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Only the Audio portion is currently active. A publications section will be added in the future for publications sold as standalone purchases, i.e., not part of a bundle with Audio recordings.
This page provides summary information obout each project. Additional information is available under Recordings and Publications. Explore at your leisure!
This page provides links to our online Audio Marketplace, where you can:
When TortoiseClimbing Audio™ was established in 1993, the privately released Solo Collection was Nostalgic Love Songs. Now, many years later, following release of a different type of nostalgia, the album Hymns and Songs of My Mother, we are returning to our roots. We plan to release the following EPs of Nostalgic Love Songs over the next year:
As each EP is released, information will be added, both on the detailed EP's page, and here on Store Access, providing the link to the online marketplace product page, where you will be able to preview and purchase a download of it.
Progress on these EPs has completed:
As of late Spring 2026, our target window to publicly release the initial EP, Chattanooga Choo Choo EP, is summer of 2026.
For your interim, advanced listening preview pleasure, we provide access, at Duets with Terry, to the following songs for streaming:
I Am the Starlight
All I Have to Do Is Dream
Till I Kissed Ya
The Rose
And So It Goes
Planning is underway for Christmas EPs. Maybe one by Christmas of 2026?
(Released October 2024)
Preview and/or purchase from the online Audio marketplace, by clicking The Crucifixion. (The marketplace includes options for both Free Digital download, and ordering an individually burned CD for delivery by mail.)
The playlist for this 1959 AHS performance of The Crucifixion can be seen by clicking Playlist.
Digital Download - This album is Free!
(NOTE. Bandcamp will request your pay $1.00. That $1.00 is for unlimited streaming from their site. You can decline Bandcamp's proposed streaming, and get the download for Free.)
The DEFAULT format for downloads of digital audio files is a small, low fidelity format, i.e., AAC or mp3. If you want a higher fidelity digital format, like FLAC or WAV, you Must Explicitly select one of those autiophile formats, Before you click download, in order to receive a better fidelity format as your download. (The fidelity is still constrained by the original recording technology and engineering, but is better than mp3, and it's still Free.)
CD - $4.00, includes shipping!
Note. CDs will be individually burned on demand for delivery via regular U.S, mail. They will be hand-labeled, i.e., a plain CD. The CD has the same 15 individual tracks as the digital, version 2 download, giving you the ability to skip to any of Stainer's numbered pieces on demand.
This album is a restored and mastered digital file created from the 1959 private LP, which was created by editing together the best of two taped performances. In 2023 the score became Public Domain. Thus, TortoiseClimbing™ digitized the LP at SlippedDisc™, enabling TortoiseClimbing Audio™ to:
To our knowledge, this is the only public release of this performance by the AHS choirs. (It is 41 minutes long, and Lyrics are included as a Bonus.)
Stainer wrote this cantata telling the story of the Easter Passion to be performed by Church of England neighborhood parish choirs. Those choirs do not have the luxury of trained choir members, or additional supporting choirs. In order to tell the sweeping passion story, Stainer addressed the constraints in musical abilities of neighborhood parish choirs by using numerous solo arias and recitatives. Singers for those parts would commonly be brought in by the churches for the performances.
This recording uses a unique arrangement for those many solos, created by the AHS choral director, Mr. Robert Kunkle. He took advantage of having three choirs: two women's choirs; and a standard mixed choir. With that luxuary, he assigned most of the solo arias and recitatives to the womens choirs, creating a dramatically more choral sound.
Despite the limited sonic fidelity of the LP, this largely choral arrangement created for the 1959 AHS choirs, provides a dramatically more fulfilling choral performance than scored by Stainer of this classic Holy Week (the week before Easter) piece. The choral emotional feel of this performance is much more fulfilling than standard presentations following the score.
This distinctively different, mostly choral interpretation of this cantata, was achieved using 3 choirs:
Note. The sound fidelity is limited by:
-- End of window about details of Hymns and Songs --
More details about the making of the original private LP recording, and this restored and mastered digital release, are found at Background on Historic 1959 Performances by Annapolis High School choirs.
(27 hymns and songs)
Digital Release, June 2024
CD Release 9/20/2024
Preview and/or purchase from the online Audio store by clicking Hymns and Songs of My Mother - Vocal Version. Both the Digital download and the CD for this vocal version are available from our online marketplace product page.
The DEFAULT format for downloads of digital audio files is a small, low fidelity format, i.e., AAC or mp3. If you want audiophile digital formats, like FLAC or WAV, you Must Explicitly select one of those autiophile formats, Before you click download, in order to receive a better fidelity format as your download.
