The Elora Singers & Noel Edison - And so It Goes: Songs of Folk & Lore (2018)

This recording traverses Canada, America and the British isles in music that has helped define the culture of those nations. England is represented by two of its most celebrated composers, Holst and Vaughan Williams, and the iconic Scottish Auld Lang Syne is traditionally sung to greet each New Year. Celebrated Canadian songs include Jimmy Rankin’s Juno Award-winning Fare thee well love. Eric Whitacre’s distinctive harmonic clusters can be heard in Go lovely rose, and Gordon Lightfoot counts Bob Dylan among his many fans, Dylan once declaring that when he heard a song such as Pussywillows, cat-tails he wished ‘it would last forever’.

Noel Edison admits that such an album tackling the extensive realm of folk song can only ever be “a brief snapshot of somte of the conductors’ favourite pieces.” His particular focus was to select mainly Canadian arrangements as the ensemble’s country had just celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary. “There are a good number of Canadian songs here from coast to coast from local lore. England has a rich treasure trove of folk songs and I could not complete this compilation without including a few that I love. Finally, and maybe the odd choice, Billy Joel’s And so it goes”; an American classic has always touched the conductor personally.

The Elora Singers
Noel Edison, conductor