Thomson - Four Saints in Three Acts

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)

Four Saints in Three Acts
Libretto by Gertrude Stein
(Abridged by the Composer)

Virgil Thomson conducting
Chorus and Orchestra

Beatrice Robinson-Wayne,soprano
Ruby Green, alto


Inez Matthews, soprano
Charles Holland, tenor
David Bethea, tenor
Randolph Robinson, baritone
Altonell Hines, mezzo-soprano
Abner Dorsey, bass

(RCA Victor, recorded June, 1947)

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New 78 rpm transfer of above material.
Includes labels, notes, libretto, etc.

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Note: I've noticed that I mistakenly included two copies of the same label (it was intended that one should be Side 1 and the other Side 10). Sorry about that ... I was apparently just too concentrated on the transfer.

I made four different versions of this 10-side set.

Each set is hand-cleaned - that is, one plays it in real time and removes various sound blemishes and aberrations "by hand" (using the CR repair tool, which took well over five years to learn how to use ... and I'm still learning things). There can be an average of five sound details (or more) per minute of music to be worked on; some take a second; others can take as long as 5 to 20 minutes individually. This is unavoidable since hand cleaning is the best method for cleaning vocal recordings - otherwise the sound is very easily damaged (but I actually use this method for all of my transfers).

The cleaning alone of each version took four-plus hours to complete. None of this takes into account the editing (or scanning, etc.), which took a total of about four hours. That's 4+ x 4+ = 16+ hours of hand cleaning. This is why I make mistakes like uploading two identical labels - and also why transfers don't fall from trees.

Sure, this is all very "labor-intensive" ... but I love working on such things when they're uplifting and worthwhile from a number of perspectives at once. And since money and things like business and society are not involved - I only have to worry about increasingly doing a better job (which is the main point, after all).