So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?

Quick quiz: what song is that line from? (Answer at the end of this post.) I mention it because I sang it tonight in a Pleiades rehearsal. Such fun! And even more fun is the fact that we have to perform I Predict A Riot in our next concert, so I plan to finally get round to writing out the a cappella version :-)

Anyway, my main reason for posting is to put this list online:

1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky) (14.4 MB)
Grand March, from Aida (Verdi) (13 MB)
Anvil Chorus, from Il Trovatore (Verdi) (3 MB)
Gloria, from B Minor Mass (Bach) (2 MB)
Beethoven 9 finale (21.4 MB)
Belshazzar's Feast: The Trumpeters and Pipers (Walton) (1.5 MB)
Lacrymosa, from Requiem (Berlioz) (11.1 MB)
Denn Alles Fleisch, from German Requiem (Brahms) (16.6 MB)
Brindisi, from La Traviata (Verdi) (3.6 MB)
Dies Irae, from Requiem (Britten) (4.1 MB)
In the Beginning, from Creation (Haydn) (2.9 MB)
Deep River, from A Child of our Time (Tippett) (4.5 MB)
Fuoco di Gioia, from Otello (Verdi) (3.2 MB)
The Dream of Gerontius: Profiscere anima Christe (Elgar) (6.9 MB)
Soldiers' Chorus, from Faust (Gounod) (3.8 MB)
Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, from Nabucco (Verdi) (5.8 MB)
I Was Glad (Parry) (5.6 MB)
Mahler 2 finale (7.5 MB)
Mahler 3, 5th movement (4.8 MB)
Mahler 8, finale (7.7 MB)
Neptune, from The Planets (Holst) (7.7 MB)
Nessun Dorma, from Turandot (Puccini) (3.6 MB)
Polovtsian Dances, from Prince Igor (Borodin) (15.6 MB)
Chorus of the Scottish Refugees, from Macbeth (Verdi) (7.2 MB)
Dies Irae, from Requiem (Verdi) (2.5 MB)
Vivaldi Gloria, opening (3.2 MB)

You see, I have an annoyingly obsessive mind, and it's been bugging me for weeks that we didn't do ALL the "best choruses in the world" last night. So the above is my attempt to redress the balance by at least covering them all on this blog. (Obviously some major works, like Gerontius, should be there in their entirety, so I've just chosen my favourite bit!) I'm sure there are some obvious ones I've missed - any suggestions? (Elijah just occurred to me as I was writing that - will look that up some time soon. I think it's much less well known than maybe it once was, though.)

A couple of other things to point out - has anyone been watching The Singing Estate (Channel 5 on Sunday nights)? It's kind of entertaining in places. (If you've no idea what it is, have a look at their website.) There have been two episodes so far - it amused me that they featured this choir trying to sing Zadok and O Fortuna at more or less the same time we were performing them!

I did discover a few interesting links while exploring the Singing Estate website. Hands up who knew that the Radio One website had loads of stuff about singing? Mainly pop singing, but lots of it is relevant, including a load of vocal warmup exercises - with video to show you how to do them! Have a look, in particular, at Improve Your Vocals, Music Articles and Advice (loads of interesting links), and How to tell if I'm a good singer!

P.S. The song in the title was, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody.