Track Listing

1. Bear Dance
2. Pied Du Cheval
3. Agincourt Carol
4. Quene Note
5. Montard Brawle
6. Mi Very Joye
7. Io No Tango
8. Ductia IV
9. Scaramella
10. Almaredemptoris Mater
11. Ein Welsh Tanz
12. Der Hauff Auff
13. Ductia V
14. Ductia VI
15. Harpist
16. Estampie
17. Saltarello
18. Mirie It Is
19. Worldes Bliss
20. Ductia VII
21. My Love's Coming Home
22. To Vigo's Sea Come Haste
23. Lamento
24. Ductia VIII

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2742 in Music
• Released on: 2008-09-01
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Making Merrye Joyful medieval song and dances

Cheerful sounds and ringing melodies abound in this lovely collection of late-medieval music, compiled with the colourful cover image in mind. Bombards, shawms, lutes, harps and gitterns provide a rich programme of music, with songs and instrumental music from Spain, Italy, France and Britain.

'To pleye on sundry Instrumentys, On harpe, lut & on gyterne, And to revelle at taverne…' John Lydgate: The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man c.1430

From the Artist
Sara Stowe voice, pipe and tabor Sharon Lindo pipes Jon Banks voice, gittern, harp, dulcimer, percussion, shawm Matthew Spring lute, gittern, hurdy-gurdy, percussion

The Oxford Girls' Choir Estampie John Rowlands-Pritchard Worldes bliss Michelene Wandor recorder

About the Artist
The programme begins with the 'Bear Dance', played at the start by pipe and tabor (it's actually a very clever trick for a single person - Sara Stowe - to manage two instruments at once). She is joined by the hurdy-gurdy, with its unusual combination of insistent drones and superb rhythmic clarity. Finally the dulcimer joins in. This instrument is played by hammers hitting pre-tuned strings, which are laid out somewhat as if the instrument was a horizontal harp. Other instruments can also be heard on this album, from the small bagpipes, played by Sharon Lindo, to the common medieval line up of a variety of plucked string instruments. The first to be heard is the gittern, which joins the hurdy-gurdy early in track 5. This is a small instrument, a little like a lute. Its strings are played with a plectrum. Later we also hear the lute itself, and the medieval harp - a small, gentle instrument with a clear, singing tone.

Songs on the album come from all over Europe. 'Mi veri joye' is English. 'Scaramella' is Italian - and very cheerful. Tracks 21 and 22 are Spanish and the melody and text of track 18 are Scottish in origin. The 'Agincourt Carol' has French associations, while the two lute pieces (tracks 11 and 12) are from Neusidler's German tablature. The title 'Ductia' appears several times: these are medieval instrumental pieces of varying complexity and arranged here for a differing variety of instruments. The 'Estampie' and 'Saltarello' are different types of medieval dances, as are the 'brawles'. In between these exciting pieces there are some more reflective works involving the plucked instruments. 'Alma redemptoris mater' is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, an important figure in the spiritual lives of everybody in Europe before the religious upheavals of the Reformation in early Renaissance times.

Customer Reviews

Medieval music at it's finest!
If you want to make an entry into medieval music, stop looking & buy this.

I listen to this disc all the time. It is beautifully performed with great feeling by obviously-skilled artists. If you want an introduction to what was heard long ago, this is a fantastic starting point.

An Excellent Purchase!
I am very new to the genre of medieval music and bought this CD 7 months ago on the strenth of Simon's review. This has proved to be an excellent purchase! I can't say that I listen to it all the time but I listen to it at least twice each week, and there's not a lot of music in any genre that I play so often. It really is a brilliant CD, go on, buy it!

Good album for a conoisseur of medieval music
The cover of this album claims these are joyful medieval songs and dances. This may have passed for joyful in the middle ages but it is sounds depressing to me. Nevertheless, I am not a conoisseur of medieval music, so if thats your thing then you'll like it, but to those who have not sampled medieval music before - don't be thinking this album will make you be full of the joys of spring, full of minstrels and their stories. Try the city waites for real joyful historical music