Analysis Of Now Make We Merthe

Now Make We Merthe is a collection of early Renaissance English carols and rounds sung by The Purcell Consort of Voices, Boys of All Saints, the London Brass Ensemble, David Munrow, Bernard Thomas, Michael Oxenham, Don Smithers, John Sothcott, Francis Grubb, Tess Miller, and Michael Morrow (Now Make We Myrth). This CD is a compilation of three different recordings. One recording was done in 1965, the next was in 1966, and the third was in 1969. The highlights from all three of these recordings released on the Argo label, but were not compiled into this CD until Boston Skyline Records did so in 1994 (Now Make We Myrth). The genre that these pieces fall into could be called the “pop songs” of the early Renaissance, both secular and sacred. All …show more content…
The music and poetry of these pieces range from the mid-twelfth century to the early sixteenth century, and their variety of musical and poetic style is as wide in any equivalent time span (Now Make We Myrth). Now Make We Merthe has about equal amount of sacred and secular texts, and the lyrical content ranges from being full of pious contemplation and holy joy to love, nature, and enjoying the experience of being alive. This collection is pleasing to listen to and can be a welcome change from the characteristic music of the church in the …show more content…
In “Deo gracias Anglia”, “Owr king went forth”, “Pray for us, thou Prince of Pes”, and a couple other songs, a man is singing the extremely high falsetto part, and the singer’s voice sounds very young and honestly sounds very forced, but credit is due to the performers for maintaining the historical authenticity. Most of the songs are unaccompanied, but the songs that are accompanied are done so by authentic instruments such as the harp, plectrum lute, recorder, crumhorn, rackett, and shawm. The musicians did not stay strictly authentic, however, and did use a few more modern instruments such as the guitar, viola, and hecklephone (Now Make We Myrth). The oboe is also used, but the authenticity of this is questionable as the oboe was only first being developed from the shawm in the mid-1700’s, and it was not specified on the CD whether the performer was using a modern oboe or one authentic to what would have been used in the Renaissance (Now Make We Myrth). There were also a few purely instrumental songs. Now Make We Merthe is an excellent representation of popular Renaissance music, but one could not say that it is strictly authentic, although most of the changes made did not hinder the music in any