Fellow Melodists
Being on time is an under-valued quality in our busy modern lives. I exhort you all to abandon trivial distractions and useless time wasting activities, scarf back your morning tea & toast, and get ye to Hamilton Sings Saturday morning practice by 9:45 a,m. Lamentably, late comers miss essential warm up exercises and cause a distraction – this big old church is drafty and has very creaky floor boards.
HS Syllabus
As promised, we are going to keep you apprised of the songs we’ve been working on and a heads up on what’s next. Last Saturday we worked on Carry On and The Colour. This coming Saturday we’ll be working on Me Too, the Hamilton Song, Butterfly, and Call My Name. The complete (as of today) song list for the term, in no particular order, is as follows:
- Butterfly – Hanna Bech
- Me Too – Carol Greene https://soundcloud.com/user-804430699/me-too-by-carol-greene
- Carry On – Robert Edmonds
- Watching the Apples Grow – Stan Rogers
- The Colour – Adam F Carter
- People Can Change – Wax Mannequin
- The Hamilton Song – Teal Booth https://vimeo.com/83649975 WARNING! There is some swearing in this video. We won’t be doing any of that!
- Ballad of Sam Lawrence – Steve Sinnicks
- Le Plus Beau Mec du Quebec – Michelle Morra
- Call My Name – Lori Yates
- Let Me Go – Shanika Maria
- Lilly’s Fair – Terra Lightfoot
Susan Noakes, our tireless HS librarian and front desk force, has determined that the sheet music files need some attention and is asking for your help. This Saturday February 8th, please lend a hand after practice, from 12:15pm to 1:30pm, to impose some order on all that pesky paper. An enormously gratifying endeavour for OCD types. Maybe somebody will bring some cookies too.
The Sunshine Singers (not affiliated with Hamilton Sings) is a casual group of people who get together to lead a monthly (last Wednesday of the month, 6-7:30pm) singalong for residents of Baywoods Extended Care, located at Victoria and Main. The group is looking for additional singers interested in sharing their voices and encouraging resident participation. The commitment is minimal and the giving is restorative – ask to speak with Chez or Brenda at the front desk.
For the more academically minded, I’ve looked up a couple of terms that were bandied about last rehearsal. As musical terms can be mind-boggingly complicated, these definitions have been abbreviated for simplicity’s sake and embellished for comedic purposes:
System
The entire notation of a line of music for all the parts and voices involved, presented in a group of two or more staves which are joined together by a vertical bar and a brace at the left side. Stave is the same as a staff, and a brace can also be 2 or more dead pheasants. I told you music is complicated. . .
Fermata
A notation marking that directs the performer or ensemble to sustain the note of a composition affecting all parts and lasting as long as the artistic interpretation of the conductor allows. The fermata is marked above the note or rest to be held. Also known as a hold or bird’s eye. The altos of Hamilton Sings like to call it an eyebrow.
Got a scathingly brilliant idea about how to make your choir a bigger and better success? Don’t keep it to yourself! Send us a line at hamiltonsings@gmail.com.
Group intelligence is a marvelous thing. And, if you’re hoarding an interesting, personal, and or communal pic of your hometown Hamilton, share it with Tara at publicity.hamiltonsings@gmail.com, for purposes of a compelling collage of images for our upcoming concert poster.
Hugs all
Brenda Atkinson
Co-chorister
