Description
Scotland's national poet now has a national voice, and it is one of the best - Jean Redpath! This edition of the songs commemorates the bicentenary of the death of Robert Burns in 1796.
"An important body of work, wholeheartedly recommended". Folk Roots.
The Lea-Rig; My Collier Laddie; O This Is No My Ain Lassie; My Nanie O; Fragment; The Posie; The Mill Mill O; O Were I On Parnassus Hill; The German Lairdie; The Battle O Sherr-Moor; Lament Of Mary Queen Of Scots; You're Welcome Willie Stewart; Killiecrankie; Galloway Tam; Strathallan's Lament; The Fornicator; Here's To Thy Health; Last May A Braw Wooer; Gloomy December; Jamie Come Try Me; The White Cockade; The Cardin O't; Sandy And Jockie; Hey Ca' Thro'.
Scotland's national poet Robert Burns devoted much of his short life almost exclusively to the song culture of the Scottish people. He wrote songs, he collected songs and adapted songs and Burns himself believed he was fulfilling his poetic destiny by devoting so much of his mature energy to the songs. They explore powerful personal emotions and strong political opinions, they consciously embrace the life-experience of 18th Century Scotland and continually strike universal chords. 1996 is of course the Burns' Bicentennial Year and this CD is released in celebration of this occasion.
Born in New York in 1920 Serge Hovey was brought up in Los Angeles. Of colourful New England/Russian Jewish parentage, Serge Hovey for some 30 years concentrated much of his energy on 'the problem of the songs of Robert Burns'. In a major research project he linked all 323 Burns' lyrics (unexpurgated) to the original melodies for which they were written (many having been changed, modified or lost). Hovey then created contemporary orchestral arrangements for all 323 songs and in dynamic partnership with Jean Redpath began the process of recording them. Volumes 1 to 5 were recorded in the U.S.A by Philo Records but were not readily available in the U.K. until the film company, Everallin Limited, made the award-winning film "The Tree of Liberty" (about the Hovey/Redpath project) for Channel 4 Television and recorded Volume 6 in association with Greentrax Recordings. Following the Greentrax UK release of Volume 6, Philo Records, USA, licensed Volumes 1 to 5 to Greentrax who, for the first time, made the albums widely available within the UK and Eire. Sadly, Serge Hovey died in 1989 but Volume 7 of the series had already been prepared and was subsequently recorded and released in the USA by Philo Records, with the Greentrax UK release following soon after. Volume 7 was the first in the series to be available on the CD format.
Jean Redpath, MBE, Scotland's outstanding traditional singer, worked with Serge Hovey for many years, before his death, to recreate for a modern audience many of Burns' songs - a mixture of the well known and the not so well known - and so she has been involved in all seven volumes. Esther Hovey (Serge Hovey's widow) is now the driving force behind the series and with the release of Volumes 1 to 6 on CD, in this the bicentennial year, she intends to concentrate her efforts on the release of Volume 8 and future volumes of the series.
Traditional Songs, Burns songs, Scottish Music CD.
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