Perfection

I created a little island of serenity for myself this afternoon, lying back and listening to a compilation CD featuring solos from the soprano Emma Kirkby. I generally have a bit of a problem with the trained operatic voice. I can appreciate the skill and technique involved but sometimes can't get beyond that to the real music. No such barriers exist for me with Miss Kirkby. It helps, I suppose, that she is not an operatic singer really, her repertoire being drawn from the field of 'early' music.

The first time I heard her was in the early eighties when I bought on spec an album entitled A Feather on the Breath of God, featuring the music of the visionary abbess Hildegard of Bingen. The group involved were the Gothic Voices of whom Miss Kirkby was one. One of her solo pieces features on the compilation I've been enjoying this afternoon and listening to that piece in particular was a reminder of the power of great music to take you to other places - notably heaven itself.