Search - Charpentier, Mucia, Vidales :: A Baroque Christmas

Following the Ensemble for Early Music's "NOVA - A Medieval Christmas" and "A Renaissance Christmas," this newest release includes representative 17th-century chamber music from England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and the New World. Unlike the more usual baroque offerings, the repertoire featured on this album balances (some very familiar) carol tunes, originating in the baroque era and reflective of secular usage (New Year and winter season celebratory songs), as well as villancicos from colonial Mexico, German Lutheran hymn settings by Samuel Scheidt, Hermann Schein and Michael Praetorius, English broadside ballads, Scots airs and French noels made notable by Charpentier?s inclusion in his Midnight Christmas Mass. As is the trademark of New York's Ensemble for Early Music, a variety of forms, languages and timbres are juxtaposed to build a varied treasury of early baroque Christmas related repertoire. Six male singers are accompanied by theorbo, lute, Baroque guitars and cittern; Italian triple, Spanish cross-strung and Celtic harps; bass viola da gamba and chamber organ.