Tag Archives: European Sacred Music

Rehearsal Resources

Piece, Rehearsal Resources, , , ,

Here are some links to various sites that will enable you to hear your part and sing along. Cyberbass seems to be the favourite for the tenors but you may well prefer one midi file over another because the “voice” used sounds better/nicer to you.

Most of these sites allow you to download the midi file. You may well then be able to run it on your smart phone and be able to carry it around with you.

Puccini

  1. http://www.cyberbass.com/Major_Works/Puccini_G/puccini_messe_di_gloria.htm. Cyberbass is generally reliable and has some good facilities
  2. http://www.learnchoralmusic.co.uk/Puccini/Messa-di-Gloria/messa-di-gloria.html. The files work well enough for me despite warnings about Windows Media Player
  3. http://gasilvis.net/  You will need to search for Puccini

Brahms

  1. http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Geistliches_Lied,_Op._30_(Johannes_Brahms). Click on the loudspeaker entry in the third item
  2. http://bit.ly/1jSPfvf. SCoreSe page allowing download of an mp3 or midi version

Casals

Unfortunately this is still under copyright so cannot be made available. However, there are performances available online and I will prepare a similar post with links to performances of the works

Mendelssohn

Rachmaninov

 

 

Next Concert Taking Shape

Concert, , , ,

The date for our next concert is June 28, 2014 in St John the Evangelist.

The main work is Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, so called because forty of the seventy three pages of the score are given over to the Gloria! Puccini wrote it when 18 for his music college graduation. Four generations of his family had been known for writing religious music but this was his final work in the genre; the world of opera called!

It was performed once in 1880 and then lost for 75 years before being found by an American priest, researching a biography of Puccini.

Our first rehearsal this evening (Wednesday February 19, 2014)  has pretty much nailed the Kyrie and we made good progress in the foothills of the Gloria. It has some simple tunes but with unexpected twists. My first impression is that it is going to be fun!

Other works will come from European Sacred Music from the Oxford Choral Classics (ISBN 0-19-343695-7). This one of our standards and new members are encouraged to buy it. However if that is problem to anybody we do have a few loan copies. The works are likely to include:

  • Brahms Geistliches Lied (p56)
  • Casals O Vos Omnes (p99)
  • Mendelssohn Verleih uns Frieden (p208)
  • Poulenc Salve Regina
  • Rachmaninov Bogoroditse Dyevo (p278)