrity. Sightseers regularly travelled just to stare into his windows, forcing him to seek privacy in a secluded house in Sussex—though he kept his main home on the Isle of Wight. Fame, it turns out, was exhausting even before social media.

Crossing the Bar is an 1889 elegiac poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The narrator uses an extended metaphor to compare death with crossing the "sandbar" between the river of life, with its outgoing "flood", and the ocean that lies beyond death, the "boundless deep", to which we return.

The background to the poem's composition is not entirely clear. One suggestion is that Tennyson composed it while crossing the Solent from Aldworth to Farringford on the Isle of Wight, after suffering a serious illness; alternatively, that he wrote it on a yacht anchored in Salcombe, where there is a moaning sandbar. "The words", he said, "came in a moment". Shortly before he died, Tennyson told his son Hallam to "put Crossing the Bar at the end of all editions of my poems".

The poem contains four stanzas that generally alternate between long and short lines. Tennyson employs a traditional ABAB rhyme scheme. Scholars have noted that the form of the poem follows the content: the wavelike quality of the long-then-short lines parallels the narrative thread of the poem.

The extended metaphor of "crossing the bar" represents travelling serenely and securely from life into death. The Pilot is a metaphor for God, whom the speaker hopes to meet face to face. Tennyson explained, "The Pilot has been on board all the while, but in the dark I have not seen him…[He is] that Divine and Unseen Who is always guiding us."

The Basses had to be very patient as they don’t join in until the second verse.

The timing is critical in this song and although the voice parts have different notes the rhythm is the same. 

‘Sunset’, ‘call’, ‘I’ and ‘out’ are long notes.

‘Sound and foam’ with ‘Sound’ and ‘foam’ being long with a very short ‘and’ in between.

Be aware of how your voices blend in this piece so the balance of sound is good and not dominated by the Sops who are plentiful and can be loud!

Altos, you are the lynchpin to this song and your notes are very important for the harmony.

Enjoy the stateliness and sanctity of the music and don’t rush it.

Our number was small but our voices were mighty. In Flagrante Choir's first concert at Kew Gardensin 2016 with Ginny, Carol and Esher tucked away at the back.

We revisited, You’re the Voice which drives forward all the time.  We will be doomed if this drags!

Even with the oohs make them swell and give them direction.

Basses are the lynchpin in this song, even though they are mainly singing on one note!

Make the Woah, woahs strong and loud

After’ …can we look at each other’ there is a very small gap before singing ‘down the barrel of a gun’

Eamonn is busy with the production of Mrs. President for the next two weeks, so we will have Richard, who has sung Bass with us on a few occasions, next week.  The following week we welcome back the lovely Elliot, who is well known to many of us.

Bring all your music and your pencil and name badge!

Too much?