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!

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Weekend review- YRCC Monday, March 28 and prep for Apr. 4

My goodness! Again, it's the weekend and I haven't posted the review yet. I'm sorry. 
We made some important discoveries last week. We might have to get the tenors and basses in for a sectional rehearsal early or keep you late one night. There are some places where it's really important for you to be together, and you're not. More below.

1. Warm-up was I Will Always Be With You, appropriate for Easter Monday. There is still some confusion with the Tenor part at 46. Make it very clear that those 2 phrases have the same melody! "Where my love and peace abound." is huge and equal to "Near my heart I'll lay thee down." The second one goes sour when some of you sing it differently, the way it is for the rest of the song. This part is different. It's the high point of the song. We're at forte and then drop to piano with "In the quiet mountains."

2. Thank You For the Music is coming along really nicely! It's hard and we need to review it again and again, but we fixed an important bit. At the top of page 6, in the chorus, there was a bar that was messy. We all have to be together on "what are we". So, at the bottom of page 5, we sing Without a song. "or a dance" comes at beat 2, and altos and basses have an extra bit that falls on beat 3. "what are we" is on the + of 3: + 4 +. What are we = + 4 +. We practised this until we were all together. I hope we can manage to stay together :-) We also reviewed the oohs and aahs and the fist soprano part at E and the Tenor and Bass bits at the beginning. The second one: "You must have heard it before, oh yeah" is the most difficult. Review it please.

3. Joseph is in review, and it's looking very good.

 The first part we stopped at was One More Angel in Heaven. Tenors and Basses need to get together with their timing here. Please review this song. 

Song of the King: Blair is rocking his Elvis solo (memorize?). He will be on a microphone, so don't worry about your Bop-shu-wada-was being too loud. 

Benjamin Calypso: Rob/ Gary please memorize that solo " I hear the steel drums sing dere song..." Same with Trix/ Robyn on "Sure as de tide wash de golden sand..." You shouldn't need microphones since you're on your own, but it has to be strong and you have to look at the audience. 

Go Go Go Joseph: Fun! we need to be more together on the entry + 4 + (again). We'll keep working on it. And, at the end, 285, we'll need to add some tenors on "ahead of my time". I'm thinking all the men on that, and we can have only the women tenors on the ahhs.  


Monday, April 4

Sing Me a Song 6:30 and 6:45 with Renate/ Grand Night for Singing 7:00 with Renate

  • One Voice-finally! Kristen will sing the solo at the beginning, joined by Jonathan/Stanley and then Robyn/Trix (I'm not sure how that's going to work because Robyn was the one I had in mind to be Kristen's back-up, but let's see.) I'm counting on those who've done it before to remember it well so that we can learn this quickly,
  • Thank You For the Music
  • Joseph
  • Canon of Joy (since we'll be focused on the Tenors and Basses with Joseph)
  • Do Re Mi?

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