recording plainsong on location is courageous.
The tiniest things really show.
Malcolm conducting
Early on Malcolm reiterated to the boys,
‘Remember with this music the tiniest thing
going slightly wrong really shows’. There are
exceptional challenges in plainsong. Despite
often being just a single line of melody, it is
very complicated and challenging to sing.
Pieces metamorphose. They rarely have a time
signature. Vowel sounds must be matched, and
timing spot on, sung succinctly. Recording it,
stop start, a phrase at a time, whilst the safest
way, can lead to relative tempo, articulation
and volume variances. You can’t ably edit
together different recordings of a phrase. You
can’t edit together long phrases too closely
either, say to improve timing or generate a
build, as the natural need to draw breath to
continue to sing and so achieve a natural end
result, will be lost. When we recorded, two
Qs were in their first months. Although the
crows chose not to sing along from the roof all
of the time, the Chapel bell would, often. Add
to the mix, a videographer and photographer
shuffling about: successfully performing and
Second takes were regularly best and rarely
would we need more. Malcolm would fine
tune his instrument, inviting up his chosen
voices, maybe asking one boy to step back in
order to rehearse another until an attractive
and technically perfect blend of voices rang
out. It is one of Malcolm’s skills to encourage
boys to ‘stand-up’ or solo successfully as soon
as possible in their Quirister development.
Once each quartet, trio and duo were
blended and solos were flying, care was
taken directing the occasional unison issue
and loose Latin pronunciation. Malcolm was
always encouraging, always effective. You can
really hear the result in the pieces Puer Natus
Est Nobis and Salve Regina; both, I think, are
very, very special, shared performances. The
power in the last antiphon of Nobilis Humilis
has the Qs as a force of nature, large of welly.
The solo through the elaborate O Successores,
the only piece-long solo in the collection, is
hugely evocative and impressive.
I couldn’t see Malcolm and the Qs when we
recorded, but I did hear what it is that the
Foundation delivers and what makes it so
unique; the professional and engaging delivery
of the highest quality chorister singing through
world-class support for each young man’s
personal musical development. As I listened,
the Quirister Foundation’s work became
tangible. My job, a relatively simple one, was
to capture this extraordinary performance
from an extraordinary instrument (and not mess
things up later by overdoing my arrangements
and smothering what they’d created).
Back in the studio, it was so much easier to
work with an emotive, sweet and uniform
sound, the Qs’ signature sound. It flows
through the pieces, a bittersweet rush,
growing to natural crescendos as a group
and brushing souls through solos. I felt I
was able to make the whole sound ‘live’ as
if we recorded at the same time, in the same
acoustic. Malcolm’s instrument sang. My
pieces came together so well.
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