Hey, All
I’ve been interested lately in writing a collection choral prayer responses. Of course, as many have pointed out in this Forum, Olympus (even my paid ‘Elements’ version) doesn’t work well for many contexts, and the Noteperformer voices, well… So, I used MuseScore Choir for the playback here. They have not just full choir, men & women options (like Olympus), but also individual SATB sections. I used those here.
I’m aware that several of you on the forum are church musicians who work with this kind of music in your churches. It is different than my church tradition. If any of you would be so kind as to offer helpful suggestions for approaching this genre, I’d appreciate it. And, what do you use for choral voices in Dorico?
Noteperformer’s choir sounds suitably undergraduate for church choirs.
The “pro” sample is probably East-West’s Symphonic Choirs, though they are a bit wobbly for my tastes. They have a “WordBuilder”, in which you can write syllables for it to cycle through.
If you just want Ooh and Aah, there are plenty of decent choirs: Orchestral Tools has a lot. The Garritan Full Choir in GPO5 is pretty decent.
But there are also new technologies that actually sing words, like Cantai.
If you’re willing to spend a fair bit of money, my favourite option at the moment is Noteperformer 4.5 with EW Hollywood Choirs. Noteperformer controls the choir sample library through a ‘Noteperformer Playback Engine’.
Both of your choral “Amens” are lovely, Gary, and I’d have no problem directing them or indeed singing them, and they would not sound out of place in any of the churches I’ve sung in.
One tiny notational suggestion: add commas in the lyrics between each “Amen”, and if you have any specific breathing in mind, indicate that with breath marks. Singers will naturally breathe at commas, so commas are all that’s necessary unless there’s something you really want them to consider.
You mean like Poulenc did? I agree that this would be a little over the top for purely liturgical material.
The only other use case for rhythmically defined breathing that I can think of are jazz and pop choir arrangements, but that’s definitely a completely different matter…
Indeed, the GPO5 library isn’t bad-thanks in large part to your fine template
Thanks for sharing it. GPO still has some useable patches; I’m especially fond of the GPO5 solo Flute w/vibrato. I’ve used a couple of their solo strings, too.
There are obviously lots of virtual choirs out there. As mentioned, a big factor is how much syllable selection you’d like. Here are some I think worth checking out (with a wide price range):
Orchestral Tools’ Tallinn choir – great for softer, chamber choir in large space, male and female voices available separately
EastWest Hollywood Choirs – often on sale, suggest waiting if not currently
