For the second listening party blog, I chose the song, Sing we and chaunt it by Robert Lucas Pearsall. I’ll start by saying I love music, but choral music is my favorite genre of music. This is actually called a madrigal which is a secular music composition with usually one voice for each part. I have been a choir kid since middle school; I have sung in my church choir, and even have traveled to Italy to sing in St. Peter’s Basilica during a Catholic Mass. It’s something about the voices coming together that makes choral music so beautiful to me. When I hear pieces I love listening for the different parts that come together to create the whole. This piece is particularly interesting because the recording captures not just the music but the atmosphere and texture of the choir. You may think, “oh , well all choral music sounds good when its recorded but this is a strong example of how a choral recording can serve as a historical and cultural artifact, preserving the way voices combine to create a specific sound.
Now, I have found that the best medium to listening to this song are my headphones and the Spotify version. I linked the youtube version, which is the same. Anyway, I hit play and quickly close my eyes. The recording begins with a soft non-voice hum that’s daunting yet comforting. It set’s this sort of contemplative tone before the voices start. Then, you hear the choir inhale and let out the first note, proceeding to the rest of the song. The crescendo and decrescendo are one of the best parts of the song. It tells a story. The voices are balanced in a way that you can hear individual lines while still experiencing the full harmonic blend. The acoustics of the space add depth and resonance, making the choir feel larger than life. The recording quality itself is VERY clean, capturing the subtle nuances of dynamics, articulation, and the ensemble’s blend. This illustrates how the recording doesn’t just document the performance but shapes the listener’s perception of the piece, turning it into an immersive soundscape rather than just a song.
Put your choice of headphones in, sit down, lean back, close your eyes and listen…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5IhKskW9Yk&list=RDk5IhKskW9Yk&start_radio=1
-Thomas Radford