On the Way to Bethlehem: Music of the Medieval Pilgrim

Medieval music is a bit esoteric, so even though I find this to be a great album, many people just won't like it. This however is quickly becoming the favorite of my growing medieval collection.

The Mari Stanko track with it's changing tempos and vocal ululations is unusually haunting, even by medieval standards. It is the haunting quality of the genre which I'm finding simultaneously stimulating and soothing. Music from the period is inherently mysterious, not only because of its typically spiritual themes and lyrics (after all, how much medieval Latin can I really pick-out), but also because we're really not sure what it originally sounded like. This gives a certain amount of license to the artists to interpret, as well as to perform. Medieval music performance is therefore as much reenactment as it is replaying.

This album captures the influences of all the places that a pilgrim from Europe might encounter on the way to the Holy Land (Israel). The first track (Dinaresade) opens with a very lively and catchy Syrian traditional tune. While this track has a very Arabic feel to it, the next song employs bagpipes in a traditional 14th century English tune.

The third track provides another lively woodwind tune with a Hellenistic mood. "Mari stanko" (traditional Bulgarian), the 5th track, is particularily interesting with long, slow female melodies that are interspersed with very rapid dance-like interludes. "Sei willekommen Herre Christ" provides a peaceful breather for the next track.

The next several tracks are short traditional Croation songs, ranging from chanting, chant-response, to renaissance-style dance music. The traditional Sufi track (Mevlana) makes a fitting close to the disc.

All in all, the middle-eastern influence is more prominent than the western-European influence (which may be why I like it so much). If you like early music, especially with the mystic sounds that Mediterranean music provides, then pick this disc up. (You can't beat the price either!)

I love this cd--all the tracks are great, especially "On the way to Bethlehem"!

If Ensemble Unicorn is great, Unicorn combined with the Middle-Eastern-inspired Ensemble Oni Wytars is even better! Actually, the two groups seem to share many of the same members, along with Ensemble Accentus (which focuses on Spanish and Sephardic music), but with different directors for each: Michael Posch for Unicorn, Marcos Ambrosini for Oni Wytars, and Thomas Wimmer for Accentus. This CD brings the musicians together to offer a stimulating combination of western and eastern-influenced music that might have been heard or played by medieval Pilgrims making the journey eastward. The European tunes focus on the Christmas season, while the Balkan and Near Eastern selections are traditional, handed down orally through the centuries and interpreted here with a zeal that should be as appealing to belly dancers as to early music enthusiasts (and I know many people who fall into both categories!). Instruments used include chalumeau, cheremia, cornemuse bechonnet, darbukka, davul, def, gayda, gittern, kaval, nyckelharpa, sackpipa, tamburello, tombak, vihuela d'arco, and a number of others that you actually might have heard of before--bagpipe, rebec, recorder, rebec, shawm, ud and the like. Ellen Santaniello also contributes vocals. I was surprised and delighted when I played this CD for the first time, and I continue to be each time I hear it again. If you like this recording, be sure to check out the other collaboration between Ensemble Unicorn and Ensemble Oni Wytars, "Music of the Troubadours", also from Naxos.

Yes, fortunately, this record does not contain anything you'd recognise as depressing Xmas kitsch.

Instead, the record wishes to envisage a journey of mediæval pilgrims, beginning in Western Europe, and moving through the Balkans towards the Holy Land. As such, the disk contains a mixture of Western European, Balkan, and Islamic melodies.

The strength of Ensemble Unicorn and Oni Wytars is their ability to use early music as the basis for extended jam sessions. This recording is framed by two such jams, each more than twelve minutes in length, the opening -Dinaresade- and the closing -Mevlana-. Based on Middle Eastern themes, these are excellent performances, rich in atmosphere. Fans of contemporary groups who make use of similar material, from Loreena McKennitt to Dead can Dance, may find this record interesting, and well worth the Naxos price.

FWIW, Ensemble Unicorn and Oni Wytars also collaborate on the -Black Madonna- recording, another Naxos release I can highly recommend.