I missed my music of the week post from last week so I am combining it with the music of the week from this week.

Last week was Loreena McKennit week for our music of the week. Loreena is a Canadian folk musician who specializes in the harp. She was very popular quite a few years ago when her album, The Visit, came out. One of the songs on that disc was the 11min Lady of Shalott, a beautiful poem set to music deriving from the poetry of the medieval days set in the King Arthur period. While we didn’t listen to the whole song, students listened to a number of songs from the few albums she has produced. Her music often traces the creation of our modern folk music through a variety of Celtic origins. Here are couple of samples of her music:

Our artist this week is a very elusive one. Our focus for the weeks leading up to Christmas will of course be the wide variety of Christmas music out there and this artist is one of my favorites. David Ian is part of a jazz trio consisting of a piano, bass and drums. While other artists join in David Ian plays the piano and sometimes sings in all the tracks. The songs are very gentle and soothing and I often have it on in the background. Unfortunately I can’t find any videos of him playing so I have included a youtube of one of his albums.