Saturday, October 15, 2011

Sœur Marie Keyrouz – Chant Traditionnel Maronite


Album : Chant Tradionnel Maronite
Performer(s) : Sœur Marie Keyrouz
Release date : 1991
Label: Harmonia Mundi France
Number of discs : 1
Genre : Religious
Total time : 01:11:32

Tracklist:
  Noël
1.      Schubho-Ihaw Qolo   
2.      Taw Nimar   
3.      Yawno Tlito   
4.      Baytun Maghara/Ya Bikra-L-'Abi   
5.      Ho Qtilo Bmesren/Ja'al Ilagou/Nashduka-SK-Shoukran   
6.      Qanoun   
7.      Hallel/Qadish Qadish/Mshiho Dabyaldeh   
8.      Ya Umma-L-Lah
Passion 
9.      Anal'ummu-L-Havina   
10.  Nay   
11.  Fil-Lay-Li   
12.  Bakkara Abram   
13.  Tisbonhto-L-Moryo 
Resurrection 
14.  Yawmou-SH-Sharr/Rabbi-Imadhbouh   
15.  Ud   
16.  Ayyouha-R-Rabbou Ilahuna/Fawqa-S-Salib/Moubarakun Man Fadana   
17.  Tara'at   
18.  Halleluia/Qama-L-Lahou Min Mathwahou/Qadishat Aloho   
19.  Qama Wa-D-Dhulmu Hawa   
20.  Inna-I-Masih Qad Qam

Without regard for this music's age or liturgical or historical context, the experience of listening to Chant traditionnel maronite is one of unleavened joy and spiritual energy. Sister Marie Keyrouz has made it her mission to bring together the differing Mediterranean cultures through sacred song, and Chant traditionnel maronite is one of the most successful and satisfying stops to be found along this way.



Monday, September 26, 2011

Cantigas de remedios curativos (Alfonso X El Sabio)




Album : Cantigas de remedies curativos (Alfonso X El Sabio)
Artist : Eduardo Paniagua
Release date : 2006
Number of discs : 1
Label : Pneuma
Catalog # : PN-240
Genre : Medieval
Total size : 134 MB
Total time : 00:58:41

Tracklist:
1.    CSM 292: "Muito demostra a Virgen, a Sennor esperital" (instr.)
2.    CSM 322: "A Virgen, que de Deus Madre"
3.    CSM 173: "Tantas en Santa María son mercees e bondades"
4.    CSM 259: "Santa María punna d'aviir" (instr.)
5.    CSM 41: "A Virgen, Madre de Nostro Sennor"
6.    CSM 338: "Muitos que pelos peccados que fazen perden o lume"
7.    CSM 375: "En todo no faz merçee"
8.    CSM 268: "Gran confiença na Madre de Deus sempr' aver devemos" (instr.)
9.    CSM 101: "Ben pod' a Sennor sen"
10.  CSM 189: "Ben pode Santa María"
11.  CSM 393: "Macar é door a rravìa maravillosa e forte"

Alfonso X, the thirteenth century Spanish King of Castile and León, has been called a Renaissance man before the Renaissance. As a warrior prince, he led fierce Spanish armies against the Moorish occupation. As a politician on the European stage, he contended for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. At the same time, he made his court a multicultural haven for artists, scientists, and musicians -- Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. The king himself composed poetry and learned treatises, and left an enduring cultural legacy that continues to this day.



Saturday, September 17, 2011

Pergolesi – Stabat Mater



Album : Pergolesi;  Stabat Mater – Salve Regina
Composer: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Performers : Emma Kirkby, James Bowman, The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood
Release date : 1989
Label : DECCA
Number of discs : 1
Genre : Classical
Total time : 00:51:38

Tracklist:
01. Stabat Mater - I -  Stabat Mater
02. Stabat Mater - II - Cujus animam gementem
03. Stabat Mater - III - O Quam tristis et afflicta
04. Stabat Mater - IV - Quae moerebat et dolebat
05. Stabat Mater - V - Quis est homo
06. Stabat Mater - VI - Vidit suum dulcem Natum
07. Stabat Mater - VII - Eja mater
08. Stabat Mater - VIII - Fac ut ardeat cor meum
09. Stabat Mater - IX - Sancta mater
10. Stabat Mater - Fac ut portem
11. Stabat Mater - XI - Inflammatus et accencus
12. Stabat Mater - XII - Quando corpus
13. Salve Regina - I - Salve Regina
14. Salve Regina - II - Ad te clamamus
15. Salve Regina - III - Eja ergo
16. Salve Regina - IV - Et Jesum
17. Salve Regina - V - O clemens

Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music here offer a spirited, colorful, and certainly one of the most unique performances of Pergolesi's most beloved sacred settings. For instance Hogwood eschews the traditional choir entirely heightening the roles of soloists. Having been in countless recordings together previous to these 1988 sessions, soprano Emma Kirkby and counter-tenor James Bowman rise to the occasion famously delivering highly emotional, tonally pure, captivating performances throughout. Decca's well-balanced sound is crisp, clear, and without any trace of edginess typical of original instrument recordings at the time.



Monday, September 12, 2011

Historical Atlas of Islam



Malise Ruthven, Azim Nanji, "Historical Atlas of Islam"
Harvard University Press
 2004-05-28
 ISBN: 0674013859
 208 pages
 PDF

Among the great civilizations of the world, Islam remains an enigma to Western readers. Now, in a beautifully illustrated historical atlas, noted scholar of religion Malise Ruthven recounts the fascinating and important history of the Islamic world.

From the birth of the prophet Muhammed to the independence of post-Soviet Muslim states in Central Asia, this accessible and informative atlas explains the historical evolution of Islamic societies. Short essays cover a wide variety of themes, including the central roles played by sharia (divine law) and fiqh (jurisprudence); philosophy; arts and architecture; the Muslim city; trade, commerce, and manufacturing; marriage and family life; tribal distributions; kinship and dynastic power; ritual and devotional practices; Sufism; modernist and reformist trends; the European domination of the Islamic world; the rise of the modern national state; oil exports and arms imports; and Muslim populations in non-Muslim countries, including the United States.

Lucid and inviting full-color maps chronicle the changing internal and external boundaries of the Islamic world, showing the principal trade routes through which goods, ideas, and customs spread. Ruthven traces the impact of various Islamic dynasties in art and architecture and shows the distribution of sects and religious minorities, the structure of Islamic cities, and the distribution of resources. Among the book's valuable contributions is the incorporation of the often neglected geographical and environmental factors, from the Fertile Crescent to the North African desert, that have helped shape Islamic history.

Rich in narrative and visual detail that illuminates the story of Islamic civilization, this timely atlas is an indispensable resource to anyone interested in world history and religion.


PDF

Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Art of the Deacon in the Russian Church



Album : The Art of the Deacon in the Russian Church
Performer: Various
Release date : 1994
Label :  Le Chant du Monde/Harmonia Mundi
Number of discs : 1
Genre : Religious
Total size : 244 MB
Total time : 01:13:37

Tracklist:
1.      In everlasting memory of Father Konstantin        
2.      Lesson from the Gospel according to St. Luke        
3.      Blessed is the man        
4.      St. Simeon's Prayer         
5.      Everlasting memory     Listen    
6.      Lesson from the Gospel according to St. John        
7.      God is with us        
8.      Lord, strenghten the Orthodox faith        
9.      Lesson from the Epistle to teh Hebrews        
10.    Rejoice, O Virgin     Listen    
11.    Stichera for Lent, 8th tone and 6th tone     Listen    
12.    Lesson from the Prophecy of Ezekiel     Listen    
13.    Greek litany        
14.    It is truly meet to praise Thee        
15.    The Creed        
16.    Lesson fron the Epistle        
17.    Everlasting memory        
18.    Augmented litany        
19.    Many Years   



This recording features representatives of the uniquely Orthodox deaconal art: the art of leading the faithful in liturgical prayer and proclaiming Holy Scripture. The positions of archdeacon or protodeacon in Russian churches were traditionally occupied by gifted vocalists whose fame matched that of opera superstars in the West; the Great Archdeacon Konstantin Rozov, who served in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, was the reputed to be the greatest of them all. Gathered at the festival held in his memory were deacons and singers from Russia, Europe and the United States.


