A Midwife's Tale

The songs of late Renaissance and early Baroque England have been sliced and diced in various ways in concert and recorded programming, but the configuration here seems to be unique. The tenor Nicholas Phan, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, devised the program himself: pointing out "how little human experience has changed over the centuries" and that Dowland's melancholia had much in common with the Romantics' veneration of the lovesick solitary hero (both debatable ideas, but both stimulating), he assembles what he calls a pastiche song cycle from compositions by Purcell, Dowland, John Blow, and other lesser-known lights.

Written and recorded by brothers Mychael & Jeff Danna between their other scoring projects, A Celtic Tale is the soundtrack to an imaginary film of the Irish legend of Deirdre. Both the album and the legend reflect many aspects of love and sorrow. The Danna brothers mix Celtic folk, symphonic, and ambient music into a distinctive and fitting setting for Deirdre's star-crossed story. Though she is betrothed to a king, Deirdre finds her true love; she and her lover are exiled. When they try to return to their land, Deirdre's lover is killed, and she is imprisoned by the king she was to marry. Love and war blend in Deirdre's story; similarly, the music combines authentic Celtic instruments such as fiddle, tin whistle, flute, uilleann and highland pipes, and wire-strung harp with orchestral power and electronic atmospherics. Both listenable and powerful, A Celtic Tale showcases the Dannas' skill for creating emotionally accessible, technically beautiful music.