Vivaldi Scores – You’ll have noticed there were some discrepancies between the hire copies and those owned by some of us in the 2nd movement especially! So I’ve gone through the old and new Ricordi scores and noted all the differences I can find – see attached. Also worth looking at this if you are one of the people with a different edition entirely.
Albonini score – please note lower altos sing the tenor line from bar 96 to 103. The tenors sing the bass line for these bars. Higher altos and sopranos with special dispensation sing the alto line.
Recordings
Vivaldi – I particularly like the recording on YouTube by the Armenian Choir (though we certainly won’t be going that fast in the first movement and we won’t slow down as much at the ends of movements!) https://youtu.be/RMHguvZPcqQ Please note that if you are following this recording with a hire copy of the score, you will need to wait for another 5 bars on page 11 as they have used a newer edition of the score that has extra bars in it.
O Sing Joyfully There’s a useful one on YouTube that also shows the score. https://youtu.be/-gHkKGiXeNE And another that I prefer (but that doesn’t show the score) https://youtu.be/gG85VlGqSAE If you are looking for recordings elsewhere make sure you get the piece by Batten (not Byrd)
Albinoni – This is an arrangement by Chris Phelps so there isn’t a commercial recording available. But I have made a track which will hopefully give you an idea. It’s pretty rough and ready as it’s necessarily rather rigid in tempo for recording reasons (and comes complete with my usual paper rustling sound effects and a terrible wrong note in the piano part). But it gives you an idea. I can easily produce a version with different parts louder than others, so if you want that, just let me know. The bass part, and some of the tenor part, are on piano as I can’t get down there.
Learning Tracks for Vivaldi, Batten and Bach If you’d like to use learning tracks for anything except the Albinoni, there are several out there. Firstly there’s Choraline which I know some members already use. I also like JohnFletcher https://johnfletchermusic.org not least because for works like these (i.e. out of copyright) his site is free to access. All you need to do is register to make an account, then search for the piece you want in his search bar and then download or listen to the MP3 files. The Batten and Bach are also available on his site.
PLEASE NOTE: JohnFletcher (and also other free tracks with scores to follow along that you can find on YOuTube) all use the NEW edition of the score. So if you are using a Nayland choir hire copy you will (as with the recordings) have to hang around for 5 bars on page 11. Choraline does have learning tracks that match our hire copies (edited by Casella), but I think you have to pay for a subscription to access them.
Nayland Choir 