Hi Everyone,

Great job on Monday at the Memorial Day service in Falmouth! All
three pieces sounded wonderful and I've received numerous comments
about how great you all sounded. Good work!

Last Thursday's rehearsal went well also! Lots of good hard work
going on. We're starting to get down to our final stretch of
rehearsals before our concerts, and I think we're in a pretty good
place. Many of the pieces are really starting to come together.

This Thursday:

Please get to rehearsal in a timely manner! We're starting to get a
bit relaxed about our starting time. As we draw nearer to our
concert, we need every minute, so please arrive promptly and be ready
to sing at 7pm!

We will begin rehearsal by reviewing "Drunken Sailor" and "Away from
the Roll". After that, we will break into sectionals for about 30
minutes or so. Section leaders, please make some notes about what
pieces your sections really need to look at, and chorus members, do
the same! I will be bouncing around from section to section to
address some of the concerns I have. Use this time to really pull
together as a group and dive into the problem areas.

After the sectionals, we will spend the remainder of rehearsal
learning "We Three Poor Mariners" and reviewing some of the other
pieces as time allows. "Whale of a Tale" soloists, be ready to try
your solos, I would like to run that piece tomorrow.

Thanks again to all of you for your hard work so far!

Brittany

Hi Everyone,

Great job again at last Thursdays rehearsal. We got a lot done! The
music for Memorial Day sounded great and we will put it all together
this Thursday with our accompanist. The Memorial Day music we be
rehearsed first this week to accommodate people who would like to
join us for Memorial Day only. In preparation, please review your
notes on "My Country 'tis of Thee." It is a different arrangement
than some of you are used too. Remember that everyone will sing verse
1, then on verse 2, only the baritones will sing the words while
everyone else hums their parts, then we all sing verse 3. Please make
sure your music is marked.

For "The Navy Hymn," we will be adding in the Coast Guard verse.
Please write in the verse underneath the words to verse . We will
repeat section 1 twice in order to sing the words to verse 1 and the
new coast guard verse, before moving on to the solo section. I will
clarify this more in tomorrow night's rehearsal, but please have the
Coast Guard verse already written in:

Eternal Father, Lord of hosts,
Watch o’er the men who guard our coasts.
Protect them from the raging seas
And give them light and life and peace.
Grant them from Thy great throne above
The shield and shelter of Thy love.


The music for our June concert is going well also. Continue to work
on "Drunken Sailor," reviewing the parts we have learned so far.
Especially focus on the rhythm on the top of page 7. Basses practice
your notes and rhythm on page 6. We will learn the last part of the
piece this week and start to do some polishing on it.

"The Water is Wide" is coming along very well. Remember to stagger
breathe throughout. The biggest issue with this piece is the tuning.
Pay particular attention to the long notes you sustain. We will
continue to work on this as a group and focus on tuning and expression.

"Hoodah Day" is close to being ready for performance. Those of you
singing the verses (Tenors); please continue to review the words and
memorize them as much as possible so that you can have fun with them.
I don't want people to be buried in their music during this piece.

At this week's rehearsal we will review: "Calm is the Sea," be ready
to sing it without accompaniment and with loads of expression! We
will also review and fine-tune: Fogarty's Cove, We Saw the Sea, The
Mermaid, Away from the Roll of the Sea, and Cape Cod Girls. We will
be adding some additional verses to Cape Cod Girls, and we'll be
handing out the words to them at tomorrow's rehearsal. In the
meantime, review your parts and see if you can start to do it from
memory!

Thanks again everyone for all your hard work! See you tomorrow

Brittany

Hi Everyone,

Once again great work at last week's rehearsal! We made some headway
on several of our new pieces, "The Water is Wide," and of course the
"Drunken Sailor." We will continue to plow through the "Drunken
Sailor" this week and also to fine tune the other pieces we've been
working on already.

For this week:

Review the "Drunken Sailor" sections we looked at during last week's
rehearsal. Pay particularly close attention to the rhythms. Take a
peek at the next section that we will be working on this Thursday,
and try to become familiar with the words.

Starting this week, we're going to be doing Fogarty's Cove as a
capella as possible!! Tenors, continue to work on the "oo" "oh" "ah"
section, and don't be afraid to break when needed. It doesn't need to
be completely smooth all the way through, and it's a lot easier to
sing if you take the lifts we have been talking about.

Baritones and Basses, please review the melody lines in "Away from
the Roll of the Sea." We're still having some rhythm issues and we
need everyone to be completely together. Make sure to sing it lightly
and smoothly, like a lullaby. Use the CDs to practice, and circle any
of the rhythms you keep missing. Remember to keep the pitch up on the
long sustained notes, don't just get to the note and sit on it.

A BIG thank you to all of you who came to FCTV yesterday for our
recording session. It went really well and was a lot of fun, and it
will be interesting to see how it comes out! They will be keeping us
posted on where it might appear and if any of the radio stations are
going to use it as well. Thanks again!

Finally, we still need more people to audition for solos,
particularly for the ones in A Whale of A Tale. If you are
interested, come a few minutes early to rehearsal this week and be
prepared to sing through one of your choice.

See you Thursday!
Brittany

LOCATION CHANGE

Hi Everyone,

Great work again at last week's rehearsal! We are really starting to
make some great progress, especially with our more difficult pieces.
Fogarty's Cove is really starting to come together, please use your
cds and continue to go over the words to become more familiar with
them, particularly in the faster passages.

