This week on Harmonia: music associated with coffee and coffeehouses. Grab a cup of your favorite brew as we travel from Constantinople to Leipzig, London, Paris, and back again, hearing sounds of different coffeehouses from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

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!

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.

Now is the month of Maying, and English madrigalists weren’t the only ones singing about it! This week on Harmonia, we’ve got music for that marvelous time when winter is long gone but the hottest days have yet to chase us back indoors. Join us for a wide range of May songs, tunes on spring flowers and gentle breezes, and a seasonal feature from Fretwork and The Sixteen.

When it comes to the early music of Britain, Tudor England tends to dominate the historical imagination. But there was plenty going on north of the border, as we’ll hear this hour. We’re exploring over five centuries of music in and about Scotland, so tune in for rarely heard gems from Celtic chant to heartfelt ballads and snappy dance tunes. Click title for playlist.

We're exploring how Renaissance musicians captured the sounds of animals in their music as we take a trip through a musical zoo. Along the way, we’ll hear the beautiful calls of the Nightingale, see the mighty crocodile, and hear a choir of all the animals singing together.

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.

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.