Customer Reviews

Aquitania: Christmas Music from Aquitanian Monasteries (12th Century)

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Aquitania was a rich part of the medieval world. It was the land of the troubadours and of the admirable liturgical chants. It was the world of the first medieval troubadour, Guilhelm IX, Duke of Aquitania and grandfather of Eleanor, the powerful queen. This CD evokes this legendary place, its myths and its art of the 12th century. All the CDs of Sequentia are marvellous. Words are not enough of describing the sensitive work of this ensemble. I have heard Dante and the Troubadours, Aquitania, with Christmas Music from Aquitanian monasteries and Shining Light. These three CDs give us a powerful view of the aquitanian spirit. I feel the vibrant culture of that part of a medieval world, when I am listening the troubadours songs and the music from aquitanian monasteries performed by Sequentia.

Aquitania by Sequentia is a wonderful, exciting Christmas CD for connoisseurs of early vocal music. These early Christmas Latin songs of the 12th century has a total time of 73 minutes. This is a fantastic, rewarding CD for all those looking for something else than the usual Christmas favorites. Sequentia is simply music of the highest rank. Barbara Thornton and Benjamin Bagby are geniuses in that field. Moreover, you simply cannot go wrong with this CD at Amazon's price. Far from expensive, I bought their other CD Shining Light. Before they fall into deletion, hurry to get both at once. I invested every penny for them and I never regretted it.

- Maurice Canada

'aquitania' is the second collection of 12th century musical pieces from Aquitanian Monasteries performed by sequentia, or the 'Ensemble for Medieval Music' comprised of a chorus of male voices, a chorus of female voices, and an instrumental ensemble.

Not being a professional musical antiquarian, the very best I can say about this recording is that it is better than the first collection, 'shining light'.

Oddly, my biggest problem with both collections is that nothing on both recordings does anything whatsoever to evoke Christmas for me. I say that because there are some buyers who may be on the lookout for some unusual Christmas music and they just may be disappointed by what the do NOT hear on these recordings. That caveat aside, this collection is very, very good in its variety of male, female, and instrumental voices.

What some tracks do evoke is an oddly Celtic sound, especially in some of the instrumental tracks. All the vocals are in Latin, meaning they were all written to be performed for and by the monks and nuns of the monasteries in the Christmas season.

There is simply nothing here sounding remotely like 'O Little Town of Bethlehem', even in Latin.

If you want a portal into the world of very old music, I can think of nothing better. It is certainly more diverse and more interesting than the otherwise excellent 'Anonymous 4' recordings of old Christmas music.

Highly recommended.

very haunting music - this is my favourite kind of medieval music. I bought it with the 'Edda' disc and 'Shining Light' as well, and they are all wonderful. I find the very atmosphere in a room or house changes completely with this music playing, and relaxes the energy of a room - any of Sequentia's music does. Fantastic! Collect all of Sequentia's stuff!