The Recording of The Sea Requiem

The première of The Sea Requiem was in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral, 1st April 2023. The Sea Requiem is composed for soprano, mezzo, tenor and baritone soloists, SATB chorus, two horns and string orchestra. The orchestration is designed to work alongside Fauré’s Requiem for SATB choir and soloists, strings and two horns in a new arrangement by Michael Christie. 

The score can be viewed and purchased via

 composersedition.com/susannah-self-sea-requiem/ 

Outside my composing studio the ARC in Hindringham, Norfolk

 And the Lady Chapel at Ely Cathedral 

In the summer of 2021 on the beautiful and very hot island of Skyros, I set out to compose a Requiem in memory of my father. It is crafted to be sung by standard choral societies so the compositional material is intentionally tuneful and harmonically rich. In addition to the traditional Latin texts, I included more complex numbers for the soloists who sing settings of poems about the sea by Keats, Dickinson and Whitman.  

Soprano Aria

Bass Aria

Tenor Aria

The performance here on SoundCloud is sung by The North Sea Singers and The North Sea Orchestra led by The Chaos Collective with Ivan McCready on solo cello and Catrina Nixon and Trevor Denyer on horns. 

Vocal soloists: 

Catherine Joule - Soprano, 

Christopher Lemmings - Tenor,

 Julian Godlee - Bass. 

Susannah Self - Conducter and Mezzo. 

Michael Christie Co-conductor and Orchestral Manager.

Here is the SoundCloud link

https://soundcloud.com/selfmademusic/the-sea-requiem-composed-by-dr-susannah-self?si=cdd5bc5e55684c34aecd8132232ce661&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

I worked all day on the audio and video mix of performances of The Sea Requiem in Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral with the preview in Hindringham Church. The two acoustics have different preferences: 

The Lady Chapel for the choir and Hindringham Church for the soloists. 

It is a juggling act of cutting and matching plus balancing with the recording studio in Logic Pro.

Inside The Lady Chapel

North Sea Singers and Orchestra

SOME EXTRACTS OF THE SCORE

Introit

Kyrie

As if the Sea Should Part Soprano Solo

As if the Sea Should Part Soprano Solo

Offertorium Solo Quartet

Sanctus

 Song of Myself  Bass Solo

De Profundis Mezzo Solo and Choir

Pie Jesu

Agnus Dei

The Sea by John Keats Tenor Solo

Libera Me

Dies Irae

Lux Aeterna Mezzo solo

14. In Paradisum

The Lady Chapel, Ely

For these concerts I am conducted my own ensemble, North Sea Voices and Orchestra led by The Chaos Collective https://www.chaos-collective.com who are a top professional string quartet based in coastal North Norfolk. 

The Chaos Collective

The whole North Sea ensemble has performed in my operas in Vienna, Cambridge and Birmingham. Funding for this project was provided by auctioning movements of the Sea Requiem as dedications to loved ones. This method of fundraising combined with a recent exhibition of my art and a very generous anonymous donation raised over £5,500, enough to cover in advance the fees of the players and soloists. 

Tickets to the concerts were free with a retiring collections, half to a cause and half to cover venue hire costs. 

Hindringham Church :£1,100.00 Gross: £550.00 for the church tower in Hindringham. 

The Lady Chapel: £1,500.00 Gross: £ 725.00 for new RNLI lifeboat at Wells Next-The-Sea in North Norfolk. 

In Hindringham Church for the Preview

Solo quartet with Michael Christie conducting

In Hindringham Church 

With Kris Neilsen

In Hindringham Church

In Norfolk

When a parent dies when you are singing abroad

In 2004 I won a year's contract in an audition with 30 other mezzos to sing Mistress Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff and Mrs Gross in Britten's Turn of The Screw at The Landestheater in Salzburg. It was a dream come true. Better roles than I had had at The Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp and Ghent plus the thrill of living in mountains in the romantic Austrian winter with cross country ski-ing easily available. 

My mother visited in the spring. We had a wonderful time drinking Grüner Veltliner on the roof terrace of the Hotel Stein and enjoying my performances and the general camaraderie. However she was not well. I knew in my heart that on her return to the UK she wouldn't make it. The heart surgeon said that one in twenty drop dead within the first thirty days of the operation. And so it was that the day after I had walked into the Salzburg mountains and seen a luminous sunset, my mother died. Thirty days exactly since her aortic valve had been replaced. I contemplated the wild garlic growing outside my urban apartment in Rettenparkstrasse.

" Can I speak to Penny ?" "Oh, I am so sorry " the nurse said "But Penny just died". I could hear my husband wail on another extension. What a co-incidence that we had rung at the same time, me from Salzburg, he from Hampstead. It was almost worse to hear him sobbing rather than receive the news that my brave Mum was no more. What should I do? Go home immediately? But for what? There had been no provision for goodbyes, anyway the Ryanair flight had already gone that day. 

Frau Schlager the Landestheater Intendant's secretary was uncommonly sympathetic. I performed Mrs Grose that night and was beautifully supported by the wonderful Maestro Ivor Bolton.

Mrs Grose in The Turn of The Screw

"Susannah Self is a British singer who also sings Mistress  Quickly in Salzburg, her Mrs Grose is as good as any I have heard"

Hugh Canning Opera Magazine 2005