Music Shop of Quadro Nuevo

The new album for the Winter season:

Music that is close to the original idea of Christmas: the arrival of a new time that brings light and warmth into darkness. The idea: brotherly love transformed into music by a diverse and colourful group of instruments. Poetic musical gems, sometimes rejoicing and jubilant, sometimes kneeling in contemplation.

Following the successful album „Weihnacht“ (Christmas) released in 2008, here is even more music for inquisitive listeners who, along with rediscovering classics such as Leise rieselt der Schnee (Softly falls the snow) , Fröhliche Weihnacht (Merry Chrismas), Es kommt ein Schiff geladen (A ship is coming laden) or Alle Jahre wieder (Every single year), are interested in hearing more unusual sounds during Advent.

The repertoire is not limited to Christian songs: for example, the ECHO prizewinners put the poignant Shtil di Nakht is oysgesternt by the Polish Jew Hirsch Glik, who died in 1944, in this context.

The virtuosos enrich the diversity of winter music with Yiddish or American Indian melodies that carry the spirit of enlightenment and consolation.

Evelyn Huber: Harp, Salterio

Andreas Hinterseher: Accordion, Bandoneon, Vibrandoneon, Indian Drum, Glockenspiel, Tenor recorder (in no. 16)

Mulo Francel: Saxophones, Clarinets, Sansula, Mandolin, Mandola, Guitar, Tenor Recorder (in No. 18)

D.D. Lowka: Bass, Percussion, Xylophone, Steel Drum, Bass Recorder

Guests:

Joscho Stephan: Guitar (in Nos. 3 & 10)

Chris Gall: Piano (in Nos. 1, 13, 15, 19)

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Recorded by Philipp Winter at Dorian Gray Studios and Downhill Studio, Munich in Spring & Summer 2013

Mixed by Philipp Winter

Mastered by Dieter Pimiskern

Text editing by Quadro Nuevo & Julie Fellmann

Artwork by Uschi Fritz

The songs in detail:

1. Ich steh’ an deiner Krippe hier (Now at the manger here I stand)
   (Arr. Mulo Francel) 4:10

   Influenced by the 30-year war, the theologian Paul Gerhardt wrote this song. It was later was arranged musically by Johann Sebastian Bach. With him we stand directly at the place where it all took place. We need this child in the manger to show us the path of love.

2. Shtil di Nakht is oysgesternt
   (Hirsch Glik / Arr. Mulo Francel) 3:07

   At first glance, this Yiddish song has nothing to do with the Christian tradition.  But we still include it in our Christmas context. As an ode to humanity. As an admonition against oppression and hatred. As a beacon in the darkness. The Polish Jew Hirsch Glik wrote it in the Vilnius ghetto. He was killed in 1944 as a 22-year-old while fleeing in the forests surrounding Vilnius.

3. Tochter Zion (Daughter Zion)
   (Arr. Andreas Hinterseher) 6:09

   This joyful Christmas song was written by Georg Friedrich Händel: the city of Jerusalem, where the towering bastion of Zion once stood, joyously greets the Saviour. And for us, it is a joy to be joined by the great Gypsy guitarist Joscho Stephan, whose virtuoso guitar playing radiates with pure joie de vivre.

4. Es kommt ein Schiff geladen (A ship comes laden)
   (Arr. Andreas Hinterseher) 3:36

   One of the oldest German-language hymns dating back to the Christian mystic Johannes Tauler. With inquisitiveness, we take on the medieval imagery and translate it into sound images. From the waves of the sea, to the ship appearing on the horizon, to the revelation of its wondrous freight:
   And proudly floats the galley,
   From troubled coast to coast;
   Its sail is love and mercy,
   Its mast, the Holy Ghost.

5. jul, jul, strålande jul
   (From Sweden by Gustav Nordquist Arr. D.D. Lowka) 4:36Come blessed time!
   Lower your white wings
   Over the wars and blood and strife
   Over all sighing suffering
   Over those families who go to rest
   Over the young ones’ dawning nest
   Come, come, blessed Christmas
   Lower your white wings
6. Fröhliche Weihnacht (Merry Christmas)
   3:17…. our wish for you all!
7. Leise rieselt der Schnee (Softly falls the snow)
   (Arr. Evelyn Huber & Mulo Francel) 2:28
8. Alle Jahre wieder (Every single year)
   (Arr. Mulo Francel) 3:46Two very famous German Advent songs from the 19th century
9. Seht die gute Zeit ist nah (Behold, the wondrous time is near)
   (Arr. Evelyn Huber) 2:52

   A signal, loudly blown, announces the coming of something new. The old melody of the Moravian Christmas song Svatou dobu již tu máme triumphantly sings of the abolition of all sorrowful differences: rich and poor, sick and healthy, weak and strong.

