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, which preserved their historic performance of John Stainer's The Crucifixion. That limited edition, private, monophonic, vintage, 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. This restored and mastered digital version was made from that 1959 private LP.
Those two 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. The recording of the performances is about 41 minutes in length. That building is now known as Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.
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.)
This was a formative experience in David's life, and for years he's wished this was more available. Now that he is involved in producing music, he has access to the means for restoring and mastering this period performance. But, there was the restriction of copyright.
However, copyright expires 70 years after the death of the last person associated with the publication. That meant the beginning of 2023 the score would become public domain. Thus, in December of 2022, 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. Version 2 was released November 6, 2024.
The 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 the publication, with no consideration of the 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 parallel 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.
That makes it legal for TortoiseClimbing Audio™ to provide 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 for Version 1 from this website and for 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 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 provided on when during each month they add authorization for another 200 free downloads.)
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