André's Rehearsal Notes for September 24th, 2025
Hello Choral Evolutioneers!
I really don’t like singing in that room, do you? Something about it makes the sound disappear and we always seem to have frustrating rehearsals there. I will talk with the board about finding us another space to substitute.
If you feel you can’t hear or are feeling overwhelmed by anything, do not hesitate to tell me. Put up your hand and let me know what you are experiencing. Everything sounds different from where I am standing, and I am often not aware of problems. I can’t make adjustments if I don’t know there is an issue.
We will rehearse our music in the following order:
Locus Iste – Please learn your notes to this piece and practice singing out. It starts piano but we are at forte by bar 7!! And fortissimo at the bottom of the page. That’s an enormous and often overlooked change in dynamics.
All the Little Rivers – We should be able to finish the a cappella section at E and make it to the end of the piece.
Solstice Carol – After reviewing the beginning we will continue working on sections C to E
The Field Behind the Plow – Let’s sing through this and get to know the form
We will have the 1st rehearsal of Thank You starting at 8:50 or so. Those involved please be prepared.
I will see you all Wednesday, September 10th at the Westshore Masonic Centre in Langford at 7 pm.
André ♪
musictheory.net is a free resource that will teach you all about how written music works. There are theory lessons and ear training for every level of musician. Click on the word “lessons” at the top left and do at least one lesson a day. Each lesson takes just a few minutes to complete and they are fun!. Click on the sentences at the bottom of the page to advance through the lesson. Spending a few minutes a day here will help you become more comfortable with written music.
Reminders:
✓ We have Excellent New music, mark lightly with pencils only. You will have to erase it all at the end of the session when you return your music.
✓ Please bring a pencil to rehearsal ✓ Mark your parts, make lots of notes – the score is a road map to beautiful music but we have to all agree on how we will perform it.
✓ In long passages, decide where you will breathe, mark it down and practice it. For instance, the opening phrases of “Away from the roll of the Sea” should be sung in 9 bar blocks and you need to be sure where you will sneak a breath
✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. While it’s great to listen to the tracks, it’s even better to follow them with the music in front of you. We will be stopping and starting a lot at rehearsals, and you’ll be able to follow better if you have been looking at the score as you sing.
✓ Sing out loud in a big room as often as you can. As you learn a tune practice singing as you would in a show. This will strengthen your voice and our choral sound.
News
Some calculations: 5 regular rehearsals, 1 long rehearsal, 1 dress rehearsal; then the shows on Dec 5/6. How are you feeling about that timeline? Optimistic, panicked, calm and confident, unsure? We've made it through all the pieces, and now we can start on the perfecting of them. Andre will direct us over tricky spots, but make sure you mark your music on what you find as a tricky spot so you can review it on your own time and get it right. There are some very interesting patterns in the music, so I encourage everyone to listen to the "all voices" and to the music links that Andre has supplied, as it gives you a good feel for the pattern. I marked some of my tricky bits from last weeks rehearsal and took the time to review it until it is solid. As they say, practice makes perfect. Now is the start of the rush to get us to the end where we present wonderful music to an audience. Tickets will soon be made and printed, so we can start selling the show. Let's all try to find 2 new people to come see the show; we have our regulars, but would love to expand our audience. Consider this a challenge! If you can bring 2 or more, you win! Well ok, we all win as we will have a larger audience. With the start of the rush we need people to speak to businesses and friends with businesses to see if they want to place an ad in our program. The money from these ad placements supports the creation/printing of the program. No ads means potentially no program, and that would be unacceptable. If everyone spoke to someone they new or a business they frequent often, we would be able to accomplish this. Consider speaking to the vet, the pet store, the grocery store, chiropractor, etc. Any business! Diane has the details of the prices of the ads per size, so please see her for details. Thank you to everyone who signed up for a task. Your board is not only active in the management of the choir, but takes on most of the tasks to bring this show together, this includes Andre. Every little bit helps and as this is a volunteer organization, we hope everyone is knows they are expected to take on a task. Please share the load. Tasks that are not yet filled will be shared with the choir in email. Our Purdy's fundraiser is underway; the link is https://fundraising.purdys.com/1367940-130838. Please feel free to order and tell friends about it so they can get great chocolate too. As another fundraiser effort, if you have bottle or cans laying around, please consider cashing them in and sharing with the choir. Every dollar ads up, and as we weren't successful in our grants, we really need some inflow of cash to help even out the expense of the shows/venues/equipment rentals. Keep singing! And see you Wednesday in Sooke!
