Customer Reviews

Sinners & Saints - The Ultimate Medieval and Renaissance Music Collection

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't know if this is the "ultimate" collection of medieval and Renaissance music, but it's certainly a darn good one, with more depth and spunk than most I've heard. The wide variety of selections, ranging from martial to spiritual and courtly to folksy, were drawn from four prior releases of Philip Pickett and the New London Consort: "The Feast of Fools", "Dances from Terpsichore", "Llibre Vermell" and "The Pilgrimage to Santiago". The CD insert suggests that "the sinners and saints that exist in everyone" will be drawn to this recording. "What you're listening to is not the domain of museums, but the music of the people, born of faith and the love of song and dance." And indeed, Philip Pickett and the New London Consort bring this music undeniably to life. Their sound is rich, full and quite winning. It is unfortunate that said insert, while containing texts and translations for all the songs, is rather lacking in information about the performers and instruments, but all in all, there seems to be a full complement of male and female singers, recorders, reeds, bowed and plucked strings, a hurdy-gurdy, drums, tamborine, and even an organ. If you enjoy this CD, you'll also like "The Little Barley-Corne: Winter Revels from the Renaissance" and "The Way of the Pilgrim: Medieval Songs of Travel" by the Toronto Consort, as well as "A la Via!: Street Music from the 13th to the 16th Centuries" by Ensemble Anonymus and Strada.

After listening to other CDs which contain early music, I have to say this is my favorite. It contains an excellent range of pieces from the Renaissance and Medieval areas, and Philip Pickett and the New London Consort have outdone themselves with the performance of these works. It is highly listenable and makes for a terrific introduction to Renaissance dance band music. Overall, I feel that it is even better than Pickett's Terpsichore Dances CD and makes for an essential part of any classical CD collection.

'Sinners & Saints' by Philip Pickett and the New London Consort is just a bit too ambitious with their subtitle, 'The Ultimate Medieval and Renaissance Music Collection' as I find it hard to believe that 70 minutes can be the ultimate anything on 500 years of history. This is especially true since they seem to focus a lot more on the sinners than the saints, as there is virtually no liturgical music here. But, since there are so many good recordings of medieval liturgies, we aren't missing much.

This is really the sort of thing you would expect to hear from a travelling troupe of minstrals, but not from a solo artist, as practically every performance involves several instruments and voices.

Some tracks will sound especially familiar, as they are very similar to Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana', inspired by medieval texts.

Compared to many recordings of music from Shakespeare's time, this collection is superior and well worth the investment.

I rarely rate *anything* as a 5/5, and I am especially critical of music. However, this is one of my select few favorite CDs.

Not only does this music have top knotch production & music quality, it has true voice talent and historic value. There is an intriguing assortment of unique instruments, as well as a healthy supply of fun vocals. This CD has everything--even replay value. It is quite long, and it is one of the few CDs I have listened to over and over.

I recommend it to anyone who appreciates medieval, renaissance, or classical music.

This CD gives a wide range of music characteristic of both the Low and High Middle Ages. It ranges from secular music to worship music. Some of which being ancient hymns, some from feasts and banquets, most notably the "Feast of Fools". Great care has been taken to reproduce the melody, pitch, rythum and instruments of the period. This is excellent, highly recomended for medieval enthusiasts.

This album is probably one of the livelier and most celebratory early music entry I've heard in a while. The pulsating, repeating music captures the folk origins of the classical music heritage, complete with an occasional shout of Ay, Santa Maria! to keep the the flavor spicy. A worldly complement to the more ethereal and spiritual early music offerings of vocal groups like Anonymous 4.

This CD lasts a long time which is nice. It covers all kinds of medieval and renaissance music, from what sounds like gypsy and/or peasant fare to military, courtly and more beatific spiritual and religious sounds. It brings to mind sinners, saints, many earthly fools, and a few sinners who thought they were saints. A good listen, helped by an insert with lyrics, that unfortunately doesn't always identify the languages of the song. But that doesn't distract from the listening pleasure and the temporal evocations.

I bought this CD with a children's history class in mind. We are studying the Dark Ages to the Rennaisance. I was delighted to hear the variety of selections which span the spectrum of genres during this period of history. My children and I have been listening to it in the car as well as at home for the simple enjoyment of the music. It will be exciting to present these pieces to my class as I feel it is a very accurate display of the cultures, instrumentation, languages, and styles of the Middle Ages. I am a proffesional musician and thoroughly enjoy most types of music so it wasn't hard to get me interested but I was surprised to hear my eight-year-old and five-year-old sons asking to hear this CD. The former child said it made him feel "important" to listen!!

I defy anyone to listen to this CD in a foul mood and actually still be grumpy at the end of its playing. You can't help but feel your spirits rise as your fingers and toes start tapping along with the beats of the tambourines and drums. I don't even have to have it playing - I can just hear the songs in my mind and it makes me feel glad.

The playing and singing are lively and spirited, and on the whole the song selection is a whole lot more interesting than your average disc of the same old "Terpsichore". (Of course, there is some Praetorius on here too; give the master his due.)

Sinners and Saints is a delight to listen to. One does not require a great deal of imagination to drift back through the centuries and imagine oneself seated at a medieval court or festival, being entertained by the music of the day.
Phillip Pickett and the New London Consort are well known for their wonderful recreations of early music, and this disc is no exception. They have painstakingly researched the design and use of instruments of the period, as well as the way in which these pieces would have been performed. The result is a collection of early music that covers styles from dances and festival music to religious and pilgrimage songs and will have you hooked!
Three of the works are taken from the Carmina Burana Manuscript: Katerine collaudemus, Tempus est iocundum and Bache bene venies. These are my favorite tracks. Other songs are those that were performed during the Feast of Fools; these include Orientis partibus and Lux optata claruit. The dances of Michael Praetorius are represented as well.
The booklet contains complete notes on each composition, including translations of the songs, which are in Latin. If you enjoy medieval and renaissance music then this CD will not disappoint!