Performed by New York's Ensemble for Early Music
Frederick Renz, Director
John Alston - bass; Marshall Coid - countertenor, vielle; Todd Frizzell - tenor, symphonia; Wayne Hankin - winds, tenor; Wolodymyr Smishkewych - tenor, percussion; Jon Szabo - baritone, vielle
New York Ensemble for Early Music's program of seasonal repertoire is a "Sold-Out" holiday tradition. Recorded in the great Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City, A Medieval Christmas features lyric songs - sacred and secular - by Hildegard von Bingen, Perotin, von Reuenthal and anonymous composers from the schools of Notre Dame and St. Martial - gloriously sung and deftly played by EEM's six Artists in Residence.
"Angelus ad virginem" (the song Chaucer referred to in "The Canterbury Tales"), angelic Hildegard chant, earthy 13th-century Italian laude and spirited Spanish cantigas illuminate a treasury of joyous celebration.
MP3 Downloads
Play List
Late 13th-14th centuries, anonymous
1.Rex virginum amator
2.Edi be thu hevenqueene
3."Nota"
4.Angelus ad virginem
Perotin, c.1200
5.Beata viscera
Saint Martial School, late 11th century
6.Annus novus in guadio
Hildegard von Bingen, 1098-1179
7."De Innocentibus"
Neidhart von Reuenthal, c.1190-c.1240
8."Minnesang" [instruments]
Notre Dame School, c.1200
9.Nicholai presulis
10.Exultemus et letemur/Gaudens in Domino
Alfonso el Sabio, 1221-1284
11.Cantigas de Santa Maria - Galicia:
Como poden, Muit'amar, Tan beeyta, Maravillosos [instruments]
Llibre Vermell, 14th century
12.Polorum regina--Catalonia
Notre Dame School, c.1200
13.In natali summi regis
14.Orientis partibus
15.Verbum patris humanatur
Late 13th-14th centuries
16.Laude novella
17.Verbum caro factum est
18.Verbum patris hodie
19."Alleluya" [instruments]
20.Stella nuova