Our first long rehearsal/retreat is done and I think it went very well. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend as we accomplished so much in the 4 hours. A big thank you to those who brought goodies: Nicole S, Lois, Mary, Caleb, Kristin and Emily! If anyone else brough goodies, thanks goes to you too! It is so wonderful that we can share our learning time with a bit of relaxation and get to know one another more. Thanks to Tony for offering up the apple juice. He had made hot cider for us all to try. It was lovely...so if you are interested in getting some, please reach out to Tony. It is a fundraiser as well, so some of the money goes to the choir. And speaking of fundraisers, the Purdy's email should have come to everyone. Use the link in the email to access the Purdy's site, and go shopping. Everyone likes to get chocolates for Christmas, so take this opportunity to order some and help out the choir. If you have any issues with placing an order, reach out to Joscelyn (joscelyng@gmail.com) for help. So per Andre's blog, we will not be singing Voices Arising and Cantique du Jean Racine this session. Please have your music ready to be turned in to Nicole S (Alto) on Wednesday. Thank you to everyone who signed up for a job on the task board. There are still many empty spots and we will require help with them. If it is something you are not familiar with or sure about, suggest yourself and a friend! There are always jobs that take us out of our comfort zone, but this is where growth happens. Consider that you stand in front of a hundred people and sing! You got this. The board takes on many of the tasks to get this show underway, and having choir members help goes a long way for us to keep our sanity. We will be approaching those that haven't signed up for anything so that you can help. And now for the less fun stuff: There is still a lot of chatter when Andre is trying to speak. Please refrain from talking when Andre is trying to work with another section. If you have questions about your music, put up your hand and you will be seen. As someone who has hearing in only 1 ear, I can tell you it is hard to hear him when others are talking. We are in the process of having the attendance, audition and music selection policies put up in the members area. These policies define Choral Evolution's commitment to our members by transparent communication. They should be up in the next week, so please have a read through. We will be meeting in Langford at the Mason's Centre. Of note, the underground parking will be available; the sensor was broken last week and Paul went to get parts when we arrived. It is now fixed! See you there at 7!
Director Notes
The rains have come Choral Evolution! As I write this the rain is pouring down in Victoria and I’m sure it’s the same wherever you are on South Vancouver Island. There is no better way to pass a rainy day than singing and working on your music. I will also have my scores on my lap as I follow the Blue Jays through the World Series. I mute the commercials and get in a few licks. I believe our new warm up regimen will pay great dividends. You sounded wonderful after we finished it on Wednesday. We will build on this base over the next few weeks and have a routine that we are comfortable with by the time we get to our concert venues. Sadly, I failed to record it so you can’t follow along yet. I’ll be sure and get it on record this week. Here is a clip of Robert Shaw going through some of his warm up. Listen very carefully to what he says, there is a lot packed into his words. He begins by saying you have done some singing before you arrive because you care about the sound! Take that as gospel✨ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCk5h8OlnL4&t=6s Here is another clip of Shaw rehearsing and talking about rhythm and diction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi0h_iBWJZs&t=7s I shared this with Sally who made some interesting observations: 1. NOBODY IS TALKING, 2. He moves along quickly and repeats quickly. Singers need to be focused because he goes fast. They are all paying attention. 3. He is extremely picky and worries about small details and they make a difference. 4. People are writing notes! (Experienced choral singers make copious notes so their practice is productive) Here are the arrangements we will work on Wednesday evening: 7:00 Warm up and O Canada – We will start singing the Anthem from memory. I checked: the Royals average over 3500 fans at each game. We need to be prepared! 7:20 Locus Iste – to help tune us up 7:30 Carol of the Bells – This will most likely be our concert Encore 750 Field behind the Plow – Little rhythm moments cleaned up 8:10 Break 8:20 Solstice Carol – We’ll start and the end and practice with our metronome 8:45 Christmas Trilogy – This will likely be the big finish our con cert 9:05 All the Little Rivers - Send us home with a snappy tune/ear worm 💕 I will see you all at Sooke Community Hall at 7 pm Wednesday Oct 29th s André ♪ musictheory.net is a free resource that will teach you all about how written music works. There are theory lessons and ear training for every level of musician. Click on the word “lessons” at the top left and do at least one lesson a day. Each lesson takes just a few minutes to complete and they are fun!. Click on the sentences at the bottom of the page to advance through the lesson. Spending a few minutes a day here will help you become more comfortable with written music. Reminders: ✓ We have Excellent New music, mark lightly with pencils only. You will have to erase it all at the end of the session when you return your music. ✓ Please bring a pencil to rehearsal ✓ Mark your parts, make lots of notes – the score is a road map to beautiful music but we have to all agree on how we will perform it. ✓ In long passages, decide where you will breathe, mark it down and practice it. For instance, the opening phrases of “Away from the roll of the Sea” should be sung in 9 bar blocks and you need to be sure where you will sneak a breath ✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. While it’s great to listen to the tracks, it’s even better to follow them with the music in front of you. We will be stopping and starting a lot at rehearsals, and you’ll be able to follow better if you have been looking at the score as you sing. ✓ Sing out loud in a big room as often as you can. As you learn a tune practice singing as you would in a show. This will strengthen your voice and our choral sound.
