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| An English Ladymass: Medieval Chant and Polyphony |
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List Price: $21.98
Our Price: $21.98
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0093046708023
Format: Import
Label: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
Release Date: 1993-03-08
Studio: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
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Editorial Reviews:
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In the six years since this female quartet astonished the music world with its clear- voiced, impeccably sung renditions of medieval chant and polyphonic music, chant rose from the dark and dusty corners of classical music to enjoy a phenomenal run at center stage. New and reissued chant recordings achieved sales figures normally reserved for popular music. This is the recording that started it all (that Spanish monks disc came later), winning awards and earning near- permanent resident status on the national charts. Spiritually moving and vocally revelatory, this program re-creates a kind of mass sung in English churches during the 13th and 14th centuries. With their warm tone and perfect intonation, these four singers achieve an expressiveness that is rare among chant interpreters, most effective in the seductive, highly ornamented "Kyrie." The sound is exemplary--although a studio recording, it perfectly conveys the atmosphere of an English cathedral. --David Vernier
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| Spotlight customer reviews: |
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Exquisite
Comment: I never tire of listening to this CD. Lovely and enchanting. Includes a booklet with all the words if you want follow each song closely.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An English Ladymass: Medieval Chant and Polyphony
Comment: Beautiful and lyrical and very satisfying to listen to while working or mediating. It's everything I hoped it would be!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Secret of Success
Comment: An English Ladymass. 13th and 14th Century Chant and Polyphony in Honor of the Virgin Mary. Performed by Anonymous 4 (Ruth Cunningham, Martha Genensky, Susan Hellauer and Johanna Rose).
Recorded in October, 1991, at Skywalker Sound, Nicasio, California.
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907080. Total time: 59’01”.
Musically, this is one of those rare, very special discs that not only sells well and then disappears into oblivion but that sells well and then stays relevant for many, many years. While re-listening to it, I asked myself again and again what the secret of its success was. A number of answers suggested themselves, none of them completely satisfactory, but all together providing something of a key. First, of course, there are the pure, vibrato-less soprano voices, combining in what some reviewers have, quite correctly I feel, termed “angelic” harmony. The booklet, unfortunately, does not give much information about the performers, but I seemed to hear here one very high soprano voice, what in English Renaissance music would be called a “mean”, plus two “normal” sopranos and an alto. The excitement of the high “mean” soprano and the narrow harmonies of the other voices can truly send shivers of delight down your spine. This is an effect that one usually only hears on discs of choral music (for example, on some of Harry Christophers’s recordings of the masses of John Taverner for Hyperion), and it is guaranteed to uplift the soul and impress with the beauty of the human voice. But added to this here are the medieval melodies, which, although often very strange to our ears, seem to reflect our common past and appear, in a certain way, to be familiar, perhaps as an echo of the joint human memory of those centuries of sacred music – or perhaps just as an individual memory of liturgical song heard in childhood. And of course, the music itself has an intensely “spiritual” flavour, with the excellent recording technique, the absolute stillness of the background and the ensemble’s decision to do without any instrumental accompaniment amounting to an invitation to meditation and devotion.
Perhaps it is indicative, however, of our post-modern age that none of my fellow Amazon reviewers appears to have reflected on the texts which Anonymous 4 have here put together (the result of painstaking musicological research, I should add). Despite all my enthusiasm for the sound and the music of this disc, I have to add that as an evangelical Christian (and as a child of the Enlightenment) I find the unabashed, sensuous Mariolatry of these medieval texts to be profoundly disturbing and, from a Protestant standpoint, utterly heretical. You don’t have to be a Catholic to enjoy the wonderful singing on this disc, but if you study the texts (which are printed in full with translations), you may, like me, become very grateful for what Martin Luther, John Calvin and their followers did for the Church.
As a footnote I should, perhaps, add that if you have enjoyed Anonymous 4's music-making, you might also like to try that of the Italian female ensemble La Reverdie, whose discs for the French label Arcana, although very different, also have some of the qualities that made Anonymous 4 so successful.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Other worldly bliss
Comment: The American Angels fly again from their permanent perch in heaven, inviting us all to accept this bliss. And they did this
recording many years ago. Timeless perfection and beauty.
Kim Thomas Hartman
Customer Rating:
Summary: Angelic Purity
Comment: It seems pointless to add another 5-star review to the list, but I have to. This CD is simply one of the most beautiful recordings ever made, and it touches your soul with every listening. If you are content, it will bolster and reinforce your tranquil mind. If you are sad or depressed, it will force tears from your eyes and rip sobs from your breast, setting you on the healing path. If you are happy, it will make you prance about your flat like a gleeful child.
It is wonderful as background music, and yet engaging enough for attentive listening. If you don't own this CD, you should buy it today.
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