And So Flows the River
Released 2023
We are the sum of our experiences. Our lives moving like water, from the creeks in West Virginia to the streets of Baltimore. Music is our language, motion our friend, and our instruments, home. We chose this music with intention, and so flows the river.
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The Celtic Lute
Released July 27, 2018
The Celtic Lute includes new arrangements of music by Irish composer Turlough O'Carolan, as well as other popular Irish and Scottish folk tunes. This album represents a new take on these pieces, some of which have previously been recorded by Celtic music legends like The Chieftains and The Bothy Band.
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Barley Moon
Released June 24, 2016
This brand new album, featuring music from the live program Will You Walk the Woods so Wild, is comprised of Renaissance music and old traditional folk songs, showcasing the surprising parallels between high art music and folk music.
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Nine Notes that Shook the World
Released June 25, 2013
GRAMMY nominated Ronn McFarlane is joined by Mindy Rosenfeld to present Nine Notes that Shook the World.
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Two Lutes
Released July 31, 2012
Lute Duets from England's Golden Age, a wonderful collection of enchanting music performed by lute virtuosos Ronn McFarlane and William Simms.
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The Art of Vivaldi's Lute
Released May 31, 2011
Vivaldi’s complete music for lute and strings is included on this album, along with two Vivaldi Sinfonias for strings and the Vivaldi motet “In Turbato Mare Irato."
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Blame Not My Lute
Released February 23, 2010
The poetry of William Shakespeare, Thomas Wyatt, Richard Barnfield and the bawdy Thomas d’Urfey intertwine with the music of John Dowland, William Byrd and the prolific Anonymous.
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One Morning
Released May 25, 2009
The follow-up release to his wildly popular original music album Indigo Road, Ronn continues to show the world that the lute is a living instrument suited for more than just classical performances by past composers, but is ready to introduce new music into the world.
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Adio España
Released April 28, 2009
This program will take you on a musical journey through the fascinating intercultural history of the late 15th and early 16th century Spain.
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Bright Day Star
Released April 16, 2009
This traditional music, with roots going back many centuries, revives our spirits and evokes a festive mood.
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Live in Concert
Released October 14, 2008
Take a journey back in time with a visit to the First Scots Presbyterian Church in Charleston, S.C., during the Piccolo Spoleto Festival for the location of this live recording.
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Gut, Wind, and Wire
Released November 13, 2007
In true English Consort style, the Baltimore Consort, America's most popular early music ensemble, mixes instruments from different families.
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Indigo Road
Released November 1, 2007
Historically the lute player and the composer of lute music were one and the same. Ronn McFarlane has returned to that time, with this dazzling and beautiful recording of his own compositions for the lute.
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Adew Dundee
Released September 30, 2003
The lure of Scottish melody with its gapped scales and "scotch snaps" (short-long rhythms) motivated the English to set new words to Scottish tunes or to write new tunes in imitation of Scottish style.
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The Best of the Baltimore Consort
Released January 28, 2003
Two musical traditions - one as old as the other is new - characterize this ensemble.
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The Art of the Lute
Released January 1, 2003
"The first time I picked up a lute was at a local music store," says Ronn McFarlane. "I'd been studying guitar, and I'd already learned a lot about the lute, so I was surprised to discover how awkward it was to hold and how disappointing and difficult it was to try to play."
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Amazing Grace
Released May 1, 2001
This is the music of the Old-Time Religion - the expression of country folk and poor yoemen who fled to America primarily from the British Isles.
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The Mad Buckgoat
Released October 12, 1999
The initial spark for this program was a landmark publication called A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes, published in Dublin in 1724 by John & William Neal.
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Highland King
Released January 1, 1999
Little is known of the earliest history of the Lute in Scotland, though it was clearly an important instrument for centuries before the first lute manuscripts appeared.
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The Ladyes Delight
Released March 17, 1998
Recordings such as this--and many others by the Baltimore Consort--remind us where many of our American folk music traditions come from, and reveal just how strongly connected we still are to European traditions many centuries old.
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Tunes from the Attic
Released April 10, 1997
Tunes from the Attic returns to the central repertory of the Baltimore Consort: popular and courtly music from Elizabethan England and Renaissance Scotland.
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A Distant Shore
Released January 1, 1997
The revival of the lute and its repertoire in the later twentieth century has been so thorough that it is difficult now to remember how much a "distant shore" the instrument seemed to musicians even a few generations ago.
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Between Two Hearts
Released January 1, 1996
The title Between Two Hearts symbolizes the magnetic pull between the hearts of a pair of dancers, and especially the music connecting these hearts.
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A Trip to Killburn
Released January 1, 1996
The English Dancing Master, first published by John Playford in 1651, is an anthology of top tunes from the 17th century.
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The True Lover's Farewell
Released March 28, 1995
The majority of pieces on this disc come from the 1932 publication of English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians
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The Renaissance Lute
Released January 1, 1994
When first conceiving this recording, I imagined myself as a first time listener to the lute. I have tried to bring together a collection of pieces that capture some of the variety and range of styles of the Renaissance lute.
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La Rocque 'n' Roll
Released September 28, 1993
All of the song and dance arrangements on this CD are the creation of the members of the Baltimore Consort.
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The English Lute Song
Released August 22, 1993
Throughout the Renaissance and early Baroque, in England as in no other country, song was shaped by the firm authority of poets, who took a dim view of the singer who might "hide the light of sense with divisions.
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Custer LaRue Sings the Daemon Lover
Released August 2, 1993
Traditionally, art music is a diversion for the educated classes, while folk music is one of the most intimate, reassuring and embellishing possessions of the poor
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The Art of the Bawdy Song
Released February 11, 1993
Through these bawdy catches and ballads we journey to the taverns and other social gathering-places of the real Merry Old England.
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Watkins Ale
Released May 22, 1992
The English mixed consort is fascinating for several reasons, not the least of which is its multi-colored sound.
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Lute Music of John Dowland
Released January 1, 1991
John Dowland stands out as the most tuneful Elizabethan lute composer. Whether creating tunes for dances, variatons on popular ballads or weaving a contrapuntal fantasia, his melodies lodge in the memory and resound there long after the music has stopped.
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The Scottish Lute
Released January 1, 1990
These dance tunes and songs were the pop music of their time, now turned into "classical music" entirely by the aging process.
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On the Banks of Helicon
Released January 1, 1990
Most of the Scottish music on this disc is over 400 years old, and yet it strikes our ears as contemporary in its freshness and originality.
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O Mistress Mine
Released December 11, 1986
Frederick Urrey and Ronn perform a collection of English lute songs.
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Greensleeves
Released November 26, 1985
Julianne Baird (soprano) and Ronn (lute) perform a collection of English lute songs
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Fermi's Paradox
Released November 20, 2020
We had all the time in the world. We had three months. Our Saturday rehearsals turned into Saturdays and Sundays. Week after week we scoured our memories, stacks of books, piles of sheet music, and beloved recordings for pieces we might include on this CD.
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A Star in the East
Released December 16, 2021
Last year, when we were assembling the music for this CD, we took existing pieces and reimagined them, composed new tunes, and chose some favorites - looking not to cheer the world, but rather to honor and celebrate everything that Christmas can be, and the unexpected ways that it has been transformed.
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And So Flows the River
Released May 19, 2023
We are the sum of our experiences. Our lives moving like water, from the creeks in West Virginia to the streets of Baltimore. Music is our language, motion our friend, and our instruments, home. We chose this music with intention, and so flows the river.
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