Church of Sky

Church of Sky

Track Listings

1. Etched in Stone

2. Dance Me

3. Roll Over With Me

4. No Safe Place

5. My Island

6. Journey

7. Island Suite

8. Madrone

9. Church of Sky

10. Looking for a Storm

11. You Are My Soul

12. Hard to Hold

13. Going Twice

14. Fallen Heart Blue

15. Between the Lines

Tracks:

Our Father (The Lord's Prayer)
Blessed is the Man
Behold, Bless The Lord
O Lord, Save Thy People
Having Fallen Asleep
By The Rivers Of Babylon
Make A Joyful Noise
With My Voice
For The Mercy Of Peace
Salvation Is Created
O Gladsome Light
It Is Fitting (A Hymn To The Virgin Mary)
The Shadow Of The Law Passed Away
Lord, Now Lettest Thou Servant Depart
For the Mercy of Peace
Our Father (The Lord's Prayer)
Glory To God In The Highest

Customer Reviews:

Moving, intense music........2006-04-30

I've had this album for a little over a year now and still listen to it regularly. It's a favorite in my car, especially in the early morning while driving my kids to school. The combination of the sunrise and the moving vocals combine to leave me feeling full of life, ready to move on with my day. The chorus is truly incredible, and with a decent sound system the feeling of being in the midst of all those deep voices is something memorable.

I love the sound and style of Russian music, and this CD has been wonderful when I'm in the mood for something more meaningful.

I'm not a music expert or Russian linguist, nor will you find me in a church on Sunday. I enjoy good music of all forms, and no matter what your religion or linguistic affiliation, this is excellent music that is sure to add something to your collection.

peaceful moment to soothe you and draw you closer to Him........2001-08-03

The themes and songs remind me of an ancient Russia when the Church is at peak and predominantly practiced at the whole of Russia.Just imagine yourself in one of those great cathedral with the choir singing and the priest celebrating the mass.The song that echoed in the great cathedral wall will surely put ones to heavenly realm,a sense of calm and joy one will always remember....

Aural Delight.......2001-02-06

Of all the music I own this cd is my favorite at this time. This group has a very rich and powerful sound. When I buy choral music this represents exactly what I am looking for. If you are like me you bought a Gregorian Chant cd and were disappointed becuse it is in unison and rather flat sounding: this is harmonious and lush. Each track is four part a capella. I cannot adequately express the pleasure I receive from this cd. I am not an audiophile or vocal technique expert but I know good music when I hear it; this certainly qualifies. The group has a very good blend and sings what seem to be difficult pieces very smoothly. I would describe the mood as invigoratingly soothing. If you like all-male choral works you will enjoy this. I will certainly be purchasing more work by this group in the future.

Excellent Russian Music.......2000-10-04

This is an excellent performance and resource. These days, it can seem that nothing less than an authentic performance will do, whether that necessitates playing Bach on 300 year old violins or Liszt being played by a full-blooded Hungarian. And with the amount of recordings becoming available from countries with few previous U. S. releases, it can seem that only a Russian ensemble can truly perform Russian music. Slavyanka's CD proves that philosophy to be false: an American choir can deliver an excellent account of Russian choral music.

I'm not sure if this is professional, semi-professional, or a group that meets weekly, but the results are quite good. Recording quality here is generally good and the choir has the requisite low bass section (the first track will let you know that). There are times when intonation and ensemble seem to slip away slightly, which keeps this recording from cracking the upper echelon. Some of the soloists seem uncertain at times, as well.

The inclusion of texts in Cyrillic letters, transliterated Russian, and English is an excellent addition that I wish CDs used more often. The texts make it easier to understand the message and to learn about the Russian language (definitely not the easiet language in which to sing). In fact, the CD booklet is so big that it scarcely fits into the jewel box.

I enjoy having this CD in my library and I would encourage those interested in choral music, Russian music, or even those learning Russian to buy it. I can't think of a better way to learn about a language and a culture.

Slavyanka: Small Chorus - Large Sound.......2000-03-29

Slavyanka Men's Chorus has the ability, through magnificent dynamic contrasts, to sound small and intimate, but can sound large as a Russian theological academy chorus. Their work on this disc is impeccable. The accompanying booklet of program notes is superior, and is in multiple languages. The inclusion of the text of the liturgical music in several languages, including Slavonic and transliterated English pronunciation of the Slavonic, is a wonderful addition. Can't recommend it highly enough!

