A Gift of Christmas Past / Greensleaves

cdbaby.com
Chestnut Hall Music
2004

C








1. Veni, veni Emanuel   [5:14]

2. Il est ne / Un Flambeau, Jeanette Isabelle   [2:50]

3. Sweete Was the Song the Virgin Sung   [3:21]

4. Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day   [4:41]

5. Polish Carol Medley   [3:00]

6. Ding, Dong! Merrily on High   [3:19]

7. What Childe is This?   [1:28]

8. Riu, riu chiu   [1:58]

9. Cantiga de Maria: Des oge mais   [3:41]   CSM  1

10. Es ist ein' Rose   [3:48]

11. All Hayle to the Dayes   [3:05]

12. Huron Carol   [3:51]

13. Chorea polonica   [2:44]

14. Veinticinco de diciembre   [1:43]

15. Regina coeli letare   [3:39]

16. Coventry Carol / Lute-Book Lullaby   [2:19]

17. Baloo, Lammy   [2:24]

18. Resonet in laudibus   [3:49]

19. Stille Nacht   [4:55]

Greensleaves, with its experience and exploration of the music that came before Mozart, has much to add to the pleasure of your festive season. For this CD the ensemble has chosen Christmas repertoire that suits the consort’s place in the musical firmament and that aims to take its listeners back to a simpler time, one free of commercial bustle. The arrangements, for the most part originally created for this album by Michael Purves-Smith, Magdalena Tomsinska, and Shannon Purves-Smith, add an imaginative flair to many of the pieces, which are comfortable among the original settings of others from the 16th and 17th centuries. The selections come from England, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Scotland, and Canada.

The CD includes fresh versions of familiar carols along with “new” old carols - ones that we hope will make sparkling additions to your Christmas listening choices. Some familiar Christmas melodies are gracefully transformed through the rhythms of Renaissance dances, and there is even a new carol by Purves-Smith that freely combines New Age and Renaissance traditions.

Daniel Cabena, Jennifer Enns-Modolo, Stephanie Kramer, and Jake Neely are all well-known singers who have performed with the Greensleaves viols, recorders, lute, and guitar and whose voices complement such gentle sounds. Like the previous album, Greensleaves, A Gift of Christmas Past is meant to charm and calm you. All of us involved with this happy project hope that our music accompanies your tree-trimming, your Christmas baking and gift-wrapping, the family feast, the gift-exchange festivities, and those moments of joyful reflection when you pause to savour the meaning of Christmas and its many pleasures.


Performers:

Anne McKenzie — viola da gamba, percussion
Shannon Purves-Smith — recorders and viols
Magdalena Tomsinska — lute, guitar, percussion

with Stephanie Kramer — soprano
Jennifer Enns-Modolo — mezzo-soprano
Daniel Cabena — counter-tenor, hand bells
Jake Neely — tenor
Michael Purves-Smith — bass voice (Riu, riu), recorders, percussion


For more information go to the www.greensleaves.com

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