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Josh Haberman sings Thomas Tallis |
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What the heck?
(To any Tallis Scholars or fans of them who find this page: the parody above is meant in the most respectful way possible)
These are recordings of choral music by Thomas Tallis. What makes them quite unique is that one person (me) is singing all of the parts. I did this by multitracking—starting with one part, and layering other parts on top of it by using headphones and a click track. The pieces are all four parts, with the exception of Te Lucis Ante Terminum, which is five. I sing Bass using my chest voice, Soprano and Alto with my newly discovered falsetto, and Tenor by flipping back and forth as appropriate.
It all started last summer, when I had the great pleasure of attending the Tallis Scholars Summer School in England, a one-week clinic with the fabulous Tallis Scholars as tutors. I was re-awakened to Renaissance polyphony, and inspired by the wonderful music and good character of the Tallis Scholars. Soon thereafter, I bought their recording "The Tallis Scholars sing Thomas Tallis" (parodied above), and listened to it nonstop for approximately nine months. This was a discovery both of the the Tallis Scholars' wonderful sound, but also of Tallis's music itself, with which I was previously unfamiliar.
I loved all of the music on that CD, but a few tracks in particular stood out, to the point that they played through my head all the time. The only way I could satisfy my insatiable thirst for this music was to record it, and since I had no choir of my own to order around, I made one out of my own voice.
Recording this music was also a journey that helped me get to know my countertenor voice. It was only last summer that I started singing countertenor seriously, so as you can imagine, I had (and have) a lot to learn. My progress is easy to hear by contrasting Hear the Voice and Prayer (the beginning of the journey) with If Ye Love Me and Te Lucis Ante Terminum (the most recent recordings). Recording yourself is an immense aid to improvement, because your voice is laid bare and exposed for what it truly is. While you are actually singing, your perception of the sound you make is highly skewed by the fact that your ears are mounted on the same assembly that is producing the sound. Sound colors and vocal mannerisms that sound good to you while you're singing can sound very different (and unflattering) when heard from a different vantage point. Also, Renaissance polyphony demands extremely good tuning, and singing in tune is a neverending quest. The tape never lies about the accuracy of your intonation.
I initially made these recordings only for myself, and shyed away from the implied vanity at letting anyone else hear them. When I started playing them for my close friends, their response was positive, and they encouraged me to release them. The first response has almost always been "you blend very well with yourself." I am also encouraged by the Kings Singers, who recently released a recording where they made their six voices into forty for Spem in Alium. I haven't heard any news of them being ostracized for it or any such thing.
I had hopes of taking this idea to a climax by recording Tallis's Lamentations of Jeremiah—stunning pieces that have captured my imagination at least as much as these other have. This would have been a challenge of a completely different scale: The Lamentations are much longer (nine minutes for I and thirteen minutes for II, vs. two minutes for these pieces) and demand a greater range than any of the other pieces I have attempted. They demand more rhythmic freedom with their many cadences and contrasting sections, which makes the click track even more of a liability. Despite these challenges, I intended to at least attempt this feat. Unfortunately, before I could embark on this, I moved from Tacoma to Seattle, and I no longer have easy access to a reverberant space. So the project (or at least this phase of it) must now be considered finished.
These recordings are not intended to be any serious artistic contribution to the Renaissance Polyphony discography. For example, the Te Lucis does not include the plainsong verses that occur before and after the polyphony, and as a result, is not even a full performance of the piece. Very little thought went into interpretation; my primary thoughts when I was singing were "be sensitive, be musical, and sing in tune."
I hope you enjoy.
--Joshua Haberman <joshua_AT_reverberate_DOT_org> 17 June 2006.