Average customer rating:

Russian Voices

Manufacturer: Koch Schwann (Germ.)
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Chants | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000001SW9
Release Date: 1995-02-28

Tracks:

All Our Sacred Hymns
When The Israelites Had Passed Through The Water
Short Ectene
Hail, Virgin Mother Of God
Praise Of The Mother Of God
Thou Art The Joy OF All Who Are Troubled
Glory To God In The Highest
Today Is Born Of The Virgin
Praise The Lord, O My Soul
Lord, Now Lettest Thou Thy Servant
Praise The Name Of The Lord
Lord, Save Thy People
First Verses Of The Canon Of St. Andrew Of Crete
To Thy Mystic Feast
Thou How Art Clothed With Light As With A Garment
The Convention Of Angels
Your Cross - Your Resurrection

Tracks:

Cherubikon
Epiclesis - Hymn To The Mother Of God
The Lord's Prayer - Elevation
Holy God
Truly All Is Vanity
O Lord Grant Peace
O Christ, Let The Soul
You Alone
Thrice Holy
Eternal Remembrance - Blessed
Blessed Is The Man
Great Doxology
Lord, Save Thy People

Average customer rating:

English is an asset and a drawback
You Will Love Opera After Hearing Carmen In English
A wholly credible "Carmen" -- finally!
I love Carmen!

Carmen (Sung in English)
Bizet , Bardon , Gavin , Plazas , Magee , and Parry
Manufacturer: Chandos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Mozart: The Magic Flute
The Barber of Seville / B. Ford, D. Jones, A. Opie; G. Bellini [in English]
Verdi: La Traviata
Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
Mozart - Don Giovanni / Garry Magee · Cullagh · Banks · Plazas · Shore · Tierny · PO · David Parry

ASIN: B00007JGRN
Release Date: 2003-03-11

Tracks:

Prelude
In The Plaza
Just Look At That Delicious Morsel
Here Come Our New Soldier Boys
Jose! There Was A Girl Here Looking For You Just Now
Off With You Old Soldier Boys
Corporal! Sir!
We Have Heard The Bell Summon Us To Meet Here
Ah, Just Look!
But Why Hasn't She Come, Our Carmencita?
Love's A Bird Wild As Any Rebel
Carmen! We Will Follow You High And Low!
The Cheek Of It!
Give Me News Of My Mother!
Your Dear Mother And I Were Leaving Church This Morning
I See My Mother's Face!
Wait A Moment - I'm Going To Read The Letter
Come And Help
So, Corporal: Tell Me What Happened
Well, Carmencita: What Do You Have To Say For Yourself?
Where Are You Taking Me?
There's An Old Bar In The City
Careful - It's Lieutenant!
Entr'acte
From Far Away Mysterious Sounds
Bravo, Bravo! More! Keep Dancing!
Hurrah! Hurrah! The Torero!
Who's That? It's Escamillo, The Bullfighter From Granada
Hurrah! Hurrah! The Torero!
You're Most Kind
We'll Come With You, Senor Torero
Toreador, Be Ready!
At Last! We Got Rid Of Them As Quickly As We Could
There's A Little Job That We're Starting!
Being In Love Is Not A Reason

Tracks:

To Bid You Welcome To Our Bar
La La La La La La La La...
Back To Camp!... Go At Once!
That Flow'r You Threw To Me I Treasured
No, It's Not Love At All!
Hello! Carmen!
Lieutenant Fair, It's True
The Sky Above The Open Road
Entr'acte
Keep Going, Dear Old Friend, Kep Going!
Right! Let's Stop For A While
Shuffle! Cut Them!
In Vain You Would Avoid The Bitter Things They're Saying
You're Back!
As For That Man, It Should Be Easy!
Is This The Place?
I Say That There's Nothing To Fear
It's Him! I'm Sure It's Him Over There!
Escamillo Is My Name, And I Come From Granada
She Had A Lover Here
Hola! Hola! Jose!
You Should Take Care, Carmen
Alas! Jose, Your Mother Is Ill
Entr'acte
A Few Cuartos! A Few Cuartos!
Here They Come! Here They Come!
If You Love Me, Carmen
It's You! It's Me!
Viva! Viva! What A Corrida!

