Rehearsal Announcements:

Saturday, June 2, 2007 (Dress Rehearsal)

• Attire: white tops, black bottoms, red or green sashes for women, red ties for men.
• Some people (the more the merrier) will arrive at 1:00PM Sunday to rearrange chairs.
• Concert call: 1:45PM for warm-up in the chapel.
• At 1:55PM we'll run the rest of the Lassus mass.
• In section III of the concert, the instrumental Gabrielli Sonata will be before the Vittoria Dic nobis Maria.
• The concert should be over by 5:00PM.
• Take care of yourselves; take care of your voices; review the problem spots;
  listen to the other parts for tuning and ensemble; WATCH LOUISE; sing well!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

• Brent made a transposed reduction of the parts to the Rossi Al naharot Bavel. There was a strong concensus that the piece is better down a step. (And now that we've transposed it down, Gamaliel Rose will also be singing it with us.)
  Transposed Rossi files: ABC source file (original key/transposed – just notes; no text yet); MIDI; reduction (PostScript/PDF)
• The Bach is the only piece we're singing after the intermission, so we don't need to have it our folders. We can hold it by itself and we will look uniform.
• The dress rehearsal is at 3:30PM this Saturday (June 2) at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 4250 North Glebe Road, Arlington, VA.
• We are looking for help loading Doug Wolter's harpsichord into his car in Silver Spring before the rehearsal Saturday. (The helpers need not be people coming to rehearsal – anyone able bodied near Silver Spring.) The harpsichord cannot stay at the church overnight, but we have an offer of close overnight housing in Arlington (if it's OK with Doug).
• At rehearsal tonight we had decided not to rehearse next week (June 6) and to have a pot-luck gathering the next Wednesday (June 13). Nancy and Joe have a conflict on the 13th, but have offered to host a party on the 6th. They live about 2.5 miles from Arlington Forest United Methodist Church (where we rehearse). Details and directions will follow in email.
• We normally begin our fall rehearsals the Wednesday after Labor Day (Sept 5). Next September Louise will be unavailable the next 2 weeks, so this year we won't probably resume rehearsals until September 26.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

• We will sing the Tye Laudete Nomen Domini twice through with repeats (i.e. AABBAABB) – the first time in Latin, and the second time in English.
• After rehearsal we had the idea of singing the Rossi Al naharot Bavel down a whole step. This would be great for the tenors, but we weren't sure about the basses. There are a couple of low Es, but they could be up an octave if they don't work as low Ds. Louise would like to rehearse this at 7:15 next week if the men and the ladies involved can come early.
• There are attractive postcards and posters for our concert. Tell your friends!
• We met Hellen's sister Barbara, here from Tucson for her daughter's graduation.
• I received email from Mario Van der Cruyssen who runs a website in Belgium about the Divine Name. He'd like to add our recording of Purcell's Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei from our January 2004 concert to the music section of his website.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

• We met our tenor soloist, Gamaliel Rose, tonight. He'll be singing the Purcell as well as the Bach.
• Dress rehearsal starts at 3:30PM Saturday June 2.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

• Tentative concert order:
  • Hans Leo Hassler: Nun Fanget An ein Guts Liedlein
  • Christopher Tye: Laudete Nomen Domini
  • Orlandus Lassus: motet Surrexit paster bonus (2nd pages 1-5, at end)
  • Orlandus Lassus: Missa super Surrexit paster bonus
    • Gloria (p 5-11)
    • Sanctus, Benedictus, Hosanna (p 21-27, 24-26)
  • Tomas Luis de Victoria: Dic nobis Maria (with organ, strings?)
  • Giovanni Gabrieli: O Jesu mi dulcissime (with organ)
  • Salamone Rossi: Al naharot Bavel (There by the Streams We Sat) (TTBB)
  • Henry Purcell: Hear my prayer, O Lord (with organ)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 131: Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir. (From the deep, Lord, I cried to Thee.)
  • There will be some additional instrumental music.
• Dress rehearsal starts at 4:00 3:30PM Saturday June 2 for the chorus.
• Lousie B. brought flyers for Tuesday-night Summer Sings all through June 2007 at Western Presbyterian Church (near the Foggy Bottom METRO). Fauré Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Brahms Requiem, Bach B-Minor Mass choruses. All are at 7:30 pm, admission $10.00, score rental $2.00.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

• The Lassus Sauter, Danser will not be on the concert (but we will do it next fall).
• The Hassler Nun Fanget An ein Guts Liedlein is on the concert.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

