Messiah Rehearsal Reflection : 26 February 2009
March 2, 2009 by Rob Westwood-Payne
Filed under Rehearsals
The songsters, along with other singers from around the Cradley Heath area, met together on Thursday evening for our sixth rehearsal for our Easter performances of Handel’s Messiah, Part the Second. We’re becoming firm friends now with both our extra singers and the music!
We began with the Hallelujah Chorus, which, because of it’s familiarity, is really beginning to come together now. We were able to spend a little time on expressing the music, looking at dynamics and so on.
Then we moved on to Worthy is the Lamb and Amen – complicated music, but we stripped it down to its individual parts and you could really hear the layers beginning to build by the end of our work.
Let all the Angels is an interesting chorus, particularly where one part starts with a minum entry at the same time as another part goes off in crotchets! We slowed it down and allowed everyone to catch up!
Finally, we rehearsed Surely, He Hath Borne Our Griefs – again, quite familiar and we took the opportunity to think about and rehearse phrasing and dynamics.
Next week we will be looking at All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray, He Trusted in God, Lift Up Your Heads, Their Sound is Gone Out and Since By Man Came Death.
We have also agreed to meet for a day of sectionals and more rehearsal on Saturday 21 March 2009. Thank you to everyone for this extra effort!
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Rob Westwood-Payne grew up in The Salvation Army at Norwich Citadel. He left Norwich to study at the University of Warwick and became fully involved in the music centre there culminating in his conducting Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue to a full house in Symphony Hall in Birmingham. He also transferred to The Salvation Army at Coventry City, where he became Songster Leader at the age of 21. He was made Songster Leader at Cradley Heath in April 1998 shortly before marrying Gail in the following October. He is a former leader of the West Midlands Divisional Youth Chorus and is currently Programme Director at the West Midlands Divisional Summer School for The Salvation Army. He is an Associate Solicitor in the Licensing Team of a national practice based in the south west.