Seattle's Periodic Period Messiah

St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle
Photo: Marissa Meyer

It is possible that the Messiah tradition at St. Mark’s Cathedral would have begun earlier had Peter Hallock, the music director from 1951 to 1991, not viewed Handel oratorios as “monstrously boring.” It took a hearing of Colin Davis’s 1966 recording of the work to change his mind. The recording, which Hallock says was the first time he had heard Handel performed in a way that made any sense, inspired the first performance of Messiah at St. Mark’s Cathedral in 1968 with members of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, using modern instruments. Seattle's first historically informed performances of the work using period instruments were held December 12-14, 1985. This ‘new’ approach to the performance was a hit—concerts sold out easily and music critics loved them, ushering in a new standard of historic performance practice of the masterpiece in Seattle. Upon Hallock’s departure from the cathedral in 1991, J. Melvin Butler and Doug Fullington took on the tradition. During the next decade, the novelty of Seattle’s first period Messiah wore off, normalizing revenues while production expenses grew—it costs a pretty penny flying in and accommodating the latest hot soloist! In 2002, Cathedral Associates canceled the Messiah tradition because costs had stretched beyond available resources.

Peter Hallock, 2009

[There have been several attempts to restart the tradition. The Tudor Choir and Seattle Baroque Orchestra joined forces and presented the work at St. Mark’s Cathedral in 2006, and 2007 and 2009 at Town Hall.]

Cathedral Associates’s decision to cancel the Messiah tradition was justifiable. The production cost about $70,000 annually ($100,000 in today’s dollars), mostly in musician fees—the orchestra and choir are all professional musicians, as are the soloists who were imported from all over the world. After the third year in a row losing about $17,000, they threw in the towel. The market had also become saturated with Messiahs—audiences could go to Benaroya or attend any number of sing-alongs to get their fix.

BIG MESSIAHS

Handel wrote Messiah originally for modest vocal and instrumental forces. In the years after his death, particularly during the Victorian era, there was a phase when Messiah was performed by larger and larger ensembles as if competing to see just how big a chorus and orchestra could be crammed onto one stage. Mozart even got in on the action with his own arrangement, which was not to everyone’s taste. One critic said that it “resembles elegant stucco work upon an old marble temple… easily… chipped off again by the weather.” The trend in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been toward performing Messiah with intimate, more modest instrumentation.

Ironically in Seattle—one of the early music centers in the Pacific Northwest—the intimate version is in scarce supply. Larger productions by well-established musical organizations like the Seattle Symphony dominate the scene, along with the ever-growing number of sing-alongs that accompany them. While we applaud their efforts for keeping Messiah in the classical mainstream, Handel originally conceived the work for much smaller instrumental and choral forces.

MESSIAH REBOOT

Our Messiah ‘Reboot,’ performed by 18 players on baroque period instruments and 16 singers, is more what Handel had in mind. One may worry about the smaller ensemble lacking the punch of a larger orchestra and choir. On the contrary, the dynamic range of the work is much easier to hear with fewer musicians, making for a more exciting, larger-than-life performance. The increased clarity allows the audience to hear the athleticism in each musical line that larger productions lack. The sound of baroque instruments is also unique. Compared to their modern counterparts, they tend to be quieter and brighter and are well-suited to the fast-moving demands of the ornate oratorio. By hiring a professional choir of only 16 singers instead of a tour de force symphonic chorus, you are able to hear the small details in the choral writing that make Messiah an intricate baroque masterpiece.

We believe we have found a financially sustainable way to present a unique, intimate Messiah once again in Seattle. Although Messiah is often performed in December, an April performance (the weekend after Easter) avoids the threat of snow, keeping revenue up. We are fortunate to employ the excellent local singers right here in the Pacific Northwest. By hiring locally, we save money on the flight and hotel costs we would need to pay for out-of-state soloists. The soloists (nine total) are selected from the choir, allowing us the artistic freedom to assign solos to precisely the right voice type.

We hope you will enjoy our reboot. We are looking forward to showing you why this Messiah tradition is worth reviving.

