Paul McCartney: Ecce Cor Meum

MAGDALEN CHOIR-OXFORD (Artist) Format: Audio CD

106 ratings

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart) is the fourth classical based work created by Paul McCartney for EMI Classics. This compelling new work is an Oratorio scored for choir, soprano and orchestra in four movements, each beginning with unaccompanied voices with text combining both English and Latin. The music is full of color and drama and, of course, a wealth of glorious melody for which Paul McCartney is so well known.

Amazon.com

Paul McCartney's new "classical" oratorio is called Ecce Cor Meum, which translates as "Behold My Heart." The idealistic texts, also by McCartney, are meditations on goodness, spirituality, peace, and love, and are well served by the pretty, Romantic melodies; the long choral and orchestral sections flow one into the next. The Interlude (composed after the death of his wife, Linda), with its lovely oboe solo, is simple and moving. The music builds throughout to an emotional climax and the entrance of the organ later in the work--beautifully played and handsomely recorded--is quite remarkable. This is a far more advanced work than 1991's Liverpool Oratorio: better orchestrated, more through-composed. No, it's not the last word in compositional sophistication, but it has many beautiful moments, and McCartney's legions of fans will need to own it. --Robert Levine

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.71 x 5.12 x 0.39 inches; 3.74 Ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Warner Classics
SPARS Code ‏ : ‎ DDD
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ August 11, 2006
Label ‏ : ‎ Warner Classics
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000HC2NL0
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #120,290 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #3,786 in Chamber Music (CDs & Vinyl)
- #3,870 in Opera & Vocal (CDs & Vinyl)

Customer Reviews:
106 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		63%
4 star		19%
3 star		5%
2 star		7%
1 star		7%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Susan E. Wood

McCartney's most successful choral and ircesrral work

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2016

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Sir Paul's first experiments with orchestral and choral music were a little, er, experimental, but in this cantata he got it right. When I first heard the "Gratia" on a classicak radio station, I thought it might be by John Rutter -- similar melodic beauty.

2 people found this helpful

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J. M.

A must for anyone who appreciates excellent choral and instrumental music.

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2016

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Paul McCartney is a brilliant composer and this album is just one more in the epic lineage of his music. The delicate balance between power and quiet, domineering chorals/vocals and gentle distant chimes or woodwinds. This is a must have for anyone who enjoys a well composed instrumental and choral album.

2 people found this helpful

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Licorice Tales

So glad I found this!

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2019

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I had this CD and lost it. It is classical music written by Paul after Linda passed away. A rare find indeed.

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Michael Tucker

An excellent gift for the true music fan!

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2019

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Excellent Christmas present for my wife who is a fan of Bach and Paul McCartney.

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Frederick J. Parrella

A liturgical side to a magnificent popular artist!

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2021

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This piece of music is inspiring and deeply moving for meditation. Paul McCartney surprises us by being the Palestrina of his era.

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LeRiv

Beautiful Music!

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2021

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Add this one to your collection.

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C. Cleveland

Are we listening to the same piece of music?

Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2008

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How can I be listening to the same piece of music that another reviewer here finds "vapid" and "uneventful"? That is the question I ask myself, and the only answer I've been able to think of is, perhaps, that the other reviewer is looking for Hamlet set to music. Five acts of increasing tension released by a bloodbath in the fifth act. That would certainly be a fun and perhaps worthwhile musical project, but Hamlet's agony has little to do with what McCartney is trying to do in this oratorio. McCartney's trying to live, not die.

This work, as anyone who considers the lyrics, much less the music, will recognize, is a set of meditations on matters spiritual, material, personal, and musical. It is a highly confessional and personal look at the heart and mind that make Paul McCartney tick. The lyrics consider the questions of how to find light and spirit and love in your life. The answer is that you pray, and praying loudly and demandingly is okay with McCartney. There is spirit in the world, and you can connect with it. If your connection is sound, it will bring you all the treasures of life and love and successful communication of your heart. Ecce Cor Meum is full of climaxes, and excitement, and tempo and mood changes. There are contrapuntal passages liberally strewed throughout the work, and there are gorgeous instrumental colors, and lonely voices plaintively singing their way out of gloom and darkness and despair into light and joy and forward motion. It does not have architectural structure, but it is in constant spiritual and musical motion.

