Name	Saint Brendan of Clonfert
Birth date	c. 484
Death date	c. 577
Feast day	May 16
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion
Birth place	Ciarraighe Luachra near Tralee, County Kerry, Munster, Ireland
Death place	Annaghdown, County Galway, Connacht, Ireland
Titles	About
Attributes	whale; priest celebrating Mass on board ship while fish gather to listen; one of a group of monks in a small boat
Patronage	boatmen; divers; mariners; sailors; travellers; whales; diocese of Clonfert; diocese of Kerry
Major shrine	Clonfert
Prayer attrib	}}

Saint Brendan of Clonfert or Bréanainn of Clonfert (c. 484 – c. 577) (Irish: Naomh Breandán; Icelandic: Brandanus) called "the Navigator", "the Voyager", or "the Bold" is one of the early Irish monastic saints. He is chiefly renowned for his legendary quest to the "Isle of the Blessed," also called St. Brendan's Island. The Voyage of St. Brendan could be called an immram (Irish navigational story). He was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

Saint Brendan's feast day is celebrated on May 16 by Catholics, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Early life

In 484 Saint Brendan was born in Ciarraighe Luachra near the port of Tralee, in County Kerry, in the province of Munster, in the south west of Ireland. He was baptized at Tubrid, near Ardfert, by Saint Erc. For five years he was educated under Saint Ita, "the Brigid of Munster", and he completed his studies under Saint Erc, who ordained him priest in 512. Between the years 512 and 530 St Brendan built monastic cells at Ardfert, and, at the foot of Mount Brandon, Shanakeel— Seana Cill, usually translated as "the old church"— also called Baalynevinoorach.

From here he is supposed to have set out on his famous seven years voyage for Paradise. The old Irish Calendars assigned a special feast for the "Egressio familiae S. Brendani", on March 22; and St Aengus the Culdee, in his Litany composed at the close of the eighth century, invokes "the sixty who accompanied Lord Brendini in his quest for the Land of Promise".

Biographical narratives

Hagiographers “know of Brendan chiefly from four sources- the Irish Lives, the Latin Lives, the Latin Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis and many vernacular versions of his voyage in the emerging languages of Europe, collectively known as the Voyage of Brendan. We also know of Brendan from the frequent mentions of him in the lives of other saints and in many calendars and martyrologies that have survived in Ireland and in Scotland."

There is, however, very little secure information concerning his life, although at least the approximate dates of his birth and death, and accounts of some events in his life, are found in the Irish annals and genealogies. The principal works devoted to the saint and his legend are a ‘Life of Brendan’ in several Latin and Irish versions (Vita Brendani / Betha Brenainn) and the better known ‘Voyage of Saint Brendan the abbot’ (Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis). Unfortunately, the Lives and the Voyage provide little reliable information about his life and travels; they do, however, attest to the development of his following in the centuries after his death. An additional problem is that the precise relationship between the Vita and the Navigatio traditions is uncertain.

Just when the Vita tradition began is uncertain. The surviving copies are not earlier than the end of the twelfth century, but scholars suggest that a version of the Life was composed before the year 1000. The Navigatio was probably written earlier than the Vita, perhaps in the second half of the eighth century.

Any attempt to reconstruct the details of the life of the real Brendan or to understand the nature of the Brendan legend has to be based principally on the Irish annals and genealogies and on the various versions of the Vita Brendani.

Legendary journey

St Brendan is chiefly renowned for his legendary journey to The Isle of the Blessed as described in the ninth century Voyage of St Brendan the Navigator. Many versions exist, that tell of how he set out onto the Atlantic Ocean with sixty pilgrims (other versions have fourteen, plus three unbelievers who join at the last minute) searching for the Garden of Eden. One of these companions is said to have been Saint Malo, the namesake of Saint-Malo. If it happened, this would have occurred sometime between 512-530 AD, before his travel to the island of Great Britain. On his trip, Brendan is supposed to have seen St. Brendan's Island, a blessed island covered with vegetation. He also encountered a sea monster, an adventure he shared with his contemporary St. Columba. The most commonly illustrated adventure is his landing on an island which turns out to be a giant sea monster called Jasconius or Jascon. This too, has its parallels in other stories, not only in Irish mythology but in other traditions, from Sinbad the Sailor to Pinocchio.

