Baroque Songs & Arias

Amy Haworth studied music at Trinity College, Cambridge, as a choral scholar under the direction of Richard Marlow. Since then she has become internationally recognized as an acclaimed consort singer working with many of the UK’s leading vocal ensembles including The Tallis Scholars, The Cardinall’s Musick, Consortium, Ensemble Plus Ultra, and Synergy Vocals.

Recorded at Christ Church Episcopal, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin on October 2-3, 2012. Many thanks to the staff and clergy of Christ Church for generously providing this beautiful space. Recording set up: stereo pair of Coles 4038 ribbon microphones; D. W. Fearn VT-2 vacuum tube pre-amp; Alesis Masterlink ML-9600 digital recorder. Harpsichords used for the recording were both made by Norman Sheppard of Madison, Wisconsin: 1997, modeled after a late 17th-century Italian instrument by Rifdolfi; 2010, modeled after an early 18th-century double-manual German instrument by Mietke. The plectra of both instruments are made from crow quills. The Italian instrument, which weighs c. 40 lbs., is strung entirely in brass wire and is tuned in quarter-comma meantone temperament; the German instrument, weighing in at c. 175 lbs., is strung with brass wire in the bass (from FF-G#) and with soft iron wire in the mid-range and treble (from A to the high g’’’) and is tuned in modified meantone temperament. All wire made by Malcolm Rose in Lewes, East Sussex, England.