Customer Reviews

Tydings Trew

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4 star:		(1)
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Lionheart once again delights with a splendid mixture of chants and hymns, this time centered on medieval Christmas fare. Their sense of ensemble and balance is magical - there are no individuals in this group - they sing as one luscious voice.

This is an excellent change of pace Christmas album. Lionheart here presents 22 hymns, carols, motets and antiphons popular in late medieval England. The selections offer a commendable mixture of Latin motets and hymns from the Divine Office on the one hand, and carols in Middle English on the other. If you own The New Oxford Book of Carols, you will find many of the best pre-1700 selections sung here to an exceptionally high standard. Lionheart's sound is fantastic. They are quite frankly as good as Chanticleer.

Although the physical copy of this album is $1 more than the price of the downloaded album, the booklet with background information to individual musical pieces and all the lyrics (in their original language and in modern English translation) is worth far more than the price difference. Spend the extra $1 and get the CD.

If Adeste Fidelis and Joy to the World are wearing thin, this is some truly Old School Christmas music to sweep you to a different era and to a tremendous level of solemnity.

Heard this in concert at the Cloisters in New York. It confirms our belief that Lionheart is the best male early music group we have heard.

What a welcome break from all the boring and repetitive Christmas music one is subjected to every year! This album of early hymns and songs beautifully recorded and performed in exquisite fashion is a 'sound for sore ears'. It's also music that can be listened to all year long. Bravo!Tydings Trew