Well, the ink is hardly dry on my previous blog post, Web search tips for thematic programming of a concert/recital, and now fellow techie singer Katia H. has created a search tool that searches all of the websites mentioned in my post, in one fell swoop! It’s over at classicalsongsearch.com. It’s still in alpha so there still might be some kinks to work out, but give it a whirl and let Katia know if you have any problems or suggestions!
Grazie mille, Katia!
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So one of the things that’s been sucking away at my time for blog-writing these last couple months is that I’ve been organizing and programming a benefit concert. While hunting for pieces related to the concert themes, it occurred to me to share some of the Google-fu that I use for finding music. I’m sure these tips are old hat to some of you tech-savvy singers, but others might find them useful.
So, one of my objectives was to find vocal solo or small ensemble pieces from the opera, art song, musical theater, or popular genres on the theme of “gold” or “golden”, since the concert benefits an organization celebrating its golden anniversary season. I did this by using keyword searches on the following websites:
Several of these sites contain texts in various translations, so I made sure to search for translated versions of my keywords, too. E.g., in addition to searching for “gold” I would also search for terms “oro”, “d’or”, etc. (It had to be “d’or” for French since “or” would yield too many search results in English texts!) Translating the search terms is less necessary for some of the sites, like The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive and Aria Database because they have English translations of many texts, so my keyword search for “gold” will still yield songs in other languages. Other sites like Opernführer might only have the libretto in the original language or in German, for example, so translating the search keywords is a definite help there.
As for search engines – some of the sites above have a very good site search feature, e.g. The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive and AllMusicals.com, so you can just go directly to their website and enter the keywords into the search form there. But sometimes a website doesn’t have a site search feature (e.g. OperaGlass), the site search feature is too specialized for a general text search (Aria Database), or the site search does not return results of sufficient quantity or quality. In this case, you can do a Google search with the following syntax in order to narrow your search results to a particular site – just include “site:” followed by the domain name of the website to search, with no space in-between:
gold site:opera.stanford.edu
Once I found song texts that fit my programming theme, I was able to track down scores for songs through online sheet music sellers, IMSLP, CPDL, or by using WorldCat to find scores in libraries local to me.
8/26/13 UPDATE 1: Fellow techie singer Katia H. has created a search tool that searches all of the websites mentioned above, in one fell swoop! It’s over at classicalsongsearch.com – check it out!
8/26/13 UPDATE 2: Glendower Jones contributed this very useful info in the comments for this post:
This is great advice. Many folks may not know of the many massive reference books on vocal repertoire that were written by Sergius Kagen, Noni Espina, Michael Pilkington, Judith Carman, Graham Johnson, Shirley Emmons and Carol Kimball. A very useful reference is Pazdirek, the BBC Song Catalogue and Classical Vocal Music in Print and of course Groves and MGG. I don’t know, but possibly some of these books may now be on Google books.
These are some of the major references but still only a drop in the bucket. Pazdirek, Universal-Handbuch der Musikliteratur was produced in Vienna from 1904-1910 and contained the compilation of practically every music publisher active at the time. This was reprinted in 1967 in the Netherlands and is now free online. Few musicians know of this amazing work. http://archive.org/details/universalhandboo01pazd
Also, in a Facebook comment, Nicholas Perna adds:
As a shameless plug, I can also recommend readers search for Britten’s entire output using The Comprehensive Britten Song Database! www.brittensongdatabase.com
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In case you missed the live stream of Joyce DiDonato’s master class at Juilliard in January, most of it has now been posted on YouTube, courtesy of Juilliard’s YouTube channel. Many thanks to Ms. DiDonato for having the idea to live-stream her class, Juilliard for making it happen, and the young artists in the master class for sharing their art and their learning experiences. Enjoy!
(P.S. Speaking of YouTube, if you read my blog post about downloading YouTube videos on your iPad to watch offline and are using the iCab Mobile browser to do this, DO NOT upgrade beyond version 6.8 or you will lose this capability! Apple cracked down on the developer and forced them to remove this feature. I’ll blog more about this later, as well as which video download app I switched to.)
