Recording Retreat at La Maison Verte

Step away from it all and participate in a Recording Retreat at beautiful La Maison Verte, an 1830's wine-maker's mansion located in the beautiful Languedoc region of southern France.

WHEN: 

Saturday, July 22, 2017 - Saturday, July 29, 2017

PURPOSE:
To record a full-length CD of Flemish Renaissance polyphony, featuring music by one or more of the following composers:

• Adrian Willaert
• Antoine Brumel
• Cipriano de Rore
• Clemens non Papa
• Heinrich Isaac
• Josquin des Prez
• Orlando de Lassus
• Thomas Crecquillon

Repertoire will be finalized after the singers have been selected.

SINGERS WE'RE LOOKING FOR:
Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses—4 on each part for a total of 16 singers (maximum 20). Experience singing Renaissance polyphony preferred though not required. We will tailor the experience to fit all skill levels!

STAFF:

MARKDAVIN OBENZA is the director of Seattle-based Byrd Ensemble, founder of chamber choir Vox16, and Producer for Scribe Records, an independent record label. He is an active freelance singer who performs with the Byrd Ensemble and has performed with the Tudor Choir, Early Music Vancouver and members of the Tallis Scholars. He is the Director of Choral Music at Trinity Parish Church in Seattle, WA.

FRANCIS STEELE is musical director of Verte Musique and was, for thirty years, a professional vocalist, singing bass for such groups as The Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen. Since 2003 he has developed a worldwide reputation as a vocal group coach/tutor and has also produced many CDs. He enjoys working with less experienced singers as much as with professionals.



SCHEDULE: subject to change, a little!
SAT JULY 22 - Arrive and relax!
We'll have dinner, introductions, and talk about the week ahead! Have a nap to situate yourself in the time zone, or maybe check out the town. Or maybe you need to stay up and swim in the pool or play some ping pong... tons of things to do!

SUN JULY 23-MON JULY 24 - Time to rehearse
A light continental breakfast is served at 8am. We'll have a rehearsal at 10am, have lunch at 1pm, and more rehearsal from 2:30pm-6pm. Dinner at 6pm. Small group performances at 8pm followed by a nightcap at the bar! We're hoping to fit a short lecture about the music and the technical recording process.

TUES JULY 25-THURS JULY 27 - Recording Sessions
Just like the previous days, but with recording sessions in the afternoon at the Roujan town church, Cahuzac Isabelle.

FRI JULY 28 - Performance at the Roujan town church, Cahuzac Isabelle
The main event is the performance this evening. We'll take it easy today and have a light rehearsal in the afternoon after lunch.

SAT JULY 29 - Goodbye!
A nice brunch as we say farewell!

FEE:

€695 (that's Euros!)

What your fee includes:

• Accommodations for one person for the entire week Note: Most of the rooms are double occupancy. There are a few single occupancy rooms available at €795 on a first-come, first-served basis. 
• Includes a continental breakfast, lunch and dinner. Alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase.
• A professionally-produced CD of your singing on the retreat.
• An in-depth understanding about the recording process.
• A lecture about the history behind the music.
• An opportunity to fine tune the musical skills required for recording session work as well as concert performance.
• A concentrated week of singing to focus on the vocal skills necessary for chamber ensemble singing.

APPLICATION:
Interested singers, please fill out this application. Sign up soon! Space is limited.

This course is sponsored by the Byrd Ensemble. Please send all payments to:

The Byrd Ensemble
PO BOX 12505
Seattle, WA 98111-4505

For more information, please contact Markdavin Obenza at markdavin@byrdensemble.com

FACTS AND QUESTIONS:

What's so cool about the house?
La Maison Verte was built in the 1830′s, and started life as a wine producer’s mansion. Nothing much has changed, except now the gardens grow oleanders, irises, mimosa, tamarisk, lilac and almonds as well as vines. The property remains totally secluded, with a vast courtyard and an acre or so of fragrant and colourful gardens. The swimming pool is surrounded by mulberry, fig and almond trees, and pomegranates, oranges and lemons all thrive. It belongs to English singer Francis Steele, arts administrator Anne Roberts and their thirteen-year-old daughter Eliza. They live there all year round, and are always on hand to give help, information or advice to enable guests to make the most of their stay.

