Spring 2012 music

We're singing:

• Vaughan William's Toward the Unknown Region, a setting of a poem from Walt Whitman's poetry sequence Leaves of Grass. The poem itself is from the section called Whispers of Heavenly Death and is untitled except for its first line Darest Thou Now, O Soul.
• Felix Mendelssohn's Hymn of Praise, originally his choral 2nd Symphony, but here performed in a shortened, purely vocal version.

Scores

Most of you have library scores: you may notice how old they are. But we're a few copies short for the Mendelssohn piece. However, you can download a PDF from the Choral Public Domain Library page. You will really want a laser printer which can print on both sides of the paper... if necessary, ask your friends

Recordings

Member Brian Wernham says you can play both pieces on Spotify.

Here's Mendelssohn at Amazon — the CD and download both £4.99... though I see an MP3 bargain for those who like their music by the bucketfull, a vast DG collection

Toward the Unknown Region is multiply available from Amazon, at least: choose between cheap or famous recordings (there are at least four others). CDs will always be packed with other works and will be more expensive.

MIDI rehearsal files

MIDI files are a kind of computer-readable music that any PC can read and play tunes. Choral rehearsal files have the different singer's parts separable: with your midi player you can turn up your part and turn down the others, and all sorts of fancy stuff. Learn more starting, for example, at John's Midi File Choral Music Site.

Toward the Unknown Region

MIDI files for free — from John's Midi File Choral Music Site, where you'll also find good advice on using these files.

It appears not to be available at Cyberbass (if you know differently, get in touch.)

Hymn of Praise

At John's Choral Music, or at Cyberbass.