CE Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban Wed, 10th April 2019 [A]

[mopsus]

Is the psalm-singing we heard a hallmark of DOM Rose's style?

I think so, particularly the very clear words. The style persisted at Guildford Cathedral for some time after he had moved on (for example it can be heard on the Priory recording of psalms made in the 1990s).

Barry Rose has retired to Somerset and still attends local concerts and special services. I have found myself singing to him a couple of times in recent years.

[Keraulophone]

Balm to the ear from first note to last.

[mopsus]

Listening to this broadcast again I'm struck by how diction has moved on since then. Even in the mid-90s, more than one voice retained traces of the thin pronunciation of 'a' (so that 'and' tended towards 'end') which used to be the prevalent one. I also noticed the long bidding prayer at the beginning. Do any cathedrals still do this? It's hard to tell from broadcasts because at that point they feel obliged to tell you where in the country the building is and so on, which presumably the regular congregation doesn't need to know.

[hmvman]

I think many forget just how daunting it is to record / live tx from such a huge acoustic, with such variable voices / singing and speaking, declaiming and praying, and IMO most of the CEs we hear are pretty acceptable. I liked the sense of halo round the St A's voices, and their determined application.

An interesting discussion about the sound engineering aspects. I asked a friend of mine, who's a retired BBC sound engineer, if he'd ever worked on a CE. He said he'd assisted with provision of facilities on a couple of occasions but didn't recall engineering a broadcast of one but had worked on other church services. He went on:

"There were clearly common features (choir, organ, precentor, congregation, etc.), but since all these paraments varied with each location there could never be a dogmatic plan for the microphones. However I suspect that each BBC region had accumulated local knowledge over many years and knew exactly where to start in any particular building. A related consideration was how to cope with the cathedrals' PA systems, which inevitably resulted in some coloration of the speech content. For sound radio, my own preference was to request that it be adjusted as low as possible and use my own separate microphone for broadcasting. For TV it was sometimes preferable to use a shared microphone (for minimum visual impact), and on some occasions I'd take complete control by returning a post-fader feed to the church from the sound desk."

[ardcarp]

I wonder if Barry might be able to contribute to the 'sound engineering' aspect of this thread? I know he knows quite a bit about it in relation to broadcasts from churches and cathedrals.

[DracoM]

But - and here we go - a number of foundations now have their own site-specific webcasting systems which produce excellent results eg Hereford Cath / St John's, BUT apparently, the BBC engineers often totally ignore what has been engineered specifically for that place / choir etc, and insist they know better.
Why?
What differences are there between a BBC OB need and a webcast need?

[Keraulophone]

The in-house set-ups vary significantly in sophistication. For example, while just two tiny mics descend from the ceiling of Truro Cathedral, I counted around four times as many in St Thomas, Fifth Ave, NYC. At the very least, the Beeb would want to balance the choir and organ independently, which normally requires a large and unslightly telescopic mic stand for the latter.

As I’ve reported previously, when former CE producer Stephen Shipley came down to Truro, he always tried to employ the services of a particular sound engineer from BBC Bristol who knew the building intimately and consistently achieved the best results. He met his wife in Truro, and enjoyed a pint in the Old Alehouse after the broadcast. After a couple of Porthlevens, he once told me that, although he put out eight or ten microphones on each visit, he only did so because that’s what people expected of the BBC, whereas 90% of the broadcast sound came from a pair of mics slightly west of the choir.

One thing is certain: the priorities for television sound engineering are very different from radio, and as far as sound per se is concerned, our choir as recorded by a TV crew always sounds inferior to what we’re used to hearing on Radio 3 and CDs. That’s why the powers that be think twice about letting in a local TV camera and producer to snatch a few minutes of singing for the regional news programme.

[DracoM]

<< That’s why the powers that be think twice about letting in a local TV camera and producer to snatch a few minutes of singing for the regional news programme.>>

And they are so right to do so.

St T's system does provide a LOT: everything on altar, in pulpit, in chor stalls, mighty organ / in a huge acoustic AND with Fifth Avenue zooming and grinding outside the front door. You can get the big parades sometimes which can enliven sermons!

I always think how tricky recording at John's in Cambridge must be. On some of GG's recordings eg the Victoria Requiem a 6, you can hear low grumblings of traffic.