Customer Reviews

Noël, Noël! French Christmas Music, 1200-1600

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was looking for something different from all the popular American Chirstmas music that has been re-done so many times. Here is a collection that satisfied me, and will delight both Franco-phones and Anglo-phones (English speakers) Some of the pieces are very chant like, but others are lively songs with lots of energy. Especially notable are tracks # 18, Or vous trémoussez, pasteurs de Judée, # 13, Noe, Noe, and my personal favorite, # 27, O l'heureuse journée. You likely will not recognize any of the tunes, so it may take a bit for this album to sound like Christmas, but it quickly did for me. The ancient instruments employed also give the music a unique sound that is really neat. This is a CD worth purchasing

I am a musician and a medieval history buff, and first heard the Beauvais segments of this recording over the car radio, as I parked intending to do some Christmas shopping. I could not leave the car until the last note was sung and immediately began a search for the recording. The music is so...right, like a little time trip, haunting, triggering the imagination.

Beautifully clear voices mix with period instruments and voices of character to present a lively, touching, and thoroughly enjoyable mix of music of centuries past.

This is a wonderful recording, and one that I never tire of listening to, year-round.

The tracks listed above on the Amazon site are mistitled, however. Missing is the first track on the CD, the actual "Sybil's Prophecy," and so the title for each track listed is actually the title of the previous track.

It is wonderful that in the XXI century we can be able to listen to music from 1200-1600.

If you are as tired as I am of canned Christmas muzak, you will find this to be refreshing, beautiful, and uplifting for the season of Christ's birth.

Joel Cohen and the boston Camerata have recorded an outstanding collection of French Christmas carols.

the music on the "noel, Noel!: Noels Francais/French Christmas Music (1200-1600) was not adequately represented in the sample online - much more discordant that I wished ; I also missed the info that it was ancient/pre-classical music