Where do we rehearse and record?
Rehearsal room: we have a vast rehearsal room (80m2), which is well sound-proofed with an acoustically tested ceiling.  It has a terracotta tiled floor, its own shower and toilets and a wall of windows providing beautiful views of the courtyard and pool.

Rehearsal Room

Wine Barn: our wine barn is also about 80m2 and can be used either as a semi-alfresco eating area or as an additional workshop space.

Break-out spaces: we have additional spaces including a large living room which can be used for small group work such as discussions, singing or as quiet spaces.

Recording sessions and the Friday concert will be held here at Cahuzac Isabelle.

Cahuzac Isabelle

Tell me about the what's around La Maison Verte!

La Maison Verte is set in the hub of the working village of Roujan, in the beautiful Languedoc region of southern France. The property is only 5 minutes’ drive from the very popular town of Pézenas, 25 minutes from the beaches of the Mediterranean, and within 90 minutes‘ drive of 5 international airports. The village boasts two superb bakeries and a traditional French café, and the Saturday market at nearby Pézenas (once the capital of Languedoc) is one of the best markets in the region. All around, vineyards stretch as far as the eye can see, providing guests with superb walks, and of course, excellent wine-tasting opportunities!

Languedoc is a hidden treasure, growing in popularity all the time.  Between the mountains and the Mediterranean, it is rich in history, breath-takingly beautiful, blessed with superb weather and rejoicing in a burgeoning international reputation for the quality of its wine.  It is also served by at least 6 airports within two hours of La Maison Verte, the closest of which (Beziers/Cap d’Agde) is just half an hour away.

MORE PHOTOS. Read more about La Maison Verte here.

Early music afficionados, a must-have greatest hits disc

MUSIC OF THE RENAISSANCE: Italy, England & France

ALLEGRI: Miserere mei, Deus
TAVERNER: Quemadmodum
WHITE: Exaudiat te Dominus
TALLIS: Lamentations II

BYRD: Domine, quis habitabit
BRUMEL: Lamentations
PALESTRINA: Magnificat
PALESTRINA: Nunc dimittis

Purchase CD at Scribe Records

The music on this disc spans the late-15th century to the early-17th century and represents the Italian, English, and Franco-Flemish schools of polyphony. From the singular phenomenon that is the Allegri Miserere to the gleaming architecture of Palestrina’s double-choir canticles, the works of the Italian school bookend a brief, chronological survey of the 16th-century English psalm motet as well as two sets of Lamentations, one English, the other Franco-Flemish. In the span of 70 minutes, we are vividly reminded of the remarkable diversity of the late-Renaissance polyphonic repertory.

Gregorio Allegri was an Italian composer and singer who joined the Papal choir in 1629. His setting of Psalm 51, Miserere mei, Deus, is easily the most famous vocal work of the Renaissance, largely due to a somewhat spurious edition dating from the early-20th century, which included a soaring high C for the soprano in the odd-numbered verses sung by a quartet. The history and evolution of Allegri’s setting is now well-known and well-documented.[i] It was composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably during the 1630s, for use in the Sistine Chapel during Matins, as part of the Tenebrae services on Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week. The service usually would start around 3:00 AM, and during the ritual, candles would be extinguished, one by one, until only one remained alight and hidden.

Originally, the work was simply a succession of chords to which the psalm was chanted (the tone has been identified as tonus peregrinus), but over decades of exclusive performance by the Papal choir, embellishments were added by singers and the piece evolved into a legendary work. A heightened sense of mystery surrounded the piece as the Papal choir jealously guarded it from others. Occasionally, a copy of the music would make its way out into the world, once via a young Mozart, who copied the work from memory after hearing a performance. For this recording, the now-traditional setting serves as the basis for further embellishments developed by Joshua Haberman in the spirit of the abbellimenti tradition.

The English school is represented by a selection of three psalm motets, a genre that developed out of the late-medieval votive antiphon in the 1540s, at a time when, in the climate of reform, prayers addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary and other saints fell out of favor. Composers of psalm motets sometimes adopted the structure of the old votive antiphons, beginning in triple time and changing to duple at the midway point. Passages for a reduced number of voices in any variety of combinations alternated with sections for full choir. Other examples of psalm motets were built solely on structural imitation, a technique developed on the continent during the late Renaissance, but which the English were slow to adopt. Psalm motets also continued the use of the five voice-types employed in large-scale votive antiphons: treble (soprano), mean (alto), tenor, baritone, and bass, although a number of examples (including those on this disc) omit the treble.

