This year I plan to resurrect a long-standing tradition of my oldest and dearest friends, one that has been neglected the past couple of years: yes, it’s true! The Jewish agnostic is going to organize Christmas caroling! Many of us sang in choir in high school and college, and caroling was a great way to get old friends together, many of whom don’t get to spend time with each other at any other point in the year. Plus we get to spread glad tidings throughout the land, or at least the north side of Chicago and a suburb or two (generally Evanston).
Although many of us sang pretty seriously, some of us are probably rustier on the tunes than others, particularly a) the harmony parts, and b) some of the more obscure carols (we always do the standards, but like to throw in a more obscure old English or German carol, or even a Latin round here and there, and generally do at least one or two harmony lines).
So that we can all be on the same page, literally and harmonically, I’d like to self-publish a small songbook of some kind this year for everyone. Does anyone have a favorite music notation software package that can handle the harmony lines, but isn’t horrifically expensive, so I can transcribe all our old favorites?
Thanks in advance, and on to the figgy pudding and wassail part, if anyone has favorite recipes for those…
Sorry, I don’t have any suggestions for software, but I do have one other suggestion:
Why make yourself crazy?
I mean, why make work for yourself?
Have you got a Christian bookstore where you are? Go down there and tell the girl behind the register that you want this. It’s a standard caroling booklet put out by Word Music, costs all of a dollar-fifty, yes, that’s “$1.50” as in “150 cents”. If they don’t have it in stock, they can order it, it’ll take a week or two to arrive (nowadays everybody orders stuff on the Internet.)
I’ve used Noteworthy Composer from several years now. It’s fairly easy to use, versatile, and is one of the few shareware programs I’ve ever had that I felt was worth registering.
Well, if you’re worried about me making myself crazy, too late!
As for the making work for myself: I thought it would be a nice idea to make a keepsake booklet for my friends, maybe with some drawings or other personalized stuff, that we can keep and treasure and use for years to come. That, and the standard carols in that book are great, but we’ve all spent so many years working off of half-legible photocopies and helf-remembered harmonies, that I thought it might be nice for everyone to have everything all in one place, including the obscure ones we all sang together in choir. (Boar’s Head Carol, anyone?)
I think Finale Notepad is one of the best notation softwares out there. I used it all throughout my music theory course after my teacher suggested it to me. If I remember correctly, “Finale Notepad” is freeware, and “Finale 2002( or 2003, etc)” is retail.
