Twofer question about a choral recording from 1992
March 17, 2022 10:52 AM Subscribe
I've recently finally had a cassette recording of my elementary school's chorus digitized. Yay! Despite the liner notes, some tracks are difficult to properly identify with known pieces of music. In addition to some help identifying individual pieces, I'd also like a sense of where I stand with regard to putting the entire work online.
From 1990 through 1992 I was in a children's chorus at my elementary school, and we have tape recordings of both those years which a friend digitized for me (to my surprise, the cassette tapes themselves were in really quite good shape). Three of the four tape sides are of music I remember well and which is mostly standard American choral-repertoire stuff. But the fourth... wasn't us. The fourth side was recorded from a cultural exchange: in 1991 we visited Moscow (which I only now recognize, in the historical context in which we did it, as a kind of insane thing to do at the time), and in 1992 they returned the favor by visiting us, so the second side of the 1992 tape is a recording of music performed by the "Yunost" Chorus of the Moscow School for the Arts. We have liner notes for this, but nonetheless I've had a hard time identifying some pieces, not least of all because I'm really not familiar with a lot of Russian and other Slavic classical and folk music; I link to the ones I couldn't figure out below.
So I'd like to get this out there, but I'm mindful that there are people who have rights here: a lot of our arrangements were still under copyright, to say nothing of the rights of the singers in the choir (one of whom is me, but I can't speak for everyone in wanting it out there) or of our artistic director or our Russian counterparts' director. I am fairly certain that absolutely none of this stuff is actually monetizable, and I'm well aware nobody's likely to come after me for any sort of IP violation, but I'd like to do this the Right Way. I'd been thinking about it having a home on Soundcloud and/or archive.org, but are there protocols to do that sort of thing right?
From 1990 through 1992 I was in a children's chorus at my elementary school, and we have tape recordings of both those years which a friend digitized for me (to my surprise, the cassette tapes themselves were in really quite good shape). Three of the four tape sides are of music I remember well and which is mostly standard American choral-repertoire stuff. But the fourth... wasn't us. The fourth side was recorded from a cultural exchange: in 1991 we visited Moscow (which I only now recognize, in the historical context in which we did it, as a kind of insane thing to do at the time), and in 1992 they returned the favor by visiting us, so the second side of the 1992 tape is a recording of music performed by the "Yunost" Chorus of the Moscow School for the Arts. We have liner notes for this, but nonetheless I've had a hard time identifying some pieces, not least of all because I'm really not familiar with a lot of Russian and other Slavic classical and folk music; I link to the ones I couldn't figure out below.
- "Benediction of the Soul" from Liturgy for Women's Choir by P. Chesnokov. This is clearly a work by the prolific sacred-music composer Pavel Chesnokov, although I can't identify the exact liturgy (he had several) or the section within it (which may be differently translated nowadays).
- "God Save..." from Trinity by P. Chsenokov. Same artist as above, but I can't find evidence of any work by Chesnokov called "Trinity".
- The Weaver by Monyushko. I'm medium-certain that "Monyushko" is the Polish composer Stanislaw Moniuszko. He has tons of works in which "The Weaver" would be in good company (lots of pastoral songs and songs about artisans), but I can't find a citation for this song.
- Little Balalaika by Dubrovina/Snetkov. I can't identify the artists, much less the work.
- Moldavian Rain by Tolochkov. Another completely unknown and unidentifiable composer.
So I'd like to get this out there, but I'm mindful that there are people who have rights here: a lot of our arrangements were still under copyright, to say nothing of the rights of the singers in the choir (one of whom is me, but I can't speak for everyone in wanting it out there) or of our artistic director or our Russian counterparts' director. I am fairly certain that absolutely none of this stuff is actually monetizable, and I'm well aware nobody's likely to come after me for any sort of IP violation, but I'd like to do this the Right Way. I'd been thinking about it having a home on Soundcloud and/or archive.org, but are there protocols to do that sort of thing right?
Best answer: "God Save... from Trinity by P.Chesnokov" is from Chesnokov's Sacred Compositions (Op.9), Господи, спаси (Трисвятое).
posted by offog at 11:23 AM on March 17, 2022
posted by offog at 11:23 AM on March 17, 2022
There is no above-board way to publish on the internet a live performance recording of copyrighted material without getting releases from all of the performers and obtaining a mechanical license.
posted by slkinsey at 2:23 PM on March 17, 2022
posted by slkinsey at 2:23 PM on March 17, 2022
Best answer: For the first one ("Benediction") it sounds like they are saying "Blagoslovi, Dushe Moya, Gospoda" (translated elsewhere as "bless the Lord, o my soul".
One version, another, or here. It says it's Opus 9 No. 19, by Chesnokov. You should listen and confirm, because I'm not certain it's a match (it sounds pretty close, but hard for me to parse if it's just a difference in arrangement and voices, or I'm way off.)
FYI if you Google it, there's also a piece by Rachmaninoff with that name (translated to "Vespers"), but it sounds completely different.
posted by neda at 5:56 PM on March 17, 2022
One version, another, or here. It says it's Opus 9 No. 19, by Chesnokov. You should listen and confirm, because I'm not certain it's a match (it sounds pretty close, but hard for me to parse if it's just a difference in arrangement and voices, or I'm way off.)
FYI if you Google it, there's also a piece by Rachmaninoff with that name (translated to "Vespers"), but it sounds completely different.
posted by neda at 5:56 PM on March 17, 2022
I love these.
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:55 PM on March 17, 2022
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:55 PM on March 17, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks all thus far! The first three are indeed confirmed as the works described above. I have a few very preliminary leads on the last two as well, with regard specifically to the authorship: Dubrovina/Snetkov is almost certainly Борис Михайлович Снетков (Boris Mikhailovitch Snetkov) setting to music the poetry of Борис Саввович Дубровин (Boris Savvovitch Dubrovin). Tolochkov looks to be Борис Александрович Толочков (Boris Aleksandrovitch Tolochkov), an illustrious twentieth-century choirmaster.
posted by jackbishop at 10:32 AM on March 18, 2022
posted by jackbishop at 10:32 AM on March 18, 2022
I am not a copyright expert, but: I believe slkinsey is correct about releases from the performers, but as far as the mechanical license / composers' rights, I believe Mixcloud is actually a viable platform for dealing with that: you can upload recordings, and, they say, We also make sure that the artists, songwriters and rightsholders played in the shows receive their fair royalties.
posted by kristi at 11:14 AM on March 21, 2022
posted by kristi at 11:14 AM on March 21, 2022
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posted by offog at 11:03 AM on March 17, 2022