No Rehearsal Wednesday

Dear Choir:

Thanks for the fine singing on Christmas Eve day and evening -- and for
calmly surviving the hecticity which always seems to surround these
busier occasions.

But -- no choir rehearsal tomorrow (Wednesday) night.  We all could use
a night off.

We will sing this coming Sunday (the 31st); please meet at the usual
Sunday morning time:  8:45.

I hope that your Christmas was merry -- and that your New Year will be.

        Allan

Your friendly email reminder

Dear Choir:

What time do we meet tonight?  I knew you would want to know.  We will meet at 9:15 p.m.  There are the three anthems to be rehearsed with the instruments, so I hope your Christmas Eve schedule will make it possible to be in the choir loft by that time -- but whatever the case, come as soon as you can.

Along with many others, I thought this morning's service was especially worshipful.  But I knew it would be, as soon as I had heard Laura's prelude, then the choir's beautifully-sung introit, and on through the rest of the service -- an unusually meaningful experience of worship challenging us all to consider the profound implications of the birth of Jesus.

Thank you for all your contributions -- today and every Sunday -- in helping to deliver this message.

Sincerely,

            Allan

P.S.  We could use a couple more people to help erase pencil marks on the instrumental parts from last Sunday's service, which I need to return to the publisher.  Please let me know if you might be available at 10:00 a.m. this coming Wednesday morning for about an hour.  (There will be steaks, baked potatoes with marinated root vegetables hand-picked in Portugal, and cherry pie served afterwards ------------ unless I don't have time to fix them.)

Tomorrow morning reminder

Dear Choir:

It's time for another reminder in this busy music season.  The choir
will rehearse Sunday (tomorrow) morning at 8:45 a.m., our usual time. 
Please try to be in the choir loft by that time.  There is a carol sing
at 9:15, so we need to be finished with our rehearsal a few minutes
before that.  Maggie Zeidel will be there to rehearse her trombone part
with us in the anthem.

See you then.  Thanks to all.

                    -- Allan

(I'll send out a separate reminder for the Christmas Eve service.)

Tonight's rehearsal

Dear Choir:

We're back to the 7:00 p.m. starting time tonight, with a lot less rehearsal pressure than the last several weeks.  Whew!!

But that extra rehearsal time was worth it, I think.  Lenny Snellman's "WOW" pretty much summed it up.  The piece really went well, and it was rewarding and uplifting to be a part of it and of the entire service, words and music.  Thanks for all your time and talent.

Tonight, we will need to rehearse the Christmas Eve music first, since the instruments will be there early to rehearse with Laura and then will go through the anthems for that service with us.  After that we will rehearse the anthem for the morning service on Sunday, and if time permits, look quickly at the music for the next Sunday.

See you then.

            Allan

P.S.  I heard on MPR this morning that music by Libby Larsen will be performed on a Schubert Club concert this week; I didn't catch the precise details.  I wonder if a group might be doing the Ringeltänze.  It would be appropriate -- and we could always fill in, in case that group all came down with the flu or something.

Schedule for Sunday morning

Dear Choir:

Here is your friendly daily reminder of the schedule for tomorrow
(Sunday) morning.

Meet in the choir loft a few seconds before 8:30.  If you have time to
put on robes before then, that would be fine, but most important is that
we start rehearsal on time at 8:30.

If you do have a chance to put your robe on early and can help out with
the carol sing following rehearsal, that would be great.  And no one
will want to miss the opening movement of the Corelli Christmas concerto
which Laura and the strings are playing for the prelude (other movements
for the offertory and postlude).

So it should be a wonderfully joyfully worshipful service as we
celebrate the coming of Christ.  I hope it will be worthy of all the
hard work we have done to prepare the music.

Thanks to all.

            Sincerely,
                            Allan

P.S.  After last Wednesday night's somewhat grueling rehearsal, I have
to say I don't mind going back to our more normal 7:00-8:30 p.m.
rehearsal time, starting next week!  (But thanks again for all the extra
time put in the last several weeks.)