John Taverner was the most important English composer of the first half the 16th century. He was the first director of music at the newly established Cardinall College from 1525 to 1530. Taverner’s music bridges the gap between the complex, florid style of the Eton Choirbook composers of the late-15th century and the simpler, imitative style of the later mid-16th century composers, including Thomas Tallis and John Sheppard. His work is characterized above all by a sweeping melodic lyricism.

Quemadmodum probably dates from Taverner’s later years. The motet survives in a wordless source, likely used for recreational purposes by musical Elizabethans, but editor Haberman joins his predecessors in taking the lead from the title and fitting the first two verses of Psalm 42 to Taverner’s notes. Quemadmodum, although an early example of the psalm motet, nevertheless more closely resembles a Flemish motet than an English antiphon. The piece is in duple meter throughout, for full choir throughout, and employs structural imitation. The six-voice scoring also follows the Flemish preference for lower voices, creating a dense, compact texture that Tallis would later adopt in his seven-voice works, such as Loquebantur variis linguis, Suscipe quaeso, Domine, and the canon Miserere nostri. Upward transposition of the edition recorded here matches the voices more closely with the traditional English ranges of this period. Yet, despite all that seems un-English about the motet, the giveaway is Taverner’s supreme melodic gift. So beautifully developed in his large-scale Masses and antiphons, his sense of line also lends itself to the shorter melodic statements of imitation, thoroughly worked among the six voices.

Robert White was a leading musical figure in mid-16th century England during this period of continuing turmoil. He was a chorister at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later succeeded his father-in-law Christopher Tye as Master of the Choristers at nearby Ely Cathedral. He next worked at Westminster Abbey, but died of the plague in 1574. White wrote very little music in English, choosing to set Latin texts in an individual style that was at once old-fashioned and modern for its time—the sprawling musical structures of an earlier era were informed with the modern technique of imitative polyphony, with voice after voice repeating similar melodies in patterns that generate genuine urgency and drive.

White’s Exaudiat te Domine is composed using the old antiphon format, alternating full and reduced sections. He employs mean, tenor, baritone, and bass voices, omitting the trebles. Here, the edition is transposed up a minor third, resulting in ranges for soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone. The baritone voice is split into a gimell from the beginning. (The gimell is an English device wherein a voice part is divided into two separate lines.) The piece begins with an extended trio for SABar. Imitation dissolves into extended melisma, leading into the first full section for SATBar1Bar2. Changing to duple meter, the motet continues with a double-gimell quartet for sopranos and baritones, followed by a second double gimell for altos and tenors, a passage featuring the false relation—the clash created by the raised leading tone in one voice sounding against the minor seventh in another. The expertly crafted final full section begins with the gradual addition of the other voices—the second baritone, followed by the soprano and first baritone. The resulting seven-voice texture provides White the means for an extended, thoroughly worked point of imitation at “Amen,” filled with cascading parallel thirds and sixths.

Thomas Tallis was unique in working under no fewer than four monarchs during his long life spanning most of the 16th century. He was able to adapt his musical style to meet virtually any requirements. He joined the Chapel Royal in 1543. Tallis’s two settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah are among the most beloved works of Tudor polyphony. They are settings of readings for the Maundy Thursday liturgy, but because the music survives only in manuscript we can’t be certain if Tallis intended them for liturgical performance or private, devotional use. The musical style suggests they were composed during Elizabeth I’s reign. Tallis’s compositional triumph here is his ability to imbue an overall feeling of restraint with a powerful emotional undercurrent.

“Tallis is dead and music dies.” So lamented William Byrd, who was once Tallis’s pupil and later his colleague. Byrd was one of the greatest of all English composers. He remained a Catholic in Protestant England, serving in the court of Elizabeth I for many years before moving out of London to a Catholic community toward the end of his life.