Juilliard Master Class With Joyce DiDonato: Introduced by Brian Zeger (6:25)
Juilliard Master Class With Joyce DiDonato: Virginie Verrez, Oh! La pitoyable aventure (24:49)
Juilliard Master Class With Joyce DiDonato: Deanna Breiwick, En proie à la tristesse (34:24)
Juilliard Master Class With Joyce DiDonato: Q&A (32:37)
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Last Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting for coffee with Dan Molkentin, co-founder and co-artistic director of SingersBabel, the subscription-based website with lyric diction resources. He happened to be in town for the Music Library Association conference, so we took the opportunity to get together and talk shop. I knew at once that he was a kindred spirit when our conversation ranged from web technology stacks, media workflows, and website project management, to textual discrepancies in different composers’ setting of the same poems, Italianate vs. German Latin, and whether we should be rolling or vanishing our final R’s in German.
One piece of SingersBabel news that Dan shared was that they will be introducing Russian resources to the website in coming weeks. The resources will include multimedia guides for learning the basic sounds of the language, as well as guides for specific texts and repertoire. Speaking of repertoire, Dan tells me that the repertoire guides on the site will focus on choral works and oratorio, with a bit of art song to boot. (Although I REALLLLY hope – pretty please – that they’ll consider bringing some opera people on board to produce diction resources for the operatic repertoire and Italian. There’s an untapped market there, and even if they just did the arias from those ubiquitous Larsen anthologies, I bet they’d get business from a bunch of vocal performance majors and the like.)
We also talked about the recent SingersBabel website testing program, which I participated in. One thing that I discovered in the course of testing is that the website has many more resources than I thought; it’s just that they’re hard to find (and the SingersBabel team is working to rectify that). A sampling of notable resources:
Dan shared some other online music resources with me as well. One of them, Peachnote, is something I’ve been meaning to check out for a while. From what I’ve gathered, Peachnote is a provider of a number of interesting music technologies, but one that particularly attracted Dan’s interest was Peachnote’s platform for collaborative online multimedia annotation of music scores. In plain English, that means that you can use Peachnote’s score viewer to annotate the score with your own text, audio, or video notes and also view annotations that others have added. Here’s a screen capture of Peachnote’s score viewer with annotations:
Peachnote also makes it possible to embed the score viewer in your own website, and in fact the viewer is already in use over at IMSLP with a number of scores. For example, you can go to the IMSLP page for Le nozze di Figaro, navigate to the full score for the overture, and click the “View” button:
The Peachnote viewer then displays the score, which someone has annotated with a YouTube video recording of a performance of the overture:
Dan also tipped me off to the Sparks and Wiry Cries blog and e-zine about art song. (I can’t believe I’ve never stumbled upon this.) From their masthead: “Our mission is to provide a virtual home for the art song community: performers, students, scholars and fans. We endeavor to provoke thoughtful discussion about the extraordinary art of song.” One of their contributors is Emily Ezust, creator and maintainer of The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive, and they have a number of other notable contributors as well.
Lastly, Dan mentioned Medici TV, a French website which offers free live broadcasting of concerts, operas, and ballets along with video on demand from their catalog of concerts and classical music documentaries.
Thank you, Dan, for our engaging and enlightening conversation, and best of luck with the SingersBabel venture!
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Classical Vocal Reprints, the long-time mail-order purveyor of sheet music for vocalists, has expanded into the realm of digital sheet music with the launch of their new website for PDF sheet music downloads. This is great news for us singers because it puts their huge catalog of high-quality editions of opera, song, oratorio, and other solo vocal literature instantly at our fingertips. From their website:
We have it all (opera, art songs, specialty numbers, new composers, rare music and old favorites) […] We even carry things that are otherwise out-of-print. As our name implies, we have many hard-to-find titles which we reprint ourselves.
You can browse the composer list at their PDF download store, or search by title, composer, or catalog number.
Some of features of CVR’s catalog and service that deserve special mention:
I’m trying to convince CVR to sell their PDF sheet music in forScore’s in-app sheet music store, too. That would be super convienient for us forScore users. If you’d like to see that happen, drop CVR a line on Facebook or Twitter.
If you are not familiar with CVR, they are an independent sheet music retailer founded in 1987 and based out of Fayetteville, Arkansas. The owner is Glendower Jones, who is himself a singer and knows all the ins and outs of vocal literature, score editions, and music publishing companies. Glendower is like the concierge of classical vocal music – he’s the guy who picks up the phone when you call CVR, and he is knowledgeable and happy to advise on score editions, provide custom PDFs or other custom services, and track down and help you get your hands on any possible score you can think of (and CVR also has a retail website for traditional printed sheet music, for items that are only in that format). Even if a item is not listed on CVR’s website, just call or email Glendower and he can definitely hook you up. Glendower has supplied sheet music to such luminaries as Joyce DiDonato, Martin Katz, Susan Graham, and Thomas Hampson, but I can attest that he provides fabulous personal service to us mere mortals, too. He’s advised me about art song editions and publishers, given me discounts and free/reduced shipping charges from time to time, and once offered to send me a Bärenreiter edition at no extra charge when the score I originally requested was on backorder. I’m quite happy doing business with CVR.
