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The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble

O Western Wind: An Almost a Cappella Songbook

1994

© GlassPages, 1998








Cover Picture

CD Cover


References


Credits


Tracks

    Introduction

  1. Robert Dennis (1938-) "O Western Wind" (0:59).

    Medieval

  2. Anonymous/English (1280) "Sumer is Icumen In" (1:32:).
  3. Anonymous/English (13th Century) "Flos Regalis" (1:31).
  4. Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) "Se d'Amer Me Repentoie" (1:57).
  5. Anonymous/Sephardic (1500) "Irme Quiero Madre" (1:34).

    Renaissance

  6. Anonymous/Spanish (16th Century) "Ay Luna" (1:17).
  7. Thomas Morley (1557-1602) "Miraculous Love's Wounding" (2:21).
  8. Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605) "L'Amfiparnaso, Act I, Scene I" (3:22).
  9. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) "Dolcissimo Uscignolo" (3:05).

    Contemporary

  10. Philip Glass (1937-) "Vessels from Koyaanisqatsi" (3:12).
  11. Jaime Ovalle (1894-1955) "Xangô" (1:37).
  12. Ronald Gold (1953-) "Mexico Felláheen" (4:14).

    Spirituals

  13. Anonymous/American (19th Century)/Miss M. Durham (1850) "Amazing Grace/The Promised Land" (3:54).
  14. African-American Spiritual "I Believe This is Jesus" (1:14).

    Folk, Pop & Jazz

  15. Elliot Z. Levine (1948-) "I'm Too Tired to Tell You That I Love You" (3:13).
  16. Thelonius Monk (1917-1982) (Arr. Neil A. Farrell) "'Round Midnight" (2:57).
  17. Duke Ellington (1899-1974) (Arr. Warren Kellerhouse) "I'm Beginning to See the Light" (2:58).
  18. Duke Ellington (1899-1974) (Arr. Warren Kellerhouse) "It Don't Mean a Thing" (2:15).
  19. James Keyes, Claude and Carl Feaster, Floyd F. McRae and James Edward (Arr. James Bassi) "Sh'boom, Life Could Be a Dream" (2:45).
  20. Sting (Arr. Neil A. Farrell) "Canary in a Coal Mine" (2:21).
  21. South African Folk-Song "Wimoweh" (2:34).
  22. James Taylor "Lonesome Road" (2:17).


Notes

Welcome to O Western Wind, an (almost) A Capella Songbook. When we decided to call ourselves The Western Wind back in 1969, we wanted a name that would allow us to "blow" backwards and forwards in time. Today The Western Wind is like a musical time machine, singing songs from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the early Baroque, the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, jazz, pop, and folk-songs, and music by living composers.

Our Songbook contains some of our favorite pieces collected from over 20 years of singing together. It was first presented in 1987 at the CSC Repertory Theater in New York City in a production staged by Paul Lazarus. An excerpt for the convention of The American Choral Directors Association, and The Songbook has since been hear and seen around the United States. So sit back, relax and join us for some musical time travel!

The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble

Since 1969, the internationally acclaimed vocal sextet, The Western Wind, has devoted itself to the special beauty and variety of a capella music. The Ensemble's repertoire reveals its wide-ranging interests -from Renaissance motets to Fifties rock 'n' roll, from medieval carols to barbershop quartets, from complex works by avant-garde composers to the simplest folk tunes.

In America, the Ensemble has appeared at many distinguished institutions including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, ArtPark, The Ordway Theater, The Metropolitan Museum, The Frick Museum, The Jewish Museum, Folger Shakespeare Library, Library of Congress, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

In Europe, the sextet taped early and contemporary American vocal music for the West German National Radio (WDR) at Cologne, and made several triumphant tours of northern Italy, performing Italian Renaissance as well as American music. The group has appeared with the RAI Orchestra and Chorus of Rome at the Rome Opera and Venice's legendary opera house, La Fenice. In 1985, The Western Wind premiered Cesar Franck's opera, Stradella, for La Fenice in an outdoor Venetian setting. At the request of the State Department (USA), The Western Wind performed American and Latin American music throughout East Asia.

The Western Wind has appeared with the St. Louis Symphony in St. Louis and at Carnegie Hall, performing William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The ensemble was also featured at the national convention in of the American Choral Director's Association, and at the state conventions of the Iowa, Illinois and Indiana choral directors.

The Western Wind is especially active in arts education, presenting intensive and innovative programs in choral singing for students in the New York City Public Schools. The Western Wind has also led workshops and master classes throughout the United States, and has worked with many outstanding educational programs including the Lincoln Center Institute, The New York Philharmonic Max Program and Artsconnection. Summer workshops in Ensemble Singing are held annually at Smith College, Butler University, and The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies.

In addition to its concert tours and educational activities, the group produces a series of holiday specials for National Public Radio. They have appeared on the Today Show and made many award-winning recordings: Early American Vocal Music, L'Amfiparnaso, An Old-Fashioned Christmas, and The Happy Journey (Nonesuch Records); Christmas in the New World (Musical Heritage); Birth Of the WarGod (Laurel); Satires, Ballads and Bop (Newport Classic); The Western Wind Songbook: Volume I, Sacred (Resmiranda); The Passover Story, The Chanukkah Story, Mazal Bueno: A Portrait in Song of the Spanish Jews, Blessings and Batéy featuring music by David Darling, Tania León and Michel Camilo (Western Wind Records). The Western Win can also be heard singing Philip Glass' music for the films Koyaanisqatsi (Antilles Records) and Candyman. The Western Wind won the ASCAP-Chamber Music American Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music during the 1987-88 Season.


Pictures





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