Hymns | Beth Nielsen Chapman | YOU KNOW IT'S GOOD WHEN...

Hymns | Beth Nielsen Chapman | Lovely renditions of sacred music

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Hymns

	Hymns Beth Nielsen Chapman Emergent, 2004 average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

YOU KNOW IT'S GOOD WHEN...

...You can get a stone hearted atheist like me to listen to this exquisite assemblage of musical beauty in stunned silence with tears rolling down my cheeks. These are songs of the sacred that don't require a belief system. Take it from me.

Lovely renditions of sacred music

With her beautiful, clear voice, Beth lends a simple reverence to several fine old Catholic hymns. She's also written a very sweet new hymn to Mary. I buy virtually no music - my collection is already sufficient. But I only had to hear a bit of one song - Panis Angelicus - to get me onto iTunes for this album.

Every single song is lovely: quiet and rousing, simple and complex, altogether reverent.

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This just absolutely floored me.

I purchased this CD at the Eastleigh Festival back in August 2005, when Beth performed there(she even did a rendition of AVE VERUM CORPUS with her musicians reading the words from the songbook!) and as I have said in a previous review, she was a lovely person to speak with, and my HYMNS was autographed by her. Now, to the music itself . . . prepare yourself for one hell of an album. Beth has collected together some traditional hymns sung at Catholic mass in Latin, mainly, but performed with much of her acoustic folk/roots sound to introduce them to a new audience. Also guesting with her are her son and assorted musicians, including John Catchings, who performed with Nanci Griffith on THE DUST BOWL SYMPHONY(as a matter of fact, so did Beth!!).

HYMNS is simply stunning, beautiful and truly touching to listen to. It will reach inside your heart to a very deep place and you will experience many different emotions, as with Beth's other comtemporary CDs. It also brought back some fond memories of schooldays - we used to sing AVE MARIA in chapel and often afterwards the headmaster would yell at us 'THAT WAS PATHETIC! WE WILL SING THAT AGAIN OR YOU WILL BE IN DETENTION'!(bangs his cane on the altar - yes, I used to go to a public school for a year until we moved) Ahh, but if only we had Beth as a singing tutor then we would have all sung like angels . . . AVE VERUM CORPUS - a version of this featured in the sci-fi movie THE ISLAND - is a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart piece, you also get SALVE REGINA and O GOD OF LOVELINESS - listen carefully to this album and you will also hear some of Beth's classical influences to her music, compare and contrast VENI VENI EMMANUEL to FEATHERS, BONES AND SHELLS on 'Deeper Still' for instance.

Special mention must be made of HYMN TO MARY, which was written by Beth herself during 2002 when she was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. I understand she sought help in a prayer to Mary which formed the basis for this hymn. She spoke of this story in her recent service at St Paul's Cathedral in London. This song really does tear at the heart strings but at the same time offers a message of hope showing how people can find comfort in song and faith.

Beth is also working on another HYMNS album, this time featuring world hymns. This would be just awesome. Altogether, this first HYMNS album is suitable for anyone to enjoy and feel comfort from, regardless of what religious beliefs you have. It is simply astounding; Beth never ceases to be brilliant and awe-inspiring in my eyes.

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Exquisite!

My son and his girlfriend gave me this CD for my birthday, (she actually chose it for me; thanks, Cindi!) and I fell in love with it immediately. Like Beth, I too, was raised in a Catholic family and remember when Mass was said in Latin. I recall some of these songs, but Beth's renditions are amazingly simple and beautiful. Her voice is so calming and soothing, it seems to be especially made to sing hymns like these. Her music comes from deep within her heart. I say amen to her belief in faith, that it is something beyond the boundaries of any one religion.

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Touched my soul

I fell in love with this music the moment I first heard it. Do yourself a favor. Listen. It'll touch a chord deep within you.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6

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