Qs recording in Chapel
“The tiniest thing”
Written by David Lol Perry
Composer David Lol Perry reflects on two pivotal days he spent recording Three Wings with
The Quiristers and their animating director, Malcolm Archer.
We began recording Three Wings, a collection of
plainsong in anthemic settings, in March 2015.
Owing to other commitments we completed
all the pieces in October 2015. Malcolm
had invited me to add my contemporary
soundscapes and arrangements to what is
essentially an a cappella genre. Before recording
commenced, I developed key motets and
arrangement sketches enough to feel that
each piece would work well, recording the Qs
first and me later developing fully arranged
pieces. It was imperative that strong, accurate
performances were successfully captured on
the days we recorded. We recorded in Chapel,
our preference over anywhere else (Chapel
is the Qs’ own instrument). My temporar