Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Officium live - a triumph of music theatre

I should have put in my post that seeing the Hilli...

2005-05-21T07:15:00.000+01:00

I should have put in my post that seeing the Hilliard Ensemble live made me realise why Paul Hillier called his next vocal group 'The Theatre of Voices'

I love both Officium and Mnemosyne, and don't find...

2005-05-17T14:04:00.000+01:00

I love both Officium and Mnemosyne, and don't find them 'dumbed down' at all. I think that blending different styles of music can work brilliantly, as long as neither is diminished in the process. For me, Officium works because both elements are given space and respect, and they intertwine wonderfully.

I've always felt that the polyphony is like a series of stately Roman columns, and the saxophone is like tendrils of ivy climbing up and through it (which isn't to imply that the polyphony forms the background -- I think that they get equal emphasis).

Needless to say, I'm jealous as anything that you saw them live :-)

Man, I am very jealous.I never understood why peop...

2005-05-10T21:05:00.000+01:00

Man, I am very jealous.

I never understood why people wanted their music like ancient bugs captured in amber. Music lives... it breathes through the collective forces of people and time no matter what efforts are made to keep it "authentic".

The Hilliard Ensemble's collaboration with Jan Garbarek has been some of the most successful efforts I have ever heard to bring "Classical" music out of Mendelssohn's dusty museum.

Richard, I've put up some subsequent postings on t...

2005-05-07T18:31:00.000+01:00

Richard, I've put up some subsequent postings on this topic, and I certainly think it makes a worthwhile debate.
But, as usual, my wife has probably the wisest words. She read your post and said, 'sometimes you need 'dooby dooby doo music'.

I wish I could share your enthusiasm for Gabarek a...

2005-05-06T05:55:00.000+01:00

I wish I could share your enthusiasm for Gabarek and Officium. Previous ECM cds of this attempt to mix "dooby dooby doo" to early choral music at best makes me laugh, at worst makes me brood about the horror of it all.