• We will not sing the Kyrie or the Credo of the Lassus Missa super Surrexit paster bonus for the June 3rd concert.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 (news, but not announced)

• Our Spring Concert (3:00 PM Sunday June 3rd) will be at at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 4250 North Glebe Road, Arlington, VA. (This is the same church where we sang our May 2006 concert.)
• The dress rehearsal will be 3:00 3:30-6:00 PM Saturday June 2nd.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 &mdash no notes.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

• New music:
  • Salamone Rossi: Al naharot Bavel (There by the Streams We Sat) (TTBB)
  • Henry Purcell: Hear my prayer, O Lord (SSAATTBB!)
• Condolences to Martin – his sister died Tuesday after a long illness.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 &mdash no notes.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 &mdash no notes.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

• Our spring concert will be Sunday June 3rd at 3 PM.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007 — light turnout (snow), but we rehearsed.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

• New music: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Tomas Luis de Victoria: Dic nobis Maria (from the sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes)

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

• Rehearsal started at 8 PM because Louise Lee was playing the organ for an Ash Wednesday service.
• Jenny Bland lead our warm-up and rehearsed the Ives Now We Are Met and the Hassler Nun Fanget An.
• We rehearsed the entire Bach Cantata, including reading through the solo sections.
• Louise would like to collect $25 from each of us for the spring to cover purchasing music and hiring instrumentalists.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007 &mdash inclement weather; rehearsal cancelled.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007 &mdash no notes.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 &mdash no notes.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

• After reviewing the known schedule conflicts, our tentative spring concert date is June 3rd. The 2nd weekend of June is also a possibility, and we could do an additional program sooner than June.
• Big turnout tonight – everybody except Alyn and Martin (and Sandra) &ndash even Jon!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

• We will sing the Lassus Surrexit paster bonus down one step. Louise has learned that the edition we're using was prepared for the Tallis Scholars by one of their members, and they perform it down a whole step.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

• New music:
  • Orlandus Lassus: Sauter, Danser
  • Hans Leo Hassler: Nun Fanget An ein Guts Liedlein
  • Simon Ives: Now We Are Met
• We're trying to pick a spring concert date. Please check your calendars for conflicts.
• Please look through your old music and bring Hassler's Ihr Musici, Frisch auf! (You Musicians, Refresh Yourselves) to rehearsal if you can find it. (We rehearsed it in March/April 2005.)

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

• New music:
  • Orlandus Lassus: motet Surrexit paster bonus
  • Orlandus Lassus: Missa super Surrexit paster bonus
• AD HOC welcomes returning alto Beth Underkoffler.
• Dr. Carlton R. Young (Professor Emeritus of Church Music at Emory University and editor of The United Methodist Hymnal) is preparing an exhibition "Sacred Harmony: The Musical Wesley Family", celebrating the contributions to church music by the Wesley family. (John Wesley founded the Methodist Church.) One of the audio examples in the exhibition will be part of William Croft's Out of the Deep from our May 19, 1996 concert.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

• We spent the first half of the rehearsal just reading through new/different music for fun.
• We spent the 2nd half of the rehearsal on the Bach Cantata No. 131.
• Louise Lee is still ailing a bit from a persistent bug.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

• Google has crawled and indexed our website at its new location. (Google still has links to non-existent pages at our old location.) I have not been able to update our listing at DMOZ Chamber Choirs. (Updates have been "temporarily" broken for many weeks.) Many other sites have links based on DMOZ.
• Anthony Smitha (Phantom Seraphim) mentioned our presence at St. Mary's in his blog, Sunday, December 10, 2006.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

• We sang a program of Christmas music at Culpepper Garden on the 3rd floor of the assisted-living section tonight. Jenny Bland filled in admirably for Louise Lee. We had a small, but appreciative, audience.
• Louise Bedichek bought a Kennedy Center gift certificate on our behalf as a Christmas gift for Louise Lee. (Suggested contribution: $5.00.)
• No rehearsals the next two weeks (Dec 20, 27). Our next rehearsal is January 3, 2007. Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

• Louise Lee still has a bad cough, and she thinks it is not a good idea to go into a retirement home with any sort of respiratory problem. She has asked Jenny Bland to conduct and accompany us Wednesday at Culpepper Garden. Please arrive by 6:45 PM.
• We will not sing Guerrero's Virgen sancta, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing will not be transposed from the printed key (but the soporanos can sing just the melody if they like, since the descant is in the piano part).
• We will also be signing a card for Louise's Christmas gift.