The Voyage of Saint Brendan

The earliest extant version of The Voyage of Saint Brendan was recorded around 900 AD. There are over 100 manuscripts of the story across Europe, as well as many additional translations. The Voyage of Saint Brendan is an overtly Christian narrative, but also contains narratives of natural phenomena and fantastical events and places, which appealed to a broad populace. The Voyage of Saint Brendan contains many parallels and inter-textual references to the Voyage of Bran and the Voyage of Máel Dúin.

Chapter Synopsis: # Saint Barrid tells of his visit to the Island of Paradise, which prompts Brendan to go in search of the isle. # Brendan assembles 14 monks to accompany him. # They fast at 3-day intervals for 40 days, and visit Saint Enda for 3 days and 3 nights. # Three latecomers join the group. They interfere with Brendan's sacred numbers. # They find an island with a dog, mysterious hospitality (no people, but food left out), and an Ethiopian devil. # One latecomer admits to having stolen from the mysterious island, Brendan exorcises the Ethiopian devil from the latecomer, latecomer dies and is buried. # They find an island with a boy who brings them bread and water. # They find an island of sheep, eat some, and stay for Holy Week (before Easter). # They find the island of Jasconius, have Easter Mass, and hunt whales and fish. # They find an island that is the Paradise of Birds, and the birds sing psalms and praise the Lord. # They find the island of the monks of Ailbe, with magic loaves, no aging, complete silence, and. They celebrate Christmas. # A long voyage after Lent. They find an island with a well, and drinking the water puts them to sleep for 1,2, or 3 days based on the number of cups each man drank. # They find a "coagulated" sea. # They return to the islands of Shep, Jasconius, and the Paradise of Birds. A bird prophesies that the men must continue this year-long cycle for seven years before they will be holy enough to reach the Island of Paradise. # A sea creature approaches the boat, but God shifts the sea to protect the men. Another sea creature comes, chops the first into three pieces, and leaves. The men eat the dead sea creature. # They find an island of 3 choirs of anchorites (monks), who give them fruit, and the second latecomer stays behind when the others leave. # They find an island of grapes, and stayed for 40 days. # A gryphon and a bird battle. The gryphon dies. # To the monastery at Ailbe again for Christmas. # The sea is clear, and many threatening fish circle their boat, but God protects them. # They pass a "silver pillar wrapped in a net" in the sea. # They pass an island of blacksmiths, who throw slag at them. # They find a volcano, and the third latecomer is taken by demons down to Hell. # They find Judas sitting unhappily on a cold, wet rock in the middle of the sea, and discover that this is his respite from Hell for Sundays and feast days. Brendan protects Judas from the demons of Hell for one night. # They find an island where Paul the Hermit has lived a perfect monastic life for 60 years. He wears nothing but hair and is fed by an otter. # They return to the island of Sheep, Jasconius, and the Paradise of Birds. # They find the Promised Land of the Saints. # They return home, and Brendan dies.

Early Dutch version

One of the earliest preserved written versions of the legend is in Dutch De Reis van Sint Brandaen (Mediaeval Dutch for On the Voyage of Saint Brendan), written in the 12th century. Scholars believe it is derived from a now lost middle High German text combined with Celtic elements from Ireland and combines Christian and fairy tale elements. Des Reis van Sint Brandaen describes "Brandaen," a monk from Galway, and his voyage around the world for nine years. The journey was begun as a punishment by an angel who had seen that Brendan did not believe in the truth of a book on the miracles of creation and saw Brandaen throw it into the fire. The angel tells him that truth has been destroyed. On his journeys Brandaen encounters the wonders and horrors of the world, such as Judas frozen on one side and burning on the other, people with swine heads, dog legs and wolf teeth carrying bows and arrows, and an enormous fish that encircles the ship by holding its tail in its mouth. The English poem Life of Saint Brandan is a later English derivative of the Dutch version.

Effects

As the legend of the seven years voyage spread, crowds of pilgrims and students flocked to Ardfert. Religious houses were formed at Gallerus, Kilmalchedor, Brandon Hill, and the Blasket Islands, in order to meet the wants of those who came for spiritual guidance from Saint Brendan. Saint Brendan is the Patron Saint of sailors and travelers. At the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, a large stained glass window commemorates Brendan's achievements. At Fenit Harbour, Tralee, a substantial bronze sculpture with a small horn has been erected to honor the memory of Brendan.

