Benedictus from Haydn's Missa in Angustiis (Mass for troubled times) - the Benedictus

[SysExJohn]

My first contribution. Be gentle please!

My main focus is to make rehearsal tracks for operatic soloists. My wife is a professional operatic mezzo soprano.

I was asked a little while ago (for Easter 2012) to create some movements from this mass for the soloists to rehearse to in church. The playback was through a PA system so it may sound a little unusual through monitors. It is not meant to be 'balanced' but to feature the sound of the four soloists, especially the soprano (realised with the flute) and the alto (realised with a clarinet). The tenor and bass use cor anglais and bassoon respectively.

The orchestral dynamics may seem extreme but sounded wonderful in the church.
My aim was to make it sound as 'live' as possible, not EQ'd and compressed like a CD.

Comments welcome.
(Runs behind parapet and ducks!)

https://www.box.com/s/pyl2zpudrf66apsj22z0

SysExJohn.

P.S. Oh! And I should have said, all GPO.

[SysExJohn]

And, pushing my luck further than is reasonable, here's the Agnus Dei from the same.

https://www.box.com/s/asd0sofamutymfam3ugi

and lastly the Gloria.

https://www.box.com/s/1cb5b60f93fef87df751

SXJ.

[rbowser-]

Super, John - THANK YOU for helping our Listening Room Festival start off with such a grand flourish!

Thank you for explaining the origin and purpose of these recordings - Very interesting, and your description was accurate, why the stand-in soloists are so upfront in comparison to the rest, for instance.

They sound wonderful to me! Great material to work with, of course, and your attention to accuracy and detail is in abundant evidence. I think this must be from Finale or another notation program - There's that characteristic strictness to the renderings, but it still really does sound fine.

HEY - your first music posted here ever. TA DA - you must feel relieved to have finally taken the plunge.

And I'm glad my simple idea of having a festival in here encouraged you to post. THANK YOU!
Randy

[jaynkate01]

Hey John! At first I thought that you wrote this, and I was saying to myself, what an incredible composer you are. I can be pretty lame sometimes. All I had to do was look at the title to see that this is from Haydn. Anyway, my stupidity aside, I thought that the orchestration was great. I have been itching to try something big like this and your rendition encourages me to do just that.

It seemed to me that the dramatic changes in volume were just a little to jump in your face. I am not sure if it was just to loud or to abrupt or something that. I still found the piece very enjoyable.
Thanks for the post. Jay

[jdsnyderii]

Pretty nice piece there! I am still amazed how good these complex pieces can sound using such a bargain in terms of software.

Thanks for posting.

[sd cisco]

Wow!! Pretty impressive! And Welcome to the Forum!!

If I was sitting there hearing this for the first time, it would have more than adequately blown me away! Great way to put the GPO to work! I can attest to it's constant and reliable usefulness, for all kinds of tasks; I am sure you have discovered this already.

Thanks for posting!

sd cisco

[sanyarem]

Hello John! Four years, and no music post, quite impressive! I did enjoy listening to all three parts you posted. The quality of sound from the individual instruments was very good. Have you been using GPO long and simply haven't posted anything, or is it something you have picked up recently? It took me a while to get anything that sounded close to natural. It does sound very clean-cut as a whole - very precise note placement. Though, I feel that fits the style of the piece in this case.

This was a great listen, and I do hope you post more!

[SysExJohn]

Wow!
Thank you.
I have to admit that I was VERY nervous posting my efforts to this group, I've heard so much here that is simply superb in quality. I was rather nervous when I booted the PC this morning, suffering from a distinct lack of confidence.

Super, John - THANK YOU for helping our Listening Room Festival start off with such a grand flourish!

It was my pleasure, Randy. I thought it was about time that I contributed.

Thank you for explaining the origin and purpose of these recordings - Very interesting, and your description was accurate, why the stand-in soloists are so upfront in comparison to the rest, for instance.

There is, of course, a second set of tracks without any soloists, that were used as backing tracks for later rehearsals, before the orchestra stepped in.

They sound wonderful to me! Great material to work with, of course, and your attention to accuracy and detail is in abundant evidence. I think this must be from Finale or another notation program - There's that characteristic strictness to the renderings, but it still really does sound fine.

Yes, they follow the scores as precisely as I was able and, well spotted, they were realised using the Mozart notation software. I've tried Sibelius and Finale, but I find for sheer speed of entry and accuracy that Mozart suits me best. (As well as supporting a lone software writer based in my country of origin, the UK.)

They are then extensively 'tweaked' for e.g. dynamics, and legato in a DAW. In my case still XGworks as again I find workflow very natural for me in this, despite the fact that's it's more than 10 years old.

HEY - your first music posted here ever. TA DA - you must feel relieved to have finally taken the plunge.

And I'm glad my simple idea of having a festival in here encouraged you to post. THANK YOU!
Randy

Yes, relieved and a little humbled by such positive feedback.

There was yet a further movement that I didn't post, I wasn't so happy with it.
But the deadline was up and it had to do. "Good enough for now!"

It was a mammoth effort just getting it all notated and into SMF.
Mucho midnight oil burned.

Thanks again for such positive feedback.
John.

[SysExJohn]

Hey John! At first I thought that you wrote this, and I was saying to myself, what an incredible composer you are. I can be pretty lame sometimes. All I had to do was look at the title to see that this is from Haydn. Anyway, my stupidity aside, I thought that the orchestration was great. I have been itching to try something big like this and your rendition encourages me to do just that.

It seemed to me that the dramatic changes in volume were just a little to jump in your face. I am not sure if it was just to loud or to abrupt or something that. I still found the piece very enjoyable.
Thanks for the post. Jay

In the class of Haydn? No, not me!
Hardly worthy to stand in his shadow.
I do hope he's not turning in his grave at my efforts.

So pleased my efforts may prove a spur to you.
My advice ... go for it!
It was immensely satisfying to get appreciation from the professional musicians I created it for.

I'm working, betweeen rehearsal track commissions, on the Tchaikovsky serenade melancolique, for my personal pleasure. It's really stretching my abilities to get something approaching the Arthur Grumiaux recording that I have.

Yes, in retrospect, the leaps in dynamics do seem excessive. If needed again I may modify them.
But the Mass is about the chaos the Napoleonic wars were creating in Europe and, at the time I created it, I went for 'dramatic!' Although later the piece was used 'In Reqiem' for Lord Nelson.

So pleased you enjoyed it, and thank you for commenting.
John.

[SysExJohn]

Pretty nice piece there! I am still amazed how good these complex pieces can sound using such a bargain in terms of software.

Thanks for posting.

My pleasure, thank you for your response.

Yes, I now use the Garritan libraries almost exclusively even though I own a good few East West ones and parts of Vienna.

I really don't believe Garritan libraries can be beaten in terms of value for money.

Kind regards,
John.