Secular Hymns

Amarcord - And So It Goes
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 257 MB | Full Artwork: 150 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Raumklang "edition apollon" # RK ap 10102 | Country/Year: Germany 2002
Genre: Classical, Pop, Jazz | Style: Vocal, A Capella, Crossover

Amarcord is a popular male vocal ensemble devoted largely to Medieval- and Renaissance-era music. The group also sings works by contemporary composers and performs arrangements of songs from various periods. Amarcord is an unusual ensemble in that it consists of just five singers who sing a cappella. There are two tenors, one baritone, and two basses. The sound is quite individual, imparting a mellow, somewhat Romantic approach to the vocal style, with the two tenor voices often singing the lead parts. Much of the early music repertory is from the sacred realm, consisting of chant, hymns, motets, and other religious genres. The group also sings madrigals, Christmas songs, and various secular works, including Classical, Romantic, and modern compositions, as well as pop and rock. Amarcord has made numerous recordings for several labels, including Raumklang, Ars Musici, and EuroArts…

Amarcord is a popular male vocal ensemble devoted largely to Medieval- and Renaissance-era music. The group also sings works by contemporary composers and performs arrangements of songs from various periods. Amarcord is an unusual ensemble in that it consists of just five singers who sing a cappella. There are two tenors, one baritone, and two basses. The sound is quite individual, imparting a mellow, somewhat Romantic approach to the vocal style, with the two tenor voices often singing the lead parts.

Jonathan Meades' shows are unlike anyone else's. They belong to a genre of their own. They are heavy entertainment. They combine topographical analysis with performance art, high seriousness with low comedy, visual trickery with hymns to the overlooked, polemical argument with scathing wit. They take you to places you'll never have been before - most of them located in the byways of Meades' imagination. They show how the world seems to him and they may even persuade you to look again…

Recordings, text and photographs by Janet Topp Fargion Taarab is the most common style of music performed at weddings on the island of Zanzibar - a unique blend of musical elements from the Middle East, India and the West, combined with, to varying degrees, local African musical practices. It is an essential ingredient of most celebrations. And when Zanzibaris are not playing taarab, they are playing maulidi. Although this is primarily a sober religious performance style (celebrating the birth of the Prophet Mohammed) it is also becoming common at wedding celebrations, albeit in a more extrovert guise. Here, recited chapters of the Koran are interspersed with kasida (hymns) accompanied on several tuned frame drums. These recordings, made at actual celebrations and in rehearsal for big events, give us a glimpse of the ethnic, religious, and gender composition of this Indian Ocean island culture

The Tallis Scholars - Sarum Chant: Missa in gallicantu / the Mass at Cockcrow
Tha Tallis Scholras / Peter Philips
EAC+LOG+CUE | APE: 206 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Gimell Records # CDGIM 017 | Country/Year: UK 1987
Genre: Classical | Style: Renaissance, Choral, Sacred

Chant for the First Mass of Christmas according to the Salisbury Rite. It would have been celebrated after midnight on Christmas Eve, and was known as the Missa in gallicantu - the Mass at Cockcrow. The chant has been taken from printed sources which would have been in use when composers such as Tallis and Tye were at the height of their powers…