Customer Reviews

From Byzantium to Andalusia: Medieval Music and Poetry

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
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I am not anyone to comment on the authenticity of this music. I have no idea how accurately it represents Medieval Mediterranean music. It sounds like it does: it sounds the way I might imagine the music of the period.

Regardless, the one thing I am qualified to evaluate is my pleasure listening to it. My favorite track is the first one, the Arab kyrie. Not quite like anything I've ever heard, but I would certainly go to any church where I could hear it.

This CD has helped to whet my appetite for more such music, and I suspect it would do so for anyone. If you are shopping here, I think you should strongly consider buying this one. I would, however, direct you to two other CDs as well (reminding you that I am by no means a knowledgeable person in this field): Sufi music such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (though there are many other less famous examples, at least as good), and Arab Christian music, especially Marie Keyrouz. If there is a god, that is the music he hears in heaven. But excepting those two sources of superlatively uplifting music, this is among the best CDs I own. At its price, it's too good to miss.

This is a terrific introduction to pre tempered scale music. Because of that, many listeners will perhaps find it disonant, or discordant. It is and it isn't. This is a very well performed collection of early music with vocals by very gifted singers. The rhythms are engaging and the CD has become a regular play in both my MP3 player and on my computers.

I liked it ...

I just loved the selection. I have quite a good collection of medieval and renaissance music, and I think that the Cd's selection is representative and balances well the western and eastern music tendencies.

I expected to like this one, so I wasn't surprised. The Kyrie is definitely catchy. This is a terrific cd.

very wide range of Arabic influenced music from the medieval period. It is nice to have it concentrated in one place. And very well done to. My only complaint is when buying the download, the lack of a "booklet" of accompanying information that you would get in a CD version is unfortunate. I feel like it is missing an integral part of the package. It does not matter so much with pop but in this case it is important info.

The musical success of an Early Music ensemble largely depends on varied arrangements of archived tunes and the assortment of traditional instruments. The European group Oni Wystars Ensemble features three vocalists (Belinda Sykes, Jeremy Avis, and Peter Rabanser) and makes use diverse European and Middle Eastern instruments in this album. These include oud, bagpipe, duduk, fiddle, rebec, Jew's harp, recorder, reed-flute, harp, hurdy gurdy, bendir, darabuka, zarb, riqq, and davul. The musicians here have selected Medieval songs across the Mediterrean from Turkey and the Byzantine Empire to Moorish Andalusia, Spain. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are represented. Such varied favors and rhythms maintain interest, although the tone is fairly uniform. Moreover, I found the Arabic unconvincing but the Hebrew acceptable. Aside from this, the album is very pleasant listening. It imparts a fantasy of being a 13th- or 14th-century trader visiting many ports and hearing regional musicians. As we would be enriched by such a journey, this album, a live recording, provides us a wealth of sounds.

I really liked this music, but I was looking for more of the Greek connection to Medieval Spanish music. In fact,the 'Kyrie' is really a Latin style - similar to any found in Western Chrsitendom rather than the original Greek style of litany. Moreover, most of the music seemed to be of Arabic inspiration than related to music from Byzantium. That's no suprise because there was a greater Arabic presence than any Byzantine connection in Spanish history. Even so, I liked the uniqueness of this composition and it is very well performed.