Western Oregon University Chambers Singers As Above, So Below

I have the highest respect for Solveig Holmquist's conducting, so I was especially pleased to collaborate with her Chamber Choir on this CD, on which Dr. Holmquist and I traded roles as conductor and chorister. Anyone who has tried to record a CD knows the long list of things that can go wrong at the last minute, a list that reached its apex on this project when the brand new recording equipment, of which the university was so proud, proudly ate the master tapes which our student engineer had neglected to back up. Plagued with problems we might have been, but this CD stands alone as the one all-Hatfield recording made entirely with a chamber choir, which will be of particular interest to conductors who want to know how smaller forces can succeed with "big" numbers like "Don't Bend Down", "Ezekiel Saw The Wheel" or "Ka Hia Manu". The program also features repertoire uncollected on any other Hatfield CD: the SATB versions of "Ödi Ödi" and "Heaven Somewhere", my spooky, slow-building version of "Jacob's Ladder", a serene and simple "Carol of the Ladder" with the baritone line sung by a section instead of a soloist, and the "drummer-meets-dairymaid" romp of "The Ups and Downs". There are many fine soloists, including some red-blooded improvisation on "Ezekiel", one of the performances that brings the singer's faces right back to me.