This website is provided and maintained by me, Sheila Crossey. Please feel free to come and chat with me at rehearsals about any of this – you'll find me in the alto section. Or you can send me email, but to avoid spam I'm not posting my email address here. You can get it from the mass mailings I occasionally send to the TCS membership list or from the contact sheet which is handed out every year.
This is a resource for TCS members who like, or think they might like, to learn music by singing with their computers. The way it works is that you sing looking at your usual hardcopy score, with your computer acting as a very obedient accompanist responding to your whims and instructions. To get the full benefit, you need two things: a midi file for the particular piece of music you are rehearsing, and the right sort of software midi player to play it.
Midi files are a synthetic digital form of the music and are available free on the internet for a wide variety of choral classical music. See below for links to the music we're performing in the 2011 - 2012 season. If you simply click (left-click) on a link to a midi file, your browser will launch a streaming media player, and you will hear the music. The player will display a few buttons giving you only minimal control over the playback of the music (pause, fast forward, rewind, etc.).
With some extra effort, you can gain more control over the playback: e.g. adjust the volume of each part independently, change the speed (without affecting the pitch), and select which bar to start on. To do this, you will need to install a more fully-featured midi player and download (right-click) the midi files to your hard drive. Luckily, a number of excellent midi players with the right features for rehearsing are available for free – my favourite is Melody Assistant. To learn how to install and use it, read Midi hints. Note that once you've installed such a midi player, to use it you'll have to download the midi file (right-click) and save it to your local hard drive first, and then launch your midi player (e.g. Melody Assistant) and open the file. How to do this is explained in Midi hints.
Cyberbass provides enhanced features for midi files streamed (left-click) from its website. It is extremely easy to use and gives you a few features you don't get with standard streaming players. You can practise with all the vocal parts at the same volume by clicking on "tutti", or with your part amplified by clicking on the relevant link ("soprano", "alto", etc.). You can control the speed of the playback by typing a number in the "NEW Player Controls" box. A little player should also appear to the left of this with a pause button and a slider for moving around in the piece. With MSIE, it should be visible, but with Firefox you might have to download a new plugin to see it. Note that Cyberbass provides streaming only -- you can no longer download midi files from this website.
ALL of the music we are doing this year is available at Cyberbass To find the piece you want, go to Cyberbass, click on "Index", scroll down to the composer you want, and select the appropriate piece.
Choral Public Domain Library - Bach Christmas Oratorio Right click on the little yellow speaker icons to download the midi files. The ones by Michael Dreschel seem OK, but are voice parts only, no accompaniment.
Dave's J.S. Bach Page There is one midi file for each cantata in the Oratorio. Each of these contains an entire cantata, including choruses, recits, arias, etc. Full orchestral instrumentation is provided -- even timpani!
John's Midi File Choral Music - Vivaldi Gloria I've changed this link recently (Dec. 29, 2011) to provide midi files conformng to the Oxford-Everett version, the one we're rehearsing. When you go to the website, you'll see several versions -- choose the Everett-Oxford one. The previous link was for a different version, which was missing multiple bars in the Et in terra pax.
Sylvis Woodshed Scroll down to Schubert. Download the zip file: Mass in G No. 2, D167, with accomp A Puschnerus. It has full piano accompaniment.
Choral Public Domain Library - Verdi Requiem Voices and piano accompaniment.
John's Midi File Choral Music - Verdi Requiem Voices and full orchestra.