Like Taverner and White before him, Byrd’s voicing for the psalm motet Domine, quis habitabit omits the treble. The nine-voice texture (again, transposed up a minor third for this recording) includes pairs of sopranos, altos, and tenors over triple basses. Byrd eschews the antiphon structure, opting for full scoring throughout, save for a central section omitting two of the bass voices. The thorough working of White’s imitation at the end of Exaudiat te is brought to new heights by Byrd. Following a tutti rest, the final section begins with strong homophony. The texture quickly becomes polyphonic as Byrd introduces his final tour de force: canonic imitative points in each pair of the three upper voice parts as three basses pass motives back and forth, sometimes in literal imitation, sometimes inverse, sometimes abandoning the point altogether for a free polyphonic phrase. With the final text, “in aeternum” (substituting for an “Amen”), Byrd brings us to a rousing and seemingly inevitable final cadence.

French composer Antoine Brumel was a pupil of Josquin Desprez. Among his numerous posts, he was a singer at Chartres Cathedral and Master of the Boys at Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. Brumel’s only surviving set of Lamentations is one of the most beautiful in the repertory. Composing for four voices in a chordal style, Brumel strikes a somber and contemplative mood. Following tradition (as did Tallis), he provides musical settings for the names of the Hebrew letters (here, Heth and Caph) that divide the text.

The outstanding composer of the Counter-Reformation years was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. He was probably a choirboy at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and later served there as maestro di cappella for ten years from 1561. The influence of his conservative and harmonically pure style was strongly felt throughout the latter years of the Renaissance and well into the Baroque era. Much of his music was performed by the Papal choir in Rome. Listening to Palestrina’s double-choir settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis back to back on this disc, one must remember they were not composed as a pair for Anglican Evensong, but rather for use separately in the Catholic offices of Vespers (Magnificat) and Compline (Nunc dimittis). Each stands on its own as a powerful expression Palestrina’s lasting achievements.

-Doug Fullington, 2016

Doug Fullington is founder and director of the Tudor Choir, based in Seattle, Washington. As a countertenor, he has performed with the Tallis Scholars as well as the Tudor Choir, Byrd Ensemble, and Cappella Romana. Trained as a musicologist, Doug is also a dance historian, with a focus on 19th-century French and Russian ballet.

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[i] See, for example, http://ancientgroove.co.uk/essays/allegri.html.

Byrd Ensemble and Scribe Records wants to record your music

Byrd Ensemble recording session at Holy Rosary, Seattle

There is a growing number of active choral composers out there writing fantastic music!

Producing and sharing high quality recordings of your work is the best way to get your music out there and is now a requirement for some publications. We know how expensive it is to produce a recording. The cost of contracting professional singers, producer and sound engineer can easily add up to over $10,000 for a full-length CD.

In many cases, composers may not have enough money or material to justify producing a full-length disc so the Byrd Ensemble and Scribe Records would like to join forces to make that more possible.

One can purchase session time in 30-minute increments for $300. For this rate, you get to work with 8 Byrd Ensemble singers and have your music edited and mastered by Markdavin Obenza (yours truly), producer of Scribe Records.

The Byrd Ensemble and Scribe Records together have produced 6 recordings which have been featured in Early Music America, Early Music Review and Gramophone. Here's Tallis's Videte Miraculum from our latest disc.

Would you like to purchase session time but do not live in Seattle? We recently just did a session with the composer who lived in Boston over video chat and were impressed with the experience. 

Working with Kevin Siegfried on Google Hangouts

Here is Kevin Siegfried's piece, I Hunger and Thirst, recorded at that session. It took about 20 minutes to record it.

If you have any questions or are interested, please email Markdavin Obenza at markdavin@byrdensemble.com

Hopefully with enough interest, we can make this happen!

Two Recordings, Two Mystics

Designed by Roslyn Hyde

With the help of a generous donor, Scribe Records and the Byrd Ensemble were able to produce two recordings of two mystics – Arvo Pärt and Peter Hallock.

EQUIPMENT UPGRADES
Around the time we decided to record both CDs, Scribe Records (an independent record label managed by Joshua Haberman and myself) was testing new equipment. Scribe recorded its last two CDs, In the Company of William Byrd and O splendor gloriae, with two Sennheiser MKH8020s omnidirectional microphones. We are always interested in improving our sound and were given a recommendation to try out ribbon microphones. We got a hold of a few test mics and scheduled several test recording sessions (with a few singers who graciously donated their time) and tried out the mics and preamps.

