Thursday, October 15, 2009

Caroling in the Queen St Mall

Morningsong and Moresong have been invited to be part of the Queen St Mall caroling festivities over Christmas starting November 27 to December 24. There is a city budget for this, and because of the structure of Morningsong (i.e. your benign dictator doesn't have a board or committee to answer to) you will be paid individually rather than the $$ going to the group. More on money towards the end.

We have been asked to perform as a large group and also form subgroups of wandering carolers to perform three 20 minute brackets of songs.

As you know, we are not generally a performing group, but I know that many of you have expressed interest in caroling which is why I'm giving this much thought and have had lengthy discussions with the Mall people.

There are a couple of downside issues to cover first:
1. This is performing outside, so if you think the acoustics of our hall are dry now, wait until your voices get totally lost in the mall to realise how frustrating it can be. On the other hand, even if you can't hear yourself or your singing colleagues, passing bank executives can. A little. Depending on the wind and rain. Have I ever mentioned how discouraging it is to perform outside? :)

2. You will have to know all the songs and words without any bits of paper and know the tunes and your harmonies inside out. If you (and I) feel totally confident that you can hold the tune and know the words, I can let you loose on the public!

3. We will probably have to learn quite a few more Christmas songs than we know now.
After discussions with the Mall, the ones we have been doing for a while which will be suitable are these:
Amen Siakadumisa and most of the African stuff we have been doing including Ma Ma Liye
anything with Alleluia in its name
All Night, All Day,
Masters in This Hall
Fum fum fum (last 2 starting soon)
Thou Poor Bird with Hey Ho nobody's home
Durme, durme and Erev Shel Shoshanim which only Moresong has started.
Jazz Gloria
Angels Heard on High
Rise Up O Flame, etc

4. We may have to have extra rehearsals for many of these songs, and rehearsals for the subgroups since I do not want to make the whole of Morningsong and Moresong rehearse if only a few people will participate. These extra rehearsals can take place in my home or yours, whatever you like. We can discuss this.

5. You may have to wear, gasp!, a costume or some kind of dedicated Christmassy clothing. The Mall owns some... they say. They just haven't located them yet.

The upside is that this is a tremendous opportunity for people who DO like to perform and wish to do caroling over Christmas. The fact that you get paid is such a bonus - I think it's rather rare of cities to treasure their choirs and actually pay their carolers.

Talking of money: we really need to discuss this. Money and choirs can break long friendships (look at the Choir of Hard Knocks and the tragedy there) so it's REALLY IMPORTANT that we are all on the same page. The city would pay me as representative of Morningsong. I will have quite a lot to do with preparation, administration, sheet music costs and printing costs (I don't have to pay extra liability insurance) . I would like a couple of singers to volunteer to be auditors and help handle the money side. We would write everything up so it's very clear, deduct some for my expenses and admin, and hand over the rest to all of you in the ratio that you participate. i.e. if you sing two brackets of carols you need to be paid more than someone who sings one bracket.
We aren't talking heaps of rubles here, but I very much want to avoid grievances by having everything transparent.

Let me know what you think, whether you are interested in forming smaller groups or just singing in a larger group or not at all. I also need to know times you have available or not available in the afternoons or weekends of those 4 Xmas weeks.

Email or phone me any time in the next few days - in order to nab the best time spots I need to get back to the Mall people before our sessions next week. It doesn't matter if it's afterwards, but the time slots will rapidly evaporate.

Cheers,
Jane

IMPORTANT EDIT : Ladies and Gentlemen: I've decided to back off being Dragon Lady about memorising carols and songs. Eliza has very kindly printed a small booklet of all the words of Christmas and vaguely-Christmassy songs.

!!!!!!!!

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