Playlist:
What Is This Album:
This album is almost exclusively nostalgic, old, traditional congregational hymns and songs (largely from Protestant Denominations, but there are cross overs.) There is one exception, namely a Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) folk influenced song.
(Because the CCM song is a different genera of music, two (2) arrangements of it are offered separately as a mini-EP. See Mini-EP: Welcome Home below).
This album was recorded in professional sound studios, by professional:
It is a hi-definition (audiophile) recording; next to maximum length for a CD (78 minutes) of 27 nostalgic, of traditional hymns and songs. This collection is a fabulous retrospective of hymns and songs that were popular in church liturgies. This recording creates a gloriously listenable, intimate collage, wover together using a variety of different instrumental and vocal textures.
It's quality is head-and-sholders above most albums found on YouTube of favorite old hymns. While those hymn recordings are well intentioned, the contrast in presentation and audio quality results from:
1. Hymns and Songs of My Mother being recorded using professional everything. That includes real instruments played by professionals, trained vocalists, prepared audio recording spaces, and professional recording equipment. It includes:
Vocals for all hymns and songs are post production processed by TortoiseClimbing™ to create impecable precision.
Mixing and mastering were performed by a seasoned sound engineer who has successfully created many quality, commercially very successful, recordings.
Outstanding interpretations result from trained vocalists and instrumentalists.
This album provides vocals with interpretive feeling, audiophile fidelity (achieved by using professional everything), variations in accompaniment including: orchestra, a very good real pipe organ, acoustic guitar, harp, and even handbells. The vocals are a mix of arrangements including: solo, duet, trio and multipart SATB, plus some have descants.
The many variations of vocals and accompaniments used on these favorite old hymns and songs by trained vocalists and musicians provide a wonderful spectrum of flavors. Instruments used include:
This album was recorded at the request of David's mother as a tribute to David's then recently deceased father. The hymns and songs were selected jointly with his mother from their favorites. (A young organist who saw the titles, described them as old chestnuts that all good organists are familiar with.)
The performances on this album shine! Their quality of interpretations and audiophile fullness will enrich your life with many hours of repeatedly playing and reflecting on the comfort and greatness these great performances of these old hymns and songs provide.
2. In contrast, the majority of well intentioned recordings of nostalgic old hymns are amateur everything:
Access this recording on our online Audio Marketplace product page by clicking Hymns and Songs of My Mother - Vocal Version.
The first version planned is:
Two additional versions are more tentative. They are:
Release schedule for versions of this album:
Details will be added when the instrumenatal version is released. Advanced streaming of selected numbers from this site may be offered earlier.
(Released March 2026)
Preview/purchase digital file for download from our online Audio Marketplace product page by clicking Welcome Home.
This is a Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) song, in a folk style. It is the only CCM song included on the album Hymns and Songs of My Mother. Because CCM songs appeal to different folks than nostalgic old hymns, for those who prefer this style, we make this Mini-EP available with 2 different arrangements of this song.
This song became a favorite of my mother when the author and composer, Ms. Kathy Brigman Haupt, a granddaughter of mother's sister, wrote and sang this song for the funeral of mother's sister. The 2 arrangements of this wonderful "Folk style" CCM song are quite different:
Virtually everyone, young and old, who has heard this song describe it as very pretty and meaningful!
Thank you Kathy, first for creating it, and second for giving permission to arrange and make the 1st recording.
Advance access to Narrations. Upon release of the eBook, History Through 27 Hymns and Songs (2024), we will begin recording and releasing chapters on our online marketplace as advanced podcast narrations. The chapters will be made available via the audio marketplace in 2 forms:
Audiobook. Upon completion of the chapter narrations (made available in advance via the subscription series and individual chapters) the completed audiobook will be made available for purchase and download. Those who choose to subscribe to the narration series, will essentially have the audiobook (if they downloaded each chapter as completed.) We are investigating how to provide an assembled audiobook for free download to subscribers.
Upon completion of the audiobook it will then also be made available as:
The reason a separate online publications marketplace is required is because our audio marketplace requires eBook publications to be part of a bundle with audio material. Thus, to sell eBook publications as standalone products, without being bundled with an audio product, a separate online publications marketplace is required for the eBooks.
Forthcoming
Working title - History Through 27 Hymns and Songs. This ebook is intended as both a companion to hymns and songs recording, and a standalone history eBook. The extensive histories cover events that happened in the period each of the hymns and songs were written, thus shaping the thinking of the hymn writers.
[The eBook will be available both as part of a bundle with the album from the Audio store, and separately as a standalone eBook from the Publication store.]
(eBooks purchased by themselves [not bundled with an audio product], require a separate online Publications marketplace. Links will be added below for purchase of the eBook by itself, i.e., not as part of a bundle with an audio product
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