Thomson, Sessions & McPhee

(click on image to
enlarge and download)

Note for those who downloaded the 78 rpm transfer of Four Saints in Three Acts: I've noticed that I mistakenly included two copies of the same label (it was intended that one should be Side 1 and the other Side 10). Sorry about that ... I was apparently just too concentrated on the transfer.

I made four different versions of this 10-side set.

Each set is hand-cleaned - that is, one plays it in real time and removes various sound blemishes and aberrations "by hand" (using the CR repair tool, which took well over five years to learn how to use ... and I'm still learning things). There can be an average of five sound details (or more) per minute of music to be worked on; some take a second; others can take as long as 5 to 20 minutes individually. This is unavoidable since hand cleaning is the best method for cleaning vocal recordings - otherwise the sound is very easily damaged (but I actually use this method for all of my transfers).

The cleaning alone of each version took four-plus hours to complete. None of this takes into account the editing (or scanning, etc.), which took a total of about four hours. That's 4+ x 4+ = 16+ hours of hand cleaning. This is why I make mistakes like uploading two identical labels - and also why transfers don't fall from trees (like the below offerings - which are not transfers at all).

Sure, this is all very "labor-intensive" ... but I love working on such things when they're uplifting and worthwhile from a number of perspectives at once. And since money and things like business and society are not involved - I only have to worry about increasingly doing a better job (which is the main point, after all).

___________________________________

Colin McPhee (1900-1964)

Tabuh-Tabuhan, Toccata
for Orchestra

(Mercury, recorded 1956)

Roger Sessions (1896-1985)

The Black Maskers
(Orchestral Suite)

(Mercury, recorded 1956)

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)

Symphony on a Hymn Tune

The Feast of Love
David Clatworthy, baritone

(Mercury, recorded 1965)

Eastman-Rochester Orchestra
Howard Hanson

___________________

Digital material from 1992.
Includes covers and notes.