The Pirates of Penzance - Chorus Practice

Choral parts are played back using a clarinet sound, while accompaniment and principal parts are played on a piano sound. Constantly full dynamics and mostly steady tempos are used for pitch-drilling purposes.

For each number, listen at first and sing along with the sound file for your individual part until you are confident. The part file includes your choral part played prominently, along with accompaniment and principals' vocal lines at lower volume. Then try the Tutti file to see if you can hold to your part when all choral parts are playing at full volume. Work back and forth between part and Tutti as needed.

Change Tempo slider: You can slow the tempo of the playback by sliding the light blue knob on the above "Change tempo" slider to left and right along the track. Tempo begins at 100% at the right end and changes by 1% increments to a minimum of 50% at the left end. Note that slowing the tempo introduces distortion into the audio playback. (Supported in Firefox, Chrome, and Opera web browers.)

Page numbering corresponds to the G. Schirmer edition (ed. Bryceson Treharne).

How would you like to access the sound files?

• Online: Play each sound file individually, directly from this web page.
• Locally: Download the sound files for your part onto your computer, and play them locally.

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Online: Find the excerpt you wish to hear, and in that row click the for your choral part or for Tutti. It will play in the audio player at the top of the page next to the menu. (Or click the down arrow ↓ to play directly in your browser, bypassing the above audio player.)

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Act I
#	Pg	Excerpt	Time	Tutti	Soprano	Alto	Tenor		Bass
1.	13	Pour, O Pour the Pirate Sherry	1:39	↓			↓		↓	↓
3.	22	Oh, Better Far to Live and Die	2:20	↓			↓		↓	↓
5.	34	Climbing Over Rocky Mountain	3:45	↓	↓	↓
6.	43	Stop, Ladies, Pray!	1:02	↓	↓
7.	45	Oh, Is There Not One Maiden Breast	3:25	↓	↓
8.	51	Poor Wandering One!	2:33	↓	↓	↓
9.	57	What Ought We To Do	0:40	↓	↓
10.	59	How Beautifully Blue the Sky	2:33	↓	↓	↓
11.	67	Stay, We Must Not Lose Our Senses	1:34	↓	↓	↓	↓		↓
12.	72	Hold, Monsters!	0:47	↓	↓
13.	74	I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General *Tutti full length, parts abridged	2:54 *0:30	↓	* ↓	* ↓	* ↓		* ↓
14.	84	Finale Act I: Oh, Men of Dark and Dismal Fate	7:43	↓	↓	↓	↓		↓	↓
Act II
#	Pg	Excerpt	Time	Tutti	Soprano	Alto	Tenor		Bass
15.	114	Oh, Dry the Glistening Tear	3:00	↓	↓	↓
17.	119	When the Foeman Bares His Steel	4:48	↓	↓	↓			↓	↓
23.	168	No, I Am Brave!	1:20	↓					↓	↓
24.	173	When a Felon's Not Engaged	1:53	↓					↓
25.	177	A Rollicking Band of Pirates We	0:48	↓			↓	↓	↓	↓
26.	180	With Cat-Like Tread Upon Our Prey We Steal	2:42	↓			↓	↓	↓	↓
27.	187	Hush, Hush! Not a Word	1:07	↓			↓		↓
28.	189 *194	Finale Act II: Sighing Softly to the River *Sop., Alto: Now What Is This and What Is That	8:55 *6:49	↓ * ↓	* ↓	* ↓	↓	↓	↓	↓

Download the sound files to your computer

If you wish, you can download an individual MP3 sound file from the above table by right-clicking its down-pointing arrow (↓) and selecting Save link as... or Save target as... from the pop-up menu.

To download all the MP3 recordings for a part, click the button corresponding to your choral part below. You will also need the Tutti zip file. Besides the sound files, each zip file contains one or more playlists for playing relevant groups of individual recordings in sequence.

Click one of the following buttons to download the .zip file for your chorus part.

Also download the Tutti .zip file. You will need this set of files too.

In a some cases, the Tutti file stands in place of a part file for unison singing. Playlists in the part .zip may be missing one or more numbers if the Tutti download is omitted.

For more information about saving and unzipping these downloads, please read Tips for Downloading the Practice Files. Use your browser's "back" button to return here.