Wow so true -- about Lisa G and many others....I remember covering Visions actually before hearing any Hildegard unadorned, def not the right way to do it (!). But it led me to her, and agreed -- Feather on the Breath of God is just luminous. still the best gateway....thanks John...
Hildegard's music is transcendent. She is the spirit guide for singers like Lisa Gerrard, Azam Ali and Sheila Chandra. I loved Sequentia. I interviewed them for Echoes in the 1990s. I also love the adaptations of her music by Richard Souther on the "Visions" album. We had them on too. One of my great experiences was Sister Germaine Fritz singing a Hildegard chant just for me in the vestibule of her church in NJ. "A Feather on the Breath of God" by Gothic Voices remains one of my favorites and the album that kick-started the 1990s Hildegard boom.
I love the variety of music you write about, Tom. Some sources say Thomas Aquinas wrote the well-known chant Pange Lingua. Seems like polymaths may have been a kind of requirement for monastic life back then.
Definitely spending my last free NY'er article for this month on this - thanks for the tip! In the early days of buying CD's, the BMG Classical club made it affordable to be adventurous so I took a chance on a Hildegard recording - Sequentia's Ordo Virutum - and I didn't regret it. Fantastic stuff.
A dollar?!? I'm old enough to remember CH's 11 LPs for a penny! And, I actually think we could, say, tape an actual penny to an index card before sticking it into the envelope. Sometimes, I think I'm a Flintstone!
Ha me too. I think there's something here tho -- that idea of selecting (from the limited menu of things CH wanted to move) and then receiving the package, and then going down all those rabbit holes, and then getting the next catalog, and just from the previous experience being eager to check out something else. if I'm honest, I have to say this helped me appreciate the vastness of expression happening within music. which makes me wonder: does the unlimited streaming buffet do the same thing? or, after a time, create choice fatigue/paralysis?
Well, and here I was joining CH (and in the '90s/2000s, BMG) even DURING the tail end of my record biz days! As I've mentioned on my site, from late '60s, when I was in jr. hi thru early '70 (high school), Dad would bring home endless current promo LPs from his radio station.
Then, I had free access to all music via promos from mid-'70s thru early '80s when I was in radio and retail records!
Your last couple sentences make me want to dig deeper into that notion of "unlimited streaming buffet" and the resultant reaction (your "fatigue/paralysis").
What say we go in on a thread together where we pose that question of those who received unlimited vinyl reserves (record clubs, buying, promo-receiving, cut-out bin rifling, etc) and see what we all have to say about the "fall-out," however positive or negative (including, of course, the 21st century streaming phenomenon as part of it all)!
Wow so true -- about Lisa G and many others....I remember covering Visions actually before hearing any Hildegard unadorned, def not the right way to do it (!). But it led me to her, and agreed -- Feather on the Breath of God is just luminous. still the best gateway....thanks John...
Hildegard's music is transcendent. She is the spirit guide for singers like Lisa Gerrard, Azam Ali and Sheila Chandra. I loved Sequentia. I interviewed them for Echoes in the 1990s. I also love the adaptations of her music by Richard Souther on the "Visions" album. We had them on too. One of my great experiences was Sister Germaine Fritz singing a Hildegard chant just for me in the vestibule of her church in NJ. "A Feather on the Breath of God" by Gothic Voices remains one of my favorites and the album that kick-started the 1990s Hildegard boom.
I love the variety of music you write about, Tom. Some sources say Thomas Aquinas wrote the well-known chant Pange Lingua. Seems like polymaths may have been a kind of requirement for monastic life back then.
....they had lots of time!
(thanks for the kind words!)
Definitely spending my last free NY'er article for this month on this - thanks for the tip! In the early days of buying CD's, the BMG Classical club made it affordable to be adventurous so I took a chance on a Hildegard recording - Sequentia's Ordo Virutum - and I didn't regret it. Fantastic stuff.
Oh yes, the BMG Classical club! I was (briefly) a member, and before that for longer w/ Columbia House. 11 records or cassettes for a dollar!
A dollar?!? I'm old enough to remember CH's 11 LPs for a penny! And, I actually think we could, say, tape an actual penny to an index card before sticking it into the envelope. Sometimes, I think I'm a Flintstone!
Ha me too. I think there's something here tho -- that idea of selecting (from the limited menu of things CH wanted to move) and then receiving the package, and then going down all those rabbit holes, and then getting the next catalog, and just from the previous experience being eager to check out something else. if I'm honest, I have to say this helped me appreciate the vastness of expression happening within music. which makes me wonder: does the unlimited streaming buffet do the same thing? or, after a time, create choice fatigue/paralysis?
Well, and here I was joining CH (and in the '90s/2000s, BMG) even DURING the tail end of my record biz days! As I've mentioned on my site, from late '60s, when I was in jr. hi thru early '70 (high school), Dad would bring home endless current promo LPs from his radio station.
Then, I had free access to all music via promos from mid-'70s thru early '80s when I was in radio and retail records!
Your last couple sentences make me want to dig deeper into that notion of "unlimited streaming buffet" and the resultant reaction (your "fatigue/paralysis").
What say we go in on a thread together where we pose that question of those who received unlimited vinyl reserves (record clubs, buying, promo-receiving, cut-out bin rifling, etc) and see what we all have to say about the "fall-out," however positive or negative (including, of course, the 21st century streaming phenomenon as part of it all)!