|
|
|
|
Audio Conservator "Pitches" Recordingsby Iris Winston, Staff Writer “The magical part of this recording is that it brings the past back to life.” For Gilles St-Laurent, audio conservator in the National Library of Canada’s Music Division, a recently produced compact disc does just this. The CD, appropriately entitled Great Voices of Canada, features Canadian artists, and almost all of the cuts on this compilation of archival recordings from Analekta Records are drawn from the Library’s collection. Great Voices features such Canadian artists as Emma Albani (1847-1930), Raoul Jobin (1906-1974), Edward Johnson (1878-1959) and Jeanne Gordon (1884-1952). These artists, so famous in their time, built their operatic careers in Europe and the United States because, until the beginning of radio in the 1920s, their voices were heard by only very small audiences within Canada. "Of these legendary voices, which thrilled our ancestors,...only a few recordings made with rudimentary techniques remain," explains Montreal historian Renée Maheu on the CD liner notes. "Before these recordings disappear forever or are expatriated once more, it is our right and duty to repatriate them once and for all and give them new life with the technology available to us today." And this is just what has happened. Maheu approached the National Library to enquire about reissuing an existing recording by Edward Johnson. St-Laurent was concerned about its quality and suggested that she consider using other original material that is held in the National Library's music collection instead. After hours of research by Recorded Sound Collection librarian Richard Green, St-Laurent began to transfer selected cuts from the original 78-rpm records to digital audio tapes. This was not always a straightforward exercise, explains St-Laurent, as 78s were rarely recorded at exactly 78 revolutions per minute until the 1930s. "The variation in speed makes a significant difference to the pitch and timbre," he says. A five percent deviation is approximately equal to a semi-tone." (The note B becomes B-flat, for example.) Ascertaining the true sound of the voices involved searching for musical scores to find the original key of as many pieces as possible. This was a period, says St-Laurent, when singers frequently transposed material to suit their ranges, so, even with the scores, determining the original key of each recording was not clearcut. To complicate matters further, variations in international concert pitch had to be taken into consideration. "We also knew that records from particular companies should be within certain ranges, so we would play them within those ranges and take it from there," he says. The final test, in most cases, was to have members of the Music Division listen to the tapes and comment on the critical factors of vibrato speeds and enunciation. Then Analekta Records sent the completed tape to CEDAR Audio Ltd. in Cambridge, England where the hisses and clicks of the early recordings were removed (CEDAR stands for computer enhanced digital audio restoration). By November 1992, almost a year after the project was initiated, Great Voices of Canada, Volume 1 was ready for distribution. The recording has been greeted with enthusiasm by musicians and historians. In addition, reviews to date have been very positive. A sample:
Volume 1 of Great Voices of Canada is now available in record stores. Green and St-Laurent have just completed the research and taping of the material for Volumes 2 and 3, featuring Raoul Jobin and Edward Johnson respectively. Release is expected in the spring of 1993. Extending knowledge of Canada’s published and musical heritage is central to the National Library’s mandate. Pursuing this objective in cooperation with individuals and organizations not only facilitates the work, but adds new and exciting dimensions. |