Coryule Chronicles Feb 2016
A newsletter for Coryule Choristers
A newsletter for Coryule Choristers
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
A new year and a great programme ahead for 2016.
Our first concert on Australia daywas such a success. This singing in the round seems to be bringing out the best in all of us; well that’s how it feels from my spot in the circle. It is uplifting being able to see everyone’s faces and hear all parts working together.
Your committee has begun the process of steering the organization of the Coryule and we would value your input during the year. You are very welcome to come to meetings or put ideas forward to any of the committee for consideration. We have negotiated a new arrangement with St. James which gives us more flexibility and independence, but the same use of facilities. We are now renting the hall.
We are effectively operating on a 2 semester year, mid January to end of June, winter break, July, August and then second semester, late August to December. We hope you might continue to attempt to schedule big holidays into our winter break. It is so lovely to have the full choir singing together as often as possible.
Best wishes for this year of
singing together.
Best wishes
Annette
A new year and a great programme ahead for 2016.
Our first concert on Australia daywas such a success. This singing in the round seems to be bringing out the best in all of us; well that’s how it feels from my spot in the circle. It is uplifting being able to see everyone’s faces and hear all parts working together.
Your committee has begun the process of steering the organization of the Coryule and we would value your input during the year. You are very welcome to come to meetings or put ideas forward to any of the committee for consideration. We have negotiated a new arrangement with St. James which gives us more flexibility and independence, but the same use of facilities. We are now renting the hall.
We are effectively operating on a 2 semester year, mid January to end of June, winter break, July, August and then second semester, late August to December. We hope you might continue to attempt to schedule big holidays into our winter break. It is so lovely to have the full choir singing together as often as possible.
Best wishes for this year of
singing together.
Best wishes
Annette
Joy’s Jottings
Complied using ideas from Chris Rowbury: UK Choral Director
Now that we are rehearsing in the round and hearing each other so much better, I offer the following for you to ponder…………………
We focus so much on our mouths and what comes out of them, that often we forget one (perhaps the most) important aspect of singing: listening.
Listening to your own voice
This is what we tend to do the most of. We worry if it’s any good, if we’re getting the notes in the right order, what other people might think of us, if we’ve remembered the instructions from last rehearsal.
The problem is, if we focus too much on ourselves and the production of sound, we stop being part of the choir or the song and become a self-centred island. We need to focus outwards too.
It can help enormously with nerves and other worries to take the focus off ourselves and remember we’re part of a greater whole.
Listening to others in your part
This is the first stage of focusing outwards and it’s a check-in to make sure we’re singing in tune, not singing too loudly (or softly), blending well with the other voices, getting our part right . But that’s not enough if you’re singing a song in harmony……………………...
Listening to your part against another harmony
You need to listen to your part in relationship to other harmonies in the mix. Are you pitching accurately, are you in synch time-wise with the other part, are you drowning
them out or are you in perfect balance, what about blend of voices?
Listening to the overall sound
It’s no good if you’ve got the mix perfectly with just one other part because that doesn’t tell the whole story. You need to get a sense of the overall sound of the song. This can help enormously with balance (of volume and vocal quality).
If you can only hear the other harmonies, then you’re too quiet. If you can only hear your own part, then you’re too loud. Like Goldilocks, you need to get it ‘just right’. Sometimes that means a perfect balance with all the other parts, other times it might mean being a support act to the main tune and taking a bit of a back seat..
Listening to Bernice’s CDs
These are lovingly and carefully prepared so that those choir members not confident on a keyboard can hear their individual parts. Why not have the CD in the car with you and listen and sing along? Better still sit with a cuppa, the music score and play the CD to follow, listen and then sing along.
A great way to secure your part!!
Listening to me
There’s listening and there’s actually hearing. Yes, the sound might go into your ears, but you have to pay attention too! This applies to all the above, but particularly when I am speaking to your section or the whole choir.
It’s when we focus on listening rather than producing, that our singing improves enormously.
Messages from Your Committee
We hope you have all noticed the change in our subscription regime.
Our costs have been scaled back and we now only pay $60.00 twice yearly or annually $120.00, unless arrangements for other payments are made with Len. Members will now be paying the equivalent of $30.00 per quarter. This may be reviewed in the future if costs become too great or if our membership drops. The new arrangements with St James, where we pay for the hire of the hall and only perform one benefit concert, come in this year. It is still unknown what effect this will have on our budget.
Sales of CDs have been going well and we have now sold enough to cover the costs of production and we are’ in the black’. We still have some more CDs for sale but the bulk of these are now gone.
A beautiful poem I found on Google which celebrates choirs.
Choir is the unity of a single person
With another.
It bands people together
With music,
And drives away the sour notes
Of self centeredness
With the sweet sounds of harmony.
And while the individuality
Is maintained,
It is enhanced with the diversity
Of a group,
And so in the end
Everyone shines with beaming hearts
And open minds.
A view from the bass line
Ian Porter
For the greater part of my life I have enjoyed singing, so being part of Coryule feels very natural, especially as we have fun together, both singing and socially, and we bring enjoyment to others as well as ourselves.
I discovered singing as a 17 year-old when I reconnected with a local church which had a strong and youthful choir. I had studied piano and could read music, so I quickly found the pleasure of being part of a twenty-voice choir. There was the challenge of the weekly anthem, but at Christmas and Easter, larger works were performed, including Handel’s Messiah. When I entered the church ministry a few years later, singing and choirs became part of my everyday working life. Even in retirement I sing in my local church choir at Portarlington.
