10 February 2026

Dear Singers,
 
Hi lo chickalo to you all!  Thanks for a good rehearsal, this term is settling down well and I am pleased with the strength in numbers. 
For the balance between parts to be completely fabulous, I would welcome some more sopranos! If you have singing friends (in other choirs?) who have sung the Verdi before, or who are good learners, please encourage them to join us for the term.
 
WHAT WE DID ON 10.02.26
Warming up focused on CONSONANTS, and the energy required to make them speak clearly, and how important your tongue is! Concentrating on Kyrie, Libera and Domine. The main 'take away' was that they all need strength in the sound to communicate with he audience. 
A little trick we discovered to focus the sound is to make an 'O' shape with forefinger and thumb and place it over your mouth whilst singing - the sound was more homogenous and stronger. We now have to achieve this without the 'O' fingers.
 
We finished note-picking pages 138-140, the final part of the Libera using the main fugue tune, then sang from the beginning up to that point - it's really starting to come together. There was one join on p135, bar 276 which needed work, and doubtless other corners will emerge.
 
Dies irae came next, p17. A lot of time was spent slowly singing the chromatic part 2 notes on p17 as tuning is crucial. This is where we discovered that when singing it to the syllable 'na na na' the tuning was much better, BECAUSE the use of a consonant made the attack of each note stronger - it's easier to sing than just the vowel 'i.........rae'. So we need to work on the energy at this moment. Great start, well done.
Pronunciation: Remember 'irae' is pronounced 'eeeray'.
 
Finished with Agnus p104 - beginning to sound lovely now, nice legato and very good tuning.
 
WHAT WE WILL DO ON 17.02.26
As it's half term, Matt will be having a break, and our accompanist will be Peter Adcock, who is playing a piano in the concert. Welcome!
 
Libera me p139 (linking with 138) to 143
Dies irae p25-28, then link to opening
Requiem/Kyrie opening (p1-16) - recap and sing through
 
No other words of inspiration at the moment - must be all the wet weather, happy sailing! Thank you.
 
Best wishes,
Peter