The Creed - Alexander Gretchaninov

The Creed

This piece of music by Alexander Gretchaninov is a choral piece, and has a very sombre tone. However, it is in a major key. There is a lead singer accompanied with a backing choir, meaning that the texture of this piece is melody and accompaniment, which is homophonic, giving it a bold feel making it sound complete. The dynamics are louder when the leading singer is singing. It also crescendos at other moments of the song. The articulation of this piece is very legato and also smooth. This reflects the calming and soothing mannerisms of the piece.

This piece has great acoustics, with a sound being produced as if it was in a Cathedral or any large building with a high ceiling/tall walls. I get this from the reverb on the choir's vocals. Cathedrals deliberately create a panning effect through the shape and structure of the building. Cathedrals will also have big audiences, which mean that this will affect the acoustics within the area, as the audience will take some of the reverb away.

If this piece were to be performed in a recording studio, which had foam panels applied, then a majority of the reverb would get soaked up. Also there will be a big difference due to there being no audience within the studio this would mean there is less things to absorb the sound compared to if it was a bigger room and had a bigger audience.

In the recording studio, the choir will be recorded separately. I would divide them into vocal groups e.g. Tenors, Sopranos, Baritones and Altos. Within these groups I will then separate them into smaller groups around the room so making sure there is no more than 4 round a microphone. I will use 3 dynamic mics and place them in the middle of the smaller groups. This will allow the mic's to pick up only 3-4 singers at a time, meaning the recording will be sharper and of professional standard.

In a cathedral, things will be set up differently. The choir will all be recorded in the same room that they are be set up in. At the front of the cathedral behind the alter they will then be split up into vocal groups using lines so for example baritones at the back and altos at the front and then sopranos and tenors between them so there will be 4 lines. I will be placing 2 overhead mics for the choir so that they pick up almost all the sound coming from the choir as well as the mass reverb coming from the cathedral due to the shape of it as well as the size. I will then place 1 dynamic microphone in front and a condenser next to that and then the same again on the other side towards the middle so there will be 2 lots of each microphone just to be sure that all types of sound are picked up from the cathedral. The last microphone I will place is directly in the middle, which is a bigger dynamic microphone, and this is for the main vocalist giving them more control over the rest of the choir.