"Let the good that surrounds us help us to always care." "Take love away and we are ruined." Lead us "into the light of your sweet song." "There in the future we may be apart. Here in my music I show you my heart."

The piece is undoubtedly colored by the death of Linda McCartney in the middle of its composition, and what McCartney learned of finding the light again, and how to react to making mistakes while looking for the light. The personal credo expressed in this composition has been tested by the worst that could happen to this particular composer, and he uses his own dark night of the soul to strengthen his personal philosophy of love, light, music, and positive action.

What it is not is uneventful and vapid, unless you think that love doesn't exist, that there is no such thing as spirit, and that music is primarily for entertainment. Music can save your soul, McCartney sings, and his soloist and choirs sing convincingly. The music reaches, and surges, and batters down the gates of heaven on earth.

I can easily understand those who have reported that they listen to the piece over and over again. It's heartening, it's exciting, it's seriously melodic and wildly expressive. Ecce Cor Meum is just one man's testimony to what's important in life, but the man in question is one of the most talented and inventive musicians around.

6 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

disappointed

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2021

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musical selection was not what i expected. will have to search further for correct musical selection

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Top reviews from other countries

Geir Stensund

This was really astonishing good! Paul must be the best multitalented artist ever

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2018

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I have never heard any of Paul MC Cartney's classical music before. This was really astonishing good! Paul must be the best multitalented artist ever! I’ve always liked his music - with the DVD Wingspan as an absolute favourite - very good music and a touching love story. His production is impressive (better after The Beatles?): really good pop music played with enthusiasm, simple, but universal lyrics (to write simple is really a challenge!), beautiful poems, really impressing paintings and now also very good classical music: Again quite simpel, lovely to listen to - even for me that usually doesn’t like classical music. Is there anything this guy doesn’t succeed in? It won’t be the last classical record by Paul MC Cartney, that’s for sure! On of the biggest artist ever, if not the biggest! Thank you, sir Paul!

Pianissimo

Something interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2013

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I bought this CD because, as a classical music lover, I wanted to try something different from the usual Beethoven, Brahms etc., and I have always admired Paul McCartney. Also, I was interested in the general concept of the album as an expression of McCartney's innermost feelings. There is something very beguiling about this music - it is classical music, yes, but it is suffused with pop elements, also. This may not appeal to the purists of this world, but it will appeal to anyone with an open mind - and that is how one should approach this music. In its time, Beethoven's music was revolutionary in form, as was, for instance, Sibelius's; is not music all about pushing the bounderies? And this is precisely what McCartney has done, and I laud him for it. You will find a touch of the magical mystery tour and even an echo of Poulenc in this work, but the main elements of the piece are McCartney's own. What is wonderful is the profound spirituality within it, and we are treated to gloriously lyrical melodies that are McCartney's trademark. Furthermore, there are interesting shifts of mood, from a passage that will almost reduce you to tears to an organ cadenza that will take your breath away. The more I listen to this music, the more I am drawn into it, and the only reason I have given it four stars and not five is that I have a feeling that McCartney still has more to give us.

6 people found this helpful

North Atlantic

Very pleased

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 10, 2021

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Quick delivery and pleased with the goods thanks

Ray Kay

Ecce Manum Meum

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 24, 2011

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Pleasant background listening, but lacking in any real musical depth.
Also, I think Paul McC wrote it as a memorial to his late first wife Linda, so respect.
I've been a big fan of Paul McCartney since childhood, but he is better at Rock and Pop.

Geoff R.

Ecce Cor Meum CD

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

A n excellent CD, good value, and just the CD music that I wanted. Thank you.

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