Customer Reviews:

English is an asset and a drawback.......2004-07-20

The best thing about this recording of Carmen is the libretto. Conductor David Parry penned this facile and dramatic English translation. He avoids the pitfalls of literal translation to achieve an idiomatic flow that matches the rhythm of the original lyrics. I use this as a reference libretto for any of the French Carmens.

Unfortunately, the performance suffers from being sung in English. The singers declaim their parts with such proper British diction that Carmen comes across as a school marm. The spoken dialog is delivered beat for deliberate beat and is dripping with reverb. It makes the plaza, tavern and mountain pass all sound like a sewer pipe.

This is a good first Carmen for someone trying to understand the work. The libretto itself is a good investment for further listening. For an enjoyable performance with an emphasis on character and action, I recommend Regina Resnik on the London Double Decker set.

You Will Love Opera After Hearing Carmen In English.......2004-02-09

What a perfect introduction to opera. This newly released recording will surely get you hooked into opera. Carmen, a French opera by Georges Bizet, is the most recognizable and most popular in the opera world. It's famous melodies- the overture, the Habanera, The Toreador Song have all been featured in everything from cellular phone ring tones to Superbowl Commercial (last year's Superbowl with The "Opera In English" label has been making Italian operas into English for a number of years now. Also on the market are Verdi's La Traviata in English (with soprano Valerie Masterson as Violetta) Handel's Julius Caesar with Janet Baker and even Wagner's epic Ring Of The Nibeling sung in English. This is a terrific recording and I highly recommend it if you want to get into opera. Listen to this version first and then try the real, original French version Bizet had written. Patricia Bardon is sensational, sexy and dramatic as Carmen.

The real strength of this version is the dynamic drama. With the advantage of being sung in English, we get better insight on characters' emotions and motives, and we understand the drama a lot better. Carmen is all about great drama. Bizet drew the plot from the French writer Prosper Merimee's dark short story. Carmen is the ultimate femme fatale- a devil-may-care, sexy Gypsy living in Spain, seduces the conservatively raised soldier Don Jose, stealing him away from his fiancee, the passive Micaela, living a life of underground smuggling and rowdy taverns. "Habanera" and "The Gypsy Song and Dance" are very expressive of Carmen's extraordinarily liberal lifestyle. Don Jose, however, has fallen deeply in love- as he shows us in his song/aria "The Flower Song". But Carmen soon becomes tired of his constancy. Don Jose wants a committed, monogamous relationship with Carmen. But Carmen will not submit to love, since she is first and foremost a carnal creature. Eventually, she falls for the handsome Toreador Escamillo. Don Jose, consumed by jealousy, stabs Carmen at a bullfight after Carmen declares her love for Escamillo and rejects Don Jose's love. Don Jose's crazed, obscessive personality shines through in the English version as well. This tragedy has been done in English before so don't think this is the first time. Back in the 50's, there was a film, starring black actors "Carmen Jones" which was treated the same way as this opera- more like an English Broadway musical and with the dubbed singing voice of Marilyn Horne as Carmen. All in all, this recording is excellent.

A wholly credible "Carmen" -- finally!.......2003-09-17

This recording really sells "Carmen" as a drama. Although I have two other recordings of this opera and have seen it performed several times, it never quite worked for me dramatically. But thanks to the fine performances, conducting, and translation here, I've become a "Carmen" convert. Producing a good English-language performance of a foreign opera, especially a warhorse like "Carmen," is much more difficult than it might appear. You need performers who not only can sing the parts (of course) but also can sing *English* and make it halfway intelligible and make it sound like English and make it dramatically convincing to English-speakers. The singers on this recording do an excellent job all around. Don't be put off if you don't recognize their names -- they are up to the task musically and (especially) in their acting. Admittedly, as with *all* English-language recordings, some passages are very hard to understand without reading along, but most of the time the words are clear and effective. I would recommend this recording to any opera beginner or opera lover, even those who normally turn up their noses at performances in translation.

I love Carmen!.......2003-08-15

I do. I can think of no other opera with more melodic inventiveness, and few others with so sure a dramatic pulse. Carmen is popular and it thrills me to say that it is also a very good opera - not always true of popular things.

