Just a little bit of history repeating...

We were warned this week that our uninvited member, the fire alarm, might be making a reappearance as the brownies downstairs were making pancakes, though we were glad to find out that they now knew the code needed to turn it off!

We were rehearsing the music for the April concert this week and had a whistle stop tour through the majority of the pieces. Now we've got the notes pretty much sorted, we're starting to concentrate on putting dynamics and getting 'shape' into the music, which make it more interesting to sing and (hopefully) more interesting to listen to.

The fire alarm didn't make a reappearance thankfully, though the smell of pancakes was driving me batty by break. The ones I made after rehearsal unfortunately didn't live up to my expectations.

There won't be an update next week, I have a week's holiday so won't be at choir. Hopefully someone will update me with what's been going on with Messiah in my absence. Tickets for the Messiah concert (31st March, at Bradford Cathedral) are now available, so check out the website (see Links) for details.

Where have all the young men gone?

I had a slight surprise when I got to rehearsal last week, all the men had disappeared, and the Chorale appeared to have become ladies only.

It turned out that they had all gone downstairs (the luxury of two rehearsal spaces) to practise part of Faure's Requiem that they are singing alone while the ladies were doing the same in the main hall. The enforced  separation didn't last long and we spent the remainer of the rehearsal going through pieces for the concert after next.

I don't think that I was the only one having difficulty with the German words for Schubert's Gott ist mein Hirt as we were singing this difficult piece in English this week while everyone tried to get the right notes in the right order. It was sounding really good at the end of practise, but I think getting to grips with the German might take a bit longer.

We continue with music for the April concert at tonight's rehearsal, but a quick reminder that tickets for the Messiah concert (31st March, at Bradford Cathedral with the Reg Vardy Band) are available. Please contact any member of the Chorale or visit the website (in the Links box) to find out more.

Silenzio*

Sorry for the silence, I was unable to make last weeks' rehearsal, so consequently can't report back on how it went.

Although I have heard that we welcomed a new Alto into our fold, which is great as we're always in need of more voices (especially men!) and that the rehearsal went quite well. Louise, our lovely publicity officer has also informed me that there's going to be a piece on the Chorale appearing quite soon in one of the freebie papers, so keep an eye out for that. I'll try and transcribe it when I've got my hands on a copy.

Hopefully service will be resumed next (this) week!

* Apologies to the musical, who may be wincing at the incorrect use of the musical term, I'm blaming Wiki!

More than words

We took a break from Messiah this week to start rehearsals for the concert after next (we’re very organised in the Chorale) which will consist of Faure’s Requiem and pieces from the European Sacred Music book.

Like Messiah, Requiem is a piece that many members of the Chorale have sung before, but on first run-through it seems much trickier than Messiah. Where Handel likes long runs of notes, Faure has sharps and flats floating about, and if, like me, your sight reading isn’t too clever, it takes some concentration to get them all in the right order. The finished effect though is lovely, clashing chords resolving to harmonious ones.

After the nice surprise that was the fact Messiah is sung in English, this week brought another one. Among the pieces we’re doing from the European Sacred Music book, we have songs in French and German as well as Latin. I did French at school, also did a couple of years of German (very badly), so singing in it is bound to be easier than Latin (which I’ve never studied before), isn’t it?

Well no, actually. It seems some kind of Pavlovian shift has happened in my head since I joined the Chorale, because the Latin made loads more sense than the other two. Strange isn’t it?

If you’d like tickets for the Messiah Concert (31^st March, Bradford Cathedral) please contact a member of the Chorale, visit the website or e-mail tickets@bradfordchorale.org.uk

Ring out, wild bells...

We had an extra, and not entirely welcome member join the Chorale this week. The fire alarm of Northcliffe Church decided to get in on the act and upstage our rehearsals. After trying valiantly to out-sing the shrill bleeping in a completely different key, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when, after opening the doors to dispense the smell of burnt toast, it shut up and we could continue in peace.

We've now covered the majority of the pieces that will make up our version of Messiah, though I'll admit that I'm looking forward to the first time we run the Hallelujah chorus, (yes THAT Hallelujah chorus) as it's the only piece I'd heard of before we started rehearsals!

Tickets for the concert have been released (31st March, at Bradford Cathedral with the Reg Vardy Band) so if you'd like to come along, contact any member of the Chorale, or e-mail the website.

We have a break from Handel next week, as we start on the music for the following concert, including Faure's Requiem.

Far too many notes for my taste...*

This Tuesday saw the Chorale's first rehearsal in our new home at Northcliffe Church, where the higher ceiling meant we lost the echoing acoustic of our old rehearsal space and sounded less like we were singing in the bathroom! We had some additional members this week for Messiah and it was great to see a couple of extra men (although we could always do with more, so if you sing tenor or bass and fancy singing with us check the website, http://www.bradfordchorale.org.uk for details.)

I have to admit, I began to feel slightly out of my depth this week with a couple of the pieces we rehearsed. There's so many long runs of notes that if I didn't really concentrate it was easy to completely lose track of where we were (and my rubbish sight-reading was no help at all). Paul's solution to fudged entries - lose the words - and suddenly it made more sense, made us all sound slightly mad, using 'be' throughout, but it really helped to get to grips with some of the tricky phrasing without worrying if everyone was getting their p's in the right places. Thankfully, 'For we like sheep' is one of the harder pieces we're doing in this version of Messiah.

Speaking of which, we found out the running order of pieces that will make up our Messiah, so the mild panic I felt when I read the listings page (53 pieces!) calmed as we're doing 13 of them.


*  I am joking, Handel knew what he was doing...

Pictures!

The Chorale's lovely Publicity department has just sent through these photos of The Bradford Chorale's busy Christmas. (Thanks Louise)

Singing at the Bradford Industrial Museum.

Entertaining diners at the Morrisons' Christmas Dinner.

The grand finale: the Christmas concert at Victoria Hall, Saltaire

with the City of Bradford Brass Band.