Did Elbosco give birth to Libera ?

A Spanish boy choir Escolanía del Escorial released a single called 'Nirvana' in 1995 and an accompanying CD called 'Angelis' under the name Elbosco. The soloists or lead singers are adults. The single 'Nirvana' was based on Pachebel's Canon and was quite successful. Originally on the Hispavox label the recording was remixed and released worldwide on the EMI label in 1998. The scan above is from the Portuguese release and has a subtitle 'O disco dos Anjos' (The disc of Angels). 

La Escolanía del Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo was formed in 1974. Its first director was P. Blanco. There are approximately 100 boys aged between 9 and 14 years who are selected by intellectual and singing ability. The boys live in the monastery and go to school  at the 'Real Colegio de Alfonso XII'. They sing in long white robes. Their initial director was succeeded by P. Carlos Ambas, P. Modesto González, Miguel Ángel, P. José Carlos Ruz and finally their current director P.J. Rolando. Their wide repertoire includes Gregorian chant, religious works of the 16th-19th centuries including Villanueva, Durango, Tafalla and Soler. They have also recorded 2 CDs of 'new age' choral music as Elbosco and accompanied the Brazilian singer Kesia on her first evangelical CD.

The Elbosco - Angelis album has many similarities with the CD 'Libera' released by the St. Philips Boys Choir from South London in 1999. It uses classical themes combined with the sounds of boy choir, percussion and synthesized music to give a 'New Age' sound similar to 'Enigma'. The lyrics are in Latin or a mixture of Latin and English. Last but not least, both the Elbosco and Libera CDs contain a song based on Pachelbel's Canon. Elbosco and Libera's version of this song involve the choir singing a melody on top of the Canon which are  similar in style.

Therefore one has to come to the conclusion that one choir has copied the other. Given the dates of the recordings I would suggest that Elbosco gave birth to Libera rather than the other way round.

Elbosco went on to record another CD of similar music (shown above) but with more adult singing which was called 'Virginal' and was less successful. Current recordings by the Escolanía del Escorial are available at Pascal's Music. The Elbosco recordings may still be available at amazon.com and somlivre.pt

You can use the menu bar above to listen to clips of the canon by both choirs. Also available to listen to are the songs 'Spend a Happy Day' and 'Zom'. The latter has a strong latin feel to it, features only the choir and my favourite from this CD.