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
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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
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)
The Babe of Bethlehem (Ye nations all, on you I call)
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
Christum wir sollen loben schon
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)
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