Test recording session at Trinity Parish Church. Left to Right: Royer SF-24, Royer SF-24V, AEA R88, Royer SF-12

Audio samples from the test sessions:





We found that the Royer ribbon mics captured an amazing stereo image (you can really hear an arch of singers in front of you) and a natural warmth that was absent in our previous two CDs. Another huge benefit of ribbon mics is that they do not capture room noise as loudly as omnidirectional mics. Omnis pick up everything, even quiet low rumbles sound like there is a jet engine nearby. We chose the Royer SF-24 - it sounded the most natural and uncolored.

Another benefit of the Royer SF-24 is that it is "active," meaning that it contains a built-in power supply which allows us to plug it in to any preamp (a preamp is responsible for boosting the signal picked up by the mics). Passive ribbons require a special preamp because they record at a very quiet level.

We ran the Royer SF-24 through the Rupert Neve 5024 preamp, which added even more warmth, particularly when the singers sang more loudly. At no point did we want our sound to be harsh and/or brittle.

Rupert Neve 5024

In anticipation of our large session with brass, organ and percussion, we also upgraded our interface to the Apogee Symphony, which has more channels for all those extra mics we would need.

OBSTACLES

We were unhappy to discover that ribbon microphones are very susceptible to radio frequency interference (RFI). Local station KUBE 93.3 was picked up loud and clear in my house, and other radio stations were picked up (although faintly) at St. Mark's Cathedral and St. Joseph Catholic church. We found that the best way to minimize or get rid of RFI is to reposition the mic up or down. We definitely didn't want R. Kelly or Jay Z to make the album!

Another disadvantage was that ribbon mics make more "self" noise than omnis. The Sennheisers we used on our previous CDs are extremely quiet. Also, the new Apogee Symphony interface has a built-in fan that comes on frequently - and audibly - to cool the unit.

RECORDING ARVO PÄRT

I was first drawn to Arvo Pärt’s music in 2001 when I first heard the Pro Arts Singers’ (directed by Paul Hillier) recording of I am the true vine. We’ve kept Pärt’s repertoire in our rotation since 2009, and were particularly motivated to record it after discovering a few fantastic low Basses - a necessity for many of Pärt’s works.


The Pärt CD features, in my opinion, his best works for choir. The Seven Magnificat Antiphons and the Berlin Mass are the main pieces on the CD.


There are two settings of the Berlin Mass - one for 4 soloists and organ, and another for chorus and strings. Originally, I wanted to record a version for SATB soloists and chamber strings which I proposed to Arvo Pärt himself. He wrote back saying that he actually liked the idea, but needed to approve a sample recording. Ultimately, I had to ditch this idea because it would have been cost prohibitive to produce.

BE Recording Session at Church of the Redeemer. Left to right: Margaret Obenza, Maria Mannisto, Linda Strandberg, Christina Siemens, Sarra Sharif, Joshua Haberman, Orrin Doyle, Markdavin Obenza, Willimark Obenza, Thomas Thompson, Jonathan Silvia, Gus Blazek, Omaldo Perez

We chose to record the Pärt pieces at Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, WA. The room gave us a clean and balanced sound (though we did get a lot of traffic noises - especially during rush hour). We setup the ribbon mic in the center (as you see in the pic) favoring slightly more towards the basses (far right) and set up the two Sennheiser omnidirectional mics about 3 pews back.

It took a total of thirteen and a half hours (in four 3-hour and one 1&1/2-hour sessions) to finish the Pärt CD. Organist Sheila Bristow played brilliantly on the Berlin Mass.

RECORDING PETER HALLOCK

Peter Hallock served St. Mark's Cathedral as organist and choirmaster for over 40 years and was key to bringing about a renewed interest in the Compline service. The formation of a chant study group eventually became the famous Compline Choir who has, since 1956, sung Compline every Sunday evening in the lush acoustic of St. Mark's Cathedral. It was in this group where many local singers (myself and several others in the Byrd Ensemble, included) have connected and have been inspired to form choral groups.

Lunch with Peter Hallock.
Left to right: Peter Hallock, Joshua Haberman,
Markdavin Obenza

Joshua Haberman and Jason Anderson collaborated to select the music for the Hallock CD which is made up of never-recorded anthems and beautiful Compline Psalms.

We recorded the Compline Psalms at Church of the Redeemer because we were worried that St. Mark's Cathedral would be too noisy for the intimate Psalms settings. We recorded the anthems at St. Mark's Cathedral because we felt it was more important to capture the cathedral's ambience and organ for those grand works.

