MennoLink Books and Music

The voices of the men's quartet recorded more than 40 years ago for the Mennonite Hour radio program can now be heard on CD.

The album, titled Good News! A Celebration of the Gospel, was the idea of John Horst Jr., a professor at Eastern Mennonite University and bass in the quartet from 1956-63. According to Horst, the songs represent some of the "heyday" years of the men's quartet, which some listeners may remember from the radio program, or the weekend and summer tours the quartet made to various churches. These acappella hymns were a regular feature on the weekly radio program, which went off the air in 1979.

The songs were originally recorded with a single microphone placed in front of the quartet. Transferring them from the old reel-to-reel tapes to digital masters required little additional enhancement, leaving a very pure original sound. "[The sound] is quite natural," said Horst, who commented that "the originals were really in very good shape.

Horst chose the songs after listening to about 120 quartet numbers archived between 1957 and 1964. After selecting the pieces that would go on the 60-minute album, Horst organized similar songs into categories such as "hymns and anthems" and "gospel songs."

Because the recordings were originally planned for radio, they are relatively short pieces - one to three minutes - with simple arrangements, sung clearly so that the audience would understand the words. "We sang with a lot of energy and enthusiasm," Horst said. "I think that comes through."