Requiem 2020 by Teresa Barlow

It was a bit of a long day yesterday, but most rewarding.

About six weeks ago I got this email from Guy.

"Dear John

I wonder whether you might be interested in a second visit to Southwell this year - just a day trip this time?

This would be for rather a different project.

 

I am putting together a small choir to record the vocal parts for three movements of the new REQUIEM by Teresa Barlow, who is a friend/client of (my son) Ben, who will be producing the recording.

 

https://www.teresabarlow.com/

 

Date of recording

Saturday 23rd September times tbc but probably something like 9.30 - 4.00

 

Place

The HopBarn, just outside Southwell (familiar to some of you)

https://www.thehopbarn.org.uk/ourspace

 

The Music

Teresa's music is in an approachable idiom, and not especially hard (easier than some of the stuff we sing in Southwell services). The total duration of the 3 pieces is 20 minutes - but that includes solo and instrumental passages. We will send out the scores and MP3s in advance so you can prepare, but the music should present no problems, it is quite sight-readable.

 

The Recording

The choir will be 16-ish people, including me and one or two other local people. It will be rather like the choir for the Thiman CD, but smaller. (In fact Teresa heard the Thiman CD and was impressed enough to ask me to put the choir together!). We will be singing to a pre-recorded track, which will have the orchestral parts (a mix of digital and live instruments) and the solos on it already. So we will be using headphones. We may record ourselves twice over to make it sound like a large choir. It should be an interesting process. Teresa will conduct 

 

Social

We would contrive to meet to eat afterwards. For some a day trip, a day trip should be do-able - some accommodation here is possible for people from further afield. There is no fee for this I am afraid, it is just for fun and the experience, but it should be musically and socially satisfying. I am sure Teresa will find some small way of rewarding you with wine or chocolates or something....

 

Could you let me know if you might be able to take part?"

 

I agreed and couple of weeks later Guy sent further details with attachments of the music and backing tracks we would be singing along to. Last week, when Dawn and Sarah were out a had a couple of sing throughs to get familiar with the notes. As Guy had said, it didn't seem too difficult.

So there I was yesterday along with 15 other singers, several of whom had been at our St Michaels' Singers residence at Southwell Minster a few weeks ago (see here).

Here are a few photos. I hope Katherine doesn't mind me sharing some of hers here as I haven't got contact details for her to ask.

I had a good journey and arrived quite early. Here is the recording set-up ready to go. It was funny seeing Guy again for a second time in a week (see here for the other time).

Guy gave us an introduction to the day before Teresa took over.

Round the back there was a kitchen and sitting room with dining chair and tables. Teresa and Katherine had laid on a spread of goodies for the day to keep us going.

In the morning we sang as a choir, singing through each of the pieces to get familiarity with the notes before recording them several times.

It is a wonderful space for performing and recording. It took a while to find the best way of using the headphones - for most of the time I had my left ear covered, but kept my right ear free to hear Martin beside me.

Ben sat at the side recording and playing the backing tracks for us through our headphones.

We didn't get to sit down much. I think this was just before we started recording.

Teresa's conducting was very clear and helped us get the entries and ends of phrases together in the right place.

We stopped for lunch for at about 12:45. My voice was glad of a rest by then.

Then in the afternoon we recorded each of the pieces again section by section (at least) twice more.

Here are the sopranos in action.

Then the altos.

There were just 3 of us on the tenor line. I was singing second tenor, but there was no escape from the high notes. We recorded each section where we split into two parts twice with us all singing 1st tenor first and then again with us all singing 2nd. (The other lines did the same thing).

And here are the basses.

While the other sections were rehearsing the rest of us sat quietly round the back.

An extra source of entertainment was this group of cats and kittens.

We were all done just a little after 5pm. Then it was of to the Hearty Goodfellow for some of us for a meal.

10 of us in all, once Teresa and Katherine joined us.

We broke up and headed for home at about 7:30. I was nearly home (about 20 minutes drive to go) just before 9pm, but then I was stopped on the Newmarket bypass by the A14 being closed in both directions... for nearly an hour and a half, so I didn't get home until nearly 11pm.

We were all given an envelope before we left. In it was a card and little present.

I'll have to keep this for when Teresa's famous.

The matchbox turned out to include some seedballs of bee and butterfly-friendly flowers - cornflowers, red campion, oxeye daisy, musk mallow and meadow cranesbill.

Just the thing for our wildflower patch at the front of our house under the crab apple tree. Dawn had just been planting the spring bulbs there so added the seedballs.

That was all great fun, if a bit tiring. I'm looking forward to hearing the recording once Ben has finished editing. Thank-you Guy for inviting me and to Teresa for the lovely music, Katherine for the nibbles and photos, Ben for the recording and, of course, my fellow singers.