MESSIAH PERFORMANCES featuring the Byrd Ensemble and Seattle Baroque Orchestra

Friday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Bastyr University
14500 Juanita Dr NE
Kenmore, WA 98028
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Saturday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m.
St. Mark's Cathedral
1245 10th Ave E
Seattle, WA 98102
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DOCTORAL DISSERTATION BY JASON ALLEN ANDERSON, DMA, 2007
Hallelujah! Seattle Baroque and the Tudor Choir recreate musical history for the holidays.
Tudor’s “Messiah” makes a comeback
Seattle Baroque Orchestra and Tudor Choir revive period performances of 'Messiah'

Victoria, Morales, Lobo and Palestrina

SPANISH MUSIC FOR THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG
A musical exploration of the Habsburg dynasty, featuring Spanish music written for monarchs Charles V and Philip II

SATURDAY MAR 4, 2017 at 7:30PM 

St. Mark's Cathedral 

1245 10th Ave E 

Seattle, WA 98102

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PROGRAM
Tomás Luis de VICTORIA - Requiem Mass
Introitus: Requiem aeternam
Kyrie
Gradual
Offertory
Sanctus & Benedictus
Agnus Dei I, II & III
Communion: Lux aeterna
Versa est in luctum
Responsory: Libera me

Intermission

VICTORIA - Magnificat primi toni
Cristóbal de MORALES - Circumdederunt me
MORALES - “Requiem aeternam” from Missa pro Defunctis
Alonso LOBO - Versa est in luctum
Giovanni Pierluigi da PALESTRINA - Nunc dimittis

SINGERS
Soprano
Danielle Sampson
Margaret Obenza
Christina Siemens

Alto
Sarra Sharif Doyle
Joshua Haberman

Tenor
Orrin Doyle
Kurt Kruckeberg

Bass
Peter Lifland
Willimark Obenza
David Stutz

The House of Habsburg was an incredible patron of the arts. During its six-century rule, it shaped the arts world like no other dynasty, employing singers and commissioning composers on an international scale. The program features music by the most prominent Spanish Renaissance composers employed by Charles V and Philip II: Victoria, Morales, and Lobo, and the great Counter-Reformation Italian composer Palestrina.

The House of Habsburg was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. At the height of its power, the dynasty ruled Austria, a vast tract of Central Europe, Spain, the Low Countries, much of South America, and it occupied the throne of the Holy Roman Empire for nearly three centuries. The Habsburgs held the arts in high regard. In the sixteenth century, the power and wealth of a dynasty were expressed through its patronage of art and science. The most important ruler had to demonstrate that he was also an outstanding patron by commissioning and collecting works of art. Artists employed at the court enjoyed a good income, high social standing, and remarkable freedoms, a rarity during period of religious turbulence. The Habsburg who defined Europe in the Renaissance was Charles V (1500-1558), who ruled Spain and its overseas empire and was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1519.

Music played an important role Charles’s court. Sacred music was sung for the daily services in the court chapel, for special memorial services, marriages and affairs of state that required a solemn ceremony in church. Professional singers and the clergy provided the chapel with music. Members of the court chapel performed many duties, as they were often singer, priest, composer, choirmaster, organist, music teacher, and scribe at the same time. Additionally, the nobility received extensive musical education themselves, often from the members of the court chapel, and learned how to sing and play instruments.

Charles surrounded himself with musicians. In Brussels he had a court chapel of mainly Flemish musicians called the “Capilla Flamenca” which he eventually brought with him to Spain. At his Spanish court Charles formed a larger ensemble, “La Grande Chapelle,” made up of the best musicians from the whole of Europe. The group performed sacred polyphony for voices and eventually secular music with instruments, once it came into style in the late sixteenth century. Charles loved both sacred and secular music.

Composer Cristóbal de Morales (c.1500–1553), a contemporary of Charles, is regarded as the most important Spanish composer before Victoria. The preference by Pope Paul III of employing Spanish singers in the papal chapel choir helped Morales, who moved to Rome in 1535 and joined up. During his time, Morales sang on three occasions for the emperor Charles V and received a commission to write music for Charles’s wedding to Isabella of Portugal in 1526. Morales remained employed by the Vatican until 1545, after which he returned to Spain following a period of unsuccessful job hunting in Italy. While regarded as one of the greatest composers in Europe, he was an unpopular employee and had difficulty keeping his jobs.

