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The Carol Album - Seven Centuries Of Christmas Music


Release Date: 10/25/1990 
Label:  Warner Classics   Catalog #: 49809   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Franz Xaver Gruber,  Traditional,  Anonymous,  Jeremiah Ingalls,   ... 
Performer:  Charles Daniels,  Stephen Charlesworth,  Jakob Lindberg,  Elizabeth Tubb,   ... 
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort,  Taverner Players
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 3 Mins. 

CD not available: This title is currently only available as an MP3 download.  

This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.

Notes and Editorial Reviews

I think we're on to a winner with this record: for years, now, parish groups, amateur choral societies professional choirs have all done their nut—aspiring, no doubt, to emulate King's—to produce, year after year carol concerts and newly-devised services of nine lessons and carols, subjecting what were once truly the songs of the people to what Hugh Keyte has aptly termed the ''ritual indignity of 'sophisticated' elaboration''. We've had a surfeit of such fare: indeed, the process itself is running out of steam.

Here, though, is refreshment in the form of a rich repertoire of originals, well-researched, colourful, occasionally rumbustious, often delicately tender; at all events, as far as possible genuine and 'authentic'. The Read more music spans seven centuries, taking us from medieval England to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, even to the New World and Puritan 'shape-notes'. Dates, often actual sources, are listed wherever possible and original combinations of voices, or voices and instruments scrupulously respected, even to the allocation of different lines of one Christmas hymn—Quem pastores laudavere—to four contrasted vocal groupings, as was the practice apparently, in Germany in c. 1600. In reality, there may never have been so polished a performance of O Jesulein suss, nor so gentle a rendering of Swete was the song. We have no proof, either, that the words ''Veni, veni, Emmanuel'' were ever actually sung to the music of the trope Bone Jesu of the funeral responsory Libera me—that is, before Helmore transformed it into an English hymn, but how delightful to hear the high voices approaching from afar singing the French fifteenth-century descant version of our now well-known Advent tune! This year I have no doubt that what I'm going to put in my friends' Christmas stockings will be none other than this fascinating and most enjoyable treasure-trove.

-- Mary Berry, GRAMOPHONE (12/1989)
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Works on This Recording

