Search - Lionheart, Kurt-Owen Richards :: My Fayre Lady: Tudor Songs and Chant

At first you may expect this program to be sung by women, but with the first notes of the Sarum chant "Quam pulcra es," sung by the warmly resonant male voices of the ensemble Lionheart, you realize that men's voices are the appropriate means of expression for these reverent, adoring, ancient yet universal tributes to women in general, and to the one loved or worshiped in particular. This could be a lover--real or desired--or, in the spiritual realm, the Virgin Mary, to whom countless hymns, chants, and larger musical works were dedicated. This is an exceptional program of chants from the Sarum rite, more complex choral compositions from the Eton Choirbook, and rarely heard selections from manuscript collections known as Henry VIII's Book, the Fayrfax Manuscript, and the Ritson Manuscript. If you're an early music enthusiast, or if you want a fine introduction to early English vocal music, don't pass this by. --David Vernier