by John Stainer
(For anyone interested, this recording contains the first recording of David as a very young soloist.)
This monophonic amateur recording preserves a historic, performance of John Stainer's The Crucifixion. Two performances were given in spring 1959 by the Annapolis High School choirs (classes of 1959, 60 and 61).
The performances where given in the old Annapolis High School Building at 801 Chase Street, in what is now known as Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.
The recording of the performances is about 41 minutes in length. A limited edition, private, monophonic, vintage and historic LP record of the original 1959 performance was made by editing together the amateur, consumer quality raw tape recordings of the 2 live 1959 performances of this unique arrangement.
(Note. Because this amateur, monaural recording was made using then available late 1950's consumer grade recording equipment, it's fidelity is restricted by capabilities of that era's consumer grade equipment.)
This performance is a truly wonderful, uncommon arrangement created by the choral director, Robert F. Kunkle. He used two women's choirs in place of soloists, to perform the recitatives and arias. The result creates a truly unique, much more choral performance than scored by Stainer. (For the limited number of small solos indicated in the score as being sung by members of the choir, and several recitatives, Mr. Kunkle used students from the mixed choir to sing those small solos.)
In December of 2022, based on the provision that copyright expires 70 years after the death of the last person associated with the publication, that meant the score would become public domain the beginning of 2023. Thus, TortoiseClimbing Audio™ had the 1959 monophonic record digitized and TortoiseClimbing Audio™ mastered and restored this recording for free distribution. (NOTE - If you also want unlimited MP3 streaming from Bandcamp, the cost is $1.00.)
NOTE2 - If the number of free copies requested in a month exceeds 200, a minimum fee is imposed. No clear information provided on what that default minimum is. If that happens to you (if you can wait till the next month) then try again. (No clear info provided on when during month they add more free downloads.)
The restoration and mastering processes included:
NOTE. In the U.S., the score of a copyrighted publication becomes Public Domain 70 years after the death of the last person associated with creation of the score. For The Crucifixion, that is 70 years after the death of the librettist, William John Sparrow Simpson (the younger) i.e., the beginning of January 2023. That made it legal for TortoiseClimbing Audio™ to make copies of this recording by the AHS choirs available for free as digital audio files for download, and at cost for CDs ($3.00).
CORRECTIONS - Later research regarding copyright turned up that all works published in the United States before 1924 are in the Public Domain. That is because all works published before 1978 were copyright protected for 95 years from the date of publication, with no consideration of death of creators. Namely, applying 95 years to the work published in 1887 (i.e., before 1923), if the The Crucifixion were published in the U.S. it would have become Public Domain in 1982.]
But, The Crucifixion is not a U.S. publication, it is a UK publication. Great Britain adopted the European copyright law provisions in 1996, which seems to parallel U.S. law, for the period post 1978. However, in Europe the provision applies to works published before 1978 as well. Based on that, the 2023 date for The Crucifixion is the accurate determination, i.e., 70 years after the 1952 death of the librettist, W J Sparrow Simpson the younger.
What is provided free, both from this website and from TortoiseClimbing Audio's™ Online Marketplace are both:
For more details, click on The Crucifixion.
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