Last night was Elliot’s penultimate evening with us and he took us through three more wonderful arrangements. Elliot with the amazing Georgia Louise, who 'for one night only' joined In Flagrante for our Christmas concert in 2019. Georgia has recently been playing lead roles in the West End and on tour, including Sandy in 'Grease' and Sophie in 'Mama Mia
We started with The Sound of Silence, a Simon & Garfunkel song. In some ways it is more challenging to sing a well-known song as we all tend to sing it in our own way, but a choir has to learn to sing with the same phrasing that has been arranged especially for us. It is critical to get us all to finish at the same time when words end in ‘s’. The song builds up gradually with the verses having longer and longer gaps in them, so a lot of counting is needed as well as a lot of breath to sing!
Vincent, by Don McLean was next. Another beautiful, gentle song. Here the tenors could shine with them mainly having the tune (a very rare occurrence) with the first verse unaccompanied by any other voices. The altos and sopranos joined in later. Even on the second verse the tenors had the tune and the soprano ones sang their oohs, while the second sopranos had a surprise and sang the second alto oohs. It did cause a little confusion, but Elliot soon led them through the piece and we were all in harmony.
A short break for tea, coffee or wine and a social gathering to catch up on each other’s news then back to finish Vincent and then move to Scarborough Fair. This starts with the sopranos with the altos joining in the second verse and building up with the tenors adding their depth and strength, patiently waiting until the third verse.
We have all been advised to listen the tracks in Dropbox to practice for our mini concert next week that we are performing for an audience of one; Elliot. He will know if we don’t get it quite right! No pressure!
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