Dance On A Moonbeam: A Collect: Bill Crofut: Amazon.ca: Music

1. While You Sleep/The Merchant Of Venice: How Sweet The Moonlight...
2. Dandling Songs
3. A Midsummer Night's Dream: I'll Follow You.../Alligator Hedgehog
4. The Chipmunk's Day
5. Mr. Bear
6. The Fox
7. A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Ouzel Cock...
8. The Cuckoo/Leatherwing Bats
9. Little Trotty Wagtail
10. The Friendly Cow
11. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Through The House Give Glimmering Light...
12. The Table And The Chair
13. Sonnet XVIII: So Long As...
14. Simple Gifts
15. Sweet Nightingale
16. White Fields
17. King Lear: He That Has...
18. In Just
19. The Winter's Tale: When You Speak, Sweet...
20. Dance To Your Daddy
See all 26 tracks on this disc

Product Description

From Amazon.co.uk

It is hard to even begin hanging musical descriptors on the late Bill Crofut. He came up during the folk boom of the 1950s and even then quietly defied tradition, setting American poets like Robert Penn Warren's words to banjo-inflected music, something he continued doing throughout his career with a variety of wordsmiths. Dance on a Moonbeam is his final treasure, a gift of sorts to children and their parents, delivered alas after Crofut's death in January 1999. Steeped in Shakespeare's words and a magical ability to weave together Renaissance-era moods and American folk music, Moonbeam exudes a warmth and soulfulness that Crofut and musical partner Chris Brubeck create with the simplest instrumentations--banjo, bass, piano, cello and voices, mostly. Meryl Streep interjects brief readings of Shakespeare, a lovely complement to an incredible mix of Crofut's rustic folk with classically trained singers like Dawn Upshaw, Julianne Baird and Frederica von Stade. "Dandling Songs", "The Bear", "Simple Gifts" and "All Through the Night" alone among these 26 stellar cuts make this one of the best children's music recordings in ages. It eschews the simple means to a child's ear and instead aims for the heart and soul, which Moonbeam reaches over and over with wit and creative depths that will unfold continuously. --Andrew Bartlett

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars NOT classic Bill Crofut, Dec 23 2002

By

melanie j burch (seattle, wa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dance On A Moonbeam: A Collect (Audio CD)

If you really love folk music, you'll love Bill Crofut; but not this album! I grew up listening to Bill Crofut (my parents' old record is all scratched up from me dancing around in front of the record player to the Chipmunk's Day). I love his voice, I love his poetry, I love the way he plays the banjo. I was so excited to see this album now that I have a child myself. But from the moment I turned it on, I loathed it. It's too operatic (I like Opera, but not when I want to listen to folk music), and it makes the very real and down-to-earth songs sound high-faluten and just plin bad. If your're looking for some great music for your kids (even very young ones), get some Bill Crofut music...but get it with Bill singing, not these non-folk singers.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Innovative mix of folk, classical, poetry, Oct 16 2002

By

"emw@vnp.com" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dance On A Moonbeam: A Collect (Audio CD)

I love what these performers have done mixing Shakespeare with folk,
classical etc. It is an especially big hit with my four year old. Kids
are much more receptive to this stuff than people give them credit
for...it's good to expose them early, when they are so open and
unhibited about the joys of music and language. Nevertheless I think
there are some valid criticisms from the other reviewers. Some songs are
more successful than others. It is hard to hear the spoken poetry (we
turn it up LOUD and then it is clear as a bell), maybe it wasn't "mixed"
properly. WE actually found that it appealed to us more and more with
repeated listenings, unlike the last reviewer (to each, his or her own).
My four year old especially loves the chipmunk song. My two year old
also loves the "Dance to your daddy" old celtic style nursery songs. The
ALleluia lullabye/carol is gorgeous (you can hear another version on the
beautiful Celtic Lullaby album). I love the selections of Shakespeare,
which stand well on their own out of context of the play and give
children an early chance to hear such lovely phrases as "we are such
stuff as dreams are made on." So I give it a four for doing all of this,
if not 100% successful, it still is pretty darn good and I hope it is
the first of many such efforts.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Innovative mix of poetry, folk and classical, Oct 7 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Dance On A Moonbeam: A Collect (Audio CD)

I love what these performers have done mixing Shakespeare with folk, classical etc. It is an especially big hit with my four year old. Kids are much more receptive to this stuff than people give them credit for...it's good to expose them early, when they are so open and unhibited about the joys of music and language. Nevertheless I think there are some valid criticisms from the other reviewers. Some songs are more successful than others. It is hard to hear the spoken poetry (we turn it up LOUD and then it is clear as a bell), maybe it wasn't "mixed" properly. WE actually found that it appealed to us more and more with repeated listenings, unlike the last reviewer (to each, his or her own). My four year old especially loves the chipmunk song. My two year old also loves the "Dance to your daddy" old celtic style nursery songs. The ALleluia lullabye/carol is gorgeous (you can hear another version on the beautiful Celtic Lullaby album). I love the selections of Shakespeare, which stand well on their own out of context of the play and give children an early chance to hear such lovely phrases as "we are such stuff as dreams are made on." So I give it a four for doing all of this, if not 100% successful, it still is pretty darn good and I hope it is the first of many such efforts.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Innovative mix of poetry, folk and classical
I love what these performers have done mixing Shakespeare with folk, classical etc. It is an especially big hit with my four year old. Read more

Published on Oct 7 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars Innovative mix of poetry, folk and classical
I love what these performers have done mixing Shakespeare with folk, classical etc. It is an especially big hit with my four year old. Read more

Published on Oct 7 2002