That would be Count Ferdinand von Plettenburg I presume. I couldn't stop thinking about James Bond while listening to this. The music and lyrics are like some sort of 19th century James Bond theme.
Very good.
Very good.
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Guy, JWL, Alex, Jay and Paul - thanks, I appreciate your listening and encouraging words. Herb was really great to do the recording with the fine singer Ferdinand, and I really appreciate Michael Hula and Dietz working on it.
That Howard Hanson is another excellent piece by Jay.
I wanted to mention that the Prospice poem was written by Robert Browning after the death of his wife Elizabeth Barrett also a great poet, and refers to both the gloom of her death but also their love which was one of the great literary love stories. I think it is one of his best poems of all, though extremely short compared to his huge epic poems.
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Thanks JWL, Guy, Alex and Bill for the kind support. It never fails to lift my spirits and keep me motivated.
I also want to thank Herb for allowing me to share my current obsession with Howard Hanson. It took me nearly 2 years to get my hands on the score for his 6th Symphony which has never been published.
JWL-- Thanks for noticing the non-traditional orchestral seating. From left to right it is: violins 1, cellos, violas, violins 2, with the basses behind the cellos. I "stole" this idea from conductor Gerard Schwarz. I really like how it sounds and plan to use it more often.
Best,
Jay
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Wow great stuff from Jay and William. I must confess to being particularly thrilled by Williams piece since it's original. Nothing quite like hearing an original work for the first time. Such terrific writing there and stellar production.
William and Jay, do you guys use much EQ on the Appas strings or not much in general? How (in what manner) are you using the Orch Strings along side the Apass? - as 2nd string groups?
William once again I must ask about your huge low brass. Am I hearing Wagner tubas and C Tubas as well as C Trombone?
Just sounds great you guys.
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Thanks Dave. The low brass is the standard tuba and bass trombone with two tenor trombones. Though I have been using the ensemble trombones for 1, and the solo for 2 in order to maintain the number of players when doubling. Also there are some low horns in parallel octaves with tuba.
I was lucky enough to have the masterful Dietz on this mix, so don't know the specifics of what EQ was done, though I thought his mix sounded fantastic.
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I also have a question for Jay.
I understand that the people who have the Howard Hanson symphony rights were reluctant to allow these recordings. How was this resolved? It is a fine performance.
I was thinking how much I like these Howard Hanson works, and how he is a beautiful example of how the mania for atonalism in the 20th century destroyed many great composers. Another example is Franz Schmidt. I say that as someone who LIKES atonalism and loves Edgar Varese and in fact agrees with his radical statement that "12 tones must be abandoned" but at the same time, agree with Schoenberg that there is a lot of music still to be written in twelve tones and Howard Hanson was completely dismissed because it was assumed his work could not be any good because it was not dissonant. So I feel these unpublished symphonies should be performed complete, maybe with this approach of state of the art sampling, to bring them to new listeners who have been deprived of them because of the Neo-Classical prejudices of the 20th century.
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Kerry-- I used Mechanics Hall (thanks to Alex Temple for the idea) 20 m with the mute direct button enabled. Strings were 40% wet, Horns 50% wet, Woodwinds & Brass 60% wet. That's it.
William-- I finally communicated with the manager of Licensing & Copyright at Carl Fischer. After answering his concerns, he was kind enough to give permission to do some virtual performances.
Best,
Jay
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Just thought I would bring this thread back. I have been listening to 'Prospice' quite a bit recently, and I can tell you that it holds up well under repeated listening. The composition really works well with the words. I always thought it would be very hard to put a poem written as poetry to music without sounding cheesey. William, you have done a masterful job of it. The orchestration is incredible, and adds so much to the composition. And the mix, Dietz, is fantastic. I know, I am using all my big praise words up on one post, but this piece diserves them.
Bravo!
Colin Thomson
