The music has been set up to try and
make it possible to distinguish the different sections by ear. The
soprano section is played as a piccolo and will appear to come from the
middle of the speakers. The alto section is played as a clarinet and
will appear to come from the right speaker (or left if your speakers
are reversed :) ). The bass section is played as a bassoon and will
appear to come from the left speaker.
MIDI is an industry standard
music format. MIDI files can be played with the Windows Media
Player or similar programs.
If you have trouble distinguishing the different sections one
of the following programs will allow you to reduce the volume for
staffs that you are not interested in listening to. They can also
change the
speed of playback.
Synthfont ->
http://www.synthfont.com/Downloads.html
This program works well but does not show the music score it is
playing.
Midiplay ->
http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.crhills/midiplay/index.html
The first time you run Midiplay it may complain that there will be no
sound. What you should do to get it working is select
"Microsoft MIDI Mapper" as the output device. Midiplay was quite easy
to use after that - actually showing you the music staff as it is
played (Select "MIDI ... Full score, all tracks"), but unfortunately
not the lyrics.
Both programs may complain about errors in the MIDI files
- it is safe to let them ignore the errors and continue.
Melody Assistant and/or Melody Player -> http://www.myriad-online.com/cgi-bin/download.pl?lang=EN
Melody Player is a free program. Melody Assistant is shareware. You can
use Melody Assistant for free indefinitely as long as you are willing
to put up with a "nag" prompt at the beginning. Melody Assistant is
more fully featured. Both programs show the music and lyrics.