They perform historical music for lute and voice with a directness that is at once haunting, mesmerizing and energizing. Their sympathetic and equal pairing of instrument and voice will touch your heart.

28 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Traditional, FOLK: Traditional Folk



Details:
Excerpts from a review of "My Lord of Oxenfordâs Maske"
by Bonner Miller Cutting for Shakespeare Matters

The Renaissance ensemble Mignarda, a collaboration of Renaissance specialists led by the husband/wife team of lutenist Ron Andrico and mezzo soprano Donna Stewart, selected and arranged songs, ayres, ballads, and dances that are connected historically to the 17th Earl of Oxford. Several of the twenty-eight pieces in this recording even bear his name, most notably the Earl of Oxfordâs Galliard. Andrico has given it here its first recording on the lute.

The Renassance harmonies take on a surprisingly modern feel in Stewartâs rendition of the epic ballad of Helen of Troy from Horestes, and her languid Willow Song, Desdemonaâs famous lament from Othello, pulls at the heart stings -- as it surely was intended to do centuries ago.

For musicologists, it should not matter that this CD is a radiant display of the poetry and music of a 16th century English nobleman. Like most things Shakespearean, it is ânot for an age but for all time,â and this ambient, fresh take on the ancient Renaissance art forms will find a comfy home in your carâs CD changer. It should justly find a place, too, in music libraries throughout the country.

It is an adventure in sound made all the more bewitching through the talents of Renaissance past-master Andrico and enchantress Stewart. In fact, the Mignarda recording is so good that it invites the criticism (always close on the heels of any Oxfordian achievement) that the success of the music is more a function of the consummate skill set of the musicians. But all composer/lyricists deserve the recording artists who can best make manifest their style. Certainly audiences will forever recall Burt Bacharachâs songs sparkling in the dynamic brilliance of Dionne Warwick. Does not the music of Irving Berlin still deserve to bask in the warm glow of Bing Crosby? It is only fitting that posterity place at the disposal of the beleaguered Earl of Oxford the musicians that fully understand him.

Heâs been waiting a long time.