'Vigil' - the recording!

 

Just wanted to say what a fantastic day I had at the recording for 'Vigil's' music in St Chad's Cathedral on Saturday 15th! I found it very moving to hear a piece of music which I had written, along with Ed, performed by professional musicians.

I have a lifelong love of music and have, on various occasions, started to study or perform it. Unfortunately, circumstances arose which meant that I had to turn again to other things and the music had to wait. When my illness hit and I had to give up the musical studies I was undertaking at the time and which I was so enjoying, Ed was just a small child and I had no idea that, one day, we would work together on the melodies which have haunted me for so long and I am so thrilled by the results!

Pictured below are Ed, Penelope and the Beorma Ensemble at the recording session in St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham

Reading from left to right, the singers are:-

		Penelope Appleyard		soprano solo
		Richard West		baritone
		Richard Paterson		bass
		Alex Aldren		first tenor
		Lewis Jones		basso profundo (oktavist)
		David Wynne		bass
		Andrew Fellowes		basso profundo (oktavist)
		Oliver Martin-Smith		second tenor
		Ed Harrisson		tenor solo and director

The Beorma is a flexible group and these particular singers were gathered together in view of the piece to be performed. I was interested in having the sound as of Russian Orthodox music, as I felt would this suit the style and ethos of the work, so the body of the choir are the seven male singers, with Penelope Appleyard taking on the part of solo soprano and Ed as solo tenor and also director.

 Within the piece, Ed and Penny sing a short duet, as I feel this reflects the situation whereby a man and woman together keep vigil for a lost or sick child, the age of any such child irrelevant to the process of grieving or loss involved. One verse is also given for the main body of the choir to sing and within this, they reach a powerful and swelling crescendo.

The singers in action I am very grateful to St Chad's Cathedral for giving us permission to record in their beautiful building, which was chosen for its excellent acoustics and qualities of its reverberation. The location worked very well, the only drawback being traffic noise from the nearby road network which, now and again, became a little intrusive! However, with today's technology, audio producers Ben Bass and David Armstrong have worked the magic of removing the traffic hum from the track, to leave the sound of the singers' voices clearly heard

Ed with David (on left) and Ben (on right), Beorma members in background

 

I am really delighted with how the sound has worked out and have so enjoyed working with Ed, coming to the rehearsal and recording in the cathedral and then being present at the final editing session afterwards. All of this has been a new experience for me, including seeing how professional singers approach their work.

There are other pieces of music which I have in the pipeline and Ed and I are discussing how we might bring these to fruition. It has, therefore, been very useful for me to have been present while the singers worked so that I can bear this in mind when considering phrasing and harmony in another piece of music. As well as this, working with Ed is, of course, invaluable because of his knowledge and experience of writing music and of the character of melodies and what is required in a piece of choral music. I am very grateful to the Arts Council of Wales for giving me the award of funding and thereby the opportunity to develop this exciting new avenue within my work.

Below, a few more pictures taken on the day of the recording session.

Early in rehearsal

Lewis and Ed

 Ed singing and conducting

Self with Penelope, the Beorma and Ed

The music is an important part of 'Vigil' but, as the complete installation will not be realised for some time, I am at present looking into possibilities of releasing the sound ahead of the final work  -  watch this space!