Cyrillus Kreek is a fascinating figure hardly known except in Estonia, where his music is often performed and used in home music-making. Like Bartók, he collected folk music in the field and used it as the basis for new compositions; unlike Bartók, much of the music he collected was sacred. His innovations were not rhythmic but melodic and his settings are more than harmonizations, taking their shapes from that of the melodies. There are three types of pieces here, hymns, which are based directly on folk songs, psalm ...
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Cyrillus Kreek is a fascinating figure hardly known except in Estonia, where his music is often performed and used in home music-making. Like Bartók, he collected folk music in the field and used it as the basis for new compositions; unlike Bartók, much of the music he collected was sacred. His innovations were not rhythmic but melodic and his settings are more than harmonizations, taking their shapes from that of the melodies. There are three types of pieces here, hymns, which are based directly on folk songs, psalm settings, where the folk influence is indirect, and what are known as runic songs, featuring repeated phrases that facilitated choral memorization. The overall effect is that something ancient and mysterious has been contacted, an effect emphasized by the inclusion of a Machaut chanson, Dame, vostre doulz viaire. This presentation introduces the hymns with a trio, or parts of it, consisting of two nyckelharpas (an instrument associated with Sweden but played across much of northern Europe)...
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Add this copy of Cyrillus Kreek: the Suspended Harp of Babel to cart. $36.72, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2020 by ECM New Series.
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