Alphabet Soup—Composers A to Z in the Middle Ages & Renaissance

For the letter A, the ensemble will perform a chant attributed to the early Church Father St. Ambrose of Milan. Following that will be a "Padouana" (a stately processional dance) by Danish composer Melchior Borchgrevinck, who served at the court of King Christian IV. The letter D will be represented by Giovanni Andrea Dragoni's madrigal "Uscian dal Tebro," about a water nymph from Greek mythology who pined away from love of Helios, the sun god, and turned into the flower called a heliotrope.

The group will be performing some music by more famous composers, like Josquin des Prez and Jean Mouton, but had fun trying to find composers whose works are not usually encountered in concerts. This may be your only chance, for example, to hear music by the mysterious medieval composer known only as "Queldryk," found in the English Old Hall Manuscript from the early 15th century. For the letter L, they've chosen an instrumental setting of the Dutch tune T'Andernaken by Erasmus Lapicida, who may have lived over a hundred years! Also included are a courtly love song by the German Minnesinger named Hartmann von Aue, an instrumental fantasia by the English composer William Simmes, and a motet for St. Cecilia's Day by the Netherlander Alexander Utendal. And the program will also throw in a couple of "wild card" pieces by the famous "Anonymous," that most prolific of all early composers. You'll have to come to the concert to find out what other letter names show up.

The performers of Música Antigua are Hovey Corbin, Dennis Davies-Wilson, Ruth Helgeson, Curtis Storm, Colleen Sheinberg and Art Sheinberg. The instruments they will be playing include recorders, shawms, crumhorns, cornemusen, lute, violas da gamba, vielle, rebec, ranket, sackbut, gemshorn and medieval harp.