Enchanting Music!
This is by far one of the best compilations of ancient music I have come across. Pickett and the NLC make every selection sparkle with life. Fascinating in its variety, what sets this collection apart is the skill of the performers and the remarkable sound quality of the recording. A terrific introduction to this period in European music for novices, and an absolute must for the collector, this belongs in every ancient music fan's collection. Highly recommended.

Excellent Music! Great Quality!
I bought this CD after listening to a number of song samples -- it is a great sampling of superb music and the quality is outstanding. It is now even cheaper than when I bought it -- you can't go wrong with this one!

A nice album for the medieval music enthusiast
As a long time member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I was very pleased to receive this album over the holidays. It sets a wonderful medieval atmosphere and is very relaxing to listen to without the over-the-top elitist feel of some medieval albums I've both sampled and purchased. The pieces are a nice mix of vocals and period instrumentals, including some very good dances I recognize from the SCA and many I don't recognize.

Overall, I reccomend this album to anyone who wants to set a medieval atmosphere. One caveat for those who want to put this on an ipod: use noise-cancelling head-phones: it's recorded very quietly and you usually cannot hear most of the tracks in a typical noisy street environment without them.

This album is actually much much better than i expected it to be based on the snippets I heard on amazon.com.

Rennaissance music at it's finest!
This was my first Renaissance music album and the broad styles of several composers were very well represented, especially Michael Pretorius, probably the most well-known composer of his time. The tonal quality sparkles and the latin language comes alive (along with English translation in the included booklet); be prepared for an aural "feast" of some of the more eclectic music from the Renaissance period!

a voice teacher and early music fan
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE PRESENTED BY PHILIP PICKETT.

To quote from the accompanying booklet seems to be in order to start this review: "This collection attempts to wipe the dust from some old ideas and restore music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to its roots deep in the human soul.........What you're listening to on this disc is not the domain of museums, but the music of the people,born of faith and the love of song and dance".

This is a varied group of works, some dances, some strictly instrumental and some accompanied vocal.

The role of dancing, as you might suspect, was enormously important in this era. 'Le Bouree' showcases the dance music of the composer Michael Praetorius. The 'Bransles de Villages' is of French origin and features 2 violins, 2 violas, a cello, a great bass viol, hurdy-gurdy and 2 lutes. 'La scesa de Pastori dal Monte' is an Italian dance by Andrea Ansalone. Another dance written by Michael Praetorious was the 'Volte' which actually involved 4 short dances. It was considered not respectable because of the close contact between the dancers.

The strictly instrumental songs are : 'Dum pater familias' is called a pilgrim song, and it was religious in nature. And, of course, all the dance songs are instrumental.

The vocally oriented songs are: 'Quen a Virgin ben servira' is a song taken from a collection of songs about the miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary.-Three of the songs are from the famous 'Carmina Burana' manuscript.- 'Orientis partibus' is from the 'Feast of fools'which was a feast held by the church itself in which the status of the church herarchy was reversed as inferior clergy assumed the role of their superiors.-'Stella Splendours' is another pilgrim song; this song was sung by pilgrims who went to worship as the Shrine of the Virgin at Montserrat.

I always trust the quality of a CD when Philip Pickett and the New London Consort are involved. This album is very interesting, but I would hope that this would be classified as the more "pop" type music of the period. Also, I don't think that I personally would call it early music, as is indicated in the accompanying booklet. Today that term brings to mind Monteverdi, Cavalli, Palestrina, the Scarlatti's, up to and including Handel and Bach etc.. Just a personal reaction on my part. This is a very well put together disc.