minstrel: Carmina Burana

[Tadhg O Cuileannain]

--- L Joseph <wodeford at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> --- Tadhg O Cuileannain <tadhg at flash.net> wrote:
> > Personally, I think it's still hard to beat the
> > recording by Thomas Binkley and the Studio der
> > Fruhen
> > Musik, but it seems to be out of print. 
> Bummer! Not familiar with that one, but now you've
> gone and mentioned it I may have to try to hunt it
> down. Argh! Just what I need - MORE obscure
> recordings.


It was originally recorded in 1964 as a 2-LP set on
Teldec, rereleased in 1987, and on CD in 1995.  I have
a cassette version of vol. 1, the Musical Heritage
Society release (no longer available).  I once saw the
CD in a store, but I was a starving grad student and
decided to be prudent--always a mistake.

 
> > Ensemble Unicorn's is my second choice.
> Yeah, but the xylophone on "Ich was ein chint"
> totally
> knocked me for a loop. I don't think I've ever heard
> one on an early music recording. 

I think it's actually bells, perhaps of the sort shown
in the Cantigas di Santa Maria illumination:

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/images/cantiga_6small.jpg

I admit, I've never heard it done quite the way I'd
like--the "drunken" versions are just overdone, and I
think large ensembles are wrong for the material.  I'd
like it to be done as if it were a few (talented but
not professional) students sitting around their dorm
with a jug of wine and a few instruments (say gittern,
pipe, and drum).  Informal, definitely not classical
music, but not sloppy.  Voices in tune, but not
sounding classically trained.  No more than 4-5 voices
at a time, and that only on the rowdy drinking songs.

Oh well--if you want something done right...

Tadhg

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Tadhg O Cuilleannain of One Thousand Eyes
Tim Connor of Idaho Falls, Idaho
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