 | Gloryland [Read More ...]
Description: Having left medieval chant and somewhat later polyphony behind and moved, musically, across the Atlantic with their last CD (American Angels), the women of Anonymous 4 are still exploring. For their move up a few centuries, their impeccable tonal purity remains, but a decidedly A... |
 | On Yoolis Night: Medieval Carols & Motets [Read More ...]
Description: This follow-up to Anonymous 4's debut "hit," An English Ladymass, is even better. From the choice of repertoire to the proficiency of the singing to the recorded sound, this is a standard-setting production. The 23 works--plainchants, carols, songs, and motets--invoke various ... |
 | American Angels - Songs of Hope, Redemption, & Glory [Read More ...]
Description: This, Anonymous 4's final recording, is a break from their usual "early music" periods and locations; it presents American music, religious in nature, from the 18th and 19th centuries. And it's absolutely beautiful from start to finish. Their normal, exquisite technique and purit... |
 | An English Ladymass: Medieval Chant and Polyphony [Read More ...]
Description: 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 reis... |
 | Wolcum Yule: Celtic and British Songs and Carols - Anonymous 4 with Andrew Lawrence-King [Read More ...]
Description: This offbeat disc of seasonal songs and carols by the Anonymous 4 will delight their fans and please everyone else. The 19 selections include traditional folk melodies and texts, some of which date back to the Middle Ages, interspersed with fitting selections by contemporary comp... |
 | A Portrait Of Anonymous 4 [Read More ...]
Description: This sampler album of excerpts from seven other Anonymous 4 releases is a good introduction for anyone who is unacquainted with the A4's startlingly pure singing and virtually celestial blend. But if you fall under the spell of this outstanding a capella quartet, the present disc... |
 | The Origin of Fire: Music and Visions of Hildegard von Bingen [Read More ...]
Description: The bad news is that this is Anonymous 4's final recording. The good news is that it's one of their best. Aside from a pair of brief 9th-century chants that flank the main program, the disc focuses on the music of Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th-century Benedictine nun whose litur... |
 | 1000: A Mass for the End of Time / Anonymous 4 [Read More ...]
Description: Remember all of the year-2000 nervousness in the latter part of 1999? That was nothing. As the year 1000 approached, people all over the Christian world were convinced that the Apocalypse--as depicted in the biblical Book of Revelation--and the end of the world were at hand. ... |
 | 11,000 Virgins: Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula [Read More ...]
Description: All the world loves Hildegard--and the four women of Anonymous 4 may be the best interpreters of her music since the 12th century. St. Ursula was the legendary daughter of a British king who, with her army of virgin companions, was martyred in Cologne, perhaps in the fifth cen... |
 | The Lily and the Lamb: Chant and Polyphony from Medieval England [Read More ...]
Description: The disc's title refers to Mary and her son, the Christ, which is the general theme of the medieval chant, polyphony, and poetry that forms this program. The selections are ordered around three 13th century "sequences" that describe Mary's experiences at the foot of the cross. ... |
 | Legends of St. Nicholas: Medieval Chant & Polyphony [Read More ...]
Description: If you're feeling jaded at the prospect of the usual holiday fare, Anonymous 4 has a truly sublime musical treat in store with their latest release. The contemporary world has turned Santa Claus into an icon of consumerist mania, but the historical figure from whom he ultimatel... |
 | Darkness into Light [Read More ...]
Description: Darkness into Light is the title of this new Anonymous 4 CD, and, indeed, many of the works refer to the perils and glory, religiously speaking, of the former and the latter, respectively. Sprinkled within the eight 12th- to 14th-century hymns, all beautifully performed and in... |
 | Love's Illusion-Music From The Montpellier Codex 13th Century [Read More ...]
Description: How's this for a concept: "True love may exist only outside of marriage, and a man must subject himself totally to the will of his beloved, whether or not her requests seem rational." If you think these ideas strange, be glad you weren't looking for love in France in the Middl... |
 | Christmas Music From Medieval Hungary [Read More ...]
Best as background music:No this isn't really Christmas music. Most of the pieces are antiphons which don't hold interest. And the melismas on track 19 (a motet) are warbly - on the edge of losing control. It does make nice background music because there is little to capture your attention. |
 | A Lammas Ladymass - 13th and 14th Century English Chant and Polyphony [Read More ...]
Description: The huge success of Anonymous 4--four women who sing nothing but chant and polyphony from the Middle Ages--is one of the remarkable musical phenomena of the '90s. What this ensemble has proved is that, when it comes to music, time is insignificant and arbitrary. Art, and certainl... |
 | Miracles of Sant'iago: Music from the Codex Calistinus [Read More ...]
Description: The program is a selection of chant and polyphony taken from a fascinating 12th-century manuscript that includes not only music but also sermons, stories, legends, and "an informative travel guide to the pilgrimage routes through France and Spain." The collection originated in... |
 | Hildegard Von Bingen: 11,000 Virgins [Hybrid SACD] [Read More ...]
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 | Miracles of Compostela [Read More ...]
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 | Les tres riches heures du Moyen Age: A Medieval Journey [Read More ...]
Review: Imperial vocal and instrumental work:I own the fifth CD of this series. It includes imperial vocal and regal wind-work, and very old vocal ecclesiastical harmonies of the French church. It also has interesting troubadour harmonies thrown in there, too. It is an eclectic mix of... |
 | La Bele Marie: Songs to the Virgin from 13th-Century France [Read More ...]
Description: The arrival of a new Anonymous 4 album has become as much a fall ritual as the turning of the leaves. However, there's nothing rote about their 12th album for Harmonia Mundi. All 17 selections are in honor of the Virgin Mary, ground familiar to fans of the ensemble's breakthrough... |
