The most common question I am asked when talking about 4 Part Music as a recording company is “Where is your studio based?”.
The answer “We don’t have a studio” is usually met with some surprise as the expectation is that a recording company has a studio from which it records. This of course is often the case. Over the years we have often wondered about investing in a studio – perhaps partly to have an answer to this question!
But, in business it is important to be very clear about your aims and position in the market. 4 Part Music has been set up to work “on location”. The primary reason of course is that our target market is made up of choirs and organists and such musicians do not lend themselves to being recorded in a studio. For such recordings the Church, Cathedral or School Chapel becomes the studio. This means therefore that we carry around all the equipment you would normally house in a studio.
The most challenging part of the setup is the venue itself. As churches vary in shapes and sizes we have to adapt our setup accordingly. This is where a multi mic technique is crucial. We have to ensure we capture the choir, the organ and the acoustic – assuming there is one. Where this matters most is when we come to master the recording. Our aim is to always be in a position where we can rebalance the sound in accordance with the musical directors wishes. This could be a case of, more choir, less organ or taking out some of the acoustic. Obviously, unless we have recorded all these elements separately as well as together we would be unable to do this.
Even where we are recording an organ on it’s own we still follow a similar principle of recording the instrument as well as the acoustic. The biggest danger of any on location recording is that microphone placement has to be determined for each different location. Get it wrong and you can either end up with a recording which sounds like it was done in a cupboard or even worse sounding too distant as if the microphones were left outside in the car park.
I’ve heard it said before that Sunday is meant to be a day of rest. Well it seems not, certainly not if you’re a church organist. Now I realise that my small contribution to church music is probably nothing compared to the work that many people have to do at weekends so I do not propose to complain! Indeed I made the choice to be involved with church music and have been since a very young age. The morning started like most Sunday’s for me with a trip to St Mary Magdalen Chapel in Bath where I play the organ most weeks.
Mary Magdalen Chapel - Holloway, Bath
The organ at St Mary Magdalen is a 3 manual Viscount, which means it is an electronic organ rather than a pipe organ. Now I know what many of you are probably thinking…. Church should have a pipe organ and any decent organist would want to play a pipe organ rather than some computerised “fake”. A lot of me agrees with this sentiment and given the choice I would opt for a proper pipe organ any day. However, such instruments are expensive and therefore there is an additional choice to be made.
Whilst I may favour the pipe organ over its electronic counterpart, I favour even more an instrument which works. Too many parish churches have pipe organs which have been poorly maintained or indeed not maintained at all and as such there is very little music which can be performed on such and instrument with any degree of accuracy. Moreover this makes any performance subject to considerable compromise which also has an effect on the ability of the music to add to the worship.
Given the choice therefore where budget does not run to a properly maintained pipe organ I am converted to electronic instruments as the sound quality is fairly close to the real thing. More importantly than that, every stop works and everything is always in tune. This means that the organists choice of repertoire is not limited by the instrument – simply, at least in my case, by ability – or perhaps lack of!
Has to be said I quite enjoyed the service this week – particularly when a member of the congregation came up to me afterwards and said he thoroughly enjoyed my rendition of the Frank Bridge, Adagio in E and said it reminded him of sunlight coming through an evening window. Well I’m not entirely sure about the relation there but the fact that he recognised the piece from my playing was praise in itself! He didn’t comment on the Toccata by Boellmann and didnt know the Vierne “Lied” which was played during communion.
For anyone interested, services at St Mary Magdalen are 10.30am every Sunday morning.