Slipping through my fingers...

Time seems to be running away from me at the moment - I realised this weekend that there's just over two weeks (and two Tuesday rehearsals) left till the concert! Rehearsals are going well, and I'm really looking forward to getting into the cathedral to hear the score on the organ.
Tickets are available, details can be found on the poster below:

Hello, Is it me you're looking for?

It was great to welcome a few new faces to rehearsal on Tuesday, hopefully they like us (and our music) enough to keep coming back!

We started looking at the Bach St Luke Passion, and once again, the problem of languages showed up. Languages, along with IT, are not a strong suit for me, but I just don't get why singing in German (and French, because we've done that too) is so much harder than singing in Latin. I've studied both French and German, yet somehow, Latin 'fits' in my brain much better than the others. I got so fixated on trying to get the words right at one point, that I ended up singing a third above the rest of the sopranos!

One saving grace is that all the ends of the lines rhyme, which does help a bit. But I think it's going to take a lot more practise before I can start humming these ones!

Do you want to be in our gang?

Tomorrow night is the open rehearsal for any singers out there who want to come and see what we're about, and what kind of stuff we do. Details below:

Getting back in the groove....

It's been so nice to get back to choir on Tuesdays. The majority of choir members are very familiar with the Messiah, having sung it a number of times in various choirs over the years, so for the first couple of rehearsals, we've been sounding pretty good. Even though I've sung Messiah before myself, I'm still having moments of looking at the page and thinking 'No, no idea how this goes' and trying to sing on sight (always a worry for me).

We've also got an open rehearsal coming up on the 6th October for our big Spring Concert of Bach's St Luke Passion. I understand (being something of a classical music numpty) that the St Luke isn't performed as often as some of Bach's other choral works, so it'll be great to get our teeth into this in a couple of weeks. Singers of any part are welcome to come along and get a taste of what we do,  7.30, Northcliffe Methodist Church, Shipley.

In old familiar places...

I'm so pleased that choir starts back tonight with rehearsals for Messiah - as always, new members are more than welcome. 7:30, Northcliffe Church, Shipley.

It's just a matter of timing....

Took myself off for a wander up to Haworth today, and on the way up to Top Withens, thought I might as well do a bit of practice and put on the Messiah playlist. What should come on as I was walking though a particularly well-populated field? 'For we like sheep'

I had to laugh....

It seems a million years to me....

The choir withdrawal continues, but last week I discovered the Proms playlist on a certain listen-again website. I've never really paid much attention to the Proms (apart from one year at school where homework was to watch the broadcast of the Last Night, not quite sure why) but there's been some really good ones. I started off indulging my inner geek with the Sherlock Holmes prom, then did the Story of Swing, and over the weekend I found the Faure Requiem.

The Chorale did the Faure Requiem a while ago, but I have to admit, with the single exception of the Dies Ire, very few bells were ringing. People talk about muscle memory, and I've been assuming that because we've done the Messiah before, it wouldn't take too long (or too many rehearsals) to come back to me. If the Faure's anything to go by, I need to get my tapes out.....