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!

Thursday, November 3, 2016

YRCC Rehearsal 31-Oct-2016 Halloween Monday

Another holiday Monday, but we were mostly at choir :-)

6:30-7 Please Don't Sing small group
7-7:30 Noel Nouvelet with Rebekah

Warm-ups included scary sounds (sirens oo-ee) and minor arpeggios.

1. Joy to the World - a cappella. We started with Joy but easily mastered our parts a cappella. Don't forget to memorize this!
2. Various Themes on Fa-la-la: Fun! We did Beethoven's 5th and the Blue Danube, reviewed William Tell and started 1812 and the ending! We learned so much!
3. Do You Hear What I Hear?: Yes, I do! I hear beautiful sounds. We discovered that a lot of sopranos and altos were singing the melody at C, where they don't have the melody. Little lamb and ringing are the same note, a third above the melody. There are plenty of challenging bits, so we will need more opportunities to perfect it.
4. O Holy Night: Melinda sang the solo, and rocked it. This is a challenging piece, but at least you only have to learn one part. Melinda is bi-sectional on this one. She sings with the sopranos when she sings the solo, and with the tenors when Mary-Ellen sings the solo. Kudos to her. It's important for us to be strong on the one verse where everyone is singing together, the Truly he taught us part. Get yourself into a 1-2 groove from the beginning. The timing is tied to beats 1 and 2 (or 1 and 4 if you count the 6/8 time in 6, but I conduct in 2). This is especially important in the chorus part. 1-2.
5. Magic of Winter: For some reason, we were a bit messy on this. It'll work out. Listen to the recordings to see how you can improve. Listen to the performance too. It's awesome.

Next week: Monday, November 7th: Tickets, posters, poinsettias!

You can buy tickets for friends and family. You can take posters to post in common areas you might have at work or in clubs, anywhere you can think of. Roxanne takes care of tickets and posters. You can order poinsettias to take home after the concert, or to give as gifts after the concert. During the concert, they'll decorate the church. They're huge and impressive, and a great fundraiser for us. Jane coordinates this.

6:30 Noel Nouvelet with Rebekah
7:00 Run, Run, Rudolph

  • Why We Sing
  • Merry Madrigal
  • Do You Hear
  • Winter Song
  • Various Themes







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