Coryule is a great experience because of the wide variety of music in our expanding repertoire. It is all songs I have never sung before. Think of the work we did to master that Richard Rogers album! Of course we all know many of the songs as songs, but singing them together in a three or four-part harmony is a different experience, quite apart from the pressure of public performances. But what a great feeling afterwards!
Over the years I have enjoyed attending performances of big choirs like the Melbourne Chorale, and have often mused on what it might be like to be part of such a choir. I am glad we are what we are! A mixed bunch of amateur singers who enjoy doing what we do, and getting there because of Joy’s direction (and patience!!).
A request to Choir members
Please help us to accommodate our friends in the choir who may be sensitive to fragrances and other scented products. Thank you for not wearing perfume, aftershave, scented hand lotion, fragranced hair products, and or similar products
Complied using ideas from Chris Rowbury: UK Choral Director
Now that we are rehearsing in the round and hearing each other so much better, I offer the following for you to ponder…………………
We focus so much on our mouths and what comes out of them, that often we forget one (perhaps the most) important aspect of singing: listening.
Listening to your own voice
This is what we tend to do the most of. We worry if it’s any good, if we’re getting the notes in the right order, what other people might think of us, if we’ve remembered the instructions from last rehearsal.
The problem is, if we focus too much on ourselves and the production of sound, we stop being part of the choir or the song and become a self-centred island. We need to focus outwards too.
It can help enormously with nerves and other worries to take the focus off ourselves and remember we’re part of a greater whole.
Listening to others in your part
This is the first stage of focusing outwards and it’s a check-in to make sure we’re singing in tune, not singing too loudly (or softly), blending well with the other voices, getting our part right . But that’s not enough if you’re singing a song in harmony……………………...
Listening to your part against another harmony
You need to listen to your part in relationship to other harmonies in the mix. Are you pitching accurately, are you in synch time-wise with the other part, are you drowning
them out or are you in perfect balance, what about blend of voices?
Listening to the overall sound
It’s no good if you’ve got the mix perfectly with just one other part because that doesn’t tell the whole story. You need to get a sense of the overall sound of the song. This can help enormously with balance (of volume and vocal quality).
If you can only hear the other harmonies, then you’re too quiet. If you can only hear your own part, then you’re too loud. Like Goldilocks, you need to get it ‘just right’. Sometimes that means a perfect balance with all the other parts, other times it might mean being a support act to the main tune and taking a bit of a back seat..
Listening to Bernice’s CDs
These are lovingly and carefully prepared so that those choir members not confident on a keyboard can hear their individual parts. Why not have the CD in the car with you and listen and sing along? Better still sit with a cuppa, the music score and play the CD to follow, listen and then sing along.
A great way to secure your part!!
Listening to me
There’s listening and there’s actually hearing. Yes, the sound might go into your ears, but you have to pay attention too! This applies to all the above, but particularly when I am speaking to your section or the whole choir.
It’s when we focus on listening rather than producing, that our singing improves enormously.
Messages from Your Committee
We hope you have all noticed the change in our subscription regime.
Our costs have been scaled back and we now only pay $60.00 twice yearly or annually $120.00, unless arrangements for other payments are made with Len. Members will now be paying the equivalent of $30.00 per quarter. This may be reviewed in the future if costs become too great or if our membership drops. The new arrangements with St James, where we pay for the hire of the hall and only perform one benefit concert, come in this year. It is still unknown what effect this will have on our budget.
Sales of CDs have been going well and we have now sold enough to cover the costs of production and we are’ in the black’. We still have some more CDs for sale but the bulk of these are now gone.
A beautiful poem I found on Google which celebrates choirs.
Choir is the unity of a single person
With another.
It bands people together
With music,
And drives away the sour notes
Of self centeredness
With the sweet sounds of harmony.
And while the individuality
Is maintained,
It is enhanced with the diversity
Of a group,
And so in the end
Everyone shines with beaming hearts
And open minds.
A view from the bass line
Ian Porter
For the greater part of my life I have enjoyed singing, so being part of Coryule feels very natural, especially as we have fun together, both singing and socially, and we bring enjoyment to others as well as ourselves.
I discovered singing as a 17 year-old when I reconnected with a local church which had a strong and youthful choir. I had studied piano and could read music, so I quickly found the pleasure of being part of a twenty-voice choir. There was the challenge of the weekly anthem, but at Christmas and Easter, larger works were performed, including Handel’s Messiah. When I entered the church ministry a few years later, singing and choirs became part of my everyday working life. Even in retirement I sing in my local church choir at Portarlington.
Coryule is a great experience because of the wide variety of music in our expanding repertoire. It is all songs I have never sung before. Think of the work we did to master that Richard Rogers album! Of course we all know many of the songs as songs, but singing them together in a three or four-part harmony is a different experience, quite apart from the pressure of public performances. But what a great feeling afterwards!
Over the years I have enjoyed attending performances of big choirs like the Melbourne Chorale, and have often mused on what it might be like to be part of such a choir. I am glad we are what we are! A mixed bunch of amateur singers who enjoy doing what we do, and getting there because of Joy’s direction (and patience!!).
A request to Choir members
Please help us to accommodate our friends in the choir who may be sensitive to fragrances and other scented products. Thank you for not wearing perfume, aftershave, scented hand lotion, fragranced hair products, and or similar products