Session at St. Mark's Cathedral. Left to right: Margaret Obenza, Rebekah Gilmore, Maria Mannisto, Christina Siemens, Linda Strandberg, Sarra Sharif, Joshua Haberman, Markdavin Obenza, Orrin Doyle, Brian Giebler, Wes Rogers, Willimark Obenza, Thomas Thompson, Jonathan Silvia, Gus Blazek

Recording the Compline Psalms at Church of the Redeemer was straightforward, but recording the larger-scale anthems at St. Mark's was not. For Ye Choirs of New Jersusalem and Victimae Paschali, we wanted to place the brass, choir and percussion in a way that gave us enough isolation in post production so that we could control the volume levels of each group independently while being close enough to maintain togetherness is such a wet space. We placed the choir in the "Compline corner", brass to the left, and percussion to the left of the brass (above).

While we were recording Ye Choirs, we discovered that we were picking up too much brass in the choir mic. Organist Alan De Puy suggested we use the Compline stalls as a sound barrier by placing them between the choir and brass. This proved to be a perfect solution - it that gave us enough isolation between the choir and brass so we could adjust the levels independently.

In order to capture a more detailed organ sound, we moved St. Mark's existing mics closer to the organ. This required me and Josh to climb up to the ceiling of St. Mark's via a very tall and scary ladder to reposition the mic cables.

View of St. Mark's organ from the ceiling

POST PRODUCTION

We finished recording both CDs by the end of June 2013 and needed to submit both masters by the end of August in order to meet our September 28, 2013 deadline - the opening concert of the Byrd Ensemble's 10 year anniversary season. That gave us only 2 months to edit and design both albums.

We used two pairs of mics to record the Pärt CD (two omnis and the ribbon mic in front (one unit housing two mics). We intended to use the omni pair to capture the reverb at Church of the Redeemer, but we found that it picked up too much room and traffic noise. We ended up not using the omnis and added reverb to the front ribbon mics. We used the reverb plugin Altiverb. This plugin is great and has a feature that allows you to record the reverb of any space to use as a reverb setting. This process involves recording a sine sweep in the space and uploading the recording into Altiverb. Josh recorded the reverb at St. Mark's with the intention of applying it to the Compline Psalms (recorded at Church of the Redeemer), but he ended up using a customized reverb setting on Ambience instead, another reverb plugin.

Recording sine sweep at St. Mark's Cathedral

EDITING

For the Arvo Pärt CD, I pasted together the best of the raw material using Logic 9, a digital audio workstation for mac.

For the Hallock CD, I edited the drafts and Joshua Haberman made time adjustments (shortening and lengthening music) to the Compline Psalms in order to replicate Peter Hallock's unique psalm aesthetic. (Josh occasionally sings with the Compline Choir - so it's all relatively fresh in his head.) Josh also chose the reverb settings for the psalms and the title piece, Draw on sweet night.

Roslyn Hyde designed the artwork for both CDs.

DISTRIBUTION

We went through A to Z Media, a CD manufacturing company to replicate 500 CDs of each album. They are a very affordable company (with a branch in Portland, OR) and the printing quality is good. The turn around time is about 3-4 weeks.

Once we received the CDs, we set up physical and digital distribution through CDBaby, an online store specializing in the sale of CDs and music downloads. They provide an easy and affordable way to get digital media out to iTunes, Amazon, etc, and physical CDs to some brick-and-mortar stores. We also set up an account with Amazon so they can fulfill all physical CD orders for us. We send a box of CDs to Amazon's warehouse and they take care of reporting sales tax, shipping and do a great job attracting potential customers to our products. We only make about $13 per $20 CD, but the convenience is worth it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was probably the most exhausting recording project we've ever done. It's a true test in psychological and emotional stability when focusing on the imperfections, not to mention the added pressure of a quickly-approaching deadline. It required countless hours of editing, listening and producing over the course of a few short months. This might have been easier to handle if we had a later release date, but I believe timing is everything and I see these recordings as a success. (I say get it done or else someone else will!).


Many thanks to the singers that participated, you are world-class ensemble singers. Special thanks to Joshua Haberman, my business partner and friend, who was also key in producing what I think is our best work yet.

