This week Gaudete celebrates the release of our new album sevenfive on Cedille Records. It is something that we are very excited about. The album showcases 8 world premiere recordings of pieces that are now available to enhance and enrich the repertoire of brass players looking for great chamber music. It is a multifaceted menu for chamber music enthusiasts and ensembles. Conrad Winslow’s Records of the Lost Tribe creates a sense of the mysterious and numinous, like something unseen below the surface, a very deep and powerful work. David Sampson shatters all conceptions of brass needing to use volume to be expressive with his subtle and serene Still. Jonathan Newman’s Prayers of Steel allows the brass to sing, dance and groove through their instruments, the the hymn like 3rd movement is especially exquisite. Steven Bryant’s work, the title track sevenfive is a like solving a complex puzzle with a surprise solution at the end. Jeremy Howard Beck’s Roar is for players who are looking to express themselves with raw emotion and more than a little bit of rage.
It has been quite a journey from the commissioning and premieres of these pieces to the album release and I thought it might be interesting to share how Gaudete prepares for some of the challenges of the recording session. One of the hardest aspects especially for brass players, since all of us are playing in to the microphones at the same time, is we all have to play note perfect all at the same time. Of course all musicians who record chamber music have this problem but as our producer Judy Sherman reminded us, “sometimes brass instruments just betray you.” We have all attended a concert where the errant note on the trombone or trumpet drew attention away from a otherwise engaging phrase. Takes with these errant notes can’t be used and we all have to do it right together. Any brass player knows that this is, while not perhaps “impossible” it is very difficult.
Gaudete’s solution to the problem has been two-fold. Our first part of the process was to perform these works as many times as we possible could. This of course included our formal concerts but we also were fortunate to have a number of tours leading up to the sessions that featured many concerts for students in high school music programs. Learning to play a piece in a way that can capture the imagination of an audience of young people multiple times in a day is in our experience one of the very best ways to learn a piece of music really well. You have to play expressively or they will rightly lose interest and you have to be able to keep playing with only short breaks for many hours. In our experience nothing simulates a recording session better than this type of performing if it is treated as an incredible opportunity to share your music.
The second solution was to simply practice recording. Bill Baxtresser one of our trumpet players regularly takes our group through this exercise as part of our preparation for all of the pieces we perform but the frequency increases as we approach a recording session date. Bill will set up his microphones, do level checks and we will start recording takes. Bill will take them home and master them so we have the best product we possibly can. We all listen and the work still remaining on a piece becomes apparent. Rehearsals become efficient, focused and more fun.