The Tudor Fair Blog
Old and New Music Friday: O Magnum Mysterium and Danse Macabre
I’ve talked a lot about the Old Music I love – the English choral evensong tradition, and Renaissance polyphony from the Flemish composers like Gombert, and even the Grandaddy of them all, Palestrina. But what many casual choral enthusiasts don’t realize is that there is a huge upsurge in amazing…
Hildegard of Bingen: another in the line of cool medieval women mystics
In my quest to turn my library completely digital and get rid of all my paper books, I’m finally catching up on some of the books that have been on my shelf for years, and one of those “finally” books is Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age by…
Anglican Choral Evensong
Something that definitely needs to be included in any Museum of Things Heather Loves is choral music; specifically early choral music (ie before Bach) and even more specifically (because let’s drill down further, shall we?) early Anglican choral music. One of the reasons I consider myself Episcopalian (the American version…
The Beguines – medieval upstart mystic feminists
I’m reading a book called Growing Into God, a Beginner’s