English Medieval Christmas Car

This recording may be almost 50 years old, but it still resounds as the classic that alerted an unsuspecting public to the beauty and joy of medieval music. The New York Pro Musica would go on to record much more medieval and Renaissance music (including re-recordings of these selections), but this is now the only of their recordings in print. Until the entire output is restored to the catalog, this lone example must suffice. It is hauntingly beautiful and rousing by turns. This is a recording that should please a wide range of music lovers, but particularly those who already have found a place in their hearts for music of the medieval court and countryside.

As another reviewer points out, this CD is based on a recording made ALMOST 50 YEARS AGO. The sound quality is very nasal and brittle, and lacks the fullness that modern listeners have come to expect. So, unless you're interested in this CD as an artifact of musical history, you may be disappointed. If you're looking for somethng "listenable", there are any number of contemporary groups that specialize in music from this period.

The New York Pro Musica Antiqua, founded in 1952 by Noah Greenberg, gave many Americans their first taste of medieval and Renaissance music, both vocal and instrumental. Their work introduced a public generally ignorant of any composers who lived prior to Baroque to the sound of sackbutts (sp?!), rebecs, krumhorns, lutes, viol da gambas, and other staples of music-making between 1200 and 1700. Their recording of the 12th century liturgical drama, The Play of Daniel, was groundbreaking, their later LPs of Elizabethan madrigals and court music were a joy to the ear. In the Pro Musica's early days, they were fortunate to have on board the countertenor Russell Oberlin, a graduate of Juilliard, whose voice, bell-like and true in both the upper and lower registers, was devoid of the shrillness often heard in falsetto.

Mr. Oberlin is one of the fine vocalists in this early recording, and it is unfortunate that the quality of the transfer from LP to disc leaves something to be desired. The medieval christmas "carols," sung for the most part a cappella, are a pleasing combination of lively and quietly meditative songs, and it is easy to see how the Pro Musica served as a model for the many early-music groups that emerged between the 1970s and the present day. This disc is a must for the serious collector, or student of medieval music, and, even with the uneven sound quality, we can appreciate the excellence of the performers.