VOCES8: Ring out wild bells - Jonathan Dove

VOCES8 records 'Ring out wild bells' from Jonathan Dove's song cycle 'The Passing of the Year' at Abbey Road Studios. The track appears on the group's new album, EQUINOX.
www.voces8equinox.com
#voces8equinox
O Earth, O Earth, return!
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the time;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
****
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[@djsteink]

That piano part is NUTS.

[@leajams]

Glorious!!! It’s a tradition of mine to hear this piece at the end/start or the new year. Happy 2022!

[@Joggelschorsch]

This is how recording really looks like. Love it

[@WigbertTraxler]

Powerful music!! Love it!

[@TheNinthDoctor]

Lovely!

[@diannedemarco8783]

Smashing 🌞

[@jessicam3468]

Emily is there :0 Great video 😍

[@lizzieorlowski3152]

Don't forget to credit the original author, Alfred Lord Tennyson!

[@rachelkayofficial]

one of my favorite pieces i’ve ever sung

[@chazharrison5646]

Surely as the composer was playing the piano, it was the way he wanted it to sound !

[@continuum_]

@peter g But he would work with the mixer and provide input.

[@TheTrout26]

Come on 19 January!

[@AnthonySmitha]

Great performance! I don't know that I like the piece itself, but your artistry with it was precise and it emphasized the inner beauty of the composition.

[@brucecampbell6133]

I believe that is Jonathan Dove at the piano?

[@garethjones8784]

Yes indeed.

[@CeramicQuill]

The piano sounds like an anime fight scene

[@jeremybates6572]

Francisco and Dene, this video is about tower bells, which are extremely loud and percussive. Perhaps you've never heard English change ringing, and do not know what this piece is meant to evoke? A light touch would be inappropriate.

[@denekaraus8592]

It's not widely recognized, but a piano can be played forcefully and mP at the same time...and not necessarily with the use of the soft pedal. It's done with a "weighted" touch. (Rubinstein and Horowitz were the best at this, and that's why they were so widely acclaimed.)

[@The_Barefoot_Bass]

But why not mentioning who is the pianist?

[@barnabysmith9629]

The pianist is the composer, Jonathan Dove

[@The_Barefoot_Bass]

Thanks! I love the piece and the recording!

[@jeffkokes1360]

whoever mixed this is fired... wonderful arrangement tho

[@franciscocosta1331]

piano is overwelming the voices, it should have been turned down a little. unless that was the point, but i doubt it

[@sethroy4318]

I'd tend to agree with you, but it might be that the composer (or the director) was going for a piano-voice duet concept rather than voices accompanied by piano. It's not unheard of. We'd have to see the score to know for certain.

[@franciscocosta1331]

Seth Roy Yeah, that was the point, I honestly don't like it, but maybe it was the objective. And if then great

[@owades]

This piece was composed for a large choir (the London Symphony Chorus), not one-on-a-part voices. It’s likely that the piano would be a bit more recessed in a performance with such forces. I’ve sung the complete cycle with a larger group, but I haven’t heard it from “out front” to know how the balance works. To my ear, this Voces8 recording is extraordinarily well sung and recorded, and I believe the composer was involved in it and thus approves of the result.

[@blakemorgan6470]

The composer, Jonathan Dove, is in fact the person playing the piano in this recording/video.

[@karenannc]

Sounds very neo-medieval.

[@denekaraus8592]

Francisco Costa, below, had it exactly correct. Not only is the piano too loud (which could be a mixing problem) but his touch is way too violent....he's not up against a 150 voice choir.....lacking in sensitivity.

[@aknopf8173]

The beauty of having a mix is that you can play aggresively 'against' only 8 voices or that you can have the faintest whisper of a single voice against a full orchestra, it all depends on what you want to say with the music. Sadly, in this case the piano is just too loud - plain and simple :(

[@denekaraus8592]

Voces 8 records best when they do a 2 microphone presentation of the room, with all its ambiance. The balance could have been achieved by placing the microphone appropriately, and having the performers do a thoroughly artistic and musical performance. It would only require a few takes to get the microphone placement correct, and magic could result. I still applaud the artistry here....the devil is in the use of excessive technology.

[@denekaraus8592]

The use of mixing techniques to make up for shortcomings in artistry is frequently attempted, but NEVER WORKS.

[@saetmusic]

@@denekaraus8592 Here is a voice from the future. In the Spring of 2021 VOCES8 does a concert on a series "Live in London- Spring" (You don't want to know what else was going on, trust me!) They performed the entire song cycle by Dove, "The Passing of the Year" LIVE in the wonderful acoustics of St. Anne and Agnes Hall, exactly as you describe it, simply miked and with minimal engineering interference. The result was PHENOMENAL, perfect balance between piano and voices, clarity of opposing chorales, wonderful blend and great sound! There is no comparison to this recording which I blame on misguided over-production. Find "VOCES8 Live in London Spring -Jonathan Dove..."" and you can hear a small taste of it

[@RA-zl6ik]

Why do they sound a bit like they're underwater? Some kind of weird filter?

[@FavreianVengeance]

The tempo on that piano is way too fast.

[@VOCES8]

It is the composer playing the keyboard.

[@saetmusic]

This is the last piece in a six piece song cycle, "The Passing of the Year" by Jonathan Dove, a SPECTACULAR work! If you think this piano part is too fast wait until you hear one of the earlier songs, "Answer July" a wonderfully insane tempo!

[@dustinroofes]

Please take this is an experiment - don't go on following that track; doesn't point out your great artistry nor your voices

[@danielhutchinson7073]

What?