[nagdu] Interesting Christmas CD: "We Woof You A Merry Christmas!"

[Laurie Mehta]

Christmas carols go to the dogs - Santa Cruz Sentinel

article posted at:  
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_11225110

Saturday, December 13, 2008

SANTA CRUZ, CA |
Christmas carols go to the dogs
Joel Isaacson - Sentinel Correspondent
Posted: 12/13/2008 01:35:41 AM PST

Veronica Elsea helps dogs sing.

In fact, she's the brains behind the new CD, "We Woof You a Merry Christmas," a collection of 16 Christmas carols sung by dogs. And they're not just any
dogs, but the best of their kind: professionally trained, working guide dogs.

Elsea, the owner of Laurel Creek Music Design and a Santa Cruz resident, is a composer and classical musician who has been blind since birth. She's worked
with 12 guide dogs since training with Cherokee, her first one, in 1974.

Elsea, 55 and originally from Southern California, played viola with the Santa Cruz Symphony in the '90s. Maya, a Labrador retriever whose personal taste
ran to loud rock music, would guide Elsea onto the stage and lie at her feet through each performance. At home, Maya became the performer while Elsea recorded
the dog's vocalizations. She's recorded all her dogs since then, right up to her most recent one, Hugh.

"These recordings are my memories," Elsea said. "Sighted people would take photographs."

When an injury ended her career as a performer, Elsea transformed herself into a recording artist. Her first challenge was vision-based studio equipment
with its screens, dials and digital readout. Her husband, Peter, helped by writing software that gives her audible feedback, which allows her to control
the recording and mixing process and to compose quickly.

Compose is what Elsea does. The new
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CD "We Woof You a Merry Christmas" is not mere YouTube jingle-dog yapping. It is a labor of love by a creative composer who has had special relationships
with some special dogs.

Out of 19 hours of recorded dog romp, Elsea isolated 513 sounds, which she used to compose the 16 canine carols. She linked each sound to a key on her electronic
keyboard, filling the keyboard 60 times. Elsea's challenge was to remember the keyboard location of each sound and to create music. Not simple music, either.
"O Holy Night," for example, is an overlay of 24 tracks.

It took five months of 10-hour days to complete the CD. Every note is a direct quote by a dog. No pitch has been changed and no sound has been altered.
The bass line, melody, four-part harmony and even the occasional instrumental solo on a dog toy is produced by the dogs.

The CD is for sale in Santa Cruz at Tom's Medical Pharmacy on the Westside; Made in Santa Cruz on the Municipal Wharf; Streetlight Records, downtown; and
at Scotts Valley Feed. The CD is also available online at
www.laurelcreekmusic.com.
Contact Joel Isaacson at 429-2436 or
jcopeland at santacruzsentinel.com.