Search - John Danyel, Nigel Short, Libby Crabtree :: Songs by John Danyel

A voice teacher and early music fan

George Peabody | Planet Earth | 10/29/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"TASTY MUSIC BY DANYEL SUNG DELIGHTFULLY BY SHORT, WHO SHOULD NOT BE SOLD SHORT!



All of John Danyel's music can be heard on this one recording, and from this music we can assume that he was a lutenist/singer. His approximate birth date was in 1564 and he died somewhere around 1625.



Although there exists only four solos for lute and two duets, in these six compositions Danyel displays considerable musical and technical ability. The paucity of so few pieces remaining can no doubt be blamed on the prevailing practice of improvisation: much of the surviving lute music was written down only by or for students.



The twenty songs (recorded in 1994) cover a wide range of style- secular, sacred, two short cycles (one a funeral elegy ,and the other highly chromatic), a dialogue, dance-songs, a part song all of which make use of high quality poetry; such a range of song material that one must regret that Danyel did not emulate Dowland by printing more books for songs.



The singers on this disc are highly skilled and experienced and sing these tunes with energy and skill. I was pleasantly surprised by Nigel Short's countertenor voice as I had not heard him prior to this disc; and I'm wondering why I have not heard him in a singing capacity since this recording. No doubt I was distracted by other more well-known performers of this ilk. Since I wrote this review, I have attempted to find out more about Nigel Short. He started at the Royal College of music singing counter-tenor and later moved on to more extensive lute-playing. He has made several recordings, most of which I do not know much about. Suffice it to say that he performs well on this recording and is quite enjoyable to hear.



The other singers: Libby Crabtree (soprano); Charles Daniels(tenor);Matthew Vine (tenor); Adrian Peacock (bass) notable performers. David Miller (lute), Jacob Heringman(lute) and Mark Caudle (bass viol) make up the excellent instrumental ensemble. All in all, a very entertaining disc.



The disc is nicely packaged and accompanied by a fifteen page booklet that includes the text, all in English. GRAMOPHONE: "THIS RECORDING WILL TRANSPORT YOU BACK TO RURAL ENGLAND AT THE TURN OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND THE INTIMATE, INTROSPECTIVE ENVIRONMENT OF DOMESTIC MUSIC-MAKING. NIGEL SHORT TAKES THE LION'S SHARE OF THE SONGS, BRINGING TO THEM POISE, BEAUTY OF TONE AND FORMIDABLE VOCAL CONTROL - NOTHING LESS THAN THE MUSIC REQUIRES.""