Why such an awful recording? (Brubaker “O Blessed Savior”)
  • Cantor
    Posts: 84
    http://www.wlp.jspaluch.com/wlp/product.asp?part_no=008564

    This is probably the nicest congregational offering I have heard from WLP’s catalogue, Brubaker “O Blessed Savior”.

    Unfortunately, WLP’s reprint licensing basically requires that you purchase their yearly subscription service in order to reprint even just the congregation’s part--which is to say, you have to pay for as long as you will use the song. (GIA, on the other hand, gives free reprint rights to customers who purchase enough copies of a piece for the music ministers.)

    Just as bewildering, though, is the atrocious quality of the recording!
    mms://www.wlp.jspaluch.com/soundbyte/005810-012.mp3

    I guess they used the same singers, the same space, and the same recording engineers that they use for recording stuff with drums?

    I mean....I think people can still tell it’s a nice song worth doing, but boy....not a great first impression!
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,204
    That's one thing I'll grant GIA. The "choral subscription" recordings that accompany their sample packets are well-done. The singing is very good. I've been told by Robert Batastini that at one time they recorded them in a Catholic hospital chapel in the Chicago area. (Good acoustic and a decent little pipe organ for the pieces that needed it).

    I stopped subscribing because out of a packet of 40 or so octavos, maybe two would be worth it.
  • Cantor
    Posts: 84
    David wrote:
    I stopped subscribing because out of a packet of 40 or so octavos, maybe two would be worth it.

    I think just about everyone says that about the subscription packets, but the 2 or 3 that I find useful don’t necessarily overlap with those that the next person finds useful. In the marketplace, at least, “different strokes for different folks” appears to be a good modus operandi.
  • OlbashOlbash
    Posts: 314
    Subscription packets worth having:

    Paraclete Press - good at least 25% of the time.

    ECS Publishing - good at least 50% of the time.
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,204
    Olbash,

    I didn't know that these two publishers even offered subscription packets!

    Just "shows ta go ya" how much control the "big three" wield in Catholic music circles!

    (I thought that, other than GIA, OCP and WLP, the only other publishers with "subscription packets" were Beckenhorst/Hope Publishing, Augsburg and MorningStar! Haha!)
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    And I think both Canticanova and Selah offer a subscription service.

    Save the Liturgy, Save the World
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    To get back to the Brubaker piece for a minute:

    I happen to like the verses much more than the refrain: they have a lyrical tune and a decent text, though the echo-like setting of men vs. women does not stay interesting for long. In contrast, the refrain is really a bit too oddly set for a congregation to sing:

    sample page

    It changes meter more than "Bread of Finest Wheat" does, and despite having heard it a few times, I still find the placement of the text unpredictable. The text of the refrain isn't that great, really: it does have the congregation sing about itself a lot.
  • Cantor
    Posts: 84
    Olbash,

    Yeah, I meant to subscribe to Paraclete. (I don’t see ECS’s subscription on their web page....?)

    The good, usable stuff from the big 3 packets is stuff I would lament losing. I just wish I could opt-out of all the “assembly, keyboard, guitar, and SATB choir” stuff and still get the Trinitas etc. stuff.
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