On the record
The Chorus of Westerly works to create its first CD
On Saturday afternoon, the members of the Chorus of Westerly gathered in the George Kent Performance Hall and sang — but without an audience.
Microphones hung at strategic locations, with some attached to poles in front of the singers and others draped from wire strung overhead. Andrew Howell, the chorus’ music director, led them through a series of works by Ralph Vaughan Williams. They ran through a given piece in its entirety and through segments of it, too, as Howell made suggestions (infuse the word “joy” with more happiness at one point, increase the intensity at another). And recording engineer Robin Moore was there to capture it.
This was all part of a new project for the chorus: recording its first official album.
The plan is for it to be a full-length release of all Ralph Vaughan Wil- liams compositions. On Friday night and Saturday afternoon, the chorus worked on three tracks, which would total 10 to 12 minutes on the album. The hope is to record, as the album’s centerpiece, Vaughan Williams’ “Hodie” — which is a large Christmas cantata and one of the composer’s most sensational works — in conjunction with the chorus’ performing the piece as part of its next season.
The Chorus of Westerly, founded in 1959, would like to have the CD ready to go by the time it does a tour in Germany in July of 2017.
While the chorus has recorded its concerts for archival purposes in the past, Executive Director Ryan Saunders says, “We’ve never gone through the process of actually having a real recording. ... People have been asking us forever, ‘Do you have an album?’ We hear it every concert. We’ve only said no mostly because, if we’re going to put something out there, we want it to be really good.”
In addition to the CD, the chorus is doing a documentary about itself, which is in the post-production and editing phase; the group has to raise an additional $10,000 or so for that project.
“What we’re consciously trying to do is get the story and sound of the Chorus of Westerly out there,” Saunders says. “Our community knows what we’re about, but we really want to be able to spread the word of what we’re doing here and share the great stuff that’s happening here on a much larger regional, national and hopefully international scale.”
Creating a documentary and a first commercial album, he adds, is a big step for an organization like this, but the chorus is ready.
Meg Roy, who has been a member of the chorus for 34 years, says that getting the chance to do a recording with the group is “absolutely fantastic.” Rich Roy, Meg’s husband (they met in the chorus about a decade ago), says it’s been a completely different experience from singing in concert; here, they do some segments “over and over until you get it right.”
Howell says that, so far, “It’s been a learning experience and a blast. I’m really glad we did it, just to have the opportunity and the experience of having finally done this after 57, 58 seasons.”
And there’s an audience for it. Meg Roy says that relatives of hers who live in Austria came to see the chorus perform during a tour in Europe, and they wanted — but weren’t able — to buy a recording of the group.
Howell notes that recordings aren’t money- making propositions for organizations; rather, they’re about prestige and getting a group heard outside of its own building.
In addition, Saunders says, “So many funders and places we go to, the first thing they ask is, ‘Can I hear the chorus? Do you have an album or is there something I can watch about it?’”
The chorus has pieced little things together over time, but this would be the first full-fledged CD. (The group stopped staging its annual “Celebration of Twelfth Night” after a January 2015 finale in large part to free up time to work on new projects like this album.)
Part of the theory behind recording a trio of Vaughan Williams anthems was seeing how it went before taking on the grand, 45-minute “Hodie.” Saunders says, too, that getting a recording of the chorus performing the smaller Vaughan Williams allows the group to start fundraising for the bigger part of the project — the “Hodie,” which requires an orchestra.
All told, it costs probably $45,000 to $50,000 to do an album like this, he says.
Saunders says organizers did discuss whether to do the project at the George Kent Performance Hall or, say, on a soundstage. It came down to a cost-benefit issue and whether they could get a good, clean sound in the hall.
Recording in the chorus’ hall does, naturally, come with certain issues. Some lights are turned off because of their hum. The heating system is turned off as well to avoid any noise. The singers recorded Friday night because there is less traffic outside at that time.
To keep other extraneous sound to a minimum, the singers are performing without sheet music, and only the chorus members (not even parents of chorus kids) are allowed in the hall.
Recording engineer Robin Moore, whose company is called Danger Zone, understands well the nuances of the concert hall. She has been the chorus’ archival recording engineer for more than a decade.
Moore is running 16 tracks during the sessions and says, “I’m just trying to get as much as I can to have the flexibility in post-production (to) remix it all together.”
As for the decision to focus the first official CD on Vaughan Williams compositions, Saunders says the group has probably performed, besides Bach, music by Vaughan Williams the most over the years. He adds that the group’s connection to Great Britain and the great composers of the 20th century — which stems from George Kent, the Chorus of Westerly founder who retired in 2012 — is part of the fabric of who the chorus is.
“We’re not an Anglican choir by any stretch, but we are out of the British choral tradition. There’s no arguing that,” Saunders says.
One of the pieces the chorus has performed most over its more than five decades is the Vaughan Williams “Hodie,” doing it on an almost 10-year cycle so that every generation of chorus children gets the chance to sing it. Saunders notes that there are very few recordings of the piece out in the world.
“It has some stunningly beautiful movements within it,” Saunders says. “It’s incredible choral writing. Every time we’ve done it here, knock on wood, it’s been a huge artistic success.”
The chorus rehearsed almost every night of the week leading up to the recording sessions on Friday and Saturday.
“I think we’ll end up with a very good product,” Howell says. “I’m very excited to be able to give this stuff to the larger world.”
“What we’re consciously trying to do is get the story and sound of the Chorus of Westerly out there. Our community knows what we’re about, but we really want to be able to spread the word of what we’re doing here and share the great stuff that’s happening here on a much larger regional, national and hopefully international scale.”
~RYAN SAUNDERS, CHORUS OF WESTERLY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR