American Angels - Songs of Hope, Redemption, & Glory
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Composer: AnonymousComposer: American Anonymous
Composer: William B. Bradbury
Composer: Ananias Davisson
Composer: Freeman Lewis
Composer: Robert Lowry
Composer: R.F.M. Mann
Composer: William Moore
Composer: Justin Morgan
Composer: Storm
Composer: Timothy Swan
Composer: American Traditional
Composer: William Walker
Composer: Joseph Philbrick Webster
Composer: Benjamin Franklin White
Performer: Anonymous 4
Performer: Jacqueline Horner
Performer: Johanna Rose
Performer: Marsha Genensky
Edition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2004-02-10
Music Label: harmonia mundi
Soundtracks:
- Brethren, We Have Met to Worship
- Abbeville (Come, Holy Spirit, come)
- Wondrous Love ('What wondrous love is this'), hymn
- Sweet Hour of Prayer
- Jewett (Amazing grace, how sweet the sound)
- Dunlap's Creek (My God, my portion and my love)
- New Britain (Amazing Grace) [The Sacred Harp] (Philadelphia)
- The Morning Trumpet
- My Shepherd Will Supply My Need, hymn (to the tune Resignation)
- Poland (God of my life, look gently down)
- Wayfaring Stranger, religious ballad
- Sweet by and by for chorus & organ
- Blooming Vale (O, were I like a feathered dove)
- Idumea I & II
- Sweet Prospect
- Shall We Gather at the River, hymn
- Amanda ('Death like an overflowing stream')
- Hark, I Hear The Harps Eternal (Invitation)
- Parting Friends, folk hymn
- Angel Band (My latest sun is sinking fast)
Music reviews of American Angels - Songs of Hope, Redemption, & Glory
Music Review: A crossover from chant to Sacred Harp...
Rating: 5 Stars
OK, this is *not* an "authentic" Sacred Harp recording. Anonymous 4 are trained professional singers who have mostly recorded chant, plainsong and medieval polyphony. Sacred Harp is an early American folk tradition, music written to be sung a capella by mostly untrained singers. While the harmonies are reminiscent of medieval polyphony, the music itself sounds energetic, intense, a bit raw -- made to be sung by hardy pioneer types. For Sacred Harp fans, the very rawness is a big part of the genre's appeal -- but I've noticed most of my classically-inclined friends cannot seem to get past the untrained voices to appreciate the beauty of the music itself.
That is where this CD comes in. Anonymous 4 are anything but raw and amateurish -- their gorgeous, ethereal voices sound nothing like your typical Sacred Harp singer, but the eerie modal harmonies and soaring descants of Sacred Harp music are presented here in clear glory. The ladies let loose a bit more than on their previous albums of chant and plainsong, but it is never raucous or rough-edged.
So it's not "real" Sacred Harp, but it is gorgeous in its own right -- and you can clearly hear the connection from ancient music to these 18th and 19th century American songs.
Description of American Angels - Songs of Hope, Redemption, & Glory
This, Anonymous 4's final recording, is a break from their usual "early music" periods and locations; it presents American music, religious in nature, from the 18th and 19th centuries. And it's absolutely beautiful from start to finish. Their normal, exquisite technique and purity here blend to sound the way we imagined the ladies' choir in church meetings in America past might have sounded: sweet, sincere, and with harmonies recognizable yet somehow fresh. Some of the songs begin with the women singing "fa, so la" exercises, which was called "shape note" singing because some places taught singing with notes as shapes--circle, rectangle, diamond, triangle. But it's the music that counts, and there are treasures here. They include two versions of "Amazing Grace," one familiar, one with an unusual melody and a piece called "Blooming Vale" which is as sophisticated as anything on their previous albums. "Shall We Gather at the River" is performed with a clarity and loveliness that makes us forget that it's normally sung as background to movies about the Great Depression. The foursome sometimes sing in rich harmonies and occasionally alone or in pairs or trios. This is glorious Americana and highly recommended. --Robert LevineGeneral CDs
- Styles > Classical
- Featured Performers, A-Z > ( A ) > Anonymous 4
- Historical Periods > Baroque (c.1600-1750) > General
- Classical (c.1770-1830) > General
- Early Music > Vocal & Song
- Opera & Vocal > General
- Vocal Non-Opera > Songs & Lieder > Folk Songs
- Folk > General
- Miscellaneous > General
- Pop > Vocal Pop > General
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