A quintessential selection of the best western sacred music through the ages and continents that will please one and all, from an inquisitive novice to the discerning connoisseur. 90 complete works of essential repertoire [on 30 CDs]. Harmonia Mundi offers you the finest selection of 111 cornerstone works of western sacred music. From the earliest Christian chants to Bernstein's mass, from the gems of the Baroque to beloved Lutheran hymns, this vital collection has been created by today's finest artists at the peak of their talents. Harmonia Mundi is offering it in this extremely Limited Box Edition. Ready for your MP3 player

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How you can perform the music of ancient Greece when no "score" have survived? Conrad Steinmann, instructor at the Shola Cantorum Basiliensis, has done extensive research into organology, the characteristics of the Greek language, and millennium-old musical traditions. The result is a fascinating tonal scenery that ranges from instrumental virtusity to the poetically gentle tones of the human voice.

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The present recording is based upon the work of Suzanne Haïk Vantoura to decode the monophonic notation which accompanies the Hebrew Old Testament

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From the moment a baby is born, lullabies are a mother’s indispensable ally in soothing her child for whom everything in the big, wide world in new and frightening. The baby recognizes in the song his mother’s voice, her presence and her expression. The intimacy of the moment creates a space rich in ancestral symbols, in which words and music create a bond of pure emotion and truth. It is in this space that the child experiences his first dialogue, his first story, his first contact with the teachings of tradition, experience and culture, which over time build into an essential part of our collective memory.
Whoever sings a lullaby is moved by a desire to give of their very best, which in itself is an expression of love, and so the child begins to experience the essence of life.
Montserrat Figueras–Nina Nanna artist’s introduction

This CD keeps getting sweeter the more you listen. Recommended. --Robert Levine

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Sacred Treasures V: From A Russian Cathedral is the latest installment in the critically acclaimed Hearts of Space series of sacred choral music. Each piece from this collection is infused with a deeply devotional, solemn and lyrical quality. The voices are spacious and warm, creating an atmosphere of holiness and benediction.. All the pieces and performances are infused with a solemn and deeply devotional quality. The singing is spacious and warm, creating an atmosphere of holiness and benediction. The intention was to weave hymns and verses into a seamless tapestry in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and the individual elements of the compilation become movements in a choral symphony of timeless beauty... amazon.com

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Archeological discoveries in the Middle East over the last several decades have brought to light new musical documents that have greatly increased our understanding of ancient music. Texts that describe Babylonian musical notation have been uncovered at Ur and Ashur, and compositions written in this system have been found at Ugarit and Nippur. These discoveries have helped to define a clearer picture of the Sumero-Babylonian musical art, and, while information on the subject of Egyptian musical notation remains obscure by comparison, several verbal descriptions of instrumental performance and several extant musical documents have been identified. Fortunately, Greek compositions and music theory tex`s survive in relatively greater numbers and continue to be identified; recently transcribed musical documents in Greek notation found at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt are heard here for the first time. The repertoire on this recording, preserved mainly on clay tablets and papyri, dates from the 20th century B.C. to the third century A.D. It includes the musical instructions for the hymn "Lipit-Ištar, King of Justice" which is regarded as the world's oldest surviving example of musical notation. The selections range in varying states of preservation from the nearly perfect Hurrian Hymn 6 to tiny fragments of melody and text.

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Subtitled “Tales of Remarkable Women Throughout the Centuries “ this tribute to the fairer sex features an Irish lady pirate, a Portuguese queen, a Montenegrin mother, a French countess, a Jewish-American socialist, the Virgin Mary, and St. Ursula together with 11,000 other virgins are all featured on Faces of a Woman by Tapestry, the fourth release by these three talented women from New England. The ensemble covers broad musical territory ranging from Hildegard von Bingen’s mystical and contemplative songs to Rachmaninoff ’s pleasing "Tebye poyem" and to swinging rhythms, from medieval operatic drama to Balkan folklore and to modern music, from the artistry of the ars novato sailors’ songs and to the first American blues

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Esther Lamandier, professeur de Chant Biblique et conférencière. Après de nombreux récitals et enregistrements, Esther Lamandier s'est engagée dans l'enseignement du Chant Sacré en Hébreu biblique et dans l'Araméen des Liturgies d'Orient.

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Music from c. 1950 B.C. to 300 A.D. (Including the world's oldest notated music) performed on voice, lyres, kithara, pandoura, double reed pipes, flutes & other ancient instruments.

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Béla Bartók was one of the leading Hungarian and European composers of his time, proficient also as a pianist. He joined his friend Zoltán Kodály in the collection of folk-music in Hungary and neighbouring regions, including, in his case, Anatolia. His work in this field deeply influenced his own style of composition, which is, however, very much more astringent in its apparent mathematical organisation than much of what Kodály wrote. He was out of sympathy with the government that replaced the immediate post-1918 republic in Hungary, where he was held in less official esteem than abroad, and moved in 1940 to the United States, dying there in relatively straitened circumstances in 1945.

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For the first time ever EMI Classics are making available, in two handsome sets, the complete recordings that Karajan made for EMI between the years 1946 to 1984. The first set of 88 CDs comprises all the orchestral and concerto recordings and the second set, of 72 CDs, the Choral and Opera recordings. Both sets can be acquired at bargain prices, presenting a rare opportunity to add these historically important recordings to your collection. The last discs in each set (88 & 72 respectively) contain all the libretti, sung texts, a selection of photographs and a series of interviews with musicians who knew and worked with Karajan.

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For the first time ever EMI Classics are making available, in two handsome sets, the complete recordings that Karajan made for EMI between the years 1946 to 1984. The first set of 88 CDs comprises all the orchestral and concerto recordings and the second set, of 72 CDs, the Choral and Opera recordings. Both sets can be acquired at bargain prices, presenting a rare opportunity to add these historically important recordings to your collection. The last discs in each set (88 & 72 respectively) contain all the libretti, sung texts, a selection of photographs and a series of interviews with musicians who knew and worked with Karajan.

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