Rehearsal agenda for Wednesday, November 6, 7-9:30pm @ Friends Academy

What a great rehearsal last night! Thank you all for the work you did to prepare the Magnificat. Special thanks goes out to the South Coast Community Chorale, who reportedly spent two hours of their own rehearsal on Zelenka last week. (A head's up: they won't be with us at our Wednesday rehearsals, so don't expect to lean on them!)

As a reminder, we meet this Wednesday, November 6, from 7-9:30pm this week. (There's no Sunday rehearsal this weekend, and our second of two Wednesday night rehearsals is next week.)

In my previous post, I gave information on how to buy tickets. There aren't too many community choruses that don't charge membership dues while also providing a chance to work with a professional orchestra. With that in mind, please consider buying a ticket or two to give to family and friends. You can also ask them to buy tickets through you (via Thom Sargent); this, in turn, helps the organ fund at St. Anthony's, our concert venue.

Last season, I didn't put on any pressure to buy tickets, but, as I was returning from last night's rehearsal, I was thinking that this is a pretty good deal all around. More to the point, this sort of opportunity for singers relies on good ticket sales, so please don't just assume that the NBSO will bring in the audience. Just a thought, but, in lieu of a membership fee, consider buying a ticket or two as gifts. That way, we'll have a great audience, and both St. Anthony's and the NBSO will benefit.

Here's the plan for Wednesday night. (If you have to miss, please use this agenda as a point of departure for your own practice.)

First and foremost, make sure that you have all of the Messiah markings in your score. I've added a few more so please review all of them: You can find these by clicking here.

We will work all of the Messiah choruses in reverse order.
7-7:15 warmup
15-30 Hallelujah Chorus; let's focus on this being elegant, not simply loud and bombastic
30-40 Glory to God
40-55 For Unto Us
55-15 Magnificat, letters C & D; for obvious reasons, this is a difficult section of the piece; we'll focus on clarity and accuracy; on your own, make sure you know the notes at a slow tempo
8:15-25 BREAK
25-35 Magnificat, letter H; let's fix the alto problem with this section; if time, we'll look at F
35-45 O Thou That Tellest
45-9pm And He Shall Purify
9-9:20 Magnificat: the big Amen at the end; we'll work reverse by letter, again focusing on clarity and accuracy
20-9:30 And the Glory