10. Christmas time is here
    (Vince Guaraldi) 7:11

    Have you seen the wonderful 1964 American TV movie A Charlie Brown Christmas? There the children sing:
    ….Christmas time is here, we’ll be drawing near. Oh that we could always see such spirit through the year.

11. Wie soll ich Dich empfangen? (How shall I receive you?)
    4:40.

    – so asks one who loves.This chorale from his Christmas Oratorio was taken by Bach from one of his other great works: the St. Matthew Passion for Good Friday. In it, the ancient “Oh sacred head now wounded” is sung to the same melody. A profound thought: Jesus’ birth, life and suffering framed by a simple and poignant sequence of tones.

12. There is no rose of such virtue
    (from England Arr. Mulo Francel) 5:06

    In the songs and poetry of the Middle Ages, the Virgin Mary is repeatedly depicted as a rose:Ther is no rose of swych vertu
    As is the rose that bare Jhesu. Alleluya…The singer Sting has also recorded a version which we like very much.

13. Shchedryk: Carol of the Bells
    (Arr. D.D. Lowka & Chris Gall) 4:35

    A little “melody of encouragement” from the Ukraine, often played there during the Orthodox New Year celebrations. In English-speaking countries, it is one of the most popular songs at Christmas and appears in the brilliant Harry Potter films – sung by the Vienna Boys Choir!

14. Noël
    (Gabriel Fauré 1845-1924 Arr. Andreas Hinterseher) 5:04

    The 1989 World Fair gave the Parisians not only the Eiffel Tower. The impressionist composers living in the city also had their first contact with the musical culture of Asia: a group of Balinese dancers impressed Claude Debussy so much that these elements would thereafter be found everywhere in his music. Gabriel Fauré’s Christmas song also sounds very Asian, which delights us, since we like to visit the Far East as often as we can.

15. Pip pip pip prez woknjesko
    (Arr. Andreas Hinterseher) 3:12

    Last winter we played with the Sorbs. This old Slavic tribe is an ethnic minority in Lusatia, Eastern German. They have their own language, still spoken by about 30,000 people, their own stories such as the one about the miller’s apprentice and conjourer Krabat, and their own Winter songs: Outside it is bitterly cold. A mournful bird peers through the window into the warm room and begs for the remains of lunch. In return he will sing for us all summer. Pip pip pip.

16. Als Maria übers Gebirge ging (When Mary went over the mountains)
    (Arr. Andreas Hinterseher) 2:07

    Childhood at the foot of the Alps. This brings back many memories of that. It was created by Annette Thoma, who lived and worked in Riederig on Lake Simssee, the same village where our Mulo grew up: Here we play without improvisation, without harmonic or rhythmic finesse.

17. Huron Carol
    (Arr. Evelyn Huber) 4:04

    also known as Twas in the Moon of Wintertime, this is probably Canada’s oldest Christmas carol. In the mid-17^th century, the Jesuit priest Jean de Brébeuf was a missionary to the Huron Indian tribe. He wrote this Christmas hymn for them in their own language based on an old French folk song.

18. Sieh die Morgenröte (Behold the dawn)
    (Arr. Mulo Francel) 2:18A melody from the ancient Lakota Indians conjuring up the end of the night.
19. Rorate
    (Arr. Chris Gall) 3:47

    Rorate! Oh flow down ye heavens, became well-known in Austria and southern Bavaria the 1960s through the Advent Singing in Salzburg. It was, then, no accident that our pianist sang it every year from childhood, at home or at the Christmas parties given by his Upper Bavarian homeland’s football club. The French may have never heard this song before, but in his arrangement Chris Gall gives it a light Parisian flair. Salzburg Christmas at the Champs Elysées, so to speak.

20. Oj Maluśki, Maluśki, Maluśki
    (Arr. Andreas Hinterseher) 3:02

    Polish friends introduced us to this enchanting lullaby for the babe Jesus. We play it in a simple version using a whole slew of percussion instruments.