Notes and Editorial Reviews
CARMINA CELTICA
•
Canty; William Taylor (hp)
•
LINN CKD 378 (66:56
Text and Translation)
PLAINSONG ANONYMOUS
17th/18th Century Scottish Music Books.
MacMILLAN
O mutorum.
MOODY
O quam mirabilis.
McGLYNN
Lorica.
McGARR
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class="ARIAL12i">Flower Garland.
METCALF
Shining Light.
ROWE
There Is Nothing Brighter Than the Sun.
JACKSON
Ubi flumen praesulis.
McCARTHY
The Stars in Their Courses.
TAVENER
2 Hadiths
The four voices of Canty—director Rebecca Tavener, Micaela Haslam, Anne Lewis, and Joanne Wicks—make a ravishing ensemble in this program of medieval and contemporary music associated with Scotland. The vocal pieces are slow and contemplative, many of the modern ones being accompanied by harp. William Taylor also plays arrangements of several pieces he has found in later Scottish music books.
All the modern pieces are interesting, if somewhat in the same vein. Several catch my ear, however, among them James MacMillan’s fine setting of an old text in praise of St. Columba. Ivan Moody’s
O quam mirabilis
takes a well-known text of Hildegard of Bingen as its starting point, and is a reminder that Canty’s beginning lay in the Hildegard celebrations of 1988. Rebecca Rowe’s
There Is Nothing Brighter Than the Sun
is one of the few to sound as if it were written in the last 50 years, and James McCarthy’s
The Stars in Their Courses
is a moving and understated meditation. The exception to the Scottish (and largely Christian) theme of this disc is John Tavener’s
Two Hadiths
, whose texts come from the Prophet Mohammed, but which shares the musical world of the rest of these pieces. Still, as Rebecca Tavener notes, this disc gives the ensemble a chance to record some of the recent music written for it.
The recording places the musicians well into a rather reverberant acoustic, intending, I think, to suggest a timeless medieval wash. This, alas, often obscures the words. At the same time, the harp improvisations to some of the plainsong, while doing no real harm, strike me as unnecessary. With that noted, this is a pleasing disc of material never before recorded.
FANFARE: Alan Swanson
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Works on This Recording
1.
Salve Splendor by Anonymous
Performer:
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Micaela Haslam (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
2.
Os mutorum by James MacMillan
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano),
William Taylor (Harp)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
3.
Confessor dei nicholaus by Anonymous
Performer:
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Micaela Haslam (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
Period: Medieval
4.
O Quam Mirabilis by Ivan Moody
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
5.
Green grows the rashes by Traditional
Performer:
William Taylor (Harp)
6.
Lorica by Ivan Moody
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
7.
Flower Garland by Peter McGarr
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
8.
Lauds by Anonymous
Performer:
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
William Taylor (Harp)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
Period: Medieval
9.
Inviolata, integra et casta es, Maria by Anonymous
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
Period: Renaissance
10.
Through the wood, laddie by Traditional
Performer:
William Taylor (Harp)
11.
Shining Light by Joanne Metcalf
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
12.
Beatus Gallus by Anonymous
Performer:
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
William Taylor (Harp)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
13.
There is nothing brighter than the sun by Rebecca Rowe
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
14.
A solis occasu by Anonymous
Performer:
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
William Taylor (Harp)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
15.
Ubi flumen praesulis by Gabriel Jackson
Performer:
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
William Taylor (Harp)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
16.
Sacrosanctam Kentegernus by Anonymous
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
17.
The Stars in their Courses by James McCarthy
Performer:
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
18.
Hadiths (2) by John Tavener
Performer:
Rebecca Tavener (Soprano),
Joanne Wicks (Mezzo Soprano),
Anne Lewis (Mezzo Soprano),
Micaela Haslam (Soprano),
William Taylor (Harp)
Conductor:
Rebecca Tavener
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Canty
Written: 2007
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