Eamonn has sorted the songs for the concert in order, however there are some numbers on The Red List! These are the ones that need extra work; the focus this week.
Generally, we need to smile a lot and sing into our cheek bones to get the high notes bright (squeezing oranges under the arms too, of course!). Only breathe when necessary and mark these places on the music scores.
Beginning with Bridge Over Troubled Water, well, we did go through without too much trouble and then it was emphasised we need to syncopate the phrases making it more dynamic and interesting.
Next, we were Side By Side where Eamonn gets a little carried away and goes too fast in his enthusiasm and checks his metronome to get him back on track. The Altos and Tenors practiced their Doo da doohs while the Sopranos sang over the top of them. Harry Woods, who practiced songwriting only as a sideline, wrote numerous 1920s standards, including "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)", "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover", and "Try a Little Tenderness". He composed his songs on piano, despite the fact that he was born without fingers on his left hand. The song has been covered by many artists from 1927 on wards.
I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You was in danger of not being included, but we all tried hard and after going through the Alto and Tenor lines and gradually building it up, we did well enough to keep it in. There was an element of an Elvis impression of ‘lurve’ instead of a well rounded ‘Love’. This was soon corrected! I Can't Help Falling in Love" was featured in Presley's 1961 film Blue Hawaii. During the following five decades, it has been recorded by numerous other artists, including Bob Dylan on his 1973 album Dylan, Dick Smothers, Swedish pop group A-Teens, and the British reggae group UB40, whose 1993 version topped the U.S. and UK charts. It has also been regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone, ranking #403 in the list's 2012 edition.
A well earned break for a cup of tea or glass of wine.
We’ll Gather Lilacs was next to be dissected and rebuilt which emphasis on yearning and longing and giving the phrases deliciousness. Also the Tenors need to remember to sing the second verse words when the Altos and Sopranos join in on the second verse.
A crazy ending with not a lot of the choir knowing if they were singing the main part or the echo in Crazy Little Thing Called Love. This was sorted last week with the first row as the main part and the second row as the echo. All we had to do was remember the allocated part and if we sat in a different row in the following weeks the original allocated part sat with you. Once that was sorted, we did sing it through and the echo part got ‘Ready Freddie’ loud and clear. As reported by Freddie Mercury in Melody Maker, 2 May 1981, he composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the guitar in just five to ten minutes. The song was written by Mercury as a tribute to his musical heroes Elvis Presley and Sir Cliff Richard.
Freddie Mercury and Queen.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO6D_BAuYCI
Eamonn was quite happy at the end and feels we are in a good place and we will continue to fine tune over the next few weeks. Keep doing the homework!
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