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Part of these collections: Lute, Renaissance. Customers who bought Jeni Melia also bought: American Bach Soloists, Jami Sieber, Rob Costlow, Altri Stromenti, Chris Harvey, Ambient Teknology, Philharmonia Baroque, Seismic Anamoly, Lara St John, Falling You.
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| - Sister Awake - music only | play hifi lofi, license, BUY |
| - Sister Awake | play hifi lofi, license, BUY |
| - The Last of Old England | play hifi lofi, license, BUY |
| - The Lost Art of Wooing | play hifi lofi, license, BUY |
Soprano Jeni Melia and lutenist Chris Goodwin are members of The English Ayre, a small circle of musicians dedicated to performing early music in an engaging way.
Jeni Melia has studied with Mary Bainbridge and Ruth Holton, and has participated in masterclasses with Emma Kirkby. She sings with the Concord Singers and has recently performed solos in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Faure's Requiem, Pergolesi's Salve Regina, Mozart's Laudate Dominum, Vivaldi's Gloria, Arne's Shakespeare Songs, Handel's Messiah, and a song cycle, Love's Bitter-Sweet, specially composed for her by Paul Edwards.
Recently discovering that she possesses an unusual natural gift for lute song, Melia gave her first full-length recital of lute songs in 2002. She has been recorded performing the music of Paul Edwards, on the CD No Small Wonder (Lammas Records), and has recently released her first full solo CD, The Last of Old England, a thoughtful exploration of the overlap between Elizabethan era lute song and folk song.
On their recent release, The Last of Old England, Goodwin and Melia explore the common ground between lute song and folk song. Traditional lute song is a self-consciously literary genre that delights in intellectual argument, learned allusion, and wordplay, while folk song typically confines its imagery to what will be understood by the whole community, and is dominated by narrative. Yet Goodwin and Melia reveal that the two genres have much in common as well, including strong melodies, striking poetic imagery, a deep vein of melancholy, and perennial themes of love and death—often conveyed through a universalised 'I'.
The ancient chordal progressions and modal melodies of these songs give the listener a feeling of connection with a remote, lost world—one far closer to nature, and less cocooned from primal human experiences than our own. The work is presented as a kind of emotional journey through traditional themes of lute and folk song: love desired, love enjoyed, love lost, and death. It's a journey rounded out by songs advocating living and loving while you can, including a delightful adaptation of Herrick's "Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May." A set of songs about England is included as well, and to conclude, Goodwin and Melia present two lullabies from two wholly different traditions, but each beautiful and haunting.
"Lutenist Chris Goodwin told me that when he met Jeni
Melia, he thought she had the most incredible voice he'd ever heard." -John Buckman, Magnatune
"A clear, unpretentious voice...very light and sweet." -Postmodern Spectator
Chris Goodwin took up the lute at the age of 19, and for the last eight years has served as secretary of the Lute Society, as well as editor of both Lute News and The Lute. Goodwin has also edited and published collections of lute songs from their original manuscript sources. He has sung in numerous choirs since childhood and has played lute in a number of ensembles, including the progressive acoustic rock/folk/early music fusion band Andwella, and The Giltspur Singers.
