Interesting albums from the folk and roots music history, by Marius Roeting.
Tonight, the Paul Rans Ensemble.
Some find it the best time of the year: winter with its dark and long days. For others certainty is given that the light will return. Literally after the solstice, but for Christians also figuratively. In December we celebrate Christmas and it’s no fabrication that the return of the sun and the feast of Christmas are connected to each other. It is a historical fact. This relation is still sometimes recognizable, be it concealed in old Christmas and solstice songs. In 1989 the then BRT released a project CD with the Paul Rans Ensemble. Four chastened musicians who play on Middle Age and Renaissance instruments and who sing were looking for 20 Christmas and solstice songs in ancient writings in monasteries, museums and in old songbooks like De Cousemaker and Bols. They recorded these songs, quite true to how it must have sound like in the past, on the CD Mit desen nyewen jare. Remarkable to this CD is the entwining of liturgical (inspired) and profane works, the interplay between classic and traditional. The wealth to historical material was interpreted in this way for the first time. It is a historcial and musical well-considered dissenting opinion for the mostly silly and feeble performances when it comes to Christmas and New Year’s songs.
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