Brian Clutterbuck has been scouring the web again for online recordings and part aids - just click on the links below. If you are not sure what to do, read Brian's notes
The midi files for Verdi Requiem are now available here, but you might be interested in finding out more about the source of these files, in which case use this link to visit John Hooper's website.
This is one of the websites we've referred members to before. I think I've suggested before that, as most people will have Windows Media Player, they should follow the links at the top right of the page & download one of the other players (I use MidiPlay). If anyone hits any snags - contact me & I'll see if I can help.
The score can be viewed here. (You can obviously download it & print it, but my score has 218 pages, so I wouldn't recommend it!) Scroll the page down & then click on the PDF image against the section you wish to look through.
Brian's Notes
The website I’ve found most useful is The Royal Free (Hospital) Music Society. It’s got all the individual parts – 1st & 2nd where necessary - and all combined, for all 100 Carols for Choirs and everything in English Sacred Music (which are 2 of our ‘Bibles’ at Royston Choral Society.)
They also have works they’ve sung over the past 9 years.
Archive
When you left-click onto this link, you open the ‘Archive’ page of the RFMS website. You can then either left-click onto the title of the book containing the piece you want – or find the piece by scrolling down the list of composers & left-click onto the title of the piece. This opens up a new window specifically related to the piece you’ve selected. Left-click onto the part you want to listen to & it should open up & begin playing in whatever media player you use – my default player is Windows Media Player (WMP).
If you’re using WMP, you may see ‘Play Speed Settings’ (PSS) towards the bottom left corner of your screen. This enables you to adjust the play-back speed – very useful, if there’s a tricky bit in it, as you can slow it down! If PSS isn’t visible, go to the top left corner of the screen & right-click onto Windows Media Player. Highlight ‘View’, highlight ‘Enhancements’ and left-click on ‘Play Speed Settings’. If you position your cursor over the little white arrow, left-click onto it, hold the mouse control down & drag it to the left. This slows down the play-back speed. Warning – even 80% is very slow!
If the track doesn’t start to play by itself, just click onto the blue ‘Play’ arrow centre-bottom of screen (which then becomes the ‘Pause’ button, should you need it).
While the track is playing, you’ll notice a thin blue line moving slowly across the bottom of the screen from left to right. If you position your cursor over the moving end of the line, a lozenge appears. Left-click onto it, hold the mouse control down & drag it to the left. This effectively rewinds the track for as far as you drag it, so you can repeat any tricky bits! With a bit of practice, you get use to keeping an eye on the ‘elapsed time’ counter to the left of the ‘Play’ button, so you know how far to drag it back!
To the left of the ‘Play’ button you’ll notice a circular arrow symbol. Click on that to repeat the track. When I’m working on my PC, I almost always have one of the pieces we’re rehearsing playing quietly in the background on ‘repeat’. I find it helps to make singing the right notes almost(!) automatic. When I’m certain I’ve cracked my part on its own, I play the ‘Full’ version & sing my part along with it.