Thanks to those of you who wanted to continue practising this week (even though we’d decided to meet fortnightly after the half-term break.)  The run-up to the festive season is always busy and our ambitious programme of carols for the performance at Epsom town centre and the St Joseph’s Carol Service means that the more we practise the better we’ll sound!  We really cemented some of those tricky bits of the descant in “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” (great work ladies and special praise to Paul one of our top tenors who held his line and his section on his own throughout the entire rehearsal, no matter which piece we were doing!)  We also sorted out the ending (new arrangement by H. Wade) of the Hallelujah and it’s working fine and everyone picked it up really quickly.  Next we ran through “O, Holy Night” and I talked the singers through the geography of this arrangement that we’ve chosen (in favour of the slightly longer and more complicated Rutter arrangement that I initially had in mind.)  A good rendition of “My LIfe is in Your Hands” which we’ll sing at mass on Sunday rounded off the evening.  Quick parish notice: please ensure your choir folders are in order for Sunday (see list below) and that you’ve got the new version of “My Life is in Your Hands” which has been reprinted as page 2 was missing!  Please ask me for your copy.  I have also signed you up to the email updates from this blog so that any updates automatically land in your email inbox.  Onwards and upwards everyone! See you on Sunday at 08.45 for the warm-up and run-through.

Children of God (864) – processional

Gloria, gloria, in excelsis Deo (408) (clapping)

Gospel acclamation: Alleluia, alleluia

My Life is in Your Hands (new arrangement) offertory

Laudate Dominum (346)

Praise the Lord, oh my soul (new arrangement) second collection

Walk in the Light (914) recessional

“Singing is one of the most essential elements of worship. To open the gates of trust in God, nothing can replace the beauty of human voices united in song. This beauty can give us a glimpse of “heaven’s joy on earth,” as Eastern Christians put it. And an inner life begins to blossom within us. These songs also sustain personal prayer. Through them, little by little, our being finds an inner unity in God.” (Taize, on Meditative Singing.) This passage I read on the Taize website encapsulates the ethos I believe defines our Family Choir. I have certainly found this “inner life” blossoming within me and it is an absolute joy to hear you all singing in beautiful harmonies (yesterday’s rehearsal was a prime example.) For this alone I will be eternally grateful. Thank you all. Keep up the good work. Helen X

What a great turnout for Thursday evening’s rehearsal where we looked at some of the Christmas carols that we’re going to sing at the St Joseph’s Carol Service.  The re-arranged harmonies on the Hallelujah sounded great and all sections learnt their lines quickly and effectively.  It’s coming together really nicely and it might be our solo performance at the service (if not then it will be Starry Night or O Holy Night another suggestion  by some of the singers. Beautiful carol, watch the clip below.)

http://youtu.be/q5n6X9sUznI

We’ll  be closing the carol service with Hark the Herald Angels sing which we’ll be learning in parts and will have organ or piano/organ function accompaniment.  We ran through it and even started to learn some of the female descants which – with expert help from Trish Coll who remembered it from school – sounded really powerful.  We had a quick run-through on Sunday 27th after mass (quite a few of you were away for half-term break already) so we rehearsed Laudate Dominum which we’ll be singing at our next 9.30 mass on 17th November.  We also went through “My Life is in Your Hands” and then rounded off with “Over my Head I hear music in the air.”  I’ll be busy making more photocopies of the music as there are more and more singers (how wonderful) that need them.  We now take a break for half-term and the next time we meet will be on Thursday 7th November at May and Dave’s house!  They kindly offered to host an evening rehearsal so I will be emailing you privately with their address. Those of you who can’t make the Thursday evening practice, we shall see you again on November 10th after 9.30 mass in the Westlake Room.  Enjoy your time off and thank you for your hard work.  You are sounding fantastic!

