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To: AnAmericanMother

I first encountered madrigals when, upon arriving in Colonial Williamsburg for a weekend during the Christmas Season we experienced a concert in the Colonial Capitol Building. I was enthralled! I hummed and whistled some of the melodies for the next few days.

I’ve purchased several albums of Elizabethan music, in Colonial Williamsburg and elsewhere, with lute and harpsichord and recorder, and the rare madrigal included, just by happenstance, but never have found much in the way of pure madrigals.

I noticed there are several pretty good leads in the sidebar on the page where that madrigal is found. I’ll follow up on some of those. Thanks a million!


5 posted on 05/25/2012 5:35:06 PM PDT by Tucker39 ( Psa 68:19Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits; even the God of our salvation.KJV)
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To: Tucker39
Best all round surveys I've found are a couple of albums by John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers - Flora gave me fairest flowers and Olde English Madrigals. He's got some others out - his group has a very spare, clear sound that lets you hear each part.

The Baltimore Consort does a lot of madrigals, but I don't care for their sound, which is loose, heavy on the vibrato and thicker, if that makes any sense.

You could listen to the snippets on amazon to see which style you prefer. I'm thoroughly in the traditional English camp, and that's not to everybody's liking.

Actually, our choirmaster tells us that the Elizabethans probably sounded like old-fashioned Appalachian mountain singers - very nasal and forward, with no vibrato at all. Don't think anybody could stand that these days (but when we sing the really early stuff, like Josquin and Ockeghem, we can get away with it.)

7 posted on 05/25/2012 5:57:55 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGS Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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