An update from Gabi

On Saturday we had a three hour rehearsal, attended by 6S 4A 5T and 6B - a terrific turnout! After an active warm up (great for our step count!) we started the rehearsal with A Great and Mighty Wonder the tune of which was familiar to some from another hymn or carol (can anyone remember which?).  We then went onto Once in Royal David’s City, O Litttle Town of Bethlehem and It came upon the midnight clear where the sops (and friends) learned the decant which was new to us.

After a short break we looked at I heard the Bells on Christmas Day and Bob advised us of the word changes.  We then rehearsed Mary’s Magnificat and ran through Lo he comes with clouds of glory.

NOTES FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

A Great and Mighty Wonder
-  If you can roll your ‘r’s exaggerate this on ‘Repeat’ and ‘Glory’ in chorus in particular.

Once in Royal David’s City
-  Ensure clear diction
-  AmyBeth’s instructions on v2:  emphasise ‘down’ and ‘heav’ 
-  Carry over ‘heaven’ to ‘who’, breathe after God
-  Break after ‘lowly’ and ‘earth’
-  ‘holy’ sing as ‘holee’ not ‘holi’

O Little town of Bethlehem
- All verses in harmony
- v3 quiet
- respect the hold-overs shown in music and don’t breathe

It came upon the midnight clear
- Annotate your score with the revised words previously circulated
- respect the hold-overs shown in music (both printed and annotated)
- sops do please look at the descant as we haven’t sung this before

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
- see instructions from last week; in addition:
- verse 3:  Basses and tenors to respect the ‘piano’ dynamic and also sing softer on ‘Ah’s so don’t drown out the melody and soloist.
- change all ‘men’ to ‘all’

Mary’s Magnificant
- Respect the ‘commas’ and break in v2 
- v3 no break between Jesus and softly

Lo he comes
- No additional instructions