Have You Heard The Angel Voices?

This picture is not entirely gratuitous. We actually rehearsed Rutter's Angels' Carol yesterday, and there were indeed angel voices to be heard, all the way from our new-found butch basses and their low F rumbling, through the choir to the marvellous top sopranos who were delicately hitting the high G at the end. For a first run-through, and considering that we had the open meeting right in the middle of the rehearsal, I think we did a really creditable job of it. Certainly, we sounded much better than many of the recordings you see littered across YouTube. I'm scared to link to them because some of them are just so bad. The tenors still have problems getting the 'Glo-o-o-ri-a-a-a i-in ex ce-el-si-is!', but we are getting the hang, I think, of spreading three words or 7 syllables across 14 notes.

Part of the speedy take up this time round is due to the new Pinkies who are just wonderful, quick to learn and enthusiastic. This is the first week with confirmed members, and there are so many of them! I've still not had a chance to meet all the new basses yet, and as always I will probably only get a chance to speak to the new altos towards the end of the season. That said, they are all really friendly and haven't seemed to have had any problems at all fitting in. I know that to new Pinkies Mladen and Simon both look like they have fierce bites, but I also know what big softies they really are! Liang, the biggest softie of them all, keeps referring to the newbies as his 'babies' and to a certain extent they are. He certainly impressed me yesterday by going through all their names.

I won't talk much about the open meeting, apart from to say that it always amazes me how divergent people's opinions about certain topics in the choir are. The open meetings are a really great opportunity to talk about things, and I have to congratulate Mark, our fabulous chair, for keeping it moving along, making sure everyone who wanted to say something could, and coming up with action plans. The one I am really waiting on is Karin, Mel and Liang's proposals for our new informal outfit. Can't wait!

Glo-o-o-ri-a-a-a i-in ex ce-el-si-is!