The Whole Music Experience

 Muse Frequencies Musicians talk about getting into the flow or about channeling music.   Some musicians such as Mary Youngblood in an interview I once did with her saw herself as a vessel of the Divine or God.   She mentioned her two-word prayer, “use me.” Then she would pick up her flute to record or perform live.   The Canadian virtuoso pianist Glenn Gould cited in biographical books and movies, which he had to transcend through the music in order to survive a performance on a badly tuned piano. This brings up a good point and that musicians often need to contend with drafts, overheated venues, noise from audience members, problems with an instrument (I had my guitar pickup die on me once while I was giving a performance in London) and some musicians have to deal with awful sound engineers, bad microphones and the list goes on. Fortunately, we have muses who come along to keep us inspired and to open doors for Divine energy to flow through all...

Stile Antico Passion and Resurrection Harmonia Mundi Stile Antico represents young English vocalists who specialize in renaissance church composers and these vocalists do this quite well.   Every vocalist in the choir possesses an exquisite voice, from hearty altos, to clear-razor sharp sopranos, intense basses and baritones to tenors that rival the famous Irish tenors.   The choir mostly performs the works of English renaissance composers, and similar to another favorite of mine, The Tudor Choir (Seattle), Stile Antico perform the works of Thomas Tallis, whose O Sacrum Convivium appears as track 3.   Those of you familiar with renaissance church composers will recognize John Taverner, William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons also of England.   Rounding off the composers, the vocalists brought in works by three Spanish composers and three Flemish composers with pan-continental styles.   One modern chant by John McCabe (his first recording) is set ...