What a great sound you were all making at this morning’s Family Mass. It was a joy to see so many of you bright and sparky and ready to give it your all during the service. There was a jovial atmosphere at warm-up as we sang “Happy Birthday” to Alex who certainly looked surprised but (I hope) pleased! We wish him many happy returns on his special day. We’re so lucky to have him as our accompanist. We sang through some of our standard repertoire of hymns and then, rather excitedly, “premiered” the wonderful Ken Burton arrangement of “Praise the Lord, oh my soul” which everyone seemed to enjoy singing so much (afterwards I got many positive comments about that one from the congregation!) We also sang the Taize Cantate Domino Canticum Novum for the first time as one of our communion hymns. The round was going well – though I did hear one or two “unilateral entries” in the male section, which luckily didn’t put my wonderful tenors and basses off (wait till I bring you in, that’s what my hands are doing!) The church was packed so we sang our second Communion Hymn, “Here I am, Lord.” Our recessional hymn, “Sing it in the Valleys” got everyone singing and swaying in time to this upbeat, lively tune which was great. When we reached the end, once again, we heard the sound of spontaneous applause from the congregation which was rather heart-warming and lovely. It was so uplifting to hear your voices filling the church so beautifully! We even had a new recruit to the choir right there on the spot – a young, German au pair came up excitedly and asked “please can I come and sing in your choir, you were so great?” We’ll be welcoming another soprano to our female section. Well done all of you, you’ve worked so hard at choir practice all these weeks. Onwards and upwards with our Christmas repertoire and see you on Thursday evening for our last, week-night practice before the half-term break. You deserve a big pat on the back all round! Check out all the video clips which I’ve uploaded on to the gallery page here on the website (special thanks to Mrs Niamh Van Leeuwen for agreeing to record them ever so discreetly on my ipad!)

Just two of the wonderful pieces we practised at rehearsal last night.  There was a fantastic turn-out, (thank you all) and it was especially good to hear the tenor and bass section in top form (though we did miss you Phil aarrrghhh!)  We did some more work on the Hallelujah which is sounding lovely – I realised I would have to go back to the drawing board and re-arrange those harmonies as my hasty effort that same afternoon didn’t quite work melodically (sorry folks!)  The good news is I have made it my priority today and doggedly worked to (a) rewrite individual harmonies for the chorus and, just in case we don’t like the sound of it, I’ve transposed the original SATB arrangement I had into F (the Alexandra Burke arrangement we used last night) and we can work from that if needs be.   One thing I do know is: it’s going to sound great!

We had a good run-through of the hymns and songs we’ll be singing on Sunday at 9.30 mass.  So for those of you who have your choir folders at home, please ensure your music is in the following order for Sunday:

Shine Jesus Shine, Halle Halle Halle, Praise the Lord, Cantate Dominum, Sing it in the Valleys.

See you all nice and early at 8.45 for the warm-up and then we’ll have another run-through before mass starts. You’re sounding really great, keep up the good work folks!

Helen

What a great sound the choir was making at Sunday’s rehearsal! It was good to see so many of you there and in such good spirits, ready to sing your hearts out. We went through all the hymns and other pieces we’ll be singing next Sunday at 9.30 mass and you showed this conductor, just what you are capable of! Amazing sound, I can’t wait to hear you all at next Sunday’s service. It’s a joy to see how fantastically well you are all doing, particularly at holding your lines when we’re singing in a round. Really good listening skills from everyone at rehearsals tweaking some of the entries and cut-offs in one or two of they hymns we’ll be singing. “Pleased as Punch” is how I’d describe it at the end of our choir practice on Sunday. Onwards and upwards folks – you’re doing superbly! Here’s the Cantate Domino for you to enjoy:

What a great turnout, what a fun day was had by all who came to the vocal musicianship workshop on Saturday 14th September at the Canon Christall Hall.  The workshop was run by acclaimed, music educators Ula Weber and Suzzie Vango from Vocal.Point who really put us all through our paces.  Warm-ups, stretches, posture, breathing, brain gymnastics, clapping, clicking fingers, stamping feet, all part of the excellent fun.  We welcomed some new faces to the group and also joining us were members of Claire Steele’s choir. It was great that everyone was so enthusiastic and soon we were all in fits of giggles with the exercises that Ula and Suzzie were teaching us.  Before mid-morning coffee break we’d already learnt to sing a beautiful, spiritual round “Over My Head” which sounded amazing.

