…medieval being a catch-all phrase. Other periods are welcome!
I am forming a women’s chorus and I’m looking for some different pieces to work with. I have “A Ceremony of Carols” that we’re looking to do some selections from (in particular “Balulalow”) and I’m looking to transcribe some Mediaeval Baebes music.
Does anyone have any suggestions for something a little different that a fledgling group can try to tackle? If you have any links to free sheet music (legal, of course) or if you can point me in the direction to where I could buy it, it would be much appreciated.
No real recommendations (although “Coventry Carol” is always popular; I’m just not aware of an arrangement for women), but for free music check out The Choral Public Domain Library. Lots of free, legally downloadable stuff.
I have an odd fascination with Hildegarde von Bingen. She might be up your alley.
Here in the DC area, there’s a woman named Darcy Nair who records old tunes, both solo and with groups. One of her groups, Pyrates Royale, specializes in filthy sea chanteys. Another, Ship’s Company, performs British and American naval tunes from the 1800s. A third, In Our Cups, is tavern wench music (They are the cleavage-y darlings of the RenFest circuit). Her solo stuff is mainly Celtic music. None of this is medieval, but some is pretty close. Cumulatively, these projects have resulted in 8 or 9 CDs.
Have you heard Sting’s new album, Songs from the Labyrinth? Almost all of it is Sting with a lute playing stuff from the 16th Century. Fun stuff, and previewed on Studo 60 on the Sunset Strip last night.
I recommend you check out CD’s by The New World Renaissance Band and The Baltimore Consort. Both are very “accessible” in that they choose pieces that appeal to modern ears. Also, Baltimore Consort’s main singer has the absolutely wonderful name of Custer LaRue!
Not to mention Custer LaRue has a fabulous voice. Her spirited renditions of raunchy ballads on The Baltimore Consort’s notorious *The Art of the Bawdy Song * CD are truly delicious.
Die Verbontenn Kinder Eva’s - German band, most of their stuff would be right up your alleay, some of their stuff is more electronic and medieval inspired though.
I have some other bands I can recommend once I get home.
Jordi Savall is one of the leading conductors of medieval music – he works with the Hesperion XX ensemble, which includes his wife, the soprano Montserrat Figueras. They’ve put out countless CDs of medieval music (as well as Renaissance and Baroque). A particularly nice one is El Cant de la Sibilla, which explores different variations of a Catalunyan ballad dating from the 10th century. The sheet music must be available somewhere because Dead Can Dance performed a version of this ballad on their 1994 album, “Aion”(calling it “The Song of the Sibyl”), which predates Savall’s recording by 7 years but uses the same melody.
Juan del Enzina (sometimes also written as Juan del Encina) was a Spanish musician active in the late 1400s (no longer medieval, but still worth checking out) credited for founding Spanish theatre – Jordi Savall has performed his work, too, but so have other musicians (like Margaret Philpot, etc. on the album, From a Spanish Palace Songbook), so the sheetmusic has to be available.
Sorry, go here for sounclips from “El Cant de la Sibilla” (track #18 is especially lovely). I haven’t explored this very far, but it appears that there are three versions of the ballad (in Catalan, Provencal, and Latin), and the album’s tracks are fragments of the different versions (maybe a verse or two), but always repeat the chorus (“Al jorn del judici…”)
If it doesn’t have to be medieval, there’s probably lots of modern songs that could be sung choral style. I was just going through my MP3s and discovered I have an MP3 of Billy Joel’s “and so it goes” sung by Acapellago , not even sure where I got it, but it sounds really beautiful as an acappella song sung by a chorus. As someone else mentioned Sting’s “Fields of Gold” sounded very nice sung in a medieval style.
Bingo. I’m pretty sure this is the CD I heard at a friend’s a while back.
I also recommend the lute-accompanied songs of [John Dowland[/ULR], who is enjoying a sort of revival these days (a mere 380 years after his death!) with recent cover versions of his songs by Elvis Costello and Sting (that’s his latest album, out now). Decades ago, Dowland’s music was the focus of an obsessive interest by sci-fi writer Phillip K. Dick.
You might also like the soundtrack to the original [URL=The Wicker Man - Wikipedia]Wicker Man](John Dowland - Wikipedia) film, with its blending of folk music and lyrics both contemporary (but medieval in style) with traditional material. The lyrics of Robert Burns, Scotland’s foundational poet, figures in heavily. For the purposes of adaptations by a women’s chorus, I think the most obvious choice would be the pagan “Fire Leap” song, but other choices (the maypole song, Willow’s siren song – which would require some adaptation to make it a choral work, the *a capella * song sung over the opening credits, the boistrous and bawdy “The Landlord’s Daughter,” and the very venerable “Sumer Is A’Cumin’ In”) would all make good choices.
Nitpick: Dead Can Dance’s “Aion” came out in 1990. Great album altogether, but my favorite album is still the live Toward the Within album. I recommend the OP check out both even if they don’t fit the purpose
Also of interest could be Miranda Sex Garden’s album “Madra”, which is comprised completely of acapella madrigals. That could definitely fit the OP’s purpose.
It’s just very, very beautiful (I’m listening to it right now) and it would be super-cool to perform, IMO.