Context

As a genre, The Voyage of St. Brendan (in Latin, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani) fits in with a then-popular form of literature, peculiar to Ireland, called an immram, that describes a hero's series of adventures in a boat. (Some of these immrams involved the search for, and visits to, Tir na nOg, an island far to the west, beyond the edges of the world map.) For example, there appear to be similarities with The Voyage of Bran written much earlier. In the Navigatio, this style of storytelling meshed with a religious ascetic tradition where Irish monks would travel alone in boats, the same way their desert brothers used to isolate themselves in caves.

Brendan is one of the most famous Irish saints. His voyages created one of the most remarkable and enduring of European legends. With much of Brendan's journeys coming from the Navigatio it has been difficult for scholars to interpret what is factual and what is folklore. Irish immram flourished during the seventh and eighth centuries. Typically, an immram was a sea-voyage in which a hero, with a few companions, often monks, wanders from island to island, meets other-world wonders, and finally returns home. The story of Brendan's voyage, developed during this time, shares some characteristics with immram. Like an immram, the Navigatio tells the story of Brendan, who, with some companion monks, sets out to find the terra repromissionis sanctorum, the Promised Land of the Saints or the Earthly Paradise.

Possible link to America

While the story is often assumed to be a religious allegory, there has been considerable discussion as to whether the legends are based on actual events, including speculation that the Isle of the Blessed was actually America. There is a St. Brendan Society that celebrates the belief that Brendan was the first European to reach America. Tim Severin demonstrated it is possible that a leather-clad boat such as the one described in the Navigatio could have reached North America.

Later life

Brendan travelled to Wales and the holy island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland; returning to Ireland, he founded a monastery at Annaghdown, where he spent the rest of his days. He also founded a convent at Annaghdown for his sister Briga. He was recognized as a saint by the Irish Church, and his feast day was celebrated on May 16. Having established the bishopric of Ardfert, St. Brendan proceeded to Thomond, and founded a monastery at Inis-da-druim (now Coney Island), in the present parish of Killadysert, County Clare, about the year 550. He then journeyed to Wales, and thence to Iona, for he is said to have left traces of his apostolic zeal at Kil-brandon (near Oban) and Kil-brennan Sound. After a three years' mission in Britain he returned to Ireland, and did more proselytizing in various parts of Leinster, especially at Dysart (County Kilkenny), Killiney (Tubberboe), and Brandon Hill. He established churches at Inchiquin, County Galway and at Inishglora, County Mayo. He died c. 577 at Annaghdown, while visiting his sister Briga. Fearing that after his death his devotees might take his remains as relics, Brendan had arranged before dying to have his body secretly carried back to the monastery he founded at Clonfert concealed in a luggage cart. He was buried in Clonfert Cathedral.

Establishments

St. Brendan's activities as a churchman, however, were developed in Western Ireland, where his most important foundations are found, i.e. Ardfert (Co. Kerry), Inishdadroum (Co. Clare), Annaghdown (Co. Galway), and Clonfert (Co. Galway). His name is perpetuated in numerous place names and landmarks along the Irish coast (e.g. Brandon Hill, Brandon Point, Mount Brendan, Brandon Well, Brandon Bay, Brandon Head).

Saint Brendan's most celebrated foundation was Clonfert Cathedral, in the year 563, over which he appointed St. Moinenn as Prior and Head Master. St Brendan was interred in Clonfert.

The group of ecclesiastical remains at Ardfert is one of the most interesting and instructive now existing in Ireland. The ruins of the ancient Cathedral of St. Brendan, and of its annexed chantries and detached chapels, form a very complete reliquary of Irish ecclesiastical architecture, in its various orders and ages, from the plain but solid Danhliag of the seventh or eighth century to some late and most ornate examples of medieval Gothic. The cathedral, as it now stands, or rather as it stood before it was finally dismantled in A.D. 1641.

Appearances in popular culture

The Brendan Voyage is an orchestral suite for Uilleann pipes, written by Irish composer Shaun Davey in 1983 and based on Tim Severin's book of the same name.

Novelist Patricia Kennealy-Morrison features St. Brendan in her book "The Deers Cry", retelling his story with a science fiction twist.

Novelist Frederick Buechner retold the story of Brendan's travels in his 1987 novel Brendan.