A special plea: Please consider patronizing CVR for your sheet music needs (digital AND printed) and not just the “big-box” online sheet music retailers. The prices are competitive, and for you choristers, CVR’s printed music division carries choral/oratorio scores too. The PDF download store is not just CVR’s latest venture, it is also Glendower’s bid to keep his business afloat in a difficult economy and a changing music retail market environment. Except for those who have been living under a rock, musicians everywhere know that independent sheet music retailers, especially brick-and-mortar stores, have been downsizing or flat out folding left and right, and if CVR goes, it will be a huge blow to the classical vocal community. CVR is one of the last bastions of personal service in the sheet music retail world. Glendower has been known to look up a specific measure on a specific page of a specific score to provide information to a customer to help them make the right purchase. Good luck getting that kind of service from S**** M**** P***. If you’d like to see that kind of personal service and selection thrive in the 21st century, please support independent businesses like CVR.
Our chorus is performing Bach’s St. Matthew Passion this coming spring, and I just stumbled on an amazing free online resource to help us prepare:
Berkshire Choral Festival IPA Project
It has text (no translations though), IPA, and spoken audio recordings done by native speakers for the following works:
It covers both the choral and solo movements, in case you’re preparing one or the other or both.
The website also has some general resources on learning IPA.
You’ll need a web browser with Flash support in order to use it. iPad/iPhone people, this website won’t work on Safari for mobile, but it does work on the Puffin web browser which you can purchase from the App Store here. In order to hear the audio, you’ll need to go into the Puffin web browser settings first and set “Ignore Mute Switch” to “on” and then turn up the volume on your iOS device:
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I’ve been catching up on listening to the latest Diction Police podcast episodes. I really liked this episode and thought it deserved a special mention:
Episode #65: Special Edition for Young Coaches
For budding coaches, there’s advice on:
For singers, this podcast provides some insight on how to work with coaches most effectively. It also helped deepen my appreciation of how much skill, hard work, experience, knowledge, and talent it takes for coaches to do what they do.
Budding choral conductor/pianist types, this podcast might be helpful for you too. Obviously the repertoire will be different, but there’s a lot of overlap in the skill set – languages, styles, rehearsal skills, people skills, playing open score and/or from a reduction, etc.
I’ve been working on some song & aria translations lately and have needed to check the pronunciation for various words. I own a modest collection of printed dictionaries with IPA at home, but was curious about whether this information is available online. Here’s a roundup of online dictionaries I found that use IPA:
Italian
French
German
Russian
Czech
English
Note, of course, that the dictionaries above don’t take into account all of the rules of lyric diction (e.g. avoiding uvular R), but they do come in handy when checking things like open vs. closed vowels. Also, with noted exceptions, the dictionaries listed have audio pronunciation examples for selected words.
Another FYI: WordReference.com has iOS/Android apps, but the IPA (for selected languages) is only on the full website, not the apps. I’d like to do a survey of online/offline dictionary apps with IPA in a future blog post – if you’re aware of any, please let me know.
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Credit: Amazon.com
MP3 accompaniment tracks are a really handy thing to have loaded up on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. They are useful as a mobile practice aid when you’re away from your pianist, especially in conjunction with a music score reading app like forScore or unrealBook that lets you link an audio track to a score for easy playback during study. MP3 accompaniment tracks will even do in a pinch for performance situations where live accompaniment is not an option (but see the note below about performance licenses).
Many of the websites that sell accompaniment tracks have audio samples so you can judge the quality of the sound and the pianist. They may also sell spoken-text diction audio tracks in which a coach or native speaker runs through the pronunciation of the aria or song text. In fact, some sites offer whole packages of learning tracks for full opera roles that include diction tracks and accompaniment tracks with and without the vocal line and vocal/orchestral cues.
If you want to use your MP3 track for live performance or on YouTube or other recordings, you will probably be required to get a license. Some of the websites make this very easy – you can add a license to your shopping cart the same way you add an MP3 track you’re purchasing.