And what of this recording? Carmen sits well in English, so it is good to hear in translation, although some of the detais in the text jar. Escamillo refers to Jose as "my dear", which sounds rather peculiar, and the guide's line to Micaela: "it's not exactly inviting, is it?" sounds distinctly Middle England rather than Rural Spain. Some of the performers, not least Carmen herself, make the words work, although there are long tracts, especially with the chorus, where the language is distinctly indistinct.

The soloists are, by and large, strong. Patricia Bardon's deep, Handel-friendly voice adapts well to Carmen and she colours the music with phenomenal detail, sounding sexy and provocative from the start with an edge of pride and anger that emerges as the show goes on. She is out of her depth above the stave, though, and some extra top notes in the second act don't show her off to her best advantage. I have previously said that Julian Gavin is poorly served by recordings, though here he sounds much more even and gives a thrilling and musical performance (but his wooden spoken lines let him down). Mary Plazas is a lovely Micaela, rich-voiced and sincere (and word-perfect), but Garry Magee sounds miscast as Escamillo, lacking the ballast at the bottom of the voice to do justice to this tricky role.

The supporting cast is good (Mary Hegarty seems to do nothing but Frasquita these days!) but the really treasurable thing is the conducting. Stepping out of Italian Ottocento, David Parry turns his hand to this French Comedie with an appropriate lightness of touch. His pacing and handling of the set pieces is exemplary and the enrtractes go with a real swing.

A pleasure, then, for the Carmen naive or a novelty for the Carmen-acquainted. I nearly wrote Carmen-weary - but I don't think it's possible.

Church of Sky
Average customer rating:
Church of Sky
Shantala
Manufacturer: Ancient Future
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Folk | Styles | Music
Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
General | New Age | Styles | Music
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The Love Window

Anjali

ASIN: B0000UHFJE
Release Date: 2003-12-09

Tracks:

Etched in Stone
Dance Me
Roll Over With Me
No Safe Place
My Island
Journey
Island Suite
Madrone
Church of Sky
Looking for a Storm
You Are My Soul
Hard to Hold
Going Twice
Fallen Heart Blue
Between the Lines

Gladsome Light: Liturgical Hymns of the Russian Church

Average customer rating:

Gladsome Light: Liturgical Hymns of the Russian Church

Manufacturer: Imagina Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Gospel | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000005EOH
Release Date: 2000-06-26

Average customer rating:

Church of Sky

Manufacturer: Wolf Cub Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | New Age | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00007EMSM
Release Date: 2002-07-01

Tracks:

Etched in Stone
Dance Me
Roll Over With Me
No Safe Place
My Island
Journey
Island Suite
Madrone
Church of Sky
Looking for a Storm
You Are My Soul
Hard to Hold
Going Twice
Fallen Heart Blue
Between the Lines

Album Description

Church of Sky is a contemporary folk CD with musical influences from around the world. It is the debut CD for Shantala, the acoustic world folk duo of Heather and Benjy Wertheimer. Church of Sky creates a magical blend of contemporary folk music with the captivating sounds of instruments such as the esraj and tabla from India, the djembe from Africa, and the balalaika from Eastern Europe. Additional instruments such as the harp, zither, violin, viola, and cello engage the listener in a far-reaching musical journey of the spirit. Church of Sky features the extraordinary musical talents of world-class multi-instrumentalist Benjy Wertheimer, guitarists Michael Mandrell and Tim Ellis, world-renowned slide guitarist Bob Brozman, vocalists Tina Malia, Joe Jencks, and Jim Walker, violinists Julian Smedley and Wah!, and others.

Average customer rating:

Cryin' Blue Rain

Manufacturer: Triaad Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CA74MU
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Average customer rating:

Lys Pa Himlen
Christina Nielsen & Carsten Dahl Duo
Manufacturer: Da Capo [Naxos]
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000467P
Release Date: 2000-09-26

Tracks:

Pigen I Rodt
Drommen
Jeg Har En Angst
Lys Pa Himlen
Christina's Sang
Bla
Jeg Ved En Dejlig Rose
Haven
Sol
Tit Er Jeg Glad

Musique Liturgique Orthodoxe Russe (Cascavelle)

Average customer rating:

Musique Liturgique Orthodoxe Russe (Cascavelle)

Manufacturer: Cascavelle
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000000G9T
Release Date: 1992-01-01

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

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