What Then Is Love, An Elizabethan Songbook [Import]

John Bartlet (Composer), Thomas Campion (Composer), John Danyel (Composer), John Dowland (Composer), Thomas Ford (Composer), Antony Holborne (Composer), Edward [composer] Johnson (Composer), Robert (ii) Johnson (Composer), Robert [composer] Jones (Composer), Joel Cohen (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: Joel Cohen
• Composer: John Bartlet, Thomas Campion, John Danyel, John Dowland, Thomas Ford, et al.
• Audio CD (May 18, 1999)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B00000IWRF
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,388 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I - Sing A Song Of Joy: Sing A Song Of Joy

2. I - Sing A Song Of Joy: Eliza Is the Fairest Queen

3. I - Sing A Song Of Joy: The Honeysuckle

4. II - What Then Is Love?: What Then Is Love Sings Coridon

5. II - What Then Is Love?: What Then Is Love But Mourning

6. II - What Then Is Love?: What Thing Is Love?

7. III - Sorrow, Come: Galliard 'Shall I Strive'

8. III - Sorrow, Come: I Sigh, As Sure to Wear the Fruit

9. III - Sorrow, Come: Sorrow, Come

10. IV - Shall I Sue?: Heigh-Ho Holiday

11. IV - Shall I Sue?: Shall I Sue

12. IV - Shall I Sue?: Breake Now My Heart And Dye

13. IV - Shall I Sue?: Woo Her And Win Her

14. V - Witty Wanton: The Peaceful Western Wind

15. V - Witty Wanton: Sweet Philomel

16. V - Witty Wanton: I Care Not For These Ladies

17. V - Witty Wanton: Courante On 'I Care Not For These Ladies'

18. V - Witty Wanton: A Pretty Duck There Was

19. V - Witty Wanton: Witty Wanton

20. VI - Faine Would I Wed: Faine Would I Wed

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What then is taste?, April 9, 2000

By 

"gaios33" (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Then Is Love, An Elizabethan Songbook (Audio CD)

The very reason I purchased this CD was the fact that it used reconstructed Elizabethan accents; attempts at accuracy are always preferable to bowing to popular misconceptions (like in Shakespeare in Love--ack). I found this recording both aesthetically pleasing and intellectually stimulating--one can clearly see through this recording the branch-off point between the modern British and American accents, something which had always mystified me before.

Musically, this recording is full of little-known gems of the English Renaissance. This is a sample of what's on it, for Kenneth Melia: Sing a song of joy; Eliza is the fairest Queen; What then is love but mourning; Shall I sue; Heigh-ho holiday; I care not for these ladies; Mother, I will have a husband; Rest, sweet nymphs (a beautiful rendition with soaring harmonies on the chorus); and Sing we and chant it. Kenneth, if you still want a more complete list, just e-mail me ([e-mail]). But I insist that if you buy it now, without knowing all the songs, you will not be disappointed. They are subdued and genteel, with that hint of playfulness which one could say characterized the court under Elizabeth I. The vocalists are excellent, never succumbing to the operatic vocal style so popular with renditions of this repertoire, and, I think, the least authentic. Once again, Anne Azema charms with her supple, almost serpentine stylizations, and you also get a wealth of other talented vocalists who speak the Elizabethan tongue with convincing fluency. The instrumentalists play with passion and a feline subtlety that will catch you and never let go.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful, January 9, 2009

By 

Ken Cybulska "Ken Cybulska" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Then Is Love, An Elizabethan Songbook (Audio CD)

Initially upon listening to this CD for the first time, (and especially after hearing a number of different renditions of Elizabethan music from other performing artists), I thought this was merely a nice collection of Elizabethan melodies.

I've actually heard a lot of this genre/period done pretty badly, and have to say this almost couldn't have been done better or more tastefully than this album by the Boston Camerata, et al.

It is a splendid and extremely nice collection, after going over it a couple of times I have to admit it is an excellent album. Excellently orchestrated and presented.

Rated five stars.

Ken Cybulska

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lacks that extra drop of refinement, May 22, 1999

By 

F. Behrens "Frank Behrens" (Keene, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Then Is Love, An Elizabethan Songbook (Audio CD)

This is a hard one to call. Brought up as I was on the ultra-modulated renditions of this and like material on Vanguard LPs by Alfred Deller and his consort, I find this Erato effort lacks that extra drop of refinement that is needed for the courtly music of the Elizabethan period. (The street and theater music might be another story, but beside the point here.) I know it is Anglophilic bias working here, but I found (for example) tenor William Hite's East Coast accent distracting. The women have accents that, while not all that appropriate, at least do not jar. It is of course true that Elizabethan English was closer to what Ringo Starr sounded like than Laurence Oliver. Play the track that contains "I care not for these ladies," which is indeed sung with a regional accent and you will see what I mean. However, in general "an Elizabetan Songbook" should sound at least what we accept today as British-sounding, if you follow. This said, I cannot fault the vocalizing or the playing. But I will still return to my Vanguard sets before playing this again. Still--who can dispute taste?