Practice Videos/Recordings for Polyphony?

Jonathan_Culbreath

Is there any online resource that provides recordings of individual parts for polyphonic music, for individual practice? My choir is gradually leveling up with its polyphonic repertoire, but some of them are asking for such an aid. At the moment we are learning Byrd’s In Manus Tuas, of which there are lovely performances to be found on the internet, but some of my singers would like recordings of their individual parts. If there isn’t any such resource, I may make some myself, but I’m wondering if anybody has done this already.

tomjaw

Are there no resources at the excellent CPDL?

trentonjconn

Corpus Christi Watershed has many rehearsal videos for pieces of polyphony. They can be found under the "Lalemant polyphony" tab.

CHGiffen

Are there no resources at the excellent CPDL?

Yes. The Choralia app (link also on CPDL's main page) is a good resource and a sponsor at CPDL.

ServiamScores

My own offerings are as yet relatively limited, but you can find a few things such as Jesu, Salvator Mundi and other humble works on my YouTube page: https://youtube.com/@ServiamScores?si=GHJnfJq2UjDwW8aQ

AndreaLeal

ccwatershed.org/polyphony has a lot of recordings for individual voices, all free. Additionally, there are occasional other recordings of music that will pop up if you google ccwatershed (song name), which do not appear on the permanent polyphony page. They link to external sites or have the direct links there.

For example, if you google "ccwatershed O Cor Jesu" it brings this link, which someone recorded and posted as a blog article: https://www.ccwatershed.org/2015/06/01/easy-3-part-motet-sacred-heart-jesus/

Or, "ccwatershed regina caeli 3 voices" brings up this: https://www.ccwatershed.org/2022/04/06/pdf-download-regina-caeli-for-3-voices/

StimsonInRehab

https://johnfletchermusic.org/

www.cyberbass.com

ServiamScores

Also, surprisingly, the new parish book of motets has not come up. There are practice tracks available on the cmaa site for those works as well, and it’s a treasure trove of a collection.

Jeffrey Quick

In old country was not "practice recordings". Was old Guido holding up his middle finger.

Jenny Donelson

Of course there's the wonderful resource on our own page for the Parish Book of Motets!
https://churchmusicassociation.org/pbm

Steve Q

I often go to the Choir Parts YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Choirparts

There are quite a few YouTubers out there providing practice videos for various music. If you simply search for a piece on YouTube, you may find practice videos out there on random channels. Most are more limited than Choir Parts, but sometimes you get lucky. Here are a couple of recent examples:
https://www.youtube.com/@ciskanikmusic6681
https://www.youtube.com/@philiplebas

If I can't find a practice resource out there, I might grab midi files from CPDL to help make my own.

rich_enough

A DYI solution I use is to download the MIDI files at CPDL and open them in a MIDI-capable music program like MuseScore.

You can then program the sound, volume, and tempo and export a practice track for each voice. (The MIDI files can be downloaded by clicking on the speaker icon to the right of the PDF link for most scores on CPDL. If there's no MIDI file, the .mxl files will usually give you a score from which you can export the MIDI files.) I do this for the pieces my choir will be learning each week, depositing them in a Dropbox so they are accessible to the singers.

I just did it for the Byrd piece you mentioned attached the practice tracks below.

chonak

If the score is available in CPDL, the source files (Finale, Lilypond, Musescore, etc.) are often also available for download. With these, you may be able to re-run the software yourself to generate MIDI files or modify the scores (for example, to convert A4-format scores to US letter paper).

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