At the end of last night’s rehearsal, Carlos made a point of saying that he felt that we are well positioned to produce two excellent performances of Karl Jenkins’ Stella Natalis.  The music is not difficult in itself, he said, and we are already getting to know and understand the occasionally unusual harmonies.  We are even getting to grips with the unusual rhythms and getting the feel of the quirky time signatures of five and seven beats to the bar.  With sufficient practice and constant concentration, he said, we will deliver exciting and memorable performances.

The concentration business is interesting.  There were a number of occasions last night where I found myself lacking.  For example, the music abounds in sudden changes as you turn the page.  As a Bass, on more than one occasion I had been enjoying listening to the Sopranos and Altos singing a delightful melody on one page and immediately on turning over found myself quite unprepared to sing a tricky chord in an unusual rhythm.  It’s one thing to remember all these changes, and another to be always ahead in the score (not with your head in the score!), but that may not be enough.  I hope our Librarian does not mind my making this suggestion, but I find that it helps enormously to mark the end of a page where the next page starts with, as they say, something completely different.  Attacca  is the official musical term, and some people write Watch out or put an exclamation mark, but any mark will do, just as a reminder to turn the page early and be ready for whatever comes next.  And, of course, make any mark in a soft pencil which can readily be erased.

Many of our members do this already.  If you don’t, why not give it a try?  It’s worth it in the cause of giving great performances to our loyal audiences.

Sydney is rapidly running out of water.  Consumption has increased dramatically in certain areas of the City.  For example, domestic consumption in the Northern Beaches and surrounding areas has rocketed just this week.

Sydney Water was at a loss to explain the sudden change until they heard that Cathy Kerr and Nadia Piave had conducted a Vocal Workshop in the area on September 25th.

A spokesman said “Nadia and Cathy persistently tell attendees to practice in the shower.  We understand that the exercises given can take rather longer than most showers for the purposes of washing.  After completing the exercises going up the musical scale, most people then follow up with downwards exercises, then find that they make up their own exercises for good measure.

“We are in the process of developing a virtual shower, giving consumers the feeling and sound of being in the shower without actually running the water.  That way, choristers will be able to practice all day long if they want to without affecting the water supply.”

A spokesman for the Manly Warringah Choir was unavailable for comment.

Even those of us with a only modest appreciation of jazz will remember Take Five, that gently swinging number by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.  Listening to it always gave me the feeling of standing in a crowded train swaying irregularly from side to side as it negotiated a particularly complicated junction or misaligned piece of track.  The effect is due to there being five beats in the bar instead of the usual two, three, four or six.  Sometimes a bar comprises three beats followed by two, sometimes two followed by three.

At M W Choir we don’t often get to sing music with five beats in a bar.  But last night I was reminded of Take Five as we rehearsed The Triangle Song in Stella Natalis.  Incidentally, I had expected, not unreasonably, I thought, a piece about a triangle to have three beats to a bar, but then Karl Jenkins is always doing the unexpected.

So how do you keep track of five beats in a bar?  Quirkily, perhaps, as per the instruction at the start of the music.  I found myself having great difficulty until I hit on the idea of tapping out on my knee “One, two, three, four, five”, repeatedly with the successive fingers (preceded by the thumb of course) of one hand.  By the end it was working quite nicely, and I hope that practicing during the week will reduce my reliance on the tapping to give more of the feel of the piece.

So – that’s a good technique for The Triangle Song.  But what about Wintertide?  That has the even more eclectic seven beats to the bar, and will need a different technique as most of us have only five fingers on one hand.  Does anyone have any ideas?  All suggestions are welcome!

It was so good to get to Choir practice yesterday evening!  After three weeks away, it was indeed time to engage with Karl Jenkins’ Stella Natalis. 

I had flown to London and back, with loads of free time on the seemingly interminable journeys to do things like listen to music of my own choosing.  It just so happened that I had a recording of Stella Natalis, so that seemed an obvious choice.  I had not taken a copy of the score, as I figured that it would be good just to listen and to soak up the sound of the music.   And indeed it was intriguing.

Some of the harmonies are a bit predictable for a while, but then every so often a sequence which you think you understand morphs into a completely different key.

The rhythms are almost unfathomable.  Is that five beats to a bar? Or is it seven beats to a bar? And then it all changes to a standard three or four beats, just for a few bars, and then back to something less conventional.

It’s a very Northern Hemisphere work, painting a very realistic picture of a f.f.f.f.f.freezing  c.c.c.c.c.cold  c.c.cl.cl.cl.climate.

How on earth would all this look in the score?

So last night I was able to see on the page how Jenkins paints some of those marvellous soundscapes.   And, even better, we joined forces to create those soundscapes ourselves.  I was amazed at how far the Choir had progressed in just three weeks.  Yes, there is a lot more to do, but I felt that we had the measure of all of the first five movements, understanding the way in which the music works even if it needs more practice.

It’s going to be very exciting putting it all together.  I look forward eagerly to the next few weeks as the music takes shape under Carlos’ expert direction.

Last Thursday’s rehearsal was spent beginning to discover the delights of Karl Jenkins’ Stella Natalis, which we will perform at the Christmas concerts on December 3rd and 4th.  It was by all accounts a fun time, learning to s s s s sing and achieve other unusual vocal effects. It should not come as a surprise to those of us who have sung Jenkins’ The Armed Man and The Peacemakers.  Although these affects are unusual, they never dissolve into triteness as Jenkins always uses them skilfully and effectively.

Karl Jenkins’ next major work will be premiered this coming October in Wales.  It commemorates the Aberfan disaster of 1966, when a coal spoil heap collapsed, engulfing a school and surrounding buildings with horrific loss of life.  Click here to read more about Cantata Memoria.