Check it out!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Ensemble Organum – Missa Gotica


Album : Missa Gotica
Artist : Marcel Pérès & Ensemble Organum
Release date : 2009
Number of discs : 1
Label : Zig Zag Territoires
Genre : Medieval
Total time : 00:51:04

Tracklist:
Anon., Ms Toulouse
  1. Kyrie
    Anon., Ms Barcelona – Apt
  2. Gloria
    Gregorian
  3. Allelulia: Veni Sancte Spiritus
    Anon., Ms Barcelona – Apt
  4. Credo
  5. Preface
    Anon., Ms Toulouse
  6. Sanctus
    Gregorian
  7. Offertory: Confirma hoc deus
    Anon., Ms Toulouse
  8. Agnus Dei
    Gregorian
  9. Introit: Spiritus domini
    Anon., Ms Toulouse
  10. Ite missa est – Deo Gratias 
Missa Gotica is a recreation of an anonymous polyphonic mass from the fourteenth century - the time when the Papacy was relocated to Avignon. A major motive for this recording by the highly respected, and uncompromising, Ensemble Organum (six accomplished singers - including director Marcel Pérès) is to demonstrate the significant changes in style of such music at a time of equally significant developments in the liturgy.

Despite the calamitous nature of the fourteenth century (the Black Death, the Schism and European-wide devastation, war and poverty), its musicians, artists, writers and indeed its clerics were confident and proud of their new - and still emerging - abilities. In musical composition, for example, new understanding of arithmetic enabled more precise and expressive structures to be produced. These fitted the greater enthusiasm for observation and what we would now call 'scientific' advances; these enabled stronger and more spectacular architectural construction, for example. The tremendous belief of such makers in their world and in their powers to represent and reflect it is mirrored in the immense energy of the music on this CD.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Brigitte Lesne & Disanctus – Gilles Bichois: l’Argument de Beauté


Album : l’Argument de Beauté
Performers : Brigitte Lesne & Disanctus
Release date : 2010
Number of discs : 1
Label : AEON
Genre : Medieval
Total time : 00:53 :53

Tracklist:
1 - Ave corpus christi - contrafactum sur une chanson de Gilles Binchois
2 - Kyrie - Gilles Binchois
3 - Omnes una gaudeamus - carol
4 - Gloria - attribué à Gilles Binchois
5 - Diffusa est gratia / verset Propter veritatem - graduel
6 - Sanctus - Gilles Binchois
7 - Agnus dei - Gilles Binchois
8 - Ecce quod natura - carol [joué aux cloches]
9 - Salve sancta parens - introït, Gilles Binchois
10 - Alleluia / verset Salve mundi
11 - Salve sancta parens - carol
12 - Da pacem domine - antienne, Gilles Binchois
13 - Virgo rosa venustatis - contrafactum sur une chanson de Gilles Binchois
14 - Priusquam te formaret / verset Misit dominus - graduel
15 - Inter natos mulierum / verset Fuit homo - repons
16 - Ut queant laxis - hymne, Gilles Binchois
17 - Princeps serenissime - carol
18 - Alleluia / verset Gaude dei genitrix
19 - A solis ortus cardine - hymne, Gilles Binchois
20 - Benedicamus domino Deo gratias - repons, Gilles Binchois

Ensemble Discantus, founded in 1989, made their considered reputation in recordings on Opus111 and later for Zigzag. Here in their Aeon debut these 15th-century polyphonies, musica ficta - accidentals not noted in the manuscripts but which have to be added in the melodic line - is left to the art of these able performers, under the direction of Brigitte Lesne.




FLAC

mp3