You should be PROUD Choral Evolution! Not many Community Choirs attempt so much new music with such diversity of style. The SATB format makes the task even more impressive, adding complexity and removing a lot of repetition. You could be doing sing along arrangements of tunes you already know. Yet you choose to embrace growing as a group by working on significant arrangements that push us to our limits. Let’s be proud of that for a moment. We finished reading through all our December concert repertoire last night. We’ll now circle back and start rehearsing and polishing each piece. I added up all the timings today and our program is indeed too long by about 10 minutes. So I have decided to cut: Cantique de Jean Racine and Voices Arising. Hopefully we’ll do both at next year’s fall show. This will lighten our workload and give us more time on each piece. Please stop working on them :) This leaves us with almost exactly 45 mins of music. Here are the arrangements we will work on Saturday: 9:00 Warm-up and Locus Iste – I’m using this as a tuning, blend and dynamics exercise. Plus it’s very beautiful!! Bruckner: "Locus iste" (Stanford Chamber Chorale) for some inspiration 9:40 Solstice Carol – Please keep working at those rhythms and entrances. Antiphony sings "Solstice Carol" 10:10 All the Little Rivers – Keep this fresh by singing it daily. You can’t be reading all those words in a concert; you will have to know them by heart. Note this choir sings from memory 😊 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seGB6wwbwSE&list=RDseGB6wwbwSE&start_radio=1 10:40 Away from the roll of the Sea – Good practice for singing long lyrical lines, lovely tones A fine performance by an Australian choir! Away from the Roll of the Sea - Allister MacGillivray, arr. Diane Loomer | Concordis Chamber Choir 11:00 Break 11:30 Sing the Winter Away – Lots of tricky rhythms to master. This group reminded me of us! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9jjgQULEyI&list=RDV9jjgQULEyI&start_radio=1 12:00 The Field Behind the Plow – Every line has slightly different rhythms, pickups you need to know. Get to know the original material: The Field Behind the Plow 12:30 Un Canadien Errant – This French Speaking choir from Edmonton will be visiting Victoria in May of 2026. They do a Beautiful Job of this arrangement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02j5sGbIoFw&list=RD02j5sGbIoFw&start_radio=1 I will see you all Saturday Oktober 18th at St Rose of Lima at 9 am. André ♪ musictheory.net is a free resource that will teach you all about how written music works. There are theory lessons and ear training for every level of musician. Click on the word “lessons” at the top left and do at least one lesson a day. Each lesson takes just a few minutes to complete and they are fun!. Click on the sentences at the bottom of the page to advance through the lesson. Spending a few minutes a day here will help you become more comfortable with written music. Reminders: ✓ We have Excellent New music, mark lightly with pencils only. You will have to erase it all at the end of the session when you return your music. ✓ Please bring a pencil to rehearsal ✓ Mark your parts, make lots of notes – the score is a road map to beautiful music but we have to all agree on how we will perform it. ✓ In long passages, decide where you will breathe, mark it down and practice it. For instance, the opening phrases of “Away from the roll of the Sea” should be sung in 9 bar blocks and you need to be sure where you will sneak a breath ✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. While it’s great to listen to the tracks, it’s even better to follow them with the music in front of you. We will be stopping and starting a lot at rehearsals, and you’ll be able to follow better if you have been looking at the score as you sing. ✓ Sing out loud in a big room as often as you can. As you learn a tune practice singing as you would in a show. This will strengthen your voice and our choral sound.