Choral Public Domain Library

A wonderful story from one of the Melbourne choirs it has been my privilege to sing with in the past: yesterday Ensemble Gombert were the choir at a lavish nuptial mass at Xavier College Chapel, one of the most splendidly situated churches in the entire city, and a frequently-used venue for concerts (including Gombert’s annual subscription series). To turn over the narration to Peter Campbell, for many years a stalwart of the Gombert tenor line:

“Fourteen iPhones and an Android device saved the day at a wedding in Melbourne today when the choir opened their orders of service to find that they were supposed to sing a particular piece, but did not have that music with them. The phones came to the rescue as the singers logged on to the Choral Public Domain Library (cpdl.org) and sang the work straight from the on-line PDF score. Sure it would have been easier with iPads, but the phones did the job, and no-one in the church was any the wiser!”

The piece concerned was Tallis’ O nata lux, which although short is tricky enough for singers not to want to rely purely on memory. I assume musical director John O’Donnell selected one of the six possible editions, but until I hear from one of those involved I think all the editors concerned may partake in their fair share of the credit.

Another veteran singer with Gombert, alto Niki Ebacioni put it this way: “It was pretty hilarious hiding our phones behind our folders. We took a photo later as evidence; 14 of us us squinting at them. An utter triumph of technology!”

The afore-mentioned photographic evidence (taken after the 127-minute (!) latin mass had concluded) and comments from various associated choristers is currently available on Facebook, but I think the owners’ privacy settings may make it inaccessible; those of you CPDL denizens who have me as a friend may be able to view “friends of friends” and anyone else is welcome to drop me a friend invitation if interested. (Link 1 Link 2)

Cheers, Philip

Amazing! And I'm glad the CPDL was able to "come to the rescue" ... maybe a CPDL News item at ChoralWiki is appropriate? Thanks for passing along this information Philip.

Philip, is this something they would be willing to talk to press about? It would be nifty if the Bay Area Chronicle (since CPDL is officially based the San Francisco area) or NYTimes did a story on CPDL and how we help choirs all over the world.

Great story Philip. I'd like to see it as an item in the Australian press. It could help encourage younger singers, especially, to join a choir. Umm.... maybe not mention the interminable Latin mass though.

pml wrote:A wonderful story from one of the Melbourne choirs it has been my privilege to sing with in the past: yesterday Ensemble Gombert were the choir at a lavish nuptial mass at Xavier College Chapel, one of the most splendidly situated churches in the entire city, and a frequently-used venue for concerts (including Gombert’s annual subscription series). To turn over the narration to Peter Campbell, for many years a stalwart of the Gombert tenor line:

“Fourteen iPhones and an Android device saved the day at a wedding in Melbourne today when the choir opened their orders of service to find that they were supposed to sing a particular piece, but did not have that music with them. The phones came to the rescue as the singers logged on to the Choral Public Domain Library (cpdl.org) and sang the work straight from the on-line PDF score. Sure it would have been easier with iPads, but the phones did the job, and no-one in the church was any the wiser!”

The piece concerned was Tallis’ O nata lux, which although short is tricky enough for singers not to want to rely purely on memory. I assume musical director John O’Donnell selected one of the six possible editions, but until I hear from one of those involved I think all the editors concerned may partake in their fair share of the credit.

Another veteran singer with Gombert, alto Niki Ebacioni put it this way: “It was pretty hilarious hiding our phones behind our folders. We took a photo later as evidence; 14 of us us squinting at them. An utter triumph of technology!”

The afore-mentioned photographic evidence (taken after the 127-minute (!) latin mass had concluded) and comments from various associated choristers is currently available on Facebook, but I think the owners’ privacy settings may make it inaccessible; those of you CPDL denizens who have me as a friend may be able to view “friends of friends” and anyone else is welcome to drop me a friend invitation if interested. (Link 1 Link 2)

Cheers, Philip

I know I'm on here late, but Stumble Upon brought me too good of a story to just pass up. I wasn't even aware of this site until yesterday. How cool is that? You needed to find sheet music and you were able to find it here via this public domain site. That's amazing! Talk about the splendor and impressiveness of technology. I can't imagine anyone being able to do this just 10 years ago. Really rad story you posted on here, pml. Thank goodness for sites like these -- that provide public domain sheet music all in one spot.

Tell, does anyone know if Mozart's Laudate Dominum is public domain or not? It's one of my favorite pieces and I haven't been able to find it anywhere. If I DO find it, I wouldn't mind performing it with my music troupe!

WorldlyTrisha wrote: does anyone know if Mozart's Laudate Dominum is public domain or not?

All works by Mozart are public domain everywhere in the world. Recent score editions may be copyrighted instead, as copyright on editions depends on various factors such as local regulations, presence of an original piano reduction, etc .

Here at CPDL we have 3 recent editions:

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Laud ... _Mozart%29

They are released under personal copyright but no details are provided about copyright conditions, so it is quite likely that the editor intended to release them under the standard CPDL license conditions. You may possibly contact the editors to obtain confirmation.

Max