The Chicago Chamber Choir's latest CD recording. Behind the scenes at our recording studio, June 3, 2012 -- by Toria Burrell
“You will need comfortable clothing”, said our director, Timm Adams.
“And make sure to wear your quiet clothing” said one of our witty basses.
“As opposed to your loud clothing,” joked Timm Adams.
“In other words, no squeaky shoes, no loose change in your pockets, dangling key-chains, etc”.
It was good advice.
“Oh and it goes without saying, turn your cell phones off...” Eye rolls. (duh)
Well, of course everyone thought they'd turned their cell phones off, but... hours later, during an extremely quiet moment of intense concentration, we all take a silent breath and pause, ready to sing the next note, and... BZZZZZZ!! BZZZZZZ!!
Ouch! Who forgot to turn their cell phone off?? We all stop – let out sighs of frustration - and glare accusingly at each other.
“Oh my god... it's mine!” says a shame-faced soprano, going bright red, shaking her head in disbelief and running to the chair to turn off the offending device.
Hers wasn't the last cell phone to interrupt our recording attempts, nor was it the only external noise to interfere with that elusive perfection of sound we were attempting to create.
Airplanes (even distant over-head ones), chair scrapes, pencil clatters, page rustles, sneezes, coughs, and hiccups all led to - “CUT!” from either our recording engineer, Joel Fox, or our director, Timm Adams, or simply a fit of giggles from the choir, which sufficed to bring the proceedings to a halt
External noises, however, were really the least of our concerns. What made this recording session so intense was the level of singing perfection required, to make a CD worthy of the Chicago Chamber Choir. What is most important in any good choir is to make a group of voices (40 plus singers in this case) sound like one instrument. Tiny mistakes, that can be glossed over or forgotten in a live performance, become set in stone and magnified a hundred-fold on a CD recording.
Words, consonants, and breaths, for example, become very challenging to perform perfectly in synch, without any individuals sticking out. We must all breath together as one and begin each phrase together, at exactly the same time, with no “bumps”. Words that start with hard consonants, (especially double consonants such as “cr”) are fiendishly difficult to get precisely together.
But, like a Music Sorcerer, Timm Adams conjures the magic to make it smooth. With his conducting, timing and accuracy, he blends 40 voices into one. Like a Master Puppeteer, he pulls the strings and we follow. He lifts his hands; we breathe. He flicks his hands, as if conjuring a spell with his magic wand; we begin to sing...
And sing we do – We sing our hearts and lungs out. Each of the 17 songs has to be recorded 4 or 5 times. We sing each song through without stopping, and then sing it again. And again. And maybe we stop half way through because of a noise or glaring mistake. And we go back and sing it again. We are standing up for all of it, our arms aching from holding the music still, (without rustling a page); our legs stiff from trying not to shift or scrape our shoes. Our throats ache from not clearing them. Our noses itch from not blowing them. Our whole bodies are tense from itches we are not scratching, muscles we are not flexing, and other noises we are trying to refrain from making.
Like children hiding in a closet trying not be found, we have to achieve that level of silence, holding our breath, not moving a muscle. But we have to do this constantly in the recording studio, before, during and after each song.
We sing for hours, breathing deeply, concentrating, focusing – hard. It's exhausting, exhilarating, exasperating (at times) but ultimately one of the most fulfilling experiences we could have; creating this sublime music.
And then of course, there's the magic of our recording engineer, Joel Fox; another Musical Sorcerer who can digitally “spirit away” the few noises and bumps that we failed to catch, and “conjure” exact tuning and tempo from tiny moments of imperfection. He is the Master Sculptor, crafting the finished product from the raw material, in his studio, during post-production. However, as the old saying goes, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. And our engineer already has silk to work with.
The whole team and crew, from Timm Adams and his magical vision, to Joel Fox and his fine crafting, to each individual singer, pulling out all the stops making each note perfect, will make this CD a fine work of art. And I'm proud to have been a small thread in this beautiful tapestry.
“Earth, Wind and Choir: Songs of Nature” – is due to be released on or around October 13, 2012. Stay tuned for updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment