Lute Music and Other Early Music: Stunning Recordings We Love

[dualazmak]

My headphones and earphones are all budget or entry-level, but I can hear some very low notes in that recording.

Very nice to hear so. Yes, I learned through many of amirm's reviews on headphones and earphones that many modern ones sound excellent and flat throughout ca. 20 Hz to around 30 kHz.

 

[Aynsley]

Very nice to hear so. Yes, I learned through many of amirm's reviews on headphones and earphones that many modern ones sound excellent and flat throughout ca. 20 Hz to around 30 kHz.

Thank you for raising an interesting point. These days most headphone and earphone manufacturers claim that their products can reproduce 20Hz—20,000 Hz but my hearing has deteriorated with age, and I can't hear anything over 10KHz.

A few minutes ago I went to website that generates tones, and tried different frequencies with different phones. My limits are approx. 30 Hz to 9,600 Hz. This hasn't affected my enjoyment of music, probably because most of the music to which I listen lies well within my upper and lower thresholds.

Unfortunately some stray sounds also fall within my thresholds. On the Marie-Claire Alain recording of BWV 727 some of the low notes cause a sympathetic reverberation in very high-pitch pipes, which is distracting.

On one of the other CDs you kindly introduced the microphone has picked up some vocal artefacts generated by one of the singers — a slight toothy sibilance that is also distracting.

Such extraneous noises are also common in recordings of lute and guitar music, when the performer slides his/her fingers down the strings.

 

[dualazmak]

Good and important discussion.
The issue of "age-dependent hearing decline, especially in high Fq" and "how to compensate it" have been already frequently discussed in ASR Forum.

At least for myself, very fortunately, I have considerably better hearing ability over the average ability of my age group; I periodically check my hearing ability using a free software audiometer with nice headphone (I use it only for audiometer check of my hearing ability). I well know and understand, however, my hearing ability in 7 kHz to 20 kHz (or ca.up to 15 kHz?) is now a little bit inferior to average of younger people; by younger people, I mean people of age 40 or less.

My post here and here would be of your interests.

Also the specific post here in my project thread;
- A serious jazz fanatic friend came to my home for audio sessions using my multichannel multi-driver multi-way multi-amplifier stereo system: #438
would give you the background of "safe and flexible on-the-fly relative gain control over SP drivers" which you may easily incorporate in your audio system (even with headphones) by using DSP(XO/EQ) software and/or multiple "integrated amplifiers"; you can also achieve it even with multichannel DAC, such as DAC8PRO, if it has relative gain control functionality.

For the rather big scale (heavy duty?) multi-driver multi-way active audio system, I believe that my "multiple-HiFi-integrated-amplifier" solution would be most convenient and safest for flexible on-the-fly relative gain control.

Just for your reference, I always set -48 dB/Oct high-cut (low-pass) DSP filters at 25 kHz in my setup, and I usually play all of my music tracks in 88.2 KHz or 96 kHz PCM by JRiver's on-the-fly format (bit rate) conversion. Please refer to;
- Summary of rationales for "on-the-fly (real-time)" conversion of all music tracks (including 1 bit DSD tracks) into 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz PCM format for DSP (XO/EQ) processing: #532

 

[dualazmak]

Sometimes we cannot hear the high-Fq (over 10 kHz?) simple sine-wave tone, but in "music" and/or "instrument" sound, often we can hear the very high Fq sound together with the lower Fq tones. It is really interesting. Please refer to my post here...

 

[Aynsley]

Since it looks almost impossible to get all of these 16 Aeolian CDs outside of Japan, I would like to share the artists and contents as follows in the order of release date and catalog numbers;
AEO-501 Aeolian Records

Thank you, @dualazmak, for rescuing these Aeolian recordings from oblivion. The performances and recordings deserve as much recognition as possible.

On this album of pieces performed by Genzo Takehisa, I was particularly impressed by Track 5, played on a clavichord. The sound engineer resisted the temptation to amplify the delicate sound of the instrument, and the recording quality is near-perfect.

I was also impressed by master-craftsman Akira Kubota's skill in recreating the keyboard instruments of the time. It's a pity that pioneers such as Wanda Landowska didn't have such responsive instruments on which to play.

 

[dualazmak]

Very happy to hear so, I fully agree.

I assume now you well understand my fascinations on Aeolian and Misawa CDs and my hope to share these with as many early-music lovers as possible all over the world.

 

[dualazmak]

Hello friends,

Just for your reference, I just started here and thereafter my "pot series" entitled "Excellent Recording Quality Music Albums/Tracks for Subjective (and Possibly Objective) Test/Check/Tuning of Multichannel Multi-Driver Multi-Way Multi-Amplifier Time-Aligned Active Stereo Audio System and Room Acoustics; at least a Portion and/or One Track being Analyzed by Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition in Common Parameters" on my multichannel multi-amplifier project thread; sorry for the rather long title...

Please note that I will slowly and steadily proceed and organize the "post series" (maybe a few posts in a month or so) where some of our preferred lute and early music in excellent recording quality will be included. I would highly appreciate your kind attention and possible participation on the thread.

 

[dualazmak]

I am very pleased adding lutenist Anna Wiktoria Swoboda on this thread;

 

[Aynsley]

I am very pleased adding lutenist Anna Wiktoria Swoboda on this thread;

Thank you for the introduction, @dualazmak . I wasn't aware of this artist or her repertoire.

In addition to the two YouTube videos you embedded in your post, I found many more audio and video recordings on her website at:

Anna Wiktoria Swoboda

Also photographs and concert dates. So far the only CD recording I've found is a Amor Sacro Amor Profano on ArkivMusic, which is where I purchase most of my classical music. Perhaps there are other recordings available elsewhere.

Watching the YouTube videos, two things caught my eye.

One was the placement of the microphones. Two almost binaural microphones placed close to the instrument, and two much higher microphones spaced farther apart to the right and left.

Another was the strings she was using. I think they're made of natural gut, but can't be sure.

 

[Lao Lu]

I do not know if Mr. Wilson has been mentioned.....Lovely......

 

[dualazmak]

Thank you @Lao Lu for the nice info on lutenist Christopher Wilson.

I also touched on his CD on Italian lute music in my post #32; gentle, quiet, warm, relaxing performance and recording, really nice in quiet late evening after daytime hard work...

 

[Aynsley]

I do not know if Mr. Wilson has been mentioned.....Lovely......

I don't know if Christopher Wilson has been mentioned in this thread, but I certainly didn't know about him.

I see that my music streaming service (Apple Music) has a comprehensive collection of his recordings. I'll give them a listen and decide if I want to add some of his CDs to my collection.

Thank you, @Lao Lu, for the timely introduction.

 

[Lao Lu]

Thank you @Lao Lu for the nice info on lutenist Christopher Wilson.

I also touched on his CD on Italian lute music in my post #32; gentle, quiet, warm, relaxing performance and recording, really nice in quiet late evening after daytime hard work...

I was worried that he had already been mentioned....my VPN is down here and that means all Youtube pictures can not even be viewed in a thread....

 

[dualazmak]

Hello friends,

I assume I have not yet touched on the following two charming and enjoyable lute/vihuela albums by Edward Martin which I download-purchased at magnatune.com site.

“Art of The Lute in Renaissance France”

You can hear the samplers at magnatune.com site;
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/martin-artfrance?song=1

“Luis Milan: El Maestro”

You can hear the samplers at magnatune.com site;
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/martin-luismilan?song=1

 

[Aynsley]

I assume I have not yet touched on the following two charming and enjoyable lute/vihuela albums by Edward Martin which I download-purchased at magnatune.com site.

I wasn't aware of either Edward Martin or the Magnatune website. After visiting the site, I looked for Edward Martin's albums on Apple Music. "Art of the Lute in Renaissance France" wasn't there, but the "Luis Milan" album and several others are available for lossless streaming.

I couldn't find any recording details for the Renaissance France album. It sounds a little sharp. Perhaps it was recorded with the microphone relatively close to instrument. The sounds of fingers moving over strings have been captured, giving it the feeling of an intimate live recording.

Thank you for finding these interesting albums.

 

[dualazmak]

Upon my purchasing, I remember that I selected the Perfect quality WAV files (539MB), then converted it into AIFF for full tagging.
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/martin-artfrance/download
I hear the album rather warm taste, not so sharp, at least with my audio setup. I assume you would better to purchase the Perfect WAV album.

Yes, the two albums are very "heart-ease" and enjoyable all the way.

 

[dualazmak]

This is also very much enjoyable, excellent recording quality. I download-purchased it around 2000, I assume.
At that time, CD was also available as "68742 LUTEDISC"; we can find the CD info here.
Edward Martin and William Bastian: Virtues and Vices

You can hear the samplers at magnatune.com site;
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/martin-virtues?song=1

 

[Aynsley]

CSD-7 Misawa Classics
View attachment 126107


CSD-17 Misawa Classics
View attachment 126117

As you can find, except for the two CDs (CSD-7 and CSD-17 on original tunes by guitarist Mikio TSUJI), the CDs were dedicated in early music.

I've been enjoying these two CDs immensely. I have a few albums of original guitar music played on steel-strung acoustic or electric guitars, but this is the first time I've had an opportunity to listen to such music played on an 11-string Spanish guitar.

The recordings are impeccable, and the performances masterly. Thank you so much for introducing these and other priceless gems.

 

[dualazmak]

Hello friends,

I tentatively finished my rather systematic "post series" on "audio sampler music tracks".

 

[dualazmak]

Although I informed to a few ASR friends only by PM, I notice that I have not yet touched on these two gem CDs of "Ensemble Ecclesia" directed by "Takashi Tsunoda"; FPD012 and FPD015 from TECLA label.

Very interesting/attractive early music in stunning recording quality released from a minor small label TECLA. The CDs are now not available in Japan and also word-widely, I believe. TECLA label is under the Catholic "Daughters of St. Paul" (女子パウロ会) (in Italian, Congregatio Filiarum a Sancti Pauliin, F.S.P.) in Japan. I attached the liner notes PDF of these CDs herewith.

In case if you would be seriously interested in these two gem CDs, please simply PM me writing your wish.