Next rehearsal, we will begin learning the new piece handed out "What
Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor." It proves to be challenging but
it is a really neat piece and fun to sing. We will also continue to
work on polishing Fogarty's Cove, Skye Boat Song and Away from the
Roll of the Sea. We'll learn the first section of "The Mermaid" and
continue work on the refrain, as well as reviewing Hoodah Day; those
of you singing the verses in this piece, make sure you are familiar
with the words so you can move past just reading them, and start to
have fun with it!

A reminder that next rehearsal, April 30th, we will be holding
auditions for the 4 solos in "Navy Hymn," and "A Whale of a Tale."
If you are interested in auditioning, please come at 6:30 prepared to
sing one of those solos.

Thanks again and keep up the good work!

Brittany

Hi Brittany,

I enjoyed the GFMAMMC presentation of “America the Beautiful” very much. A different harmonization for each verse with the grand finale on the fourth. It sounded grand. How well-organized they were, processing on and off. It was fun to watch town meeting members crane their necks to see who they knew in the chorus.

Please convey to the group how much the Society appreciates their participation in this 150th birthday celebration. Great job!

Carolyn
Carolyn T. Powers
Executive Director
Falmouth Historical Society

Hi Everyone,

Another great rehearsal last night! . We are getting a really good
start on a lot of our repertoire, especially some of the hardest
pieces we will be doing. Thank you for your great concentration and
willingness to plow right into some new music!

At next week's rehearsal we will continue to learn "Away from the
Roll of the Sea," and of course "Fogarty's Cove." Don't let this
piece scare you! It's starting to come together very nicely. It's
going to be a wonderful and fun piece to perform. Take a peek at your
lyrics in this piece for next week and circle any "duts" so you can
be sure to get your "doos" and "duts" straight, as it will make a
huge difference in how the piece comes across.

For next week's rehearsal take a look at:
Fogarty's Cove (lyrics!)
Away from the Roll of the Sea (baritones and basses work on the
lyrics! tenors take a peek at the up coming sections we will be
learning)
Skye Boat Song
The Mermaid
A Whale of a Tale
Columbia, Gem of the Ocean
America the Beautiful

Hopefully everyone was able to pick up a CD last night. These will be
a great asset for you to work on your music at home, or to listen to
in the car and start familiarizing yourself with these new pieces.
Each CD has a recording of each full piece (piano only) and a track
of your voice part for each piece (your part played on piano with me
attempting to sing along!)

Thanks again for a great rehearsal, and I look forward to seeing all
of you again next week!

Brittany

Sorry for a delay in any messages - Brittany was quite busy with the Chorale concerts over the weekend.  We will have CDs tonight and scarves/ties for anyone who didn't receive one. Just come to Morse Pond School ready to sing---as usual!!
Thanks,
Marcy

Hi Everyone,

It was great to meet you all and start working with you last Thursday
evening! We didn't get to sing much as a group, but we will be doing
a lot more of that starting this week. I'm very pleased with the
vocal hearings I've heard so far, and I have put together the list of
voice parts for the 2009 Season. Please check your name to verify
which section you will be singing in.

If you missed rehearsal on the 12th, please come early to rehearsal
this week (the 19th) to sing a brief vocal hearing for me. A hearing
is nothing to be nervous about, it's used purely for me to hear what
your range is and decide what voice part you should be singing.
Please come prepared to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".

During this Thursday's rehearsal, we will be diving right in to the
music for this year's concerts. As you've noticed by now in looking
through the music we handed out, we are going to be doing a concert
with the theme: "Songs of the Sea". Some pieces will probably look
familiar, but others are going to be brand new. Some of the
unfamiliar pieces may seem daunting, but don't worry, we'll be
working through them together and they are going to be great. All are
fantastic pieces that are going to be a lot of fun to sing! I'm
working on recording the CDs, which will be passed out hopefully by
next week. For folks new to the group, these CDs contain a recording
of your specific voice part for each song we are singing, as well as
the song in its entirety.

This week we will be working on:

"America the Beautiful" - just putting some final touches on this
familiar song, in preparation for our April 6th performance
"Away from the Roll of the Sea" - reading through and working on
notes and rhythms in this new, but stunning, piece!
"Calm is the Sea"
"Hoodah Day"
"The Navy Hymn"
"Skye Boat Song"
"We Be Three Poor Mariners"

See you then! And thanks again everyone, I'm looking forward to a
great season!
Brittany

Hi all,
It was a pleasure seeing all the faces - new and returning and returning 
after a longer hiatus!!!  We are working on getting the blog up and 
running - The instructions are a brief novel in themselves!!  Come on 
Thursday AT ST. PATRICK'S and we will see what Brittany has planned!  
She may be working to blog with an update - I am trying to switch
for her from the cumbersome instructions to the easy one for blogging!  
Stay tuned!! I am a singer, not a computer person!!!
I will bring Anchors Aweigh!!  You all can bring your voices and happy 
selves!!!
I hope the 5 minutes of Row Row Row your Boat etc were OK - I hope all 
had enough privacy if they desired.  I know there was a lot of 
schmoozing and good socializing going on!!
Check back before you come out on Thursday!
Marcy