Messiah Recording Week
Handel would be amazed... At least I think he'd be amazed. I'm amazed.
Can a 360 person choir sing as nimbly as a chamber choir? The answer is apparently "yes". It had to come with specialized training and practice but yes. It's pretty miraculous.
This last week my ears and heart have been filled with Handel's beloved music and it has literally changed me to be more mindful and thoughtful of the Savior and his sacrifice. I've really loved it.
Let me tell you about the recording.
The Tabernacle becomes a recording studio. The blankets on the chairs/pews are meant to absorb the sound. With all the hard surfaces in the Tabernacle the sound would just bounce back and forth like popcorn in a microwave bag. Normally people (and their bodies) would absorb the sound but in a recording situation blankets are less noisy than people. Haha. To help absorb the sound everyone brings blankets that they place over the pews. It's kind of fun to see the variety of blankets in the Tabernacle.
This is a pano of the Tabernacle during a break from rehearsal.
Lest anyone think we sing a song a few times and it's good for the CD I should state that the process of this recording will take around 7 days. Yeah. Wow. Currently there is one last song to record tomorrow. A friend of mine in the choir estimated that between everything we have spent 33+ hours just last week (Sunday to Sunday) doing choir related things.
Saturday was an all day recording. We were fed lunch at the Church Office building. It was delicious and kept our energy up for the rest of the recording session.
In a CD recording everything has to be considered: blend of the choir, tuning of the orchestra, diction, tempo, volume, dynamics, microphone sensitivity and the list can go on and on. There were a few times where everything was perfect except there was one voice sticking out (louder than the rest) so we would have to do it again. It's an intensive process for sure but it also shows the dedication of everyone to do their absolute best to get it right.
To insure the sound is good there are two people listening in the lower levels of the Tabernacle to everything who give feedback and the final approval if everything was good and to move on. We learned in choir school early that singing into microphones can be deceptively tricky for a large group like ours. Personally when we sang it sounded rich and beautiful but the microphones pick up sound differently.
This is a picture of Mack Wilberg. Amazingly gifted. Don't worry. This was taken 1 minute before the break was over so I did not take it during rehearsal. :)
Anyway I felt the sound of angels joining us in this amazing and historic recording. It's been an amazing journey and I look forward to the CD next year so I can remember this whole experience again.