Here are some websites that offer accompaniment tracks:
MP3 Accompaniment Tracks
Your Accompanist – MP3 piano accompaniment tracks of songs and arias, with or without the vocal line. In addition to their broad catalog, they handle custom requests. (I’ve purchased tracks and custom orders from them with good results.)
MP3Accompanist.com – MP3 piano accompaniment tracks of songs and arias. Some tracks are available in different tempi or different keys. They have a sizable catalog and also accept custom requests. In addition, they offer spoken text tracks for selected songs and arias. (I’ve had a decent experience purchasing from them as well.)
Opera Karaoke – MP3 piano accompaniment tracks for arias, vocal line tracks, and diction tracks. They also sell video tracks that display the aria text as the music plays. The video tracks are supposed to be compatible with iPhones and Android in addition to Windows/Mac/Linux. They accept custom requests. Also, they provide a useful tutorial on using Audacity to change the pitch and or tempo of an MP3 accompaniment track (this method works on any MP3 track, not just theirs).
Karaoke Opera – MP3 orchestral accompaniment tracks (using a real orchestra) for greatest-hits arias and duets from opera, Gilbert & Sullivan, Messiah/oratorio, and Broadway. Available from Amazon and iTunes.
CANTOLOPERA – Orchestral accompaniment tracks (using a real orchestra) for greatest-hits arias and a couple of full operas, plus some Italian songs. They sell the tracks on CD (which you can probably rip) but also as MP3 albums and individual MP3 tracks on Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play Store.
Opera Practice Perfect – MP3 and CD piano accompaniment tracks of roles, complete operas, and accompagnato recits. They also have a couple of the major concert works, e.g. Messiah and Verdi Requiem.
Pocket Coach – MP3 piano and orchestral accompaniment tracks, diction tracks, scores, and libretto/translation booklets. Repertoire is pretty diverse and includes opera, oratorio/concert works, art song, religious solo, vocal method books/student repertoire, songs for children, and Gilbert & Sullivan. Many languages are represented, including Czech and Spanish. They have a separate storefront for MP3 downloads.
I sometimes run into random one-off collections of MP3 accompaniment tracks, for example this Schubert: Lieder without Singer album on Amazon.
Accompaniment CDs
(You can probably rip these to MP3 for use on your mobile device)
Coach Me – CDs with piano accompaniment tracks for full roles (with and without vocal line) plus spoken-text tracks by native speakers and a libretto/translation booklet. They also have assorted lieder and some major concert works, e.g. Messiah, St. Matthew Passion, Mozart/Verdi Requiems.
Music Minus One – Piano and orchestral accompaniment tracks for arias, songs, and other styles (e.g. Broadway) on CD.
Classical Karaoke – An umbrella site that showcases accompaniment CDs from different publishers. One nice thing about this site is that you can browse by album, composer, opera, role, or aria.
Aria and song anthology books often have corresponding accompaniment CDs, for example the art song anthologies from Hal Leonard.
MIDI Tracks
Classical MIDI with Words – A modest selection of free MIDI tracks for arias and songs. The sounds are a bit cheesy, but hey, it’s free.
Classical Archives: MIDI – Large collection of classical MIDI tracks, and not just for vocalists. This is a pay site and I’m not sure if it’s subscription-based or pay-by-the-track. They do have a free trial period and they may also offer a free download or two of your choosing.
Many thanks to Jeffrey Snider who started the thread on the New Forum for Classical Singers that helped me to write this post.
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Credit: Greg Lindahl
Following up on the topic of an earlier post, “Working with music texts, Part 2: Translate the text,” there are times when we need to translate archaic words or spellings that have fallen out of modern usage and are nowadays only encountered in a literary context such as poetry or libretti. Fortunately, there are quite a few websites, apps, and e-books to help with deciphering these bits of antiquated language. Note that several of them are historic dictionaries in the original language, so depending on your level of fluency, you may want to have a translation reference or tool handy for translating the definitions.
Italian
German
N. B.: I’ve heard that for translating much of the German repertoire, one might have more success using a pre-WWII dictionary that pre-dates the spelling reforms of the mid- to late-20th century.
English
If you have any digital resources to add to this list, let me know!
This post was inspired, and much of the information gleaned, from this discussion thread in the archives of the New Forum for Classical Singers. A hat-tip to the folks there who share their expertise.
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Technology for the Classical Singer 