Early music can mean a lot of things, it is spiritual music, it is medieval dance music, it is an exploration in music theory, ancient instruments, etc. True, early music can be old, but it can also be new.
I like this album for exploring the creativity and depth of early music by not only including works with a clear medieval orgin, but modern pieces as well. The choice of songs and artists represented on Kronos Quartet - Early Music (Lachrymae Antiquae) is stellar. This album breaks the notion that early music is ancient history.
Kronos Quartet does an excellent job at piecing together this album along with help from various guest artists in some of the songs.
The album opens up with a Kyrie by Guillaume de Machaut, a simply medieval polyphonic piece from the 14th century blending string quartet, and harmonium. There are three Kyries in the album, and they are all used quite effectively as brief intermission pieces.
From there, the album explores various aspects of early music. There is John Cage with two pieces that sound surprising melodic. There is John Dowland's Lachrymæ Antiquæ, a serene piece, and the sort of music that would be played in a 16th century England manor house during the afternoons. Dowland was a well-known lute composer in his time, and playing this song on a lute for this piece would have been ideal, unfortunately, lutes are not widespread ever since the guitar was invented. Fortunately, however, the Chinese lute are still made, and played. In this piece, the zhong ruan, and da ruan are both used.
Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales is an interesting because it touches upon atonal music. Most western music today is based on equal temperment (a tuning system where an octave equals 12 semitones). However, there were many tuning systems that had been used in history, and this piece written by Harry Partch in 1946 touches upon two of them; Olympos' Pentatonic (An ancient Greek tuning system with an octave of 5 semitones), and Archytas' Enharmonic (octave of varying semitones). A minuet is played on both scales.
Synchrony No. 2 (Louis Hardin, a.k.a. Moondog, 1994) is a slow, and very graceful piece with strings lyrically playing a modern American folk melody with medieval drums beating softly, and dirge-like in the background. This is like a modern version of a medieval dance.
Uleg-Khem whimsically blends string quartet (both plucked and bowed) with Tuvan music and vocals. If you are not familiar with Tuvan music, you should [Footnote 1]. Tuva is a autonomous region inside Russian located just north of Mongolia, and west of Lake Bikal. The distinctive feature of Tuvan music is its vocals. In addition to being sung from the gut, there is throat singing (khöömeï). Notes are hummed, and each note can simultaneously range two to three tones. The result sounds like an electronic voice box for people who have lost their larynxes, but, naturally, the Tuvan version is cleaner sounding. The addition of the igil (mouth harp) adds a nice twanging effect to the throat singing. There are two other Tuvan instruments in the song, the byzaanchi, and the toschpuluur.
There are obviously too many songs to mention on this album. I would say that you will not be disappointed in this album if all you wanted to do is explore the creativity and depth of early music, or to find out about a new modern, or contemporary artist you have not heard before.
Footnote 1: Huun-Huur Tu (see http://www.huunhuurtu.com)
Track list:
Kyrie I (14th century) Guillaume de Machaut, with Marja Mutru, harmonium.
Rachell's Weepinge (16th century) Christopher Tye.
Langdans efter Byfans Mats (1997) David Lamb, with David Lamb, bagpipe.
Lachrymae Antiquae (1604) John Dowland, with Wu Man, zhong ruan, and da ruan.
Psalom (1991/1993) Arvo Part.
Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales (1946) Harry Partch.
Long-Ge (1987) Jack Body.
Totem Ancestor (1943) John Cage.
Kyrie II (14th century) Guillaume de Machaut, with Marja Mutru, harmonium.
Brudmarsch fra Osta (unknown) Traditional-Sweden, with Olov Johansson, nyckelharpa.
Using the Apostate Tyrant As His Tool (9th century) Kassia.