Morales was one of the first important contributors to a growing repertoire of musical settings of the liturgy for the dead. His antiphon for the the solemn office, Circumdederunt me, set for five voices, achieves a dark mood through slow-moving polyphony and low ranges. The sound fits the text perfectly.

The groanings of death have encircled me: the sorrows of hell have enclosed me.

His settings of funeral music were disseminated widely across Europe. The Missa pro Defunctis was likely sung in Mexico in 1559 at memorial ceremonies for Emperor Charles V and his son, Philip II of Spain.

Philip II of Spain (1527-1598), "Philip the Prudent,” reigned during the so-called “Golden Age.” At the peak of his influence and power, Philip’s empire included territories on every continent then known to Europeans, including his namesake the Philippine Islands. People described his dominion as “the empire on which the sun never sets.” Unfortunately, his reign also saw the economic decline of Spain and the disastrous decade from 1588-1598 which included the devastating defeat of the Spanish Armada. Philip loved music and was a passionate art patron. He had a wonderful collection of masterpieces at the Escorial, his palace outside of Madrid, and was well educated in History and Politics but poor at languages.

16th-century Spanish music patronage differs from English, French, and Italian music in that the Spanish royal house maintained two royal chapels: the House of Burgundy and the House of Castile. The first was made up of Charles’s and Philip’s Low Countries subjects (Flemish) and the second of Spaniards. Philip’s maintenance of two chapels of singers and players showed an incredible commitment to music, unmatched by his contemporary sovereigns. Philip was also the only monarch of his time who patronized Italian, Spanish, and Flemish composers equally. He was the only patron to whom Palestrina dedicated two books of masses. Philip also helped Spanish composer Guerrero on his first publication, and Victoria dedicated one of his lavish single publications of Magnificats to him in 1563. Philip was the leading international music patron of his age.

Tomás Luis de Victoria (c.1548-1611), the most famous Spanish composer at the time, was one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), and Orlando di Lasso. Victoria was not only a composer but also an accomplished organist and Catholic priest. Victoria was sent by Philip in 1565 to prepare for holy orders at the German College in Rome. During this time he likely studied under Palestrina, whom he eventually succeeded as director of music at the Roman Seminary.

The Magnificat, the Canticle of Mary, was the next most important part of the liturgy after the Mass in the 16th-century Catholic Church. It was sung at the close of each day’s service of Vespers: Settings of the Magnificat were in demand. Composers served this liturgical need by publishing a complete set of eight or sixteen settings of the Magnificat, covering eight “tones” or keys. Victoria’s Magnificat primi toni, one of his two polychoral settings, employs eight voices and alternates between fugal sections for one choir and full double choir passages for both choirs. The way Victoria balances imitation and full homophonic statements in his Magnificat is strikingly similar to Palestrina’s techniques in Nunc dimittis for double choir—we can hear why Victoria is called the “Spanish Palestrina.”

In 1578 Philip II honored Victoria’s request to return to his native Spain, where he met the pious dowager empress Maria, sister of Philip, and later became her chaplain. His last work was the Requiem Mass (1605) in memory of the empress Maria, his most famous work. All of the music in the Requiem Mass is scored for six voices, except the initial Taedet animam meam funeral motet (not sung in the program) he also wrote for the occasion. The second soprano part often carries the cantus firmus (a pre-existing melody used as the basis of a polyphonic composition), though it disappears into the other parts. Victoria concludes the Mass with the motet Versa est in luctum, which was probably sung as the clergy and dignitaries assembled around the catafalque, a decorated wooden framework supporting the empress’s coffin. 

Philip II died at San Lorenzo in 1598. Alonso Lobo (1555-1617) wrote his best motet, Versa est in luctum, for Philip’s funeral at Toledo Cathedral. While the six-part motet is set to text associated with a Requiem Mass, he did not write a complete Requiem Mass setting. Though not as famous as Victoria, this stunning motet filled with beautiful, cascading lines captures the despair of the text and showcases why Victoria considered him to be an equal.