The making of "In the Company of William Byrd"

We just finished our 2nd CD, In the Company of William Byrd, and I'm pleased to say that it's our best CD yet. Byrd Ensemble has been very productive, releasing two CDs in just over 2 years, thanks to the generous support of Nicholas J. Bez.

CD Concept

Our  last recording, Our Lady: Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, received a lot of press, in part, no doubt, because it features mostly world-premiere recordings - reconstructed music by eminent scholar Dr. Nick Sandon. We wanted to follow up that success with another early music CD by William Byrd, my favorite renaissance composer and BE's namesake. That decision also reflected our mission to be known primarily as a renaissance vocal ensemble. For our next CD, we plan to change gears and record music outside the renaissance period. 

There were some problems totally committing to a Byrd CD. Byrd is a well known composer and all his music is already recorded by very good English groups like Cardinalls Musick, Tallis Scholars and others. It felt like a waste of money to repeat what was already done well. Luckily, while we were still brainstorming repertoire Joshua Haberman (Byrd Ensemble alto and sound engineer of Scribe Music, LLC) sang a concert with Capella Romana where he met Byrd scholar Kerry McCarthy, also singing on the same program. Kerry kindly agreed to work with us and provided the unique concept of recording a CD of Byrd and his personal contemporaries.

Choosing the music wasn't too difficult. We performed Byrd's Ne irascaris Domine and Tristitia et anxietas on our recent East Coast tour with Peter Phillips (director of the Tallis Scholars, so they were obvious choices. Kerry recommended the rest of the pieces and Peter Phillips recommended the crown jewel that closes the CD, Byrd's Ad Dominum cum tribularer, a wonderful 8-part motet. 

Once the tracks fell into place we had to think about voicing, always a tricky process.  To overcome challenges, we tried to avoid too many high tenor or low alto parts since there aren't very many of those singer types in Seattle familiar with the repertoire.

Graphic Design

Roslyn Hyde is the wonderfully creative graphic designer for Scribe Music, LLC. She has never yet failed to produce just the right design. We wanted the CD cover to be similar to a magazine cover - a main subject with overlaying text, all in front of a textured background for a sense of dimension. 

There aren't many pictures of Byrd that survive which means the same one gets used over and over.  We wanted ours to stand out so Roslyn created an Obama campaign poster styled image of Byrd.

Rehearsals and Recording Sessions

Our budget ($10,000) allowed us to scheduled one rehearsal ($75 per singer) and four recording sessions of 3 hours each ($50/hour per singer). We scheduled the sessions and rehearsal close to each other and to the concert where we performed this music. It was a small miracle that we were able to do this, given how busy the singers were at that time. I use rehearsal time to make sure all the parts are covered and that I have a sense of the tempo and shape of each piece.

Four 3-hour sessions is usually just enough time to record enough good material. 

The Singers

We usually record renaissance polyphony with two singers per part, however, for the very first time, we recorded one on a part singing on the final track, Byrd's Ad Dominum cum tribularer. I steer away from one on a part singing because I worry it won't be sung cleanly enough. Solo singing is much more revealing. However,  Byrd's Ad Dominum cum tribularer is such a dense 8-part piece that it really needed the clarity of 8 voices instead of 16. 

With that exception, there is a beauty in two-on-a-part singing that we try to capture in our performance and recordings through perfectly unified singing - it is part of our signature sound. 

We hire singers with very specific skill sets - pleasant sound, solid sight-reading ability, good ensemble singer (can sing well with others) and clean execution, in that order. In a recording, volume is not nearly as important as tone and clean execution. There are ways to adjust balance by moving the mic relative to the singer or vise versa. 

One notable singer on this album is alto Caroline Trevor, who sings regularly with the Tallis Scholars. Since this album required low altos, and since Joshua Haberman is our only low alto, we hired Caroline and brought her all the way from London to sing with Joshua. Caroline is a first rate singer and was an absolute pleasure to have on this album. 

