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Showing posts from July 13, 2008

In Review--Hilliard Ensemble

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photo: by Friedrun Reinhold The Hilliard Ensemble Thomas Tallis, Christopher Tye and John Sheppard ECM I learned about The Hilliard Ensemble through a Seattle-based early music ensemble, The Tudor Choir. And through this choir, I also heard about the music of Thomas Tallis and John Sheppard, if I am not mistaken. This will be the second Hilliard Ensemble recording reviewed by me (the other review appears on Cranky Crow Whole Music). While this recording is important for historical reasons as well as, the sheer beauty of the seamless voices of David James (countertenor), Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor), Steven Harrold (tenor), Gordon Jones (baritone) and Robert Macdonald (bass), I will ask you to read the scholarly liner notes which delve into that history. If you are interested in 16th century England, then your delight will double as you read about the renaissance composers and the events that surrounded them. Religious music turns some people off, which given all the dogma peo