Monday, December 11, 2006

• For those who are keeping score, this website moved to a new server overnight Saturday with our own domain name (AdHocSingers.org), and today a redirect page was installed on our old server directing SitesbySteve.com/adhoc traffic here. After 3 years our site had gotten established in Google's rankings, so a search for Ad Hoc Singers actually finds us as the first hit! (And that means you didn't really need to remember that URL – you could just Google us!) Unfortunately, those hits are still pointing at our old URL.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

• The priest at today's mass was Monsignor Charles Pope, the pastor of St. Thomas More parish in Southeast Washington, DC. His sermons are available online as MP3 files and podcasts at his web site.
• The programs for the evening service contained translations for our pieces. Unfortunately, the church secretary stapled the evening program to the Sunday-morning bulletin, and the programs were almost entirely gone for our service.
• The Knights of Columbus provided an honor guard for the service.

Friday, December 8, 2006

For the December 13 Christmas program at Culpepper Garden:
• Please arrive at 7:00 6:45 PM. We will sing at 7:15 in the Assisted Living section on the 6th floor.
• Culpepper Garden is about 1½ blocks north of Arlington Forest United Methodist Church (where we rehearse) on Henderson Street. The main entrance is on Henderson St.; there is also an entrance at 4435 N. Pershing Drive. Please enter from Henderson St. so we can all meet up and check in at the desk.
• Louise has 10 parking permits which she will hand out Sunday. Do NOT park in spaces marked for residents. Cars are towed from those spaces. There is also street parking.
• Elder-care facilities are generally well heated. Don't dress too warmly. Men should wear long-sleeve white shirts in case we want to remove our jackets. Otherwise, standard concert dress – white and black with sashes, for women; patterned red ties for men. (We've usually been more casual in the past, but we looked good this way last year.)

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

• We rehearsed at St. Mary's. We spent most of the time on the Mozart pieces, getting coordinated with the organ. We did run through the other motets.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

• Program for the December 10th service at St. Mary's:
  • Prelude
    • Cristóbal de Morales: Peccantem me quotidie
    • Tomas Luis de Victoria: Ave Maria
    • Francisco Guerrero: Canite Tuba
  • Service
    • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa brevis in B♭ (except the Gloria)
    • Offeratory: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Ave verum Corpus
    • Communion: Thomas Tallis: Salvator mundi
• The program order for Christmas carols at Culpepper Garden is on the pieces rehearsed page.
• New music tonight: Adolphe Adam: Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night)

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

• Audience sing-along Christmas carols list for Culpepper Garden:
  • Angels We Have Heard on High
  • Away in a Manger
  • God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
  • Good Christian Men, Rejoice
  • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  • It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
  • Joy to the World!
  • O Come, All Ye Faithful
  • O Holy Night (no music)
  • O Little Town of Bethelehem
  • Silent Night
  • The First Nowell
  • We Three Kings
  • Deck the Halls

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

• Program for the December 10th service at St. Mary's
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa brevis in B♭ (except the Gloria)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Ave verum Corpus
  • Cristóbal de Morales: Peccantem me quotidie
  • Tomas Luis de Victoria: Ave Maria
  • Thomas Tallis: Salvator mundi
  • Francisco Guerrero?
• Rehearsal Wednesday December 6 St. Mary's:
  Arrive by 8:00 PM – 727 5th Street (at H Street) NW, Washington, DC. (Chinatown) (Mapquest)
  St. Mary's is a dark stone church with a tall steeple. The parking lot is small, and its entrance is on H Street.
  The closest METRO stations are Judiciary Square (red line) and Gallery Place (red/yellow/green lines); either is a few block's walk.
  We will all enter through the parking lot and a side door.
  Bring MUSIC and WATER (all "facilities" are in the basement and we will be in a high balcony).
• Joe made us new copies of Guerrero's Virgen sancta that are easier to read (enlarged) and easier to handle (double-sided, punched, 8½x11").
• Add to Monday's Christmas-music list:
  • Michael Praetorius: Lo, How a Rose
  • Deck the Halls

