Category Archives: Music

Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons; Arcangelo Corelli’s The Christmas Concerto

Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which, although actually four concerti grossi is invariably performed as a single work, was one of the most popular works in the baroque canon in the years after its creation in 1723, and after Vivaldi’s … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Valse de Noël, An Acadian-Cajun Christmas Revels

What a delightful way to end a year that was sometimes less than delightful. For 2016, The Revels has produced a program and CD of Acadian and Cajun music and dance. If you’re not familiar with The Revels (I’m not … Continue reading

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Laura Risk and Jacqueline Schwab’s Celtic Dialogue 

Dynamic nuances, crisp, clear tone and appropriately stylistic bowing characterize Laura Risk’s fiddle lines on her newest recording, Celtic Dialogue. Risk’s pure and gentle touch on the fiddle makes it sound like she is caressing the music from her instrument rather … Continue reading

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The Handsome Family live in Portland Oregon

The Handsome Family rocks. They do now, anyway. I’ve been a fan of The Handsome Family since the late 1990s and have seen them live several times since 2004. I’ve always enjoyed their performances, but none as much as this … Continue reading

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Michael Nyman’s Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs

Michael Nyman’s Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs was the result of one of those “six degrees” sorts of things, coupled with a couple years of intense focus on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. During 1990-91, Nyman was working on the score … Continue reading

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John Dowland’s Seven Teares: Music of John Dowland; The York Waites’ Fortune My Foe: Popular Music from the Period of the Gunpowder Plot

There was a time not so long ago (well, geologically speaking, at any rate) when court music and popular music were not so far apart. Say about four hundred years, give or take a decade. (This is really to some … Continue reading

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Oysterband’s Before the Flood 

A quick Google search tells me that the average lifespan of a pearl-farmed oyster is six years, while the lifespan of a freshwater oyster can be as long as 80. The individual ages of the Oysters — members of our … Continue reading

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Oysterband’s Oyster Origins 2: Twenty Golden Tie-Slackeners Plus

It would be difficult to overestimate the impact of the Oysterband on my music listening habits, or on my love of folk and world music. Indeed, without the Waterboys and the Oysterband in the 1980s, my love of traditional music … Continue reading

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Smithfield Fair’s The Winter Kirk

Smithfield Fair’s never been a band that over-produces its work. Sure, they go in for clever arrangements now and again, but for the most part their previous discs have featured an honest, workmanlike approach to the music. On The Winter … Continue reading

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Grex Vocalis’ Magnum Mysterium

Magnum Mysterium is a collection of choral music around the celebration of the birth of Christ – the “Magnum Mysterium” that has provided such a rich heritage for Christmas celebrations. Although Grex Vocalis is a Norwegian group, the disc also … Continue reading

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