The Queen’s Six

The Queen’s Six – The Queen’s Six Murder the Songs of Tom Lehrer (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 35:00 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records

Following Tom Lehrer’s decision in 2020 to release almost 100 of his songs into the public domain (for anyone to perform and adapt without permission), The Queen’s Six take up the offer with relish in this album of a cappella renditions of his “catchy and savage musical satire”. Based at Windsor Castle, the members of The Queen’s Six make up half of the Lay Clerks of St George’s Chapel, whose homes lie within the Castle walls. This rare privilege demands the highest musical standards, as they sing regularly for the Royal family at both private and state occasions.

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The Queen’s Six – Journeys to the New World: Hispanic Sacred Music from the 16th & 17th Centuries (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:06:20 minutes | 1,99 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records

This is a musical trip from the mid-sixteenth century to around 1700, involving music in Late Renaissance style, carrying Spanish Catholicism across the Atlantic to supplant an indigenous culture. Once the invasion had taken root with the conquest of Tenochtitlán and its transformation to Mexico City, the country became the target of fervent friars and preachers. Franciscans were first in 1523, then Dominicans, all fired with Christian zeal to convert the native population. From the outset they used music to great effect. The accounts that survive show how successful they were in teaching singing and playing, training choirs to perform liturgical music. By the mid-century it was claimed that standards had reached that of Charles Vs chapel. Churches and cathedrals were established throughout the rapidly expanding New Spain. Conquest and Christianity imposed an almost exact replica of Old Spain. Liturgical books, prints of plainchant and polyphony were shipped in throughout the century. In this recording the singers present music by eight composers. Four of them never went to the New World; their music did. Three of them were born in Spain and were trained in music there; they held appointments in Spain and later emigrated to the new colonial cities. One more became the first composer-choirmaster to be born there of Spanish parents, thus criollo.

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The Queen’s Six – From Windsor with Love (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:42 minutes | 900 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Signum Records

The Queen’s Six return to Signum with a new album of romantic pop song arrangements. Conceived with US producer TJ Armand, the album of new a cappalla arrangements sets traditional classics such as Bob Dylan’s ‘Make you feel my love’, and Young and Heyman’s ‘When I fall in love’, next to more unusual songs such as Huey Lewis and the News’ ‘The Power of Love’, and Limahl’s ‘Never Ending Story’.
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