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DiscountDelight - American Angels
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List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $12.92
Your Save: $ 5.06 ( 28% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0093046732622
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi
Publisher: Harmonia Mundi
Release Date: 2004-02-10
Studio: Harmonia Mundi
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mana from Heaven
Comment: I think the title of this CD is perfect. I first heard an interview for this CD on Public Radio and fell in love. I had never heard Anonymous 4 before then but look for all I can find of their music now. The title is perfect as the women sound like Angels and the music lifts the spirit. I find myself singing the old version of Amazing Grace all the time now. Incredible and a huge blessing to all who hear it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Comment: This album is just what we've come to expect from Anonymous 4 - beautiful harmonies and pleasing music. It is especially nice to hear some of the traditional Christian music that reminds us of our wonderful heritage, and how so many of our contemporary artists have missed the point of good composition. No one today writes lyrics like these, nor do they remember that good music is easy for congregations to sing. With Christian music, it is all about the congregation's ability to worship, not about the artist's desire to be "cute" or "unique" with his work. This album is a great combination of depth of words and thoughts and simplicity of melodies, presented with beautiful voices of Anonymous 4.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent performance and variety
Comment: Pure listening pleasure.
Treatment of songs with attention to historical accuracy is an added dimension.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pure Voice Heaven
Comment: Some very interesting psalmody and hymns from America in the 18th and 19th century. A new spin on some songs known to me, and a great introduction to some songs I've never heard before.
The pure voice of Anonymous 4 is truly something to behold, and reminds me of the Orthodox Church's view that instruments are not needed in worship as the human voice is the best instrument we have: Anonymous 4 show the truth in this.
The booklet that comes with the CD is also very informative.
Customer Rating:
Summary: How songs change and stay the same over time...
Comment: First of all I think this is a fabulous disc... very beautiful and enjoyable.
I have noticed that some reviewers think the singers have changed the songs for their own tastes and techniques, but I want to point out that just as language changes over time so does the way we sing. Many of the songs are sung in the manner they were first written and sound somewhat unfimiliar. This is why I think this cd is amazing. How often do we get to really hear and experience what history sounded like!
The following is a quote from Anonymous 4's website:
"Some of the tunes in American Angels may seem very familiar, but the settings in which we sing them may well be new to you. We sing many of the tunes in the arrangements in which they first appeared in the 18th- and 19th-century tunebooks. Our CD also features arrangements of several old hymns and gospel songs by group members Marsha, Johanna, and Jacqueline."
Like a historical music lesson! Enjoy, it's great music.
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Editorial Reviews:
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This, Anonymous 4's final recording, is a break from their usual "early music" periods and locations; it presents American music, religious in nature, from the 18th and 19th centuries. And it's absolutely beautiful from start to finish. Their normal, exquisite technique and purity here blend to sound the way we imagined the ladies' choir in church meetings in America past might have sounded: sweet, sincere, and with harmonies recognizable yet somehow fresh. Some of the songs begin with the women singing "fa, so la" exercises, which was called "shape note" singing because some places taught singing with notes as shapes--circle, rectangle, diamond, triangle. But it's the music that counts, and there are treasures here. They include two versions of "Amazing Grace," one familiar, one with an unusual melody and a piece called "Blooming Vale" which is as sophisticated as anything on their previous albums. "Shall We Gather at the River" is performed with a clarity and loveliness that makes us forget that it's normally sung as background to movies about the Great Depression. The foursome sometimes sing in rich harmonies and occasionally alone or in pairs or trios. This is glorious Americana and highly recommended. --Robert Levine
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