We’ve been talking about just intonation.
Here’s a fine example of what meticulously pure intervals and chords sound like when sung. It’s a 14th century piece sung by the Hilliard Ensemble:
http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc60/index.html#ensemble
Best wishes,
Jerry
I listened to this program when it aired on NPR. They’re a weird and most excellent group. Their work with sax player Jan Garbarek is one of the world’s best albums, ever. It’s called Officium.
Beautiful music delivered with the usual “Early Music” affectations, I bet if there’s a track with a Drum it will sound like it was recorded in a cave.
The singing is so pretty it just makes me want to slap ‘em, especially the high voiced one who is incapable of singing an R without rolling it.
John S
What file format is that? I can’t seem to listen to it.
Not especially likely. Except for the Garbaek records, the Hilliard ensemble is not known for
its use of kitch.
Is there some problem with rolling R’s? Not folkey enough?
What kind of “Early Music” are you listening to, by the way?
Hi Andreas, do you realy think that people sang like that in this period?
John S
It seems inprobable. Of course, they might have, but I don’t think so.
They probably did use rolling R’s, but I don’t know how they sang. Do you?[/i]
Don’t get me wrong Andreas I love medieval Music and play a lot of dance tunes from this broad period, I just think that rarefied over-controlled interpretation is not for me, and has no historical provenance.
I don’t think people started “producing” their voices in the manner this group does until much later maybe some time in the late Renaissance.
My guess is that it would have sounded more like folk, than Classical singing, but of cause I can’t prove that.
It is nice to hear classical singers without vibrato ladled on with a trowel, but the performance lacks emotion to my ears.
TTFN
John S
The Hilliards are a very unusual group: 2 tenors and 2 contra-tenors. They have to have most of their music custom-written for them. They’re very good and make beautiful music, and that’s pretty much it. I don’t think they consider themselves the standard for Medieval and Renaissance music.
Andreas, did you really think the Officium album was kitsch? I thought it was sublime, an exploration into pre-tonality, something so beyond my abilities as an improviser that it feels me with awe.
Not really. I just hate saxophones, and associate them with kitsch. I actually was on a concert with them in the Dome in Uppsala, Sweden. It is an extremely big church with equally big acoustics. There, I felt my aversion to the Sax melt away a bit, but I still preferred the purely vocal pieces they sang. But, to each his own. 
I actually agree on most of what you say. I didn’t particularly like the performance either. Sadly, the later works of the Hilliards has turned from the nice rougher (although far from really rough) earlier productions to extremely controlled interpretations, just as you say. But I still like many of these works performed without the usual mannerism of turning it folky just because it is so old. I guess we all can find interpretations that we like though.
Freudian slip – should be “fills me with awe”.
Andreas, i know what you’re talking about. I usually hate saxophones too. They’re too easy to play (badly) and few people get really good on them. Saxophones are the whistles of the jazz world.
g
Sigh.
I posted this for the purpose of illustrating what sung intervals and chords sound like in just intonation. Because it’s acappello, it’s especially easy to hear. Any really good choral ensemble (or brass or string, for that matter), regardless of the style will be just intonation because the pitches are flexible enough to gravitate to the true harmonic notes.
To my ear there’s a similarity, not in timbre or style, but in the way the harmonic notes blend, between the music sample here and the way the drone, chanter and regulators blend in a well tuned set of pipes. If you listen very carefully, I think you’ll notice that all really good pipers do roll their R’s.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Heh! If you think style wars are confined to ITM, you’re in for a shock! 
Here’s another example:
http://baroqueflute.com/RealAudio/soichherzlieb.mp3
Ardall Powell playing all four flutes in a Basano (Renaissance) flute set.
Ludwig Senfl, So ich Herzlieb from Frische teutsche Liedlein (Nuremburg: Georg Forster, 1539)
Now compare this to “Renny Faire” playing.
Jerry I apologise for somewhat hijacking your thread, I did not comment on the intonation issue because I agree with you and it seemed obvious.
Interesting example Glauber, but again to my ears it sounds emotionless, not due to the intonation used, but because it is played without life.
John S
No problem.
Carry on. This is interesting. Take it anywhere you want to go.
Best wishes,
Jerry