by John Stainer
(Note. For anyone interested, this recording contains the first recording of David as a very young soloist.)
The 1959 Annapolis High School choirs issued a private, monophonic, amateur, LP recording, of their historic performance of John Stainer's The Crucifixion. That limited edition, private, monophonic, vintage, historic LP of the original 1959 performance was made by editing together the consumer quality raw tape recordings of the 2 live 1959 performances of this unique arrangement.
Tho performances were given by the choirs in spring 1959, with members from the classes of 1959, 60 and 61, in the old Annapolis High School Building at 801 Chase Street. (That building is now known as Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.)
The restored and mastered digital version was made from that 1959 private LP. The recording of the performances is about 41 minutes in length.
Note. Because this amateur, monaural LP 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 many solos, to perform most of what Stainer noted as recitatives and arias. The result creates a truly unique, much more choral performance than scored by Stainer. (There are a limited number of small solos indicated in the score as being sung by members of the choir, and several smaller recitatives, where Mr. Kunkle used students from the mixed choir to sing those small solos.)
Being able to participate in this performance and its recordings was a formative experience in shaping David's future musical life. Now, through TortoiseClimbing Audio™ David is involved in multiple aspects of producing music, with the tools enabling restoring and mastering this period performance. Because this is such a unique arrangement, it deserves to be available to the public.
Very importantly, the copyright for The Crucifixion has expired. (70 years after the death of the last person associated with the publication.) As of the beginning of 2023 the score became public domain.
Thus, TortoiseClimbing Audio™ had the 1959 monophonic LP record digitized and TortoiseClimbing Audio™ restored and mastered this performance for free distribution. Version 1 was released January 30, 2023 on this website. Version 2 was released November 6, 2024 via Bandcamp.
Restoration and mastering processes included:
COPYRIGHT NOTE. In the U.S., for works published in the U.S. before 1978, the score becomes public domain 95 years after publication, with no consideration of death of creators. Applying 95 years to the publication date of The Crucifixion in 1887, if the The Crucifixion were published in the U.S. it would have become Public Domain in 1982.
In the U.S., for works published after 1978, 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) in 1952, i.e., the beginning of January 2023.
But, The Crucifixion was not a U.S. publication, it was a UK publication. However, Great Britain adopted the European copyright law provisions in 1996, which largely parallels U.S. copyright law, for the period post 1978. However, in Europe (and Great Britain) the provision was made retroactive, and applies to works published before 1978 as well. Based on that, the 2023 date is the correct date for The Crucifixion becoming Public Domain, i.e., 70 years after the 1952 death of the librettist, W J Sparrow Simpson the younger.
Thus, as of January 2023, there is no copyright restriction on TortoiseClimbing Audio™ providing copies of this recording by the AHS choirs for free as digital audio files for download, and at cost for CDs ($3.00, including shipping).
What is provided free, both Version 1 (from this website) and Version 2 (from TortoiseClimbing Audio's™ Online Marketplace) are both:
For more details, click on Background for AHS performances of The Crucifixion.
NOTE - If the number of free downloads of Version 2 requested from our online Marketplace in a month exceeds 200, a minimum fee is imposed. (No clear information is provided on what that default minimum fee is, but it could be $7.00.) If you encounter such a situation (if you can wait till the next month) then try again to receive a Free download. (No clear info is provided on when during each month they add authorization for another 200 free downloads.)
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