The Celtic band Iona made an entire recording inspired by the voyage of Saint Brendan called Beyond These Shores, now available as part of the recording The River Flows.

Singer songwriter Sarana VerLin wrote an instrumental song titled "St. Brendan's Reel" that appears on several albums including "Amadon Crest".

In the 2005 film Beowulf & Grendel, a travelling monk named Brendan the Celt sails to Denmark circa 521 A.D.

J.R.R.Tolkien wrote a poem called "The Voyage of Saint Brendan" included in his posthumously published time travel story The Lost Road and Other Writings.

The cream liqueur "Saint Brendan's" is named after him.

Tommy Makem apparently bought wholesale the idea that Brendan's Isle of the Blessed was in fact America. His song "Brendan" on the album "Rolling Home" tells the story (explained in detail on the disk sleeve) of how he traveled to Newfoundland, down the coast to Florida, and thence back to Ireland.

The Irish rock band The Elders have a song on their album "Racing the Tide" called "Saint Brendan Had a Boat"

Saint Brendan has been adopted by the scuba diving industry as the Patron Saint of Scuba Divers.

Irish folk singer Christy Moore had a humorous track called St. Brendan's Voyage on his 1983 album Ordinary Man.

Canadian indie band Lowest of the Low correlate the voyage of St. Brendan to the Atlantic passage of French and Irish immigrants to eastern Canada in the song "St. Brendan's Way" on the album Shakespeare My Butt

Places associated with St. Brendan

Annaghdown, County Galway

Ardfert, County Kerry

Fenit Island, Tralee Bay, County Kerry

Brandon Creek on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry.

Mount Brandon, County Kerry

Brandon Hill, County Kilkenny

Faroe Islands

Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Iona Island, Scotland

Gallarus Oratory, County Kerry

Clonfert

Killadysert, County Clare

Dysart, County Kilkenny

Killbrandon, near Oban, Scotland

Kilbrennan Sound

Killiney

Inchiquin, County Galway

Inishglora, County Mayo

Hebrides

Iceland

Newfoundland

Canary Islands

Jan Mayen, which some claim he was the first person to sight

Curiosity

In the Sicilian town of Bronte there is a Church dedicated to Saint Brendan, whose name in the local dialect is "San Brandanu". Since 1574, the "Chiesa di San Blandano" ( or Church of Saint Brendan) replaced a Chapel with such name that existed previously in the same location. The real devotional reasons of such entitlement are still unknown and untraceable. In 1799 the countryside surrounding Brontë became the British "Duchy of Horatio Nelson". The town of Drogheda is twinned with Brontë.

See also

List of people on stamps of Ireland

Saint Amaro, a semi-legendary Spanish navigator and saint

Timeline of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact

St. Brendan's Island, a phantom island said to have been discovered by St. Brendan on his voyage

References

Bibliography

Secondary sources

Donnchadha, Gearóid Ó. St Brendan of Kerry, the Navigator. His Life & Voyages. OPEN AIR ISBN 1-85182-871-0

Meijer, Reinder. Literature of the Low Countries: A Short History of Dutch Literature in the Netherlands and Belgium. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1971.

Primary sources

Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (Latin):

* trans. J.F. Webb in The Age of Bede, ed. D. H. Farmer (Harmondsworth, 1983)

* ed. Carl Selmer, Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (South Bend, IN, 1959)

* trans. John O‟Meara and Jonathan Wooding, in The Voyage of Saint Brendan: Representative Versions of the Legend in English Translation, ed. W.R.J. Barron and Glyn S. Burgess (Exeter, 2002).

The First Irish Life of St Brendan

*ed. and tr. Whitley Stokes, Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore. Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series 5. Oxford, 1890. pp. 99–116, 247–61. Based on the Book of Lismore copy.

*ed. and tr. Denis O’Donoghue, Brendaniana. St Brendan the Voyager in Story and Legend. Dublin, 1893. Partial edition and translation, based on the Book of Lismore as well as copies in Paris BNF celtique et basque 1 and BL Egerton 91.

The Second Irish Life of St Brendan (conflated with the Navigatio). Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique 4190–4200 (transcript by Mícheál Ó Cléirigh)

*ed. and tr. Charles Plummer, Bethada náem nÉrenn. Lives of the Irish saints. Oxford: Clarendon, 1922. Vol. 1. pp. 44–95; vol. 2, 44–92.

