By the end of our second rehearsal of the term in the Loughborough University Choir, we have already sung through most of the material for the concert on 3 December. That is probably a good thing because that isn’t so many weeks away. Overall, I’d say the music is simpler than previous terms I have been involved in but that isn’t to say that it is entirely simple.

One of the challenges is a rhythmic pattern called a hemiola. This puts patterns of 3 against patterns of 2. In particular, we have some songs in 6/8 time, which would normally be counted 1 2 3 2 2 3. However, while, some voices are holding to that, other voices are effectively counting 1 2 2 2 3 2 . It isn’t the hardest combination to work out but it does need working on so that enough of us can instinctively feel the necessary rhythms and lean into them for full effect.