Rehearsal Music for Forthcoming Concerts & Midi Files


Links for midi practice files for Messiah - not totally sure of the difference between the two editions:



And there will be midi files for Messiah in any number of other midi sites, of variable quality. 


At some stage, pandemic permitting, we hope to be doing the 2 works below:

Carl Orff: Carmina Burana

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Five mystical Songs

Both these works are copyright so frankly I was surprised to see that Choralia and Cyberbass have something on them - though Cyberbass only does the Orff.  John Fletcher's midi site has files on them but these are only available for paying customers.

For midi files, click on the link and then I find it best to choose the loudspeaker button for 'Emphasised voice and other voices' for your chosen voice part.  Choralia has the great advantage that the words are pronounced as well, after a fashion.  Again, right-click and 'Save target as' to save the midi file on your PC (which doesn't always work).  See the "Links" page for other midi sites.


Here's a link to John Fletcher's site. 

https://johnfletchermusic.org/

Click on the link and then click Login, and enter your username and password.  You can register with John Fletcher's website for free to gain access to out-of-copyright works - just follow his instructions.  Then when you've logged in, do a search under composer name to find the piece you want, click on that link, and you will see the midi files listed according to voice.  Click on each individual link to listen to your voice part - best to choose MP3, which you might like to download to your PC or MP3 player (right-click and "Save target as" or similar).

Don't forget that there are other useful midi sites like Cyberbass, John Hooper, etc, listed in the Links page on the Uxchor website.


Playing and Downloading Music Files

You can play files from YouTube or specialist music sites online or download them for playing offline. There are many alternative methods. A few possibilities are detailed below.

For PC

There many multimedia file players around. I would recommend VLC which you can download from  here         

You can find You tube in your browser by going here   and searching or using a direct link.

With YouTube if you left click on any media file listing then the file will be played. In order to download the file (MP4 format) then you need to add an extension to your browser to do this. There are many such extensions. A recommended one is to be found here . This extension adds a "download" button in the You tube utility menu below the video screen.This will open a pop up dialog box to play or save the file in MP4 or FLV format. The file will be downloaded to your default download folder.

If you don't want the video, only the recording in MP3 format then you need either a direct MP3 down loader  or a conversion utility. Again there are many of these.
A good conversion utility one is the Format Factory which you can download from  here . With this you can create an MP3 music format file from an MP4 video format file.

Most dedicated music websites will have a built in music playing facility with instructions on how to use it. Generally Left mouse clicking on any item will play it. Right mouse clicking on any item and selecting "Save Link As" will open a dialog box to save the piece of music on your PC in MP3 format. Some sites may not permit downloading their content. If there are problems playing a piece of music then the likely cause is a required browser plug in being required. (The plug in will play the music via the media player, Windows Media Player, VLC etc.). Depending on the web site a specific plug in may be needed.

For Phone or Tablet

You can find You tube  on a phone/tablet via the Google app. Either search or tap on a link to get to appropriate recording. Tap on any video to play it. There are apps to download Youtube media in MP4 or MP3 format. There are also apps to convert files e.g. MP4 to MP3.

With dedicated music websites tapping on the relevant music item will play it. Long press will open the actions mention. Select "Save Link" to download the MP3 to the mobile device. Not all music sites will allow downloading their content.


Web Based Resources for Rehearsal Music

A number of sources for music in various formats are included on the Links page. 

Midi files are not actual recordings but are sounds synthesized by your computer. The music is not a performance and it sounds mechanical and soulless but it's quite useful as an aid to practising at home.  Not all the works we do have been made into midi files but the number of midified scores seems to grow every year. As these files are stored on external sites there is no guarantee that they are virus-free and so I would urge everyone to have up-to-date virus-checking software and a firewall on their computers. If the work you want is not on any of the more well-known sites, you need to do a Google search on "Choral midi composer work" - in other words, if you want to see what other midi files exist on (for example) Mozart's Requiem apart from the one on Cyberbass.com, type in Choral midi Mozart Requiem and see what comes up. They do vary greatly in quality. Sometimes they don't seem to cover the entirety of the work in question, or miss out repeats, or simply fail to work properly, or they have not all been emphasised into Sop/Alt/Ten/Bass, etc.

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Finding and Using Midi Files.pdf
(3613k)
Joe Tapley,
5 Jun 2013, 08:19
v.1