ISB Recording Session - 5/6 March
Report by Carl Woodman (Eb Tuba)
The first weekend of March generally sees the ISB in the recording studio or, more precisely, in Henry Wood Hall, to make a CD recording. This year was no exception although an earlier than usual start was required on Friday afternoon to ensure enough time was available on Saturday to record for another project.
Henry Wood Hall is located just off London’s Borough High Street and set in the beautiful conservation area of the early nineteenth century Trinity Church Square. Described as the city’s premier rehearsal and recording venue, the building was formerly Holy Trinity Church which had become disused. The site had been subject to various planning applications (for schemes as varied as petrol stations and ornamental gardens!) before being converted to its current form in the 1970s. Since officially opening in June 1975 the hall has been the scene of relentless musical activity; from rehearsals of the leading London orchestras and chamber groups to recordings by solo pianists and of full-scale operas. The excellent acoustics are far removed from the ‘dryness’ of our own rehearsal room, just a short walk away in Territorial Headquarters, and allow the bands dynamic range to be experienced to the full. It is a real pleasure to be able to play in such a venue and an honour that the band appreciates.
During my time in the ISB, other recording venues have been used but a constant throughout is presence of producer Brian Hillson. Brian knows the band and the recording location very well which helps speed the initial setting up and aids the flow of the sessions. Adam Goldsmith is our engineer who, as a fine trombone player in his own right, adds his own expertise as a performer to Brian’s recording experience. Also present was Simon Birkett, a former billet partner of mine in the ISB, whose listening and analytical skills are engaged to make erudite observations.
These sessions were planned for us to record the second volume of our ‘Heritage’ series. The traditional Salvation Army method of journal publication often leads to the neglect of older music and this series is designed to preserve works which deserve survival well beyond their heritage interest. The first volume, Music from the 1930s, launched last June and has been very well received. In preparation for this recording, Music from the 1940s, our Bandmaster, Dr Stephen Cobb, had explained to us that, due to World War Two, publication of The Salvation Army Brass Band Journals had been suspended for several years which meant that there was significantly less music published in the 1940s than there had been in the previous decade. Nevertheless, the 1940s did see the publication of favourite marches like Hadleigh Camp (Ray Steadman-Allen), Minneapolis IV (Emil Soderstrom), Praise (Wilfred Heaton) and Star Lake (Eric Ball), classic solos like Jubilate (Arthur Gullidge) and Ransomed (George Marshall), and the selection Divine Communion (Arthur Gullidge), most of which were familiar to the majority of the band. Less familiar were two four-movement works; the dramatic Portraits from St Paul’s Epistles (Bramwell Coles) and the charming Crusade of Youth (Philip Catelinet) both of which the band enjoyed getting to know in rehearsal.
Our Bandmaster has vast experience of directing bands in recording sessions and instinctively knows when to ‘push the pace’ and when to relax a little. Therefore, by the end of the Friday’s two sessions, we had already completed three quarters of the tracks leaving just three to be recorded on Saturday morning, a task duly accomplished. The project is now handed over to the World of Sound team based in SATCoL’s Wellingborough premises who will deliver the project as a finished article in CD and download form in readiness for a launch in September 2010.