Another hit, please
Nov. 6th, 2005 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariEvery once in a while I find myself obsessed with a particular CD to the point where it is literally the only thing I listen to for several days. Which means playing it for a couple hours a day. Past culprits have included the Warsaw Village Band's "People's Spring" and The Forge Player's CD of Dowland. Now it's The Harp Consort's "Les Travailleurs de la Mer".
On Friday after work, I was in the Virgin Megastore at the Hynes T stop, getting a start on my Christmas shopping. I was browsing in the classical section, having already picked up the things I had gone there to get. They were playing this CD, and I was liking it quite a bit. When I realized that I was sticking around solely for the purpose of hearing more, I decided I should just buy the CD. And I've been listening to it exclusively all weekend.
"Les Travailleurs de la Mer" is an album of medieval and traditional music from the Isle of Guernsey, which is just off the coast of Normandy and also has strong ties with England, but is independent. The Harp Consort is mainly an early music group, and this CD thus concentrates on the more medieval side of things. While some of the song texts are from the 18th and 19th centuries, all of the music is (or at least sounds) much older. I think the "newest" piece is from the early Baroque. The instrumentation is early as well: harp, bagpipes, shawms, hurdy-gurdy, viola da gamba, flutes, baroque guitars, fiddles, etc. It sounds kind of like a combination of medieval and Celtic music. The playing and singing is very good and spirited. The playing makes the music very immediate - despite the age of the music, the performances are very natural, without any scholarly distance or restraint. You can tell that the musicians a have really made this music their own.
On Friday after work, I was in the Virgin Megastore at the Hynes T stop, getting a start on my Christmas shopping. I was browsing in the classical section, having already picked up the things I had gone there to get. They were playing this CD, and I was liking it quite a bit. When I realized that I was sticking around solely for the purpose of hearing more, I decided I should just buy the CD. And I've been listening to it exclusively all weekend.
"Les Travailleurs de la Mer" is an album of medieval and traditional music from the Isle of Guernsey, which is just off the coast of Normandy and also has strong ties with England, but is independent. The Harp Consort is mainly an early music group, and this CD thus concentrates on the more medieval side of things. While some of the song texts are from the 18th and 19th centuries, all of the music is (or at least sounds) much older. I think the "newest" piece is from the early Baroque. The instrumentation is early as well: harp, bagpipes, shawms, hurdy-gurdy, viola da gamba, flutes, baroque guitars, fiddles, etc. It sounds kind of like a combination of medieval and Celtic music. The playing and singing is very good and spirited. The playing makes the music very immediate - despite the age of the music, the performances are very natural, without any scholarly distance or restraint. You can tell that the musicians a have really made this music their own.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 03:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 04:07 am (UTC)