Canticum Canticorum

“A master work, refined and audacious. An album to dream to. A musical exploration that unites the past with the present. The result of many years of research and blending of musical styles. A must.” —Francine Charette, Club-Culture

“Accessible, delicate, magnificent in every way.” —Alain Brunet, La Presse

“A sweet feast for all ears.” —Claude Grégoire, NetMusik

"A very spiritual and dreamy album.” —Jean-François Parent, Chaos-News Magazine

“An album of exceptional quality, sensitive, almost mystical.” —Lise Millette, ShowBizz.Net

“Very few creators, in all categories, can bring together so many influences with such elegance and with such elevation.”—Régis Tremblay, Le Soleil

Description

This album project was developed over the ten years that I was a chorister at Queen Mary Road United Church and occasionnally participated in le Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal. Over those years, from 1980 to 1990, I was to learn many styles of early music, such as Rennaissance sacred music, Trecento (Italian 14th century), Guillaume de Machaut, Gregorian Chant, the Flemish school, etc.

All this music bubbled below the surface of my projects over the next few years, only to surface again in the classical portion of my Five Nights at le Theatre de Quat'Sous —five nights, five different styles of music— which I performed with Sylvain Bergeron and Isabelle Marchand from la Nef in a set of Early Music, and Helmut Lipsky and Mariko Sato in a set of more contemporary classics. I remember thinking how much fun it would be to combine these two elements of classical music.

In 1994, Marianne Ackerman asked me to compose music for and to perform in her play, Sliding in all Directions, which was based on the Song of Songs in the Bible. I accepted, and from that was born Canticum canticorum. Marianne's play was four sketches of the modern, alienated world set against the richness of the only book in the Bible that never mentions God and is comprised of erotic poetry.

After the play was over, I could not forget the music I had written for it and I decided to renew the project, deleting the modern skits and creating a sort of “medieval opera” like we did several years ago in the church choir. I created roles and a story around the poetry of the Song of Songs. For the recit, I wrote gregorian-syle chant. Marianne also submitted new interpretations of the poetry.

With a grant from Radio-Canada, I engaged La Nef to bring the songs to life on September 30, 1996. It was the first stage in a very long process. We experimented with using only early instruments. After that it was back to work, preparing the album. I decided to alter the instrumentation, as the music was as modern as it was medieval. The album took two years to record and mix, as I was busy with other projects as well. But finally, it came out in time for spring 2000!

Shir Hashirim
Rise now and seek him
Who is she?
The sons of Solomon
In die laetitiae
Ah columba mea
Morena soy
Que tu es belle !
Run, run, run !
My love is a lily
Sub arbore malo
Sick with love
Arise my fair one
Be my beloved
Septentrion et Teymane
Such is her beloved
Captive
I opened to my beloved
Revertere sulamitis
Pose-moi comme un sceau

Adaptation of biblical texts — Marianne Ackerman, Karen Young
Composition, arrangement and direction — Karen Young

VOICES
Daughters of Jerusalem
Coral Egan — A daughther of Jerusalem
Josée Lalonde — The mother
Karen Young — The Shulamite

The sons of David
Marcel de Hêtre — S0lomon
Normand Richard — The Shepherd
Vassil Markov & Doug Young on Such Is Her Beloved

MUSICIANS
Caroline Béchard — second violin
Sylvain Bergeron — oud, theorbe
Virginie Dulude-Trudel — celtic harp
Aleksey Dyachkov — viola
Norman Lachapelle — acoustic bass
Helmut Lipksy — first violin and solist
Isabelle Marchand — descant and bass viola
Vassil Markov — kaval, gaïda
Leslie Snider — cello
Pierre Tanguay — percussion
Karen Young — synthesizer

SOUND
Recorded at Studio Divan Vert
Engineer — Jean-Jacques Bourdeau
Mix — Jean-Jacques Bourdeau, Jean Lacasse, Karen Young
Assistance — Michel Lambert, Jean Giroulx
Programming — Jean Lacasse
Mastering — Renée Marc-Aurèle, Studio SNB

COVER
Design — Susan Valyi
Artist — Agnolotori Bronzino (1503-1572)
Photographie — Gilles La France
Biblical Scholar — François Brunetta