1.
Silent Night by Franz Xaver Gruber
Performer:  Charles Daniels (Tenor), Stephen Charlesworth (Baritone), Jakob Lindberg (Guitar)
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Classical 
Written: 1818; Austria 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 3 Minutes 55 Secs. 
Language: German 
2.
Il est né, le divin enfant by Traditional
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Players
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 15th Century; France 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 1 Minutes 9 Secs. 
3.
Marche des rois by Traditional
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Players
Venue:  England 
Length: 1 Minutes 49 Secs. 
4.
The Babe of Bethlehem by Traditional
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Venue:  England 
Length: 2 Minutes 40 Secs. 
Language: English 
5.
God rest ye merry, gentlemen by Traditional
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort,  Taverner Players
Written: England 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 2 Minutes 29 Secs. 
Language: English 
6.
Quem pastores laudavere by Traditional
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort,  Taverner Players
Period: Medieval 
Written: 14th Century 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 1 Minutes 57 Secs. 
Language: Latin 
7.
Quanno nascette ninno by Traditional
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Players
Venue:  England 
Length: 1 Minutes 59 Secs. 
8.
Gabriel fram heven-king by Anonymous
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort,  Taverner Players
Period: Medieval 
Written: circa 1290; England 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 3 Minutes 17 Secs. 
Language: English 
9.
The Old Year now away is fled by Traditional
Performer:  Elizabeth Tubb (Soprano)
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 16th Century; England 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 1 Minutes 51 Secs. 
Language: English 
10.
O come, O come Emmanuel by Traditional
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 15th Century; France 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 3 Minutes 27 Secs. 
Language: Latin 
11.
Lully, lulla, thow littel tyne child "Coventry Carol" by Traditional
Performer:  Charles Daniels (Tenor), Emily van Evera (Soprano), Simon Grant (Bass)
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 16th Century; England 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 3 Minutes 22 Secs. 
Language: English 
12.
Ding Dong! Merrily on high by Traditional
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Players
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 16th Century; France 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 2 Minutes 2 Secs. 
Notes: This selection is based on the tune "Branle l'officiel" from Thoinot Arbeau's "Orchésographie".
This selection is based on the tune "Branle l'officiel" from Thoinot
Arbeau's "Orchésographie". 
13.
Nova! nova! by Anonymous
Performer:  Simon Grant (Baritone)
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Medieval 
Written: 15th Century 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 1 Minutes 41 Secs. 
Notes: This selection is sung in English and Latin. 
14.
Verbum caro: Y la Virgen by Anonymous
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Players
Period: Medieval 
Written: 15th Century 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 1 Minutes 42 Secs. 
15.
Redemption by Jeremiah Ingalls
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Classical 
Written: 1805; USA 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 0 Minutes 57 Secs. 
Language: English 
Notes: This selection begins with the words "Glory to God on high." 
16.
This endere nyghth by Anonymous
Performer:  Andrew Parrott (Tenor)
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Renaissance 
Written: circa 1600; England 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 4 Minutes 45 Secs. 
Language: English 
17.
O Jesulein süss, O Jesulein mild, BWV 493 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:  Jakob Lindberg (Lute), Tessa Bonner (Soprano)
Period: Baroque 
Written: by 1736; Leipzig, Germany 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 2 Minutes 3 Secs. 
Language: German 
18.
Swete was the song the Virgine soong by Anonymous
Performer:  Emily van Evera (Soprano)
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Players
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 16th Century 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 2 Minutes 36 Secs. 
Language: English 
19.
Ríu, ríu, chíu "El lobo rabioso" by Mateo Flecha
Performer:  Richard Wistreich (Bass)
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Medieval 
Written: Spain 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 3 Minutes 24 Secs. 
Language: Spanish 
20.
Christum wir sollen loben schon by Lucas Osiander
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 16th Century 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 3 Minutes 2 Secs. 
Language: German 
21.
Gaudete! by Anonymous
Performer:  Stephen Charlesworth (Baritone)
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort,  Taverner Players
Period: Renaissance 
Written: 16th Century 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 1 Minutes 41 Secs. 
Language: Latin 
22.
Verbum caro: In hoc anni circulo by Anonymous
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Medieval 
Written: 15th Century 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 2 Minutes 21 Secs. 
Language: Latin 
23.
Alleluya: A nywe werk is come on honde by Anonymous
Performer:  Nicholas Robertson (Tenor), Leigh Nixon (Tenor)
Conductor:  Andrew Parrott
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Taverner Consort
Period: Medieval 
Written: 15th Century 
 Venue:  England 
Length: 5 Minutes 50 Secs. 
Notes: This selection is sung in English and Latin. 

Sound Samples

Veni, veni Emmanuel (female voices)
Stille Nacht (original version)
Il est né, le divin Enfant (vocal)
Nova! nova!
Marche des rois
The Babe of Bethlehem (Ye nations all, on you I call)
Verbum caro: Y la Virgen
Glory to God on high
Thys endere nyghth
O Jesulein süss BWV493 (b.c. by Bach)
Il est né, le divin Enfant (instrumental)
God rest you merry, gentlemen
Swete was the song the Virgine soong
Quem pastores laudavere
Quanno nascette Ninno
Riu, riu, chiu
Gabriel fram heven-king
Christum wir sollen loben schon
The Coventry Carol
Gaudete!
Verbum caro: In hac anni circulo
Alleluya: A nywe werk is come on honde
The Old Year now away is fled
Branle de l'officiel (Ding dong! merrily on high)

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review:  ( 1 Customer Review )
 Good stuff, people January 10, 2015 By Jeremy D. (Fresno, CA) See All My Reviews "There are none of the same old beat-to-death Christmas tunes on this album. The songs are pulled from a wide range of times and cultures and the performances reflect that, Stille Nacht sounds like a German folk song(which I suppose it is), some pieces are performed softly and others have the singers practically shouting. With good performances from instrumentalists and vocalists this is an antidote to the same old tunes you have to hear all December, every December." Report Abuse
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