Monday, November 13, 2006

• Christmas music to bring to rehearsal:
  • Elliot Z. Levine: Mary Heard the Angel's Voice
  • Leontovich/Wilhousky: Carol of the Bells
  • Rossetti/Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter (photocopy, not the Randolph Currie version w/ the green pine tree cover)
  • Elizabeth Poston: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
  • John Joubert: Tourches!
  • Boar's Head Carol
  • Gouchestershire Wassail
  • arr. Arthur Warrell: (We Wish You) A Merry Christmas
  • God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
  • Neale/Stainer: Good Christian Men, Rejoice (In Dulci Jubilo)
  • Wesley/Mendelssohn/Willcocks: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
  • Sears/Willis: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
  • Oakeley/Willcocks: O Come, All Ye Faithful
  • Watts/Handel/Mason: Joy to the World!
  • photocopied sheets of sing-along lyrics

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

• Christmas music (returning from past years):
  • Gouchestershire Wassail
  • Boar's Head Carol
  • Elliot Z. Levine: Mary Heard the Angel's Voice
• Louise will contact me with a program list of Christmas music. Check back here later, and watch your email.
• We will rehearse Thanksgiving week, November 22.
• For the service at St. Mary's December 10th we'll need to arrive at 4:00 PM. The service begins at 5:00 PM, and we'll be singing some pieces as a prelude.
• Wednesday December 13th: Culpepper Garden retirement home assisted-living section. We should arrive at 7:00 6:45 PM and warm up, and sing at 7:15 PM.

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

• The December 6th rehearsal will be at St. Mary's in Chinatown.
• For the service at St. Mary's December 10th we'll probably need to arrive at 4:15 4:00 PM.
• Wednesday December 13th we will probably sing Christmas carols at the Culpepper Garden retirement home. It is a block north of Arlington Forest United Methodist Church (where we rehearse) between Henderson Street and Pershing Drive.
• We will probably not rehearse December 20th and 27th.
• Karen baked us pumpkin cookies. ☺

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

• The church's remodeled rear door (with the new elevator) is now open.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

• St. Mary's organist, Donald Clark, will play the organ to accompany us on the Mozart Mass. Don also has a tenor to sing the solo part.
• Nancy & Joe baked apple crisp. ☺

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

• Welcome to our new bass, Maurice Singer. We'd still welcome more new members, so recruit your singing friends!
• Laura baked us cookies. ☺
• Please bring the Mozart Missa brevis to rehearsal next week.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

• New music:
  • Francisco Guerrero: Virgen sancta (You may have a better copy of this from May 2006.)
  • Giovanni Gabrieli: O Jesu mi dulcissime
  • John Joubert: Torches! (You may already have this from October 2004.)
• Laura Schneider's back!
• Norma brought terrific snacks!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

• New music:
  • Cristóbal de Morales: Peccantem me quotidie (from the Pennsic Choir)
  • arr. Earlene Rentz: Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow (not rehearsed)
• For the Mass at St. Mary's (Dec. 10th), we will not sing the Gloria, but we will sing the Credo from the Mozart Missa brevis. We will also sing Mozart's Ave verum Corpus during either the Offertory or Communion, and we will sing some of the other pieces we've been rehearsing as a prelude.
• Dues for the fall are $25. Please bring Louise cash or a check at your earliest convenience. (This pays for our music and incidentals.)

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

• New alto tonight &ndash welcome Louise Bedichek. (The sporano and bass from last week are not joining us.)
• The date is set for singing Mass at St. Mary, Mother of God Church: 5pm Sunday evening December 10th. We will probably need to arrive around 4pm to warm up, and we generally rehearse the preceeding Wednesday (Dec 6) at the church.
• Louise has CDs for us of our May 2006 concert, Mozart: Master Among Masters. I will remove some older MP3 files from the web site to make room for these tracks.
• Laura is cutting her cross-country trip short, and she will back with us for St. Mary's in December.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

• Maybe another soprano and bass joining us....
• New music: Pierre Passereau: Auxilium meum (This is apparently the 2nd half of another piece, Unde veniet auxilium meum.)

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

• Welcome back!
• New members – Nancy Kolinski (soprano) and Joe Kolinski (bass). Karen invited them to join us!
• New music:
  • Thomas Tallis: Salvator mundi (page 99 in the Tallis Anthology)
  • Francisco Guerrero: Canite Tuba
  • Tomas Luis de Victoria: Ave Maria
• We may sing the Mozart Missa brevis (from last spring) for the Solemn Latin High Mass at St. Mary, Mother of God Church in Chinatown on Sunday evening December 10th.
• Louise is working on CDs from our Spring Concert, Mozart: Master Among Masters.
• Louise's apartment building is going to be torn down for renovations. She's going to be moving.
• If anyone wants to learn more about the Pennsic Wars, here are links for the classes and the choir. There's far more on the main site. And here's some examples of chain mail.