Folk songs and dances of the Bohemian Baroque with Musica Bohemica – gems with a beating heart and the scent of history.

Twenty years ago, Musica Bohemica made three landmark recordings that conveyed to the listener genuine treasures from the oldest collections of Czech folk songs and dances. More than at any other time, in the 17th and 18th centuries folk songs mingled with the music heard in churches and aristocrats’ courts; after all, it was played by the very same musicians, teachers and folk bands.

These songs and dances have been preserved owing to the official collection carried out in 1818 in the governorates of the Austrian Empire, as well as sources compiled by collectors in various corners of Bohemia – either folk musicians (e.g. the fiddler Ondřej Hůlka in the Zlatá Koruna area), or churches (e.g. 17th-century dances noted down by the chronicler of the Cistercian Order at Velehrad, Kristian Hirschmentzel).

A versatile musician and composer, Jaroslav Krček has arranged the songs with his singular signature and a sense for the uniqueness of every one of them. Musica Bohemica’s recordings, which over the years have lost none of their beauty and inimitability, are now released with a sensitively remastered sound.

Contents:
CD 1
1. Dance of death – Where are we going so fast – Oh my God, oh my love
2. At our Bárta's
Five Baroque Dances (Kristian Hirschmentzel, 1638-1703)
3. Alia phantasia
4. Alia non illepide
5. Alia I
6. Alia II
7. Saltus civilis
8. Bon Repo dance of death (1720)
9. Valachica (ca 1700)
Three dances from Haná (ca 1700)
10. She cooked cakes in cold water – A maid walked sadly
11. At a fair in Prostějov
12. Dance Song
Songs and Dances from the Ondřej Hůlka´s Collection from Zlatá Koruna
13. Kate, Kate, Kitty
14. Go, my true love, go to the woods
15. In our yard
16. Look, they are pulling down the Krumlov castle
17. Those bells of the monastery – Unploughed fields
18. Oh, my own lad
19. My love is from Rájov
20. Hyey, carrier, carrier – I am a carrier
21. All girls of monastical village
22. The country is green all around the monastery
23. The peasant is coming from Prague
24. In our village green
25. They are putting horses on in the monastery
26. Grass is green around the monastery
27. Look, girl, look
28. Those sheep of Krňany
29. From the ground I have come onto the ground
30. There are fields around the monastery
31. If there were war – Look at me
32. Go to the forest, my sweetheart – An oak tree is growing
33. On our village green
34. Hey, lad, put the horses on

CD 2
The Oldest Collections of Czech Folk Songs and Dances
1. Dances Nos 23 and 54 from Čáslavsko
2. Dances Nos 24 and 55 from Čáslavsko
3. Dance No.21 from Čáslavsko
4. Dance No.15 from Klatovsko
5. Dances Nos 35 and 46 from Loket
6. Dances Nos 9 and 10 from Plzeň
7. Autumn season come
8. As she climbed into the carriage
9. And I shall not be here
10. Wait now, carrier boy
11. Why oh why, shweetheart of mine
12. Slow rise
13. If only I knew
14. The sorrow I have
15. Meadow, meadow
16. My chubby lassie
17. So sad, I wouldn´t have known
18. Slapdash
19. I had a sweet dove
20. Yesterday the sun shone for me
21. If, by God´s grace
22. Pay me, oh farmer
23. My cherished meadows of Dolany
24. The old country tavern
25. The nightingale´s song
26. Round about Prague
27. Green is the meadow
28. How cruel love can be
29. Leave me alone, my laddie
30. Is it true or is it not
31. As I will ride through the wood
32. The linden tree stood all alight
33. Go to sleep, dark eyes
34. As you pass by the entrance gate