Welcome


Welcome to Renate's Baton. This blog is mostly for and about my choir, The York Region Community Choir.

But, While I'm holding the baton, I'm in charge. So, if I want to talk about other parts of my life, I will. :)

The choir itself is a community and I'm discovering that we have a lot in common with one another besides our love of music and singing.

When I go off on a tangent, there is always a crowd coming along. Join us!

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

YRCC Rehearsal on Monday, January 25th and Seniors' Visit Orders

Monday, January 25th

1. I Will Always Be With You is pretty enough, but adding the flute part makes it's magical. What a lucky thing it is that we have Robyn in our choir! This the second time Robyn (the soprano Robyn, or the Robyn with a Y) has played the flute for us. Watch your dynamics! Watch me for dynamics, too. There is a loud part on page 9 at the key change. Tenors and Basses listen to the run in the piano part for your starting note. Remember that your first 2 phrases are the same and nice and big, but get soft quickly with "in the quiet mountains". This one is ready to perform, and the seniors will love it!

2. I'd Like to Teach The World to Sing is coming along nicely. Soloists today were Janet and Carol. Debbie will be the main soloist for the first part. We're still working out soloists and back-ups.
Tenors, Altos and Basses will all be on the bottom part. It's good to have more depth there, as there is a lot of melody in that line. Sopranos are fine alone on top (aren't you!). We reviewed parts on pages 8, 9, 10,11.

3. Hallelujah is still awesome! Blair sang the tenor solo and Lauren sang the soprano/alto solo. Both were super. Blair will be our lead soloist on the tenor solo, and I'd like another Tenor to back him up. Several women have expressed an interest in singing the second solo.

4. Do Re Mi is charming and much more effective now that we have Sopranos alone on top and Altos, Tenors and Basses on the bottom, especially in the section with "When you know the notes to sing"- stunning! Tracey will be the lead soloist here. Lauren can back her up, and several other people have expressed and interest in singing this solo.

5.Thank You For the Music is big and wonderful. We just did a sing-through sight-reading of it while Sapphire recorded the accompaniment for us. There are repeats to worry about, some page-turning challenges, and big 5-part harmonies, but it's so good! We'll have fun learning it. There's a possible solo, or it might be a first soprano part, later in the song "I've been so lucky. I am the girl with golden hair..."

6. Sing! Sing a Song! will be a small group song (I'm picturing a folksy group with guitars) with audience participation for our concert in May, but for our seniors over the next 2 weeks, it will be a big sing-along. What a great song! Such Fun!

7. Canon of Joy is already show-worthy. What a pretty piece, and it shows off the beautiful voices in our Tenor and Bass section! Remember to make it smooth and pretty. Take breaths when other people in your section are not, so we have seamless sound. There is one part where the tenors all took a breath and it was okay: just before voices. It doesn't really make sense grammatically to have a pause there, but the emphasis on voices is nicely dramatic.

8. Magic of Winter will be our only winter song for the seniors. I was considering doing Button Up Your Overcoat, since it's a love song, but I prefer Magic of Winter. This sounded heavenly.

The order for both seniors' home performances (tentatively) will be:

  1. Magic of Winter
  2. Canon of Joy
  3. I'd Like to Teach
  4. Do Re Mi
  5. I Will Always Be With You
  6. Sing!
  7. Sing-Alongs
  8. Hallelujah 


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