Critics

Karen Young
Distant past, brilliant future
Alain Brunet, La Presse

Perseverant, Karen Young has taken the risk of putting her jazz to the side for a while to bring together all her other musical passions — early music of the middle ages and rennaissance, traditional music of the Mediteranian and the Balkans, etc. — to create the record that could be the most influential of all her albums. Because this Canticum Canticorum is superbly constructed and the demand is high in the realm of transcultural, medieval influenced music. The voices of Karen Young and Coral Egan blend with those of Josée Lalonde, Marcel de Hêtre and Norman Richard; the fusion of schools (jazz, classic, world) is as successfully acheived as that of the folk and classical traditions they represent. The Helmut Lipsky string quartet “modernises” this ancient music; the Bulgarian instruments of Vasil Markov (kaval and gaida) join together with celtic harp and the oud. Accessible, delicate, magnificent in every way.

Karen Young
Canticum Canticorum
Claude Grégoire, NetMusik

We knew Karen Young was versatile, but she really surprises us with this new CD, the most audacious work of her career. It consists of nothing less than a free adaptation of “The Song of Songs” , the classic biblic script. Conceived as an oratorio, the work highlights a host of singers, one of which, Karen in the role of the Shulamite. The songs are adaptations of different versions of the sacred text, translated sometimes in French, often in English. The music is composed entirely by Karen Young, taken from different sources: medieval opera, sacred and arabic music, to name a few. The instrumentation is also very diverse, including synth, oud, celtic harp and bugalrian bagpipes. Nevertheless the overall sound is unified and understated, all to the benefit of the work. A gentle feast for the ears.

Young surprises us again
Canticum Canticorum — Karen Young
Lise Milette, ShowBizzNet

The unclassifiable artist who belongs to all styles, from whose musical exploration comes this time an oratorio in 20 tableaux. With nobility and simplicity, Karen Young presents the product of her exploration of ancient biblic texts, arabic tradition in a universe of symbols and gypsy rhythms. The strong voices of the choral singers blended with the lyrical voice of the principal artist in a mind-blowing scenario astound and destabilise. The effect is accentuated by the gregorian style, where one has the impression of participating in a pagan love ritual. And that’s not far from the reality.

Canticum Canticorum is the result of a free interpretation of the Song of Songs, a recitation based on Love, a story of sensuality and an affirmation of the senses. Deep in signification and implication, Karen Young deliberately and precisely wanted to play with the notion of the forbidden and love’s excess, exalting the purity of emotions and sensual expression.

Strongly inspired by a verse in the Song of Songs, “Neither stir up nor awaken Love until it pleases to be”, Karen Young has stirred up alegations of all sorts, including a hymn to the tree of original sin in Sub Arbore Malo (the translation of this latin phrase being “under the tree of evil”). Then again in Pose-moi comme un sceau, another interpretation of the same verse, but offered as a gesture of desire. Despite the semantic richness and content heterogeneity, Canticum Canticorum remains an excersise in style and will please above all the initiated. Indeed, this album contains harmonies and ideas that are not for everybody. This is not a drawback per se, as it situates the work squarely in a context of tribal rhythm blended with a certain form of spirituality. This being said, Karen Young has once more succeeded a tour de force by offering an album of exceptional quality in a sensitive package, almost mystical.

Karen Young's audacity and perseverance
Sylvain Cormier

It was bound to happen one day, a matter on good timing. Launched a few weeks ago Karen Young’s new record is selling amazingly well. It’s already being reprinted. What can be deduced from this conjuction of critical acclaim and growing unconditionals? Can it be that Karen Young has plucked the right string at the right moment? Or that the string is at last available for those who are ready to pluck it? Success, for an artist as marginal as Karen, is a strange animal that we don’t see coming. Our incurable hippie, who has been exploring and personalizing diverse music styles and origins for the last three decades, has not yet found commercial success.

