Harmonia
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Bridgeman Art Library
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This hour on Harmonia, we’re continuing our series on music in and about the Americas during the first centuries of European colonization. Join us as we explore the myriad musical traditions of New England and the mid Atlantic between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
About
Today’s performers bring to life the music of the distant past. Host Angela Mariani explores the world of historical performance, presenting music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and beyond. Thursdays at 8 PM on WFIU and Sundays at noon on WFIU2. Harmonia is a co-production of WFIU and Early Music America.
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We’re exploring the sounds of our musical bird friends. Hold on to your cats and open your windows as we listen to music inspired by the cuckoo, a bird whose simple call has been recognized as the onset of spring and summer from the medieval period onwards. This summery bird’s unusual behaviors are also the subject of songs about human relationships. -
We're taking a journey across Europe to explore the many types of dances that inspired music from the 16th to 18th centuries. Along the way, we’ll hear stately pavanes, lilting allemandes, and playful polonaises.
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There’s an antiphon that features in the masses for Easter Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Its words begin: “This is the day the Lord has made,” and ends with a joyous Alleluya. This hour, exultant music for Easter. -
Since 2018, Early Music America has hosted its Emerging Artists Showcase, a series presenting the rising stars of early music and historical performance. This hour, we’ll conclude our celebration of their 2025 laureates with Comtessa’s program entitled Florilegium: Songs of Medieval England from 1150 to 1300. -
Since 2018, Early Music America has hosted its Emerging Artists Showcase, a series presenting the rising stars of early music and historical performance. This hour on Harmonia, we’ll hear a fifteenth century French program by ensemble Ars Poetica, one of three laureates to perform on the 2025 showcase. -
Since 2018, Early Music America has hosted its Emerging Artists Showcase, a series presenting the rising stars of early music and historical performance. This hour on Harmonia, we’ll hear from 2025 laureate Charlotte Tang, whose program transports us to a fashionable drawing room in nineteenth-century England. -
We’re exploring music in and about the Americas during the first centuries of European colonization. We begin our journey in New France with the musical legacies of Jesuit missions, fur trading outposts, and occupied indigenous nations. -
Gather around, because we’re listening to folktales and fables! Musical storytelling has a long history beyond the dramatic stage, so follow along for tales of Aesop’s animals, magical beings, Robin Hood, and more. -
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.
