Pure Sound Please

Tim Bray shares his experience attending a Lenten Reflection concert at Vancouver's Holy Rosary Cathedral, featuring the Belle Voci vocal group and Cantare Super Orchestram early-music band. He reflects on the beauty of unamplified sound — voices traveling directly through cathedral acoustics to the listener — and argues that running music through electronics fundamentally changes it. He praises the ensemble's performance of works by Byrd, von Biber, Bach, Pergolesi, and Steffani, notes minor balance issues with male voices and bassoon placement, and closes with a plea to live music coordinators to prioritize sound quality.