My harp is turned to grieving and my flute to the voice of those who weep. Spare me, O Lord, for my days are as nothing.

A Golden Age of Portuguese Polyphony

Evora Cathedral, Portugal

SATURDAY OCT 15, 2016 at 7:30PM
St. Mark's Cathedral
1245 10th Ave E
Seattle, WA 98102 ​

Featuring mass settings by two of the greatest Portuguese composers of the 17th century: Duarte Lôbo and Manuel Cardoso. ​

PROGRAM

Duarte LÔBO - Audivi vocem de caelo
LÔBO - Missa Vox clamantis
Manuel CARDOSO - Lamentatio
CARDOSO - Missa pro defunctis ​

TICKETS Save $2 per ticket by purchasing in advance online

General Admission: $25 Seniors (65+): $20 Students: $15

By the 17th century, the transition to the Baroque period was well under way. Composers were leaving Renaissance polyphony behind and turning to Baroque styles and more joyful texts. Portugal was the exception. Portuguese music did evolve, but it seems it did so with one foot still in the Renaissance era. Portuguese music kept the polyphonic texture and contrapuntal techniques from the Renaissance, but it employed a fresh treatment of harmony that was reminiscent of the new Baroque sound. 

Portugal’s apparent isolation on a map might explain their ‘doing their own thing,’ though this was certainly not the case. Portugal was connected to the monastic and ecclesiastical institutions in other parts of Europe, and its proximity to Spain ensured that Portugal remained part of the wider European tradition of polyphony.

Together with John IV—King of Portugal, composer, and patron of music and the arts—Filipe de Magalhães (not included in this program), Duarte Lôbo (1565-1646) and Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650) represent the “golden age” of Portuguese polyphony. 

The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 destroyed most of Lôbo’s music. Because of this catastrophe, we will never have a complete picture of Lôbo the composer, but based on what has survived we do know that he was a conservative composer who preferred the Renaissance styles of his predecessors, even by the conservative Portuguese standards. Instead of writing in double-choir antiphony—the trend of the day—he opted to write in single-choir polyphony. At a time when other composers thought everything in the Renaissance had been tried and exhausted, Lôbo brought highly original turns of phrase to the table. As a listener, one might feel certain a cadence is just around the corner, but Lôbo, denies us that sense of resolution, keeping our expectations in check. Lôbo’s music is an ebb and flow of blissful deception that keeps the harmonic adventure going.  

Lôbo

Lôbo served as a choir boy at Evora Cathedral, the musical hub of Portuguese music, where Lôbo, Magalhães, and Cardoso studied with Manuel Mendes. Lôbo eventually became the choirmaster at Evora and, sometime before 1589, choirmaster at the Hospital Real, Lisbon—the most prestigious musical position in the country.

Lôbo’s Audivi vocem de caelo, written for six voices, is one of the most admired and frequently performed and recorded works of Portuguese polyphony. Audivi is one of only two of Lôbo’s motets that have survived to the present day. If this was his typical motet, then it is a great tragedy that more have not survived. Lôbo's Missa Vox clamantis was published in the 1639 Book of Masses and was based on a motet of the same scoring presumed to have been lost in the 1755 earthquake. The mass setting is scored for six voices (SSAATB) and shows a combination of contrapuntal techniques of the late Renaissance and homophonic declamatory devices from the Baroque. 

Lôbo was a contemporary of Cardoso, who must have been a close colleague in Evora and Lisbon. In the early 1620s Cardoso was resident at the ducal household of Vila Viçosa, where he met the Duke of Barcelos, who later became King John IV. King John IV—nicknamed John the Restorer—was a patron of music and the arts, a writer on music, and a composer. During his reign, he collected one of the largest libraries in the world, which was sadly also destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake. His surviving writings on music include a defense of Palestrina and a Defense of Modern Music. Cardoso was widely published, thanks to the help of King John IV, who helped fund his publication.  

