http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Deum
Thanks for sharing this.
I'm curious - how far away was the mic from the chorus?

[ Reply to This ]

The choir stood in a circle around the altar, rather than their usual place in
front of the pipe organ (the pipes are to the right of the altar). The conductor
faced the choir (facing the back of the church) standing approximately where
the officiant would stand during communion. I positioned the microphone
directly behind the conductor. About six feet back. The nearest choir member
was about six or seven feet from the microphone; the organ was nearly 50
feet away.

Originally, I'd done some testing with the microphone placed near the font at
the back of the church. In my opinion, this gave too much reverberating room
sound and lost some of the stero imaging. A few of the choir members have
listened to this recording and have commented on how clearly each of the
different parts can be heard (because of the stereo imaging), something that
they don't have the luxury of hearing while they're actually performing the
piece.

[ Reply to This ]

"Live Music is Better" bumper stickers should be issued. There is
something about a real live performance..... that is big and great and
holy. Throat clearing or no this was a joy. Thanks for this.

[ Reply to This ]

Thank you! Personally, I've always preferred "real" music. As much as I spend
time in a studio overdubbing tracks and comping takes, I love music that
sounds like it actually happened. Hopefully, this new gear will enable me to
capture that spontanaity with a quality that's nice to listen to!

In just over a week, I'll be heading to Africa to record some indigenous choirs.
Very rustic music. Very excited about that. I'm hoping the local composers
and performers will allow me to share some of the results here.

[ Reply to This ]

recording this. I am amazed at the sound quality. A beautiful piece!

Be well!

[ Reply to This ]

about the energy and honesty of a live, uncut recording. The Marantz is a
great piece of equipment (I don't own one, but have borrowed it from our
A/V dept.) This is an excellent recording, particularly for a rehearsal
situation. There are a few tuning imperfections with the choir about 3/4
of the way through. I bet if they listened to this recording, they could
clean them up right away.

[ Reply to This ]

In fact, the imperfections you mention were caught at the rehearsal. I have
another recording of the latter half of the piece recorded immediately after
this which (except for a spectacularly botched ending which left everyone
laughing hysterically) is a better performance than this. But I thought that
splicing the two performances together would be both too much work for my
purposes and would work against the purity of the performance. They didn't
have enough time in the rehearsal to completely reperform the piece.

About the Marantz: I agonized about getting one. There are several other
digital two-tracks which look "just as good," spec-wise. And some are a lot
smaller and cheeper. The Marantz PMD660 looks just like an old Star Trek
tricorder. Twice the size and $100 more is not usually a selling point in a
technological device. I finally went with it because it's a Marantz and they
have a reputation of lasting forever and it's the only device in its class with
true XLR inputs. The built-in mic isn't too bad too, but I'd be hesitant to use it
for anything but spoken (it's a bit thin for music).

[ Reply to This ]

So who IS the composer of the piece? Many Te Deums have been written.

Very fine performance.

[ Reply to This ]

It's one of several treatments by C Villiers Stanford. Seventeenth century, I
think, but I'm not sure right off hand. My notes from the conductor just have
the name of the piece, the composer and a confirmation that it's in the public
domain.

[ Reply to This ]

I used to sing in church choirs, and this brings back memories. Thanks
for posting it here. (I think it would be a good idea to mention the name
of the composer in the Description, and it'd be even more helpful if you
could tell us something about him! Thanks. Also, How does recording a
choir help you prepare for your upcoming trip to S. Africa? I figure there
must be an interesting story there!)

[ Reply to This ]

Brings me back to my college days when I sang in the choir. Lots of
memorable rehersals and performances. Thank you
Enrique Gil

[ Reply to This ]

Enjoyed

Way to go.

Thanks for sharing this delightful choir piece!

[ Reply to This ]