Voyage of St Brendan (Anglo-Norman)

* The Anglo-Norman Voyage of St Brendan, ed. Brian Merrilees and Ian Short (Manchester, 1979)

* The Anglo-Norman Voyage of St Brendan by Benedeit, ed. E.G. Waters (Oxford, 1928)

* Benedeit – Le Voyage de Saint Brandan, ed. and transl. into German Ernstpeter Ruhe (München, 1977)

* Transl. in The Voyage of Saint Brendan: Representative Versions of the Legend in English Translation, ed. W.R.J. Barron and Glyn S. Burgess (Exeter, 2002)

Further reading

Bray, Dorothy, "Allegory in the Navigatio Sancti Brendani", Viator 26 (1995), 1-10.

Burgess, Glyn S, and Clara Strijbosch, The Legend of St Brendan: A Critical Bibliography (Dublin, 2000)

Dumville, David, "Two Approaches to the Dating of Nauigatio Sancti Brendani", Studi medievali, third s. 29 (1988), 87-102

Esposito, M., "An Apocryphal Book of Enoch and Elias as a Possible Source for the Navigatio Sancti Brendani", Celtica 5 (1960), 192-206

Gardiner, Eileen, Visions of Heaven and Hell Before Dante (New York: Italica Press, 1989), pp. 81–127, provides an English translation of the Latin text of the Voyage of St. Brendan.

Iannello, Fausto, "Navigatio sancti Brendani" e materia arturiana: continuità e analogie, "Atti della Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti, classe di Lettere, Filosofia e Belle Arti" 85 (2009), 241-253

Illingworth, Robin N., "The Structure of the Anglo-Norman Voyage of St Brendan by Benedeit," Medium Aevum 55:2 (1986), 217-29

Jones, Robin F., "The Mechanics of Meaning in the Anglo-Norman Voyage of Saint Brendan,‟ Romanic Review 71:2 (1980), 105-13

Mackley, Jon, Legend of Brendan: A Comparative Study of the Latin and Anglo-Norman Versions (Leiden: Brill, 2008)

Moult, D. Pochin, "St Brendan: Celtic Vision and Romance,‟ in Ireland of the Saints (London, 1953), pp. 153–70

Ritchie, R. L. G., "The Date of The Voyage of St Brendan‟, Medium Aevum 19 (1950), 64-6

Sobecki, Sebastian, "From the désert liquide to the Sea of Romance – Benedeit's Voyage de saint Brandan and the Irish immrama", Neophilologus 87:2 (2003), 193-207

Sobecki, Sebastian, The Sea and Medieval English Literature (Cambridge: 2008)

Wooding, Jonathan, "St Brendan's Boat: Dead Hides and the Living Sea in Columban and Related Hagiography‟, in Studies in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, eds John Carey, Máire Herbert and Pádraig Ó Riain (Dublin, 2001), pp. 77–92

Wooding, Jonathan, The Otherworld Voyage in Early Irish Literature (Dublin, 2000)

Murray, K. Sarah-Jane, "The Wave Cry, The Wind Cry," in From Plato to Lancelot (Syracuse University Press, 2008)

External links

Complete Annotated Bibliography on the Voyage of St. Brendan and the Life of St. Brendan.

Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Brendan

Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Saint Brendan the Navigator">Biography from "A Little Book of Celtic Saints:" Saint Brendan the Navigator

">"Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis" in (Latin) ">"Voyage Of St. Brendan The Abbot" in (English)

Betha Brénnain (Life of Brenainn) translated into English from the Book of Lismore.

The Voyage of Beyond the Sea Simon Young writes about St Brendan's journey in Fortean Times

Wall Street Journal: "Of Sainted Memory"

Faroestamps.fo – Faroese stamp edition (English, German, French, Danish, Faroese)

Brendan's Fabulous Voyage – 1893 lecture by John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, available from Project Gutenberg

