Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some Thoughts and Square Facts on this CD, May 13, 2005
Having listened now to this CD a fair bit I wish to comment on it. First of all I will say that it is an absolutely beautiful work: the voices, the sound of the lyre and the fiddle, the lyrics themselves (taken from the Old Norse "Elder Edda") are strange and enchanting. Here do not mistake "strange" for a negative comment: part of the beauty of the Norse myths, as with the Finnish "Kalevala", and with Professor Tolkien's "Silmarillion" and "The Lord of the Rings", comes from this sense of strangeness. Perhaps a better way of describing it would be to say that it is Teutonic (as opposed to, say, Classical or Romantic) in tone and feel, which is something altogether unique.
As I said, I find these stories to be exceptionally stirring and beautiful, and this CD provides the same feeling. But some clarity as to the nature of this CD is, I think, required.
For starters, ignore the reviewer who complained that this CD is sung in Latin; it is not. It is in Old Icelandic. (How this person came to this conclusion I can't imagine: a quick glance at the liner notes -- which are excellent, by the way, providing a dual text in Old Icelandic and Modern English -- should make this apparant: lines such as "Surtr ferr sunnan með sviga lævi / skinn af sverði sol valtiva" are clearly *not* Latin.)
However, the mistake is perhaps not without cause, for the CD (and this is important to note) is sung in the style of old Latin Gregorian chants. The inflection on the language is Latinate, *not* Norse. The reason I say this is important is because the CD claims it is singing approximately the way the ancient Norsemen would have sung these lays, but this is not so close to the truth as other reviews would imply. The fact is that Old Icelandic (as with all the Germanic languages) is a language of accents and stresses which is wholly distinct from the Romance languages. You can see this evidenced in the alliteration of the actual Eddic text: "*Brœðr* muno *beriaz* ok at *bonum* verðaz", for instance; or "Her stendr *Baldri* of *brugginn* mioðr, / *skirar* veigar, liggr *skioldr* yfir."
I was quite disappointed by this, having hoped very strongly to hear a fair-to-good example of what actual Norsemen long ago would have sounded like, chanting these mysterious songs. BUT: as I said before, I find this nevertheless to be a very moving and beatiful collection. The manner in which it is sung, though evoking Latin tradition, still captures something of the feel of these ancient poems. Perhaps it is because that Gregorian chant style simply, in general, evokes something of an older world. (One notices how popular it has been made by film composers such as John Williams in the recent "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" films, as well as Howard Shore in the "LotR" scores; and, furthermore, has been used with dubious results by a host of other imitators.)
So that's it, then. Old Norse language and text, but sung in an old Latin style; not authentic, but nevertheless evocative of a mysterious and ancient world which I find very beautiful. I recommend this CD to all lovers of medieval-style music, as well as lovers of the Eddic poems in particular. Just know the facts on what you're listening to.
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Udmærket!, July 14, 2000
Myths From Medieval Iceland is the best slice of Nordic culture since Iceland's Bjørk Gudmundsdottir burst on the pop scene with her band Sugarcubes. Seriously, this recording of exerpts from the Edda are executed with as much passion as Sequentia ever put in to recording the entire works of Hildegard von Bingen. The universal appeal of this work was verified by one of my clarinet students when he took this and 5 other examples of Medieval music to give a presentation in an English class. The Icelandic offering was the clear favorite among TEENAGERS! It is heartbreaking that the world lost Sequentia's co-founder Barbara Thornton during the final editing phase of this recording. She had such a perfect balance between historically informed performance practices and delivering work with unbridled passion. What a loss. We are truly fortunate that she left behind such immaculate work as this.
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful Myths + Scholarly Musicians = Incredible Experience, March 14, 2001
It doesn't hurt to have read the myths beforehand, to know Voluspa--at least a translation of the material. But, even without knowing what is going on, the beauty of this music invites one to wander into a different mindspace. The computer can fade away. The CD player--gone. Now, sitting around the fire, listen to the Edda (grandmother) tell the stories. Tonight the wind doesn't howl so loudly, the snow isn't so cold, bards have joined Edda to remind us of the tales of our heritage. Is this what our distant Viking kin used to listen to back in their great halls? Absent sound recordings, we'll never know for sure. I do miss the percussion I've heard on other recordings of ancient music. The stark simplicity of this music compels. "Listen to me!" Hear the words of the Witch, of Voluspa. Hear the tale of Thrym, who steals Thor's hammer and gets taken in by a ruse. "Balder's Dreams" haunts the listener, who knows Balder's fate. It's interesting to spend 76 minutes listening to this music, then to drop Wagner onto the CD player. The contrast, from the spartan Icelandic music to the richness of the 19th century compositions, can cause a brainquake!
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