For hundreds of years, the goddess Fortune and her wheel have offered us a way to comprehend the unpredictability of life. This hour on Harmonia, we’ll look back to the fourteenth century and explore the appearances of Fortune in music as people try to make sense of famine, plague, political and religious strife. Join us!

We often think of disguise as a deception of the eye, but this week on Harmonia, we’re exploring deception of the ear. For centuries, musicians have experimented with sonic trickery: to tell a story, to emphasize meaning, or just for fun. We’ll hear voices pretending to be instruments, instruments pretending to be each other, and more.

Lots of music has come down through the centuries with no listed author, requiring varying levels of historical forensics by scholars and performers wishing to sleuth out its origin. This hour on Harmonia, we’re exploring music with notorious and notoriously incorrect composer attributions.

Orlando Gibbons, one of the premiere musicians in late Renaissance England, died 400 years ago in 1625. This hour on Harmonia, we’ll mark this anniversary by taking in the sounds of Gibbons’ England.

From nerdy puns to cheeky double entendres, musicians have long used their medium to make light of themselves and the world around them. Join us this hour on Harmonia for a celebration of wordplay in music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries!

We’ve got our ear to the keyhole as our "Listening to Art" series explores sixteenth- and seventeenth-century images of music making in elite private spaces. We’ll take in a variety of sounds heard behind closed doors, from Jan Steen’s garden terrace to Henry VIII’s banquet hall.

If you’ve spent any time in the early European wing at your local art museum, you might have noticed just how musical religious art can be. This hour on Harmonia, join us for harmonies both heavenly and terrestrial as we imagine the soundscapes of angel concerts in medieval and Renaissance art.

Put on a sweater because this hour we’re touring the Nordic countries! Often left out of the discussion when it comes to early music, the regions of modern-day Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland have fascinating musical pasts. We’ll hear from bards and religious reformers, local musicians and imported celebrities.

Outside the early music community, Christmas music is one of few contemporary traditions that continues to rely on centuries-old tunes and texts. From the medieval English roots of the carol to Renaissance takes on enduring Christmas favorites, join us on Harmonia for more than five centuries of festive joy.

The longest and darkest of nights, the Winter Solstice has been observed across cultures with rituals and feasts celebrating the warmth of community and the return of the light. Nothing drives the cold winter away quite like a rousing tune, so join us this week for music in honor of the Winter Solstice.