ISLAND CITY CHORUS
GREATER MONTREAL CHAPTER
SPEBSQSA Inc
MINI PITCH
Date:
May 21, 2001|
COMING UP - ROB'S REQUIRED EVENTS* Saturday, June 9, 2001 Our Chapter Show with Joker's Wild and After Hours at Salle Claude Champagne Sunday, July 1, 2001 Canada Day Montreal West Celebration Details to follow September 10, 2001 Guest Night ß Watch for detailsSeptember 21 -23, 2001 Fall Forward Fall Retreat Details to follow SAVE THE DATE October 26-28, 2001 District Convention & Contest Lowell, MA Details to follow SAVE THE DATE Saturday, November 10, 2001 50th Anniversary Cabaret Details to follow SAVE THE DATE Saturday, February 2, 2002 Great Northern Harmony Workshop Université de Montréal *NOTE: It is your duty to inform Rob as soon as you know you will miss any rehearsal or event. |
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COMING UP - OPTIONAL, BUT FUN and EDUCATIONAL EVENTS June 2, 2001 Burlington VT Chapter Show featuring PLATINUM Hershel Pesner has ticketsJuly 1 - July 8, 2001 SPEBSQSA International Convention Nashville, TN August 9-12, 2001 Harmony Explosion Fitchburg, MA August 10-12, 2001 Harmony College Northeast Fitchburg, MA August 18, 2001 Vocal Majority Show in Toronto Tickets available from Roy Thompson Hall ONLY August 25, 2001 Wheaton's 10th Annual Corn Roast (Boil?) and Chocolate and Salad Party SAVE THE DATE ß NEW June 30 - July 7, 2002 SPEBSQSA International Convention Portland, OR June 29 - July 6, 2003 SPEBSQSA International Convention MONTREAL -ß Schedule your vacation, now! |
All sunshine makes a desert.
Music Team News.
Well gang only three weeks to go till ShowTime and we are getting there. The music has been finalized, the chorus is sounding great, the props have been ordered, and we are fortunate to have an old friend of the chorus as our emcee this year.Most of you know Bill Fletcher and you can be sure their won't be a dull moment when he is in front of the mike. Our 50th anniversary celebration is well under way and will begin at the show. We have invited Ted Hanna, the founding member of the Montreal Chapter, to be our guest and will be bringing him and his wife in from Toronto for the weekend to celebrate with us.
The decorating theme will reflect 50's lifestyle and guests will have the opportunity to look at photos and read articles written about the chorus over the last 50 years.
As soon as the show is over, we will get to work on new music. Words, Orange Coloured Sky and How Deep Is The Ocean which is our new ballad for spring 2002 contest. It is an absolutely marvellous arrangement and with the amount of time we have to prepare it we should reach new heights in our scores in competition.
We will be moving ahead with our Christmas CD. The project is headed up by Richard Frenette and will involve all of the Montreal Choruses and quartets who will record 2-3 songs each. Rob will be handling the recording using his new equipment and we are hoping to have it ready for October selling. This will be a great project and an excellent fund raiser for everyone involved. Richard needs help so please see him to volunteer your services. It is a very big project and he can't do it alone.
Don't forget Monday night. we will be there even if it is a Holiday.
That's all for now folks Alan Kenley for The music team
Dig out your Photos from the Past
. Do you have some photographs among your souvenirs that will bring back some of our 50 years of singing? Please let Jerry Silverberg borrow them. We will have a couple of large display boards in the lobby of our show with photos of days gone by.They don't have to be 50 years old! Last year or last week, if it is interesting, bring them in!
Have you sold your Show tickets?
John Clendinneng tells me many members haven't yet taken tickets for the show. If this includes you, how much you are prepared to pay in dues to keep singing with this great chorus. The show is our largest fundraiser, by far. We need to sell ALL of the 1000 seats. Right now, we are sitting at half the seats taken. A ticket to our show is an easy sell. We have a great chorus and two great quartets headlining the show. Ask your friends to come. They will enjoy the show.Even if you have taken tickets, you must sell them. Please do that. We ALL need to do our part.