Cardoso

Three books of masses by Cardoso survive, their contents based on motets by King John IV himself and Palestrina. Many of Cardoso’s works—particularly the polychoral compositions, which were probably the most progressive—also perished in the Lisbon earthquake. Cardoso’s music ignores the Baroque idiom and is more similar to Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria. Cardoso treats dissonance carefully and employs the occasional polychoral writing and frequent cross-relations.

Cardoso’s Lamentatio, setting of the Lamentations for six voices, was published in the collection of Livro de Vários Motetes (Book of Various Motets) in 1648. It was his last work to be printed, two years before his death. Cardoso uses descending suspensions and chromatic movement to create tension and, like Lôbo, clever turns of phrases in this setting of the second lesson at Matins Office for Maundy Thursday.

Cardoso’s Missa pro defunctis (Requiem Mass) is evocative of Victoria’s own six-part Requiem Mass. Both composers place the chant in one of the Soprano parts rather than the usual tenor—a key characteristic of Portuguese polyphony. Both settings begin in very similar ways, but Cardoso quickly demonstrates his own harmonic language in the first phrase as he approaches an augmented chord, firmly placing his style well after Victoria’s time. 

Remembering Peter Hallock

Peter Hallock, Josh Haberman and Markdavin Obenza at Peter's house in Fall City. Summer 2013.

Hard not to reflect on Peter Hallock while preparing for our upcoming concert, IN MEMORIAM: Hallock & Tavener (this Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 7:30pm at St. Mark's Cathedral).

While we ended up great friends, I can't say it was all smooth sailing. I joined the Compline Choir 2000 (or 1999?) only to be kicked out 4-5 years later while on a tour with The Tudor Choir. A few of my close singing buddies, Orrin Doyle and Thomas Thompson, went down with me. Turns out we signed out of Compline too often to sing other gigs. Peter wanted us to be more committed.

It was a little disappointing. My time in the Compline Choir turned out to be formative - it was my gateway into Renaissance polyphony and professional ensemble singing. Though at the time I was mostly amused that we were booted via letter! By letter! How Peter - he hated confrontation.

Thankfully, that wasn't the end of our relationship. I took up the Choir Director position at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in 2009 where Peter was organist. (It surprised so many people that Peter was still playing organ that it must have been top secret). I was really excited about the position but before I accepted the job, I remember meeting with him at Starbucks in Issaquah. He asked me several times, "Are you sure you want this job?" I thought to myself, the great Peter Hallock is here, "hell yes."

Peter's question was really meant to mitigate my expectations. Despite how non-confrontational and introverted he was, he was very aware of others. He didn't want me to be disappointed if I suddenly was met with, say, a 6-voice choir of no tenors or altos who sang only spirituals and not the snobby Renaissance music I was into - as was the case : )

Several of the members of the Byrd Ensemble followed me there and joined the St. Clement Choir. This nurtured a musical relationship between the Byrds and Peter that culminated in several musical projects - a recording of Advent Calendar (written for the retirement of Archbishop Rowan Williams) and a CD, Draw on sweet night, which Scribe Records was thankfully able to produce).  I cannot express to you how grateful Josh Haberman and I were to share the CD with him just before his health worsened. He thought the CD was miraculous.

This Saturday, January 31, we are featuring some of Hallock's choral works. Funny thought: I'm not sure he would endorse a performance of his music - especially his psalms - he might consider it a little too narcissistic. I choose to ignore that though, because everyone should hear his music at St. Mark's Cathedral, a space that has informed his compositions just as much as the notes have.

Hallock was an emotional person. This is clear in his music, and even clearer if you've had to sing in front of him during Biebl's Ave Maria. Every time, I swear, he's sobbing like a baby. Or simply during an improvisatory prelude (he's playing!) at St. Clement's - waterworks.

"Mystic" or "mysticism" feel like pejorative labels to describe his music - it's more meaningful than that. His music is bleak, introverted and deeply personal. Listening to it feels as though you've embarked on a musical journey. Come and hear his music, if not this weekend, then sometime before you leave this earth. If you have a beating heart, you'll be sobbing too.

IN MEMORIAM: Hallock & Tavener
Sat Jan 31 at 7:30pm at St. Mark's Cathedral
www.ByrdEnsemble.com

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.