Category:484 births Category:578 deaths Category:6th-century Christian saints Category:6th-century Irish people Category:6th-century people Category:Christian folklore Category:Dutch folklore Category:Eastern Orthodox saints Category:Irish explorers Category:Irish religious leaders Category:Irish folklore Category:Medieval Irish people Category:Medieval Gaels Category:Medieval Irish saints Category:Medieval legends Category:Medieval saints of Connacht Category:People from County Kerry Category:People from County Galway Category:Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact Category:Voyagers in Celtic mythology

ar:بريندان br:Brendan ca:Brandan de Conflert de:Brendan der Reisende es:Brandán fo:Brendan fr:Brendan de Clonfert ga:Naomh Breandán is:Sankti Brendan it:Brendano di Clonfert he:ברנדן מקלונפרט sw:Brendan lt:Šv. Brendanas nl:Brandaan van Clonfert ja:クロンファートのブレンダン no:Brendan sjøfareren nn:Brendan sjøfararen pl:Święty Brendan pt:São Brandão ru:Святой Брендан sl:Sveti Brendan sh:Brendan fi:Pyhä Brendan sv:Brendan uk:Святий Брендан id:Santo Brendan dari Clonfert

name	Record producer
official names	Record Producer Recording Artist
type	Profession
activity sector	Music Industry Music
competencies	Instrumental Skills, Keyboard Knowledge
employment field	Recording Studios
related occupation	Recording engineerExecutive ProducerFilm ProducerA&R;
average salary	$67'330 }}

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording (i.e. "production") of an artist's music. A producer has many roles that may include, but are not limited to, gathering ideas for the project, selecting songs and/or musicians, coaching the artist and musicians in the studio, controlling the recording sessions, and supervising the entire process through mixing and mastering. Producers also often take on a wider entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, and negotiations.

Today, the recording industry has two kinds of producers: executive producer and music producer; they have different roles. While an executive producer oversees a project's finances, a music producer oversees the creation of the music.

A music producer can, in some cases, be compared to a film director, with noted practitioner Phil Ek himself describing his role as "the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, like a director would a movie. The engineer would be more the cameraman of the movie." The music producer's job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music. The scope of responsibility may be one or two songs or an artist's entire album – in which case the producer will typically develop an overall vision for the album and how the various songs may interrelate.

In the US, before the rise of the record producer, someone from A&R; would oversee the recording session(s), assuming responsibility for creative decisions relating to the recording.

With today's relatively easy access to technology, an alternative to the record producer just mentioned, is the so called 'bedroom producer'. With today's technological advances, it is very easy for a producer to achieve high quality tracks without the use of a single instrument. Many established artists take this approach.

History

Early record producers

During the 1890s, Fred Gaisburg ran the first recording studio and provided the closest approximation of production by guiding an opera singer closer or further away from a gramophone's horn to match the dynamics in the score. (Citation: Gronow and Saunio 1998, p. 8; Moorefield 2005, p. 1).

However in the first part of the 20th century the record producer's role was similar to the role of a film producer in that the record producer organized and supervised recording sessions, paid technicians, musicians and arrangers, and sometimes chose material for the artist. In the mid-1950s a new category emerged, that of the independent record producer. Among the most famous early independent producers are the famed songwriting-production duo Leiber & Stoller, "Wall of Sound" creator Phil Spector and British studio pioneer Joe Meek.

Magnetic tape enabled the establishment of independent recording studios in major recording centres such as London, Los Angeles and New York. Unlike the old record company studios, which were effectively a "closed shop", these new studios could be hired by the hour by anyone who could afford to do so.

The biggest and best commercial studios were typically established and operated by leading recording engineers. They were carefully constructed to create optimum recording conditions, and were equipped with the latest and best recording equipment and top-quality microphones, as well as electronic amplification gear and musical instruments.

Top-line studios such as Olympic Studios in London, Fine Recording in New York City, United Western Recorders, and Musart in Los Angeles quickly became among the most sought-after recording facilities in the world, and both these studios became veritable "hit factories" that produced many of the most successful pop recordings of the latter 20th century.

Evolution of the role of the producer

Prior to the 1950s, the various stages of the recording and marketing process had been carried out by different professionals within the industry – A&R; managers found potential new artists and signed them to their labels; professional songwriters created new material; publishing agents sold these songs to the A&R; people; staff engineers carried out the task of making the recordings in company-owned studios.

Freed from this traditional system by the advent of independent commercial studios, the new generation of entrepreneurial producers – many of whom were former record company employees themselves – were able to create and occupy a new stratum in the industry, taking on a more direct and complex role in the musical process. This development in music was mirrored in the TV industry by the concurrent development of videotape recording and the consequent emergence of independent TV production companies like Desilu.