But it’s undeniable: this new musical work of the biblical Song of Songs, resulting from a life time of research, project that is deeply personal and ignores current styles and fashion, hits the spot against all odds. There is in this album, magically integrated in harmonious music, the best of Emma Shapplin, Loreena McKennitt, Lhasa, and others […]: Balkan gypsy music, classical singers, a hint of progressive rock, complex vocal harmonies reminescent of Corsican or Bulgarian music, Arab and medieval fragrances, classical strings, etc. Perhaps the time has arrived for the intrepid listener, tired of the too constricting forms of popular music, to find his salvation with those who are unclassifiable. If this happens, then bravo: with Karen Young there is enough in to fill the ears and mind for a long time.

This Oratorio Canticum Canticorum deserves several listenings. We may well be listening to this album on a peaceful Sunday morning or plunge body and soul in the work, dense and complex music of the ages. And when that’s not enough, the scholar can read the text of Canticum Canticorum in all its subtle facets.

There is a lesson to be learned from this: after having dabbled in jazz, world music, pop, la chanson française, and r’n’b on albums more or less confidential, it’s finally the album the least commercial that receives the biggest public acclaim. This is how audacity and perseverance in real art ultimately pays off. And not always posthumously.

An exceptional Canticum Canticorum
Appreciation: 9/10
Ici Montreal.com

Karen Young will never cease to astonish. If for some she is considered one of Canada’s great jazz singers, for others, she reveals herself eclectic, going from World music to choral music. Once more the singer/songwriter offers us an audacious work. We tried to pierce the mystery surrounding her newest, Canticum Canticorum, at her record launch at the Corona Theatre.

We have witnessed for the last 20 years the evolution of an extrordinary artist: Karen Young. If we can’t put her in a single categorie, at least we can say that her approach is much-sought and pertinent. She comes this time with a record divided into 20 tableaux, in a neo-medieval and Renaissance style: “It’s the first time I have recorded this style of music. Five characters interprete humanity in a story that I arranged around the original”. This personal interpretation of the biblic text retraces the story of a love triangle. It is accompanied by a blend of mediterranean and classical influences. We imagine ouselves in paradise. For Karen, it is simply the sacred expression of human sensuality.

It took five years for the artist to complete the project. Surrounded by 15 musicians and singers, she had to go through a long creative process before taking it to the recording studio: “By pretending to be a McGill student, I was able to collect a lot of medieval music to inspire me. Then, I composed 20 tableaux in various medieval styles.” Allowing herself to be influenced by medieval oratorios and arabic music, Karen Young offers us a voyage to the heart of a Bible revisited.

Friends and the media were able to see it on stage at the record launch, a taste of the shows that will be performed at the Corona Theatre in September. “With all these musicians and singers on stage I didn’t want to fall into the operatic game. I believe that the music can speak for itself in these performances.” This next rendez-vous with Karen Young could well be sold out, as we witnessed with her last project in the Montreal region. Judging by the tour de force of her last album, we can’t but expect even better coming from this singer.

Karen Young
Canticum Canticorum
Claude Côté, Voir

The daughters of Jerusalem, Solomon, the sons of David, the black Shulamite, the shepherd and the mother. Where the hell are we? In the third century BC. The Song of Songs, a compilation of erotic wedding songs from the Middle East, perceived from the jewish perspective as the expression of the sacred bond between God and His people. Medieval oratorios and recitatives in Gregorian chant are adapted to biblic texts by Marianne Ackerman and Karen Young. This could have been pedantic, but this colossal work, with the imposing musical crew that accompanies it, seems free of the weight of its immense signification and takes flight in folly, in lightness of being, exorcising on the way any negativity in an orgy of oud, cellos and voices that would make friar Tuck jealous. Celestial.

The live performance of Karen Young's oratorio, Canticum Canticorum, is the central element of an evocative dramatization of the timeless Biblical text known as The Song of Songs. Featuring the musical arrangements and singing of Karen Young and the choreography of Nederlands Dans Theater's Gioconda Barbuto, this emotional story of love and betrayal is brought to life in an innovative 21st century urban setting. (From Telefilm Canada)

Jury Award, Yorkton Film Festival 2007 — Canadian Society of Cinematographers Award to Marc Gadoury, Best photography in a performance 2006 — Nominated in competition at the International Festival of Audiovisual Programs 2007

High definition video (53 min) produced by Pepita Ferrari, available at Telefilm Canada

With Karen Young, Chanti Wadge and Mario Radacovsky