Rehearsal tomorrow night

Dear Choir:

A reminder that choir will begin at 7:00 tomorrow night (our new/usual starting time), but please gather in the children's choir room at that time, rather than the dining room (which will be in use for K4C).  The string quartet and the bells will be practicing in the sanctuary, and Laura will rehearse some of the tricky places in the music with you all; then we will gather together to sing through the Ringeltänze.

We will also need to spend a little time afterwards looking at the pieces for upcoming Christmas worship services.

I'm looking forward to hearing the Ringeltänze with all the parts together; hope you are, too.

See you tomorrow night at 7:00.

Thanks for your time and talent.  It will be a special service on Sunday.

            Allan

Change of plans

Dear Choir:

After brashly announcing with much confidence this morning that rehearsal would be at 7:30 this coming Wednesday evening, I now need to tell you that, in fact, rehearsal will begin at 7:00 this Wednesday.  Please meet in the dining room and Laura will work with everyone to clear up the places that are still problematic.  Then, we can put everything together with the bells and the string quartet at 7:30.   In order to sing through all we need to rehearse before Christmas, we will probably need to go a bit past 8:30, but this should be the last time that's necessary for awhile. 

Before Wednesday night I'll send a reminder of this information, but I just wanted to let you know of the change so you will have it on your calendars.

Thanks for all the hard -- and good -- work, including this morning.

Allan

Plans for this Sunday morning

Dear Choir:

The bells and the children's choir will be rehearsing in the sanctuary tomorrow morning, so we will need to move our rehearsal to the dining room, at our usual time of 8:45.  We will have only 30 minutes to get organized and rehearse, so I hope everyone can make it a bit before 8:45.

Please come directly to the dining room -- the music will be there.

If you are able to arrive early, it might be a good idea to go ahead and put your robe on before we rehearse.  However if your schedule doesn't permit your arriving early, please come directly to the dining room without getting your robe:  you may recall that we haven't had much time to rehearse Sunday's anthem, so it would be very helpful if we all could rehearse together starting at 8:45.

The carol sing begins at 9:15 and I am hoping that many of you will be available to bolster the crowd a bit for that. 

Thanks to all.

                Allan

P.S.  Sopranos:  please remember that we are going to rehearse a few especially tricky parts of the Ringeltänze immediately after the service tomorrow morning.

Thanks

Dear Choir:

Thanks so much for the excellent (not to mention, tiring!) rehearsal
tonight.  Each Wednesday night we have made good progress on this
difficult music, and although various places remain that need more work,
of course**, there are many lovely passages that have come together very
nicely:  on the way home this evening,  I was thinking especially of the
opening of "Beautiful Star," which you all sang with beautiful warmth;
and the beginning of the last movement, "Noel, noel," which really
sparkled tonight, and got that final movement off to a great start.

Thanks for your devotion and patience.  It is much appreciated by me --
and will be appreciated by the congregation on the 17th.

Sincerely,

                    Allan

**The plan is to clear up a few of those places in the soprano part by
sticking around for a short rehearsal after the worship service
Sunday.   Hope this will work for all of you in that section.

Important Info for Wednesday night's rehearsal!

Dear Choir:

We need to make a change in tomorrow night's rehearsal time: REHEARSAL
WILL BEGIN AT 7:30 TOMORROW NIGHT (not 7:00).  The reason for this
change is that the bells will be coming in at 7:00 to practice their
parts in the music, then we will put the choir and the bells together at
7:30.

Please do your best to be in the choir loft (quietly, of course!) by
7:30, since we have a large amount of music to rehearse.

With the later start-time, we will need to extend the rehearsal a bit
longer past 9:00; I hope that singing all this good music will make it
all worth your usual patience and good will and time as we prepare our
hearts and minds (and music) for the Christmas season.

Thanks to all for your very-much-appreciated devotion.  See you at 7:30
(7:29? perhaps).

Sincerely,
                        Allan