These producers now typically carried out most or all of these various tasks themselves, including selecting and arranging songs, overseeing sessions (and often engineering the recordings) and even writing the material. Independent music production companies rapidly gained a significant foothold in popular music and soon became the main intermediary between artist and record label, signing new artists to production contracts, producing the recordings and then licensing the finished product to record labels for pressing, promotion and sale. (This was a novel innovation in the popular music field, although a broadly similar system had long been in place in many countries for the production of content for broadcast radio.) The classic example of this transition is renowned British producer George Martin, who worked as a staff producer and A&R; manager at EMI for many years, before branching out on his own and becoming a highly successful independent producer.

As a result of these changes, record producers began to exert a strong influence, not only on individual careers, but on the course of popular music. A key example of this is Phil Spector, who defined the gap between early rock and roll and the Beatles (1959–1964) with such acts as the Ronettes, the Crystals, Darlene Love, the Righteous Brothers and the Paris Sisters. Spector's Wall of Sound production technique also persisted after that time with his select recordings of the Beatles, the Ramones, Leonard Cohen, George Harrison, Dion and Ike and Tina Turner.

Some producers also became ipso facto recording artists, often creating records themselves or with anonymous studio musicians and releasing them under a pseudonym. Examples of this phenomenon include the records by fictional groups the Archies and Josie & the Pussycats, produced by Don Kirshner and Danny Jansen respectively, who were contracted by TV production companies to produce these records to promote the animated children's TV series of the same name. Similarly, Jeff Barry and Andy Kim recorded as the Archies. The same producer-as-artist phenomenon can be found with many modern-day pop-oriented street- and electronic-music artists.

Another change that occurred for the role of producers occurred progressively over the 50’s and 60’s. Popularization of new technology such as synthesizers, electric guitars, amplifiers, and better microphones led to a fundamental switch. The goal of recording no longer was simply accurately capturing and documenting live performance. Instead producers could manipulate sounds. Producers became creative figures in the studio were no longer reserved to role of functional engineer. Examples of such engineers includes George Martin, Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and Biddu. These producers became known as creative producers who turned the studio into a creative space.

Equipment and technology

There are numerous different technologies utilized by the producer. In modern day recordings, recording and mixing tasks are centralized within computers. However, there is also the main mixer, outboard effects gear, and the recording device itself.

See also

Music executive

Musician

Audio engineering

References

Further reading

Gibson, David and Maestro Curtis. "The Art of Producing". 1st. Ed. USA. ArtistPro Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1931140448

Burgess, Richard James. The Art of Music Production. 3rd Ed. UK. Music Sales, 2005. ISBN 1-84449-432-4

Hewitt, Michael. Music Theory for Computer Musicians. 1st Ed. USA. Cengage Learning, 2008. ISBN 13-978-1-59863-503-4

Gronow, Pekka and Ilpo Saunio (1998). An International History of the Recording Industry. ISBN-X. Cited in Moorefield (2005).

Moorefield, Virgil (2005). The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music. ISBN. 123

Olsen, Eric et al. (1999). The Encyclopedia of Record Producers. ISBN 0823076075 9780823076079

Zak, Albin. The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

List of the Producers of the Current Top 100 Songs, Top 100 – Album Credits

External links

Record Producer Video Interviews

American Music Producers

Music Production Information Source

Category:Music production

bg:Музикален продуцент ca:Productor musical cs:Hudební producent cy:Cynhyrchydd recordiau da:Musikproducer de:Musikproduzent et:Muusikaprodutsent es:Productor discográfico fa:تهیه‌کننده موسیقی fr:Producteur de musique hr:Glazbeni producent ia:Productor discographic is:Upptökustjóri it:Produttore discografico he:מפיק מוזיקלי ka:მუსიკალური პროდიუსერი sw:Mtayarishaji wa Muziki mk:Музички продуцент ms:Penerbit rakaman nl:Muziekproducent ja:音楽プロデューサー no:Plateprodusent nn:Musikkprodusent pl:Producent muzyczny pt:Produtor musical ru:Музыкальный продюсер sq:Producenti i muzikës simple:Record producer sk:Hudobný producent fi:Tuottaja (musiikki) sv:Musikproducent th:โปรดิวเซอร์เพลง tr:Albüm yapımcısı uk:Музичний продюсер ur:محصل سجل zh:音樂製作人