Christmas carol recording stuff

[bella_luugosi]

I'm leaving this temporarily public as I need to share it with people outside DW. If you're a person who said they could record some singing please click into the cut, otherwise please ignore.

(If you aren't a person who said they'd sing but are suddenly encountering a desire to join in, please do!)



I'm aiming for three carols, all from 100 Carols for Choirs but I've provided scans of the dots if you don't have it. There's a backing track for each carol as well. I'm sure I don't need to say this, but please respect the copyright of the printed and performed music unlike me and don't distribute it beyond this use?

Files are here

To record, use any recording software you have, a mobile phone app is fine. Make sure you're in a quiet space, listen to the backing track on headphones (so it doesn't get recorded), leave a few seconds before and after your recording and sing! If you prefer to take a break between verses or record the verses separately that's fine, I can stitch it all back together at the end. Just please make sure you filenames give me a clue as to what's what?

When you've got your recordings just pop them in the recordings folder (or send them to me by some other route). I'll spirit the recordings away as I notice them appear but please be kind and don't listen to anyone else's recording unless they've given you explicit permission. I will of course share the final mix with everyone involved.

Please could you aim to have the recordings with me by the 19th December?

Sorry for the wobbly PDFs, google drive scanner is... interesting to use with the binding on my Carols. I'll try to produce some neater ones tomorrow.

If you've got range/time/inclination to record more than one vocal part for any of the pieces, please go for it. If life suddenly lifes at you, or you suddenly realise that you don't want to do one/all of these, just let me know?

Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Carols for Choirs 23, pg. 107
Phrasing: Two bar phrasing throughout (eg Hark the herald-angels sing [breath] glory to the newborn king [breath])
Pronunciation: In verse 2 line 3, "Deity" is pronounced Dee-i-ty. (I'm sure some people will argue with me, but I think it is a more pleasant sound in context of the line. So there.
Voice parts: Verses 1 and 2 in SATB harmony, verse 3 unison + descant

O Little Town of Bethlehem
Carols for Choirs 57, pg. 234
Phrasing: Ignore my pencil marks. Two bar phrasing (eg O little town of Bethlehem [breath] how still we see thee lie [breath]) except for:
Verse 2 line 1: O morning stars [breath] together proclaim the holy birth [breath]
Verse 2 line 4: While mortals sleep [breath] the angels keep their watch of wond'ring love
Verse 3 line 4: Where meek souls will receive him [breath] still the dear Christ enters in
**If you can! please don't worry about it too much**
Voice parts: Verses 1-3 in SATB harmony, verse 4 unison + descant

In the Bleak Midwinter (Darke)
Carols for Choirs 40, pg. 174
Phrasing: Four bar phrasing is nice if you can manage it, but if not breathe every two bars
Voice parts: SATB, but only sing verses 2 and 4 unless you're my brother. Brother, you have to sing verse 3. Tenors and basses, for the little notes in bars 56-57, could you please "ooo" them?

Comments

[emperor]

I've uploaded some things; Hark v3 is hard work at the best of times for a low bass like myself, and these are not the best of times, so I won't be offended if you decide not to use that one!

[bella_luugosi]

Thank you so much for doing those! I've pulled the recordings into my private drive so don't worry that they've disappeared :) We should have plenty of coverage on the unison passages so I'll see how it sounds when I get to mixing it.

I think I forgot to say in the post that I'll share the final mixes back to singers, but of course I will be doing that <3

[sfred]

I still hope/think I can do this!

[sfred]

I'm sorry, I am chickening out: it turns out I am more out of practice at reading the dots for voice than I had hoped. I hope you have got lots of lovely noises to put together. <3

[bella_luugosi]

That's fine lovely, thank you so much for trying! We have at least one voice covering every part so there's no worry there.

*hugs*

[sfred]

*hugs* to you too. Thank you.

[kht]

I have sent you a PM with a dropbox link. I'm out of practice and the recordings sound pretty dreadful to me, so just use whatever parts are useful?

[bella_luugosi]

Thank you very kindly. I'm going to be mixing tomorrow so I'll use everything I can! We're all a bit awfully out of practice this year...