Ruddigore - Chorus Practice

Photo: Mark Welker

NOTE: The demos on this page were created in 2003, and are provided here in "as is" condition. Quality and intonation are sometimes marginal. Some cuts and revisions associated with the Durham Savoyards production for 2004 can be heard. In particular, the Act II Finale presents an abridged merging of the two finales given in the G. Schirmer vocal score. Each excerpt includes the full length of the musical number as performed in 2004, with no short excerpts from within numbers, including the eleven minute Act I Finale. I hope you will find them useful in this condition. As a bonus, the featured choral parts are sung, not synthesized as in recent demos. As time permits, I will plan to clip out short excerpts where appropriate, and especially divide the Act I Finale into its separate sections. -- Alan Riley Jones

Soprano: Ann Marie Thomas, Alto: Barbara Namkoong Gooby, Tenor and Bass: Alan Riley Jones.

For each choral number in the show:

Sing along with the part file corresponding to your choral part until you are confident. Your part is sung against subdued piano accompaniment and string sounds in place of soloists.
Then try singing with the Tutti recording to see if you can hold to your part when all choral parts are sung together.
Work back and forth between the part and Tutti as needed.

Each selection begins at the first measure on the page number given in the Pg column.

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.)

How would you like to access the sound files?

Online: Play sound files individually on this web page.
Locally: Download files to play them on your computer or device.

Online: To listen to a sound file, click one of the grey buttons found to the right of the selection you wish to hear. It will play in the audio player located at the top of the page next to the menu. (Or click the arrow to play in your browser's audio plug-in, depending on your setup.)

Pg	Selection	Time	Tutti	Soprano		Alto		Tenor		Bass
Act I
15	1. Fair Is Rose	2:21	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓
23	2. Sir Rupert Murgatroyd	2:32	↓	↓
40	5 & 6. From the Briny Sea / I Shipped, D'ye See (one stanza, substitute words)	1:25	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓
55	9. If Well His Suit Has Sped	0:43	↓	↓		↓
73	12. Welcome, Gentry	2:23	↓	↓		↓		↓		↓
80	13. Oh, Why Am I Moody and Sad?	1:45	↓	↓
92	15. Act I Finale: Hail the Bride	11:43	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓
Act II
Pg	Selection	Time	Tutti	Soprano		Alto		Tenor		Bass
142	17. Happily Coupled Are We	1:52	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓
150	18. In Bygone Days	1:52	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓
154	19. Painted Emblems of a Race	3:08	↓					↓	↓	↓	↓
161	20. When the Night Wind Howls	2:21	↓					↓	↓	↓	↓
161	21. He Yields!	1:56	↓					↓	↓	↓
209 216	27. Act II Finale: When a Man Has Been a Naughty Baronet Oh, Happy the Lily (On p. 211, take 1st ending both times, then jump to p. 216)	2:23	↓	↓		↓		↓		↓

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, use the button corresponding to your choral part, below. Be sure to download the correct files for your divisi part (Soprano 1 vs. Soprano 2, for instance). 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.

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

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.