We then had rhythm, clap clap clap, hands on knees, then harmonies, then time signatures, beat, pitch, crotchets and quavers all in easily-digestible, bite-sized chunks. Suzzie and Ula made it all look and sound so easy (that just shows what great teachers they are as well.)   We all looked and sounded spectacularly silly doing the Penguin Song which is always a hit, especially among children.  It also reminded us grown-ups that it’s fine to sing along to a silly song as well as the more challenging stuff and it’s all part of the fun.

After lunch we all settled down to more musical learning – the basics of sight-reading a vocal score, such an important skill for any singer to acquire.  Bite-sized chunks again, following your line and sticking to it while busy trying to hit those notes.  All those tricky tips were put into practice as we sang “Paddy on the Railway” a “Gospel Medley” and “Sing John Bull” – where Suzzie really went to town in teaching us all the movements that went along with the different words we had to sing (to help us remember of course but also to get us moving which often results in a better sound from the choir.)  We sang in parts as a round and then learnt one of the most beautiful pieces of the day (or maybe it’s just that we’d got so much better at this singing lark by the end of the workshop?)  “My Life is in Your Hands” included unison, the power of silence in a piece, clapping, harmonies and even movement, swaying from left to right foot in time with the beat.  I have to say I was totally blown away by how we all sounded in that very final run-through of the song – my goodness we all sounded like the amazing choir that we know we can be.  Thanks to everyone for your time, your contributions, your enthusiasm and best of all, your singing.  I was beaming with pride to hear you giving it your all.  Suzzie and Ula are already booked for 20th September next year – get that date in your diaries quick!

See the gallery for all the photos of the day

Welcome back everyone it was so good to see so many of you this morning at choir practice. You were all certainly refreshed and invigorated after the summer break. The “mental alertness” (or brain-ache whichever you prefer) round I started with didn’t faze you at all, which showed me that you were all wide awake and ready to sing. “Woodchuk would if a woodchuk could if a woodchuck could chuck wood!” (Try saying that in a hurry?) It was a joy to hear you learn a new Taize round “Cantate Domino Canticum Novum” so quickly. After a few “I sing, you sing” demos I was able to put you into parts and off we went. Fanstastic effort, we’ll be ready to sing that at mass on 22nd September. This month is a slight anomaly in that we’re singing on the fourth Sunday as there’s a school-led mass on the third Sunday. We even had time to finish off on that rumbustious, traditional reindeer song, “Holl-ei, lei loy-la” which got everyone moving fast. There’s no Thursday rehearsal this week as the hall is not available, so the next time we meet will be on Saturday 14th September for the one-day choral workshop which starts at 10am. I’m so excited, it’s going to be absolutely superb I guarantee it and I know how much you’ll all get out of it. Thanks for your continued support and great efforts. You’re sounding really good! Now, where have all those reindeer gone….?

Hello everyone, I hope you’ve enjoyed a lovely summer break. We begin rehearsals once again on Thursday 5th September at 8.15 in the Lady Chapel. We have been asked to open the Epsom and Ewell Music Festival (at rather short notice it has to be said) on 8th September at midday in the Market Square. If you are all up for it, then we can run through the set we performed at the Summer Fair and go for it. There’s a few of you who can’t make it so I’ll see how many are able and willing to perform at the festival and will then make a decision as to whether we go for it or politely decline the invitation. Please let me know your thoughts those of you who haven’t replied to my email yet. I need all the support I can get in order to pull this one off. Get those vocal chords ready for lots more singing this year! I’m really looking forward to teaching you some wonderful new pieces. All the best, Helen