Vox Lucens

When I got home from holiday travel, my monthly CD from yourmusic.com was waiting for me. It was a little like a Christmas present to myself, mostly for the reason that I couldn’t remember what was in my queue for December, and when I opened it I was delighted at my ability to purchase the perfect gift for myself.

You see, I have always loved Medieval music, and while I have nothing against composers like Praetorius who worked primarily with instrumental settings, I love the vocal music. (Who can resist composers with such names as Giovanni Perluigi de Palestrina or Abbess Hildegard von Bingen?)

Music is my emotional release, and somehow, in a way I can’t even begin to explain, the beautiful polyphony that comes out of the middle ages captures my emotions like little other music can. So over the past couple of days I have enjoyed a little personal musical renaissance back into the music I have loved so long, and I thought I’d share some of my favorites.

Third Book of Lamentations

This was the CD that waited for me when I arrived at home, and after listening to it a dozen times or so in the past two days, it has arrived at the top of my medieval list. The music is unbelievable, and the vocal interpretation pristine. The harmonies are lush and well-balanced, and I can’t get enough of it.

Magnificat

Chanticleer in all of their a capella brilliance. Pulling from a variety of composers, this CD never ceases to amaze me with its depth. It was easily my favorite until I got the first CD on this list…

Evening Prayer

OK, so Henry Purcell is not specifically medieval. But he, more than many other early Baroque composers, seems to pull in the beauty of medieval music into a more modern Baroque sound. This CD is the setting of Psalms into absolutely uplifting beauty. This is one of my older CDs–I have had it for a number of years, and never tire of its powerful elegance.

A Christmas Present from Polyphony

This one hit my collection just in time for the Christmas season, and as such, I was initially disappointed in it–there’s not actually a lot of what we generally consider to be “Christmas Music” on it. But what there is, is amazing.

The Glory of Gabrieli

There has to be one instrumental CD on my top 5 list here, and this would be it. Gabrieli was a master of organ music, and this CD reflects that excellently. Actually, this CD helped me get through my last set of finals–while Bach is generally my music of choice to make it through tests, I put some Gabrieli on this last round and found it excellent.

And so on…

Not all of my medieval CDs could hit the top 5, I’m afraid, so here are some others that I love.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.