Search - Robin Blaze, Elizabeth Kenny :: Move Now with Measured Sound: Music by Thomas Campion

A voice teacher and early music fan

George Peabody | Planet Earth | 01/18/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"CAMPION: A MUSICAL REVOLUTIONARY!



This is a good representation of Campions' songs considering that he wrote so many of them. It is likely that Campion,not himself a professional performing musician, thought it the role of the performer to fashion their own lute parts:'For the notes and Tablature, if they satisfie the most, we have our desire; but let expert masters please themselves with better'. This seems to support the notion that Campion wished his own texts to be respected and not overshadowed by music.



Far from being a foursquare musical Mr. Average, he shows himself to be a musical revolutionary. While the florid vocal writing of the Italians was an innovation to which his poetry was not suited, his sense of harmony and the responsibility given to the performer in 'creating' the music from a tune and a bass was new.



One has to remember that his life was quite exciting, living in the "fast lane" so to speak. I mention this fact because the emotional investment on the part of the singer must be great, encompassing all sorts of tone color and vocal nuances. All of the singing is "pretty" but except for a couple of the songs such as "I Care Not For These Ladies" and "Fain Would I Wed" which showed some measure of drama, I didn't feel anything with the rest of them. Blaze has an excellent voice, but unfortunately the emotion is not always there. I think he comes across best in sacred music..Just my opinion.



There are 23 songs on this disc. Many have been frequently recorded by other singers, particularly countertenors. Some of the most familiar are:'It Fell on a Summer's day'-'I care not for these Ladies'-Fire! Fire!'-'The cypress-curtain of the night'-'Fain Would I Wed'- and 2 sacred songs:'Author of Light' and 'Never Weather-beaten sail'."