European Folk Songs

[...] Alle Lieder erscheinen in den Originalsprachen und sind mit Übersetzungen ins Deutsche, Englische und Französische versehen. [...] Die Schwierigkeitsgrade sind zwar unterschiedlich (meist mittlere Stufe), nicht aber die Qualität der Bearbeitungen, die allesamt für ein europäisches Festkonzert geeignet sind. Dieses Heft ist eine Anschaffung für Jahrzehnte und stellt einen guten Anlass dar, im historischen Notenschrank mal auszumisten. Bei den Komponisten der einzelnen Chorsätze handelt es sich um die besten der einzelnen Länder.

Wolfgang Layer
Quelle: Schwäbische Sängerzeitung 08-09/2006

The volume of Music Sacra Hungarica draws together almost 50 short a cappella pieces from 11 Hungarian composers active in the last century. Kodaly is, inevitably, represented, though modestly; his pupils, all of whom contributed to the growth of what we now think of as the new Hungarian vocal style spearheaded by Kodály, Bartók and Bárdos, fare better. Taking their lead from Kodály's ideological principal that the foundation of music-making is singing, these Hungarian composers provided a rich repertoire of unaccompanied material loosely emulating Palestrina's vocal style, if not his language. The volume's pieces are all brief in duration and most require relatively modest skills to bring off in performance. All liturgical seasons are covered, and the mainly Latin texts will bring them within the linguistic range of even the most modest choral group. The very few items that were originally sung in Hungarian are here translated into German only, thus betraying the publishers' origins. But any half-decent church choir that invested in this collection would be rewarded - and the good news is that publishers will supply multiple copies of individual items. [...]

Quelle: Choir&Organ, Nov./Dez. 2007