Helga has provided a number of YouTube links that you may find interesting as you contemplate our current repertoire in your free time. I am indebted to her for this excellent research and have added my own impressions below in order to guide your listening (assuming your free time is limited... if not, click on!)
I find YouTube to be helpful in program development - for many reasons. One of them is apparent in this selection of links: choral music in the "real world." The majority of these recordings - and performances - have flaws. Not fatal flaws, but they are not the perfect, edited performances of commercial CDs. (For those I refer you to the Amazon.com mp3 store, or to iTunes).
DRAW ON SWEET NIGHT: Apparently, it is traditionally sung outdoors in Cambridge! Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKR-jytCQgw
REST SWEET NYMPHS: This is a really sweet rendition by a small high school choir.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HLP_o5i5F4
WEEP YOU NO MORE: There are several solo versions of this song on YouTube, which reminds us how "versatile" early music was (i.e., the idea of composing strictly for certain instruments or voices was not yet widely held). But here is a choral version. I thought madrigal dinners were a think of the past... but no! Here is a high school choir - in full regalia! - singing the first verse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tsQc6KmBRo
DER ABEND: This piece is one of a set of quartets - meaning they originally were intended to be sung one on a part. So here is a performance of it that way, which lends more clarity to the diction and notes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qdkdB277Mw
WALDESNACHT: There are many versions of this on YouTube - but this one by the University of Memphis Chamber Choir is the best. Sadly, they only sing the first verse! The church's acoustics obscure the diction somewhat, but they sing the right notes with a lot of sophistication and musicality!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdx43fDnQFc
IN STILLER NACHT: There is a spectacular version of this song on YouTube sung by a professional-level chamber group... but beware: it is NOT the same as the original Brahms version. Many of the harmonies are "souped up" - fabulous, but not helpful for you as you learn the version in your folder. Instead consider this very clear performance by the Brussels Chamber Choir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP8ntYmXVxE
THREE NOCTURNES: #1 and #2 ~ Don't be mislead that all the titles on this file say that it's only no. 1 (Sa Nuit) - it also include number 2 (Soneto de la Noche). Trinity College, Cambridge, recorded in concert last September at the Stanford University Memorial Church:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuVQjU4hnr8
#3 - It's hard to imagine a better performance that this glorious piece than this by the Univ. of Utah. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icp4bNb7TDI
COME TO ME MY LOVE - despite less than great recorded sound quality, this is a very red-blooded performance by Murray State University.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_3hFddt4cY
LUX AURUMQUE: Eric Whitacre is very Internet-savvy, and so one can find a lot of his stuff online, and not just on YouTube. If you decide to join (or renew your membership in) the "Whitacre Fan Club," your ample reward is but a Google search away! In the meantime, here are links to very good performances of the two of his pieces we're doing~
LUX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi2kZtHk8mM
SLEEP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xn_Qo_WXMg
Finally, Check out this version, sung by a "virtual choir" --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1h3Tf26TcA
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