There Is No Rose Lammas (Sarah Deere-Jones & Phil Williams) A magical selection of medieval music for harp, voice and other instuments with a mid-winter theme, haunting English medieval songs for voice and harp such as ‘There is no rose‘ and ‘Song of the nuns of Chester‘ are mixed with lively ‘Estampies‘ and ‘Saltarellos‘ from the era and new arrangements of favourite ancient carols such as Puer Nobis, In Dulci Jubilo and Coventry Carol - featuring wire-strung and gothic harps, Gemshorn, hammered duclimer, Hurdy-Gurdy, Recorders, Saz, Bagpipes, and percussion. An atmospheric and uplifting addition to the christmas music repertoire! The Mail on Sunday described it as ‘Absolutely joyous‘ and it was featured as the ‘Connaisseurs Choice‘ in Classic FMs ‘New CD Show‘! Buy this album now CD: £10.00 + p&p

Sarah Deere-Jones profile page with index of recordings and compositions

1	Li Novais Tens / Saltarello	6:26
2	Song of the Nuns of Chester	3:41
3	Wencleslas / Noel Nouvelet	2.45
4	Lullay my childe / An hevenly song	4:13
5	Coventry Carol	3:51
6	Personent Hodie /Saltarello	4:29
7	Dance Royale / Ductia / In Dulci Jubilo	6:42
8	There is no rose	4:16
9	Edi be thu hevenly queene	4:43
10	Ivy is good	3:22
11	Puer Nobis / English dance	4:07
12	Ly Bens Distonys / St Stephen’s Day	4:52

 

'There is no rose' CD sampler performed by Sarah Deere Jones & Phil Williams (Lammas)

Li Novais Tens 12thC / Saltarello 14thC
This French love song from the 3rd crusade (1188-91) has such a beautiful tune that it works well as an instrumental piece, here on medieval recorder, and accompanied by hammered dulcimer, gothic harp, and cup bells. It introduces a lively Italian’jumping’ dance, here on gothic harp with Saz and darabuka.

Song of the Nuns of Chester c.1425
From the Benedictine nunnery of Chester, this song is accompanied by wire-strung harp, and describes a nativity scene and finishes with ‘through everlasting ages, in eternity and beyond, may He give us his joy’.

Wencleslas 13thC/Noel Nouvelet 15thC
Two well known Christmas tunes from Poland and France played on bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy with cup bells, Gothic harp
and darabuka.

Lullay my childe / An hevenly song 15thC
These two lesser known English carols are taken from the ‘Musica Britannica Medieval carols vol IV’ - ‘Lullay My Childe’ survives as two lines of melody only, and here is arranged by Sarah as a round. ’An hevenly song’ also from ’Musica Britannica’ - has been adapted from the original two part melody, and is accompanied again on wire-strung harp.

Coventry Carol 15thC
A carol sung in a pageant ‘of the shearmen and tailors’ in 15th century Coventry, in the scene about the slaughter by Herod of the innocents. We have expanded on the sinister flavour of this carol using a funereal frame drum beat with a cutting glissando on hammered dulcimer and an earthy hurdy-gurdy drone, whilst the Recorder carries the familiar tune.

Personent Hodie 14thC / Saltarello 14thC
The joyous ‘Personent Hodie’ is from the Piae Cantiones manuscript, and here we use a lively accompaniment on cittern with frame drum, darabuka and timbrel percussion to express the latin ‘let the boys cheerful noise, sing today none but joys’. We entwine an Italian ‘Saltarello’ or jumping dance, in between the verses with whistle.

Dance Royale 13thC /Ductia 13thC /In Dulci Jubilo 14thC
This well known French stately dance tune on wire-strung harp is followed by an English Ductia on hurdy-gurdy and recorder, and leads into this famous German carol ‘In sweet joy’ with Gothic harp and cup bells.

There is no rose 15thC
This beautiful English medieval song has inspired many classical composers to arrange it over the years. Here Sarah’s version is very simple using wire-strung harp and the soft gemshorn in a short interlude between verses.

Edi be thu hevenly queene 13thC
A rare English song for the virgin from the 13th century, again the lovely tune stands up as an instrumental piece here on recorder with gemshorn, hurdy-gurdy, and gothic harp.

Ivy is good 15thC
From the ‘Musica Britannica, medieval carols Vol IV’ this unusual song survives as a complicated 3 part melody. Sarah has adapted it from its original stylised ‘motet’ form, back into a more rustic version which the text suggests, using the predominant musical theme as the main melody, and therefore suiting it to interpretation for one voice. Here she sings it with wire-sting harp and hammered dulcimer accompaniment.

Puer Nobis 15thC / English dance 13thC
Another very famous seasonal tune from the Piae Cantiones manuscript, here played as a round by Gothic harp and Gemshorn followed by a rare English dance from the 13th century played on Gothic harp with darabuka.

Ly Bens Distonys c.1500 / St Stephen’s Day
A lively tune from the English Gresley manuscript played on bagpipes with harp and whistle expanding on the theme, then going into a well known English Christmas tune, this track finishes with our tribute to all the medieval bagpipers of Christmases past, the final triumphant cacophony embellished by the joyful tolling of an English church bell by Merv Collins! The bell is actually in the tower of the church on the CD front cover, St. Anns at Whitstone.

Title:	There Is No Rose
Artist:	Lammas Sarah Deere-Jones, Phil Williams
Instruments:	Sarah Deere-Jones: Harp (wire-strung / Gothic), Voice, Hammered Dulcimer, Hurdy-Gurdy, Recorder, Gemshorn Whistles. Phil Williams: bagpipes, Cittern, Saz, Percussion
Genre:	English Medieval Music
Format:	CD
Our Ref:	A0373
MCPS:	FPCD009
Label:	Cornwall Harp Centre
Year:	2010
Origin:	UK