Byrd Ensemble recording session at Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma, WA
Pictured left to right: Linda Strandberg, Sarra Sharif, Orrin Doyle, Caroline Trevor,
Gary Cannon, Joshua Haberman, Thomas Thompson, Jonathan Silvia, Willimark Obenza,
David Stutz, Seated: Margaret Obenza, Markdavin Obenza

The space

Finding the right recording space is also very important. Christ Episcopal Church in Tacoma, WA, has a great balance between clarity and reverb. There is also some wood in the room which adds warmth to the sound. Other than the wood cracking as the building heats up, the noise floor is also pretty low. It's important to have a low noise floor so the exposed moments (like one part singing quietly) are not clouded with a hiss, air or outside noise. 

Recording equipment and setup

Scribe Music, LLC, an independent record label managed by Joshua Haberman (Sound Engineer) and myself (Producer), produces Byrd Ensemble recordings. We used two Sennheiser MKH8020s mics that were placed just a few feet away from the singers. Mic placement is crucial. You want to place it close enough to get enough presence from the singers, but far away enough to get enough room sound or reverb. It is always best to err on the side of having the mics too close rather than too far. It is much easier to add reverb in post production (though not ideal) than adding "presence."

We had some unforeseen difficulties. We noticed that we were picking up a digital popping noise. It took some serious troubleshooting to figure out that one of our mics was not working properly. Luckily our mic dealer was local and provided us with a replacement for the remainder of the recording sessions. 

Recording Byrd's "Ad Dominum cum tribularer"

Pictured left to right: Margaret Obenza, Christina Siemens, Joshua Haberman, Caroline Trevor, Orrin Doyle, Markdavin Obenza, Thomas Thompson, David Stutz.

We did make one adjustment we made from our last album regarding mic placement - we moved the Sopranos a little further away and the Basses a little closer to the mics.  Mics pick up Sopranos very easily and we wanted a less top heavy sound. 

We recorded directly to a mac laptop at 96k/24bit. 

Execution

The better the raw material is, the better the outcome. On this CD, we recorded at least 4 good takes of each section (about 2-3 pages). We had to pace ourselves so the singers could maintain a healthy sound through the entire 3-hour session. Our toughest day was on a Saturday when we had two 3-hour sessions with a 2-hour break in between. It was hard work. Our altos were expected to sing in both extremes of their ranges, so we scheduled the low pieces first.

Like in performances, singing in tune is important, but not as important as being internally in tune. Meaning, if the group shifted up or down slightly in pitch, I would adjust that in post production, though only if the group was in tune with each other. If things become more than a half step off (which thankfully never happened on this project), then we would reset. A half step or more difference can become vocally difficult to manage for some singers. 

We always need a few extra takes of beginnings and ends of pieces or sections, as they are more exposed. 

I was the producer, so I was responsible for running the session, giving notes on what to improve, as well as singing.  

Challenges

We are used to performing in a dryer space, Trinity Parish Church in Seattle, WA. Trinity may not be as reverberant as Christ Episcopal Church, but the dryer acoustic makes it easier to hear each other, which in turn makes it much easier to sing together. 

Communicating tempo and feel is very difficult, but very important to get right. Subtle tempo adjustments can change how each phrase is expressed, thus affecting the overall feel of the piece. I feel that it is most always best to go with the group's natural tempo. There is nothing more challenging than editing together takes that are in vastly different tempos. Getting a consistent tempo is slightly more important than getting the right one. 

Editing

After all the music has been recorded, the grueling editing stages begin. I edit on an iMac using Logic. I listen on a pair of M-Audio monitors, Beyerdynamic 350 headphones and, which may confuse some audiophiles out there, and my iMac computer speakers. What one listens to the music with does affect their listening experience. Different stereo systems, headphones, monitors highlight different imperfections. The iMac computer speakers are the most brutal. Nothing sounds good through them so I can hear every imperfection really clearly. This makes editing easier but it can be demoralizing. I review every selected take (and edit) on my studio monitors (with a flat frequency response so every frequency is accurately represented) and then with the Beyerdynamic headphones, which are also designed to have roughly a flat frequency response. 

One particular software I find to be incredibly useful is iZotope. This program removes most of the digital popping I mentioned earlier that one of our mics was causing as well as room cracks, trucks going by and much more. It works like magic and I highly recommend this program to anyone that needs to clean up noise. 

I make about 3 drafts before submitting the final, which are listened also on several stereo systems - car, home, computer, monitors and headphones. If it's going well, it takes me one hour per minute of recorded music to edit and master the CD.

- Markdavin Obenza

In the Company of William Byrd will be released on February 9, but is available for purchase here.