VMP - Arts & Music

Title: Undrentide
Artist(s): Mediaeval Baebes
Label: Emd/Nettwerk, September 12, 2000
Posted: Sep 13, 2000

Mediaeval Baebes is a collective with two things going for it: the chesty, tattooed forms of its young, all-female membership and sizable worldwide sales figures (touted at some 250,000 units for two previous discs). A particularly compelling interpretation of early music, though, is not something the group is burdened with. Led by Katharine Blake of English goth band Miranda Sex Garden, the amateurish singers of Mediaeval Baebes intone a mix of traditional tunes and Blake's backward-looking originals, aided by Celtic-style instrumentation. Produced by avant-rocker John Cale of Velvet Underground fame, this album also features electronic accoutrements that help to ameliorate the group's performing style, which can be numbingly bland. But the shortcomings of "Undrentide" are magnified when you consider the medieval music played with real fire, beauty, and imagination on discs by the likes of Sequentia and Hesperion XX. The Mediaeval Baebes do make a fetching sight live, though.
(ASIN: B00004X0QP)

Price: $13.99 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: Worldes Blysse
Artist(s): Mediaeval Baebes
Label: Emd/Nettwerk, July 27, 1999
Posted: Sep 13, 2000

Their CD, Worldes Blysse, draws on numerous languages and musical styles - including trance, symphonization, and straight chant - to breathe modern life into forgotten mediaeval music.

The sounds sell not only because of the Mediaeval Baebes' fresh approach to ancient tunes, however. Their occultic femme fatale mystique draws as much attention to their band as their music.
(ASIN: B00000JMXJ)

Price: $13.49 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: An English Ladymass - 13th and 14th-century chant and polyphony in honor of the Virgin Mary
Artist(s): Anonymous 4
Label: Harmonia Mundi (Fra), September 1, 1992
Posted: May 18, 1999

Tracks include: "Prosa: Gaude virgo salutata (chant)", "Polyphonic song: Edi beo thu hevene quene", "Introit: Salve mater redemptoris / Salve lux langentium / Salve sine spina / Salve sancta", "parens", "Motet: Lux polis refulgens / Lux et gloria", "Kyrie: Kyria christifera", "Gloria", "Motet: Spiritus et alme / Gaude virgo salutata", "Song: Miro genere", "Gradual: Benedicta et venerabilis", "Alleluia: Alme iam ad gaudia / Alme matris dei / Alleluya per te dei", and more...
(ASIN: B0000007DL)

Price: $15.49 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: A Lammas Ladymass - 13-14th Century Chant for the Assumption of Virgin Mary
Artist(s): Anonymous 4
Label: Harmonia Mundi (Fra), September 1, 1998
Posted: May 18, 1999

Medieval Britain celebrated both the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and her Coronation during Lammas, the Celtic festival of harvest. Drawing from the vast treasury of 13th and 14th century English chant and polyphony, Anonymous 4 employ their 'pure perfection' to create a Ladymass such as might have been sung to honour Mary's feast.
(ASIN: B00000C29Z)

Price: $15.49 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: Ancient Voices
Artist(s): Anonymous
Label: Harmonia Mundi (Fra), July 11, 1995
Posted: May 15, 1999

Stabat iuxta Christ Crucern; Motets from the Montpellier Codex; Ecce quod natura; An English Ladymass: Agnus Gei & Offertory; The Tournai Mass: Excerpts; Dominica palmarum; Antiphon: Otin to stauron / O quando in cruce; To the Blessed Virgin; Hallel / Qadish qadish / Mshiho dabyald�h; Ya umma-I-Iah; Excerpt from the Office of the Paraklisis
(ASIN: B00000074Q)

Price: $7.17 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: 11,000 Virgins - Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula
Artist(s): Hildegard von Bingen / Anonymous 4
Label: Harmonia Mundi (Fra), September 9, 1997
Posted: May 15, 1999

The radiant music of Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, twelfth-century poet-composer, prophet and mystic, herbalist and healer, came to her in visions and was no doubt intended to be sung by the nuns of her convent. Her rhapsodic chants inspired by the legend of St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins are full of imagery, weaving a hypnotic web of sound. Anonymous 4, who sing with "an ethereal clarity that is absolutely captivating"", are the ideal interpreters of this music.
(ASIN: B0000007FU)

Price: $15.49 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: Salva Nos
Artist(s): Mediaeval Baebes
Label: Emd/Virgin, September 8, 1998
Posted: May 15, 1999

Not many singers of mediaeval choral music can be said to have performed in graveyards, rock venues and S&M clubs, but then, the Mediaeval Baebes aren't your average Early Music group.
Katherine Blake was already known for drawing the public's attention to the erotic potential of Mediaeval Music through her singing with cult act act Miranda Sex Garden when she met Mediaeval specialist Dorothy Carter in Berlin in '96. The two hit it off immediately and set about convincing their friends to join them: the Baebes were born.
Ignoring the dry, academic approach of of other practitioners of this enchanting music, The Baebes instead revel in its charm and mystery, and their extravagant, spirited performances have won them fans the world over.
(ASIN: B000040OAN)

Price: $14.49 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: The Medieval Experience/Munrow, Early Music Consort London
Artist(s): Medieval Experience
Label: November 19, 1996
Posted: March 27, 1999

(ASIN: B0000057FL)

Price: $24.27 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
4 - discs

Title: Songs of Chivalry
Composer(s): Guilhelm IX, Huon D'Oisy, et al
Conductor(s): Martin Best
Orchestra: Martin Best Medieval Ensemble
Label: Nimbus, January 1, 1987
Posted: March 27, 1999

"delightfully varied and well planned ...
(ASIN: B0000057FL)

Price: $14.99 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: Medieval Spirit
Artist(s): Richard Bona, Adrian Brand, et al
Conductor(s): Anne-Marie Deschamps
Orchestra: Venance Fortunat Ensemble
Label: L'Empreinte Digitale, March 9, 1999
Posted: March 27, 1999

(ASIN: B00000IAE8)

Price: $33.27 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
3 - discs

Title: Medieval and Renaissance Music
Artist(s): Alfons X (El Sabio), Gillebert de Berneville, et al
Orchestra: Kalenda Maya Ensemble
Label: Simax, April 1, 1996
Posted: March 27, 1999

(ASIN: B000004543)

Price: $17.97 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: Wanderers' Voices - Medieval Cantigas
Artist(s): Der Unverzagte, Neidhart von Reuenthal, et al
Orchestra: Newberry Consort
Label: Harmonia Mundi, November 24, 1993
Posted: March 27, 1999

Track info: Anonymous: Jocundare plebs fidelis, Cantigas de amigo; Neidhart: 'Sinc an, guld�n huon!', Ow� dirre n�t!, Tannh�user: Ich lobe ein wip, Der Unverzagte: Der kuninc Rodolp [King Rudolf], Oswald von Wolkenstein: 'Wol auff, gesell', 'Durch Barabarei, Arabia', 'Freu dich, du weltlich creatur', Es seusst dort her von orient.
(ASIN: B0000007DN)

Price: $15.49 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc

Title: Medieval Songs and Dances
Artist(s): Anonymous, Perrin D'Agincourt
Conductor: John Sothcott
Orchestra: St. George's Canzona
Label: Crd (UK), January 9, 1996
Posted: March 27, 1999

(ASIN: B0000044G0)

Price: $15.49 USD
(not including shipping & handling) Availability:
2 - 4 weeks delivery
Audio CD
1 - disc