A link to the Reactor Core Hymn Repository. I'll quote the README file and let it explain things for you.
WELCOME TO THE REACTOR CORE HYMN REPOSITORY Do you wonder what some hymns sound like? Does your small home church lack a piano or piano player? Look no further! This repository provides copyright free mp3 files of your favorite hymns, suitable for use in church worship or for practice at home. In addition to providing mp3 files of the whole hymn, an mp3 file of each part of the hymn is provided separately so you can find out which part suits you best, and practice it. The four parts are soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Don't worry if you don't know which part you should sing. Try them all until one feels right. If the mp3's provided do not quite meet your needs, the script used to generate them is provided here. Anyone may use it free of charge. The mp3 files are in the following format: 1. A few bars are played to refresh your memory of the tune. 2. The music is played all the way through, once for each verse. 3. If there is a final coda or "amen", this is played after the last verse. WHAT IS IN THE DIFFERENT FILES? hymn.mp3 This is the full hymn, suitable for singing the whole hymn through. hymn.pdf This is the sheet music for the hymn. It is suitable for playing the piano. Lyrics are not included at this time. soprano.mp3 alto.mp3 tenor.mp3 bass.mp3 These are the individual parts. They just play the tune once, and the amen if there is one. FUTURE FEATURES At some future time you will be able to choose the following attributes of the hymn by using a web interface. * instrument (french horn, clarinet, church organ, etc) * tempo (50, 60, .. 120, etc) * transpose (lower c to a, or raise b to f) WANT TO CONTRIBUTE A HYMN? If you can understand the "lilypond" music typesetting program, then you can easily contribute new hymns by looking at the hymns already provided here. CONTENTS OF THIS DIRECTORY: default/ This directory contains the templates for starting a new hymn. To make a new hymn, make a new directory and copy all the files into it. Edit these files. When you are done, run the "genly" program. This will generate mp3 files and a PDF file with the sheet music. default/soprano default/alto default/tenor default/bass These are the four parts. Most hymns are written in four parts. You need to fill out the middle section in the template, but the intro and amen sections can be left blank. It is recommended you copy the first few bars of the main section into the intro section to remind people of how the hymn goes and help them prepare to start singing. Some hymns have a final "amen", which you would put in the amen section. default/header This is where you put in the key signature, the time, the title of the hymn, the composer, and similar items of interest. default/instrument This is where you put the name of the midi instrument. Only instruments supported by lilypond can be used. The instrument name must be entered in this format: #"myinstrument" default/stanzas This is the number of stanzas, or verses that are in the hymn. This decides how many times the music will be repeated in the mp3. default/tempo This is the tempo. This controls how fast the mp3 file will play the hymn. There are two numbers: the beats per minute, and the length of a beat. The length of a beat is specified in lilypond syntax. 100 2 for instance, means one hundred half notes per minute. default/transpose This will transpose the music up or down by the amount of half notes that you specify. The transpose command is described in the lilypond documentation. genly genly is a shell script. Run it inside a hymn directory that has all the files that you find in the default directory. genly creates the PDF and mp3 files based on the template files that you filled out. A Christian-Israelite Hymn Book/ You will find hymns in this directory. This is the first hymn book to provide hymns to the repository. Hymns from ANY hymn book are welcome and will be placed in the appropriate directory for that hymn book. The old favorites are found in almost every hymnal. That is ok. Often different hymnals will transpose up or down a note, or use a different key signature. CONCLUSION If you enjoy the service provided by this hymn repository, pray that God will bless it and use it to bless others. Oh, and also send me an email. I love getting personal emails! My email address is ted@reactor-core.org. Ted Walther Tuesday November 7, 2006