Early Music

Fantasias were a popular instrumental genre during the lifetime of Thomas Tallis. They had a sense of fancy with a free structure centered on short melodies passing through each part. Join us this week on Harmonia as we take a deep dive into the fantasias of Renaissance England.

This week, 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.

Join us this week on Harmonia for part two of our series on intabulation. We’ll hear choral works become large organ pieces and explore how Bach turned a chamber sonata into an intricate solo work for the keyboard. / Plus, on our featured release—music from the early Reformation period in Denmark.

This hour, music associated with the Duarte family, patrons of music and the arts through several generations from the 13th through the 17th centuries in Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, and England, including seventeenth-century musician and composer Leonora Duarte.

This hour on Harmonia, we explore the madrigals of Monteverdi from his earliest collections in the 1590s to his innovative “Madrigals of War and Love” – over 40 years of madrigals! Along the way we will experience the extremes of human emotions, from the heights of joy to the depths of despair.

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.

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.

This week on Harmonia, we’ll explore medieval and Renaissance songs and dances collected by 18th century “early music” aficionados in Britain. Plus, our featured recording by The Curious Bards explores Irish and Scottish identities through traditional music.

Join us for an Easter celebration! We’ll hear how composers from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods created new music from ancient Gregorian chants. We’ll explore vocal and instrumental settings of the Easter tunes “Victimae paschali laudes” and “Christus resurgens.”

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.