Oscar F. Jones and Martin S. Peake 1915
Let’s have one of the composers begin the story of this song. Here’s an excerpt from a 1949 letter by O. F. Jones to International Secretary Carroll P. Adams, when Jones was a member of the Dallas Chapter, later to become the Big D Chapter.
"Back in 1915 I was located in Meridian, Miss., and four of us young fellows were doing a bit of quartet work. Our lead singer, Martin S. Peake, was quite a piano player, and we spent our spare time picking out new chords and arrangements . . . . Circumstances caused me to move to Birmingham, Al., so I lost track of Martin for several years. In the meantime, our song was picked up by other quartets, the war came on, and it was taken overseas. Several years later I heard it used all over the country, the tune a little different and the words a little mixed.
"I made a trip last year to Montgomery, Al., to see Martin, whom I had not seen in 32 years, and he showed me the original papers of our composition."
Although the song had been sung widely for a long time before, it was popularised in the 1940s by the Dallas quartet Polka Dot Four. Clarence Giesen was tenor, Joseph E. Lewis (Society president, 1957-58) was lead, Lee Myers was bass and Oscar Jones, one of the composers, was baritone.
"Sweet, Sweet Roses of Morn" was the first official Society arrangement of a barbershop quartet song, in 1941. The arranger was Phil Embury, arranger for the Buffalo Bills and Society president 1944-46. Much to the chagrin of the Society, Mills Music, Inc., included the song in "Barbershop Harmony" in 1942 and copyrighted the arrangement, "as sung by the Mound City Four, the Okie Four and the Misfits." Oscar Jones’ letter above was in response to the Society trying to copyright the words and melody, which happened.
Society president Frank Thorne, unaware that a complete melody already existed, wrote a second melody in 1948. When Oscar Jones found out about Thorne’s melody, he wrote lyrics that he called "Twilight." Neither Thorne’s melody nor Jones’ lyrics became popular, nor has the original verse written by Jones and Peake.
Floyd Connett, the Society’s first field man, did a new arrangement and copyrighted it in 1959. This is the Barberpole Cat song we sing today.
—published in "The Big D Bulletin," July, 1999, Grant Carson, editor; material from the archives of Big D Chapter and research by Tom Pearce, University of Virginia
Harmony College Northeast.
Have you ever been to Fitchburg State College, Fitchburg, MA? There is an excellent reason to go there on August 10 - 12, 2001. There will be a terrific harmony school there, with excellent courses, great quartets and a Saturday evening show that will be a real blast.The date has been in our schedule for many months now, but did you know that the half and half helps pay for part of the cost of attendance? It does!
Make plans to attend. It is a great experience and will help you grow as a barbershopper.
Full $120.00 US per person (includes tuition, Friday Dinner, Saturday Meals (3),Sunday Breakfast and 2 nights (Fri/Sat) lodging with Roommate) Add $20.00 per person for a single room. Registration forms available on request. You may also register and pay on-line at http://www.nedistrict.org under Schools.
Here is our current repertoire list:
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Overture |
Carol of the Bells |
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Harmony |
Eight Candles |
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Didn’t We |
Go Tell It On The Mountain |
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I Only Have Eyes For You |
You'll Never Walk Alone |
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I’ll Walk With God |
Steppin' Out With My Baby |
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Love Me and the World Is Mine |
My Romance/It's You medley |
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I’m Beginning To See The Light |
Orange Coloured Sky |
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Que reste-t-il de nos amours ? |
(It's only) Words |
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Sixteen Tons |
How Deep Is The Ocean |
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Scarlet Ribbons |
O Canada |
Practice is something we do at home, every day, between rehearsals!
Rehearsal is where we reinforce what we have been practising every day!
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Steven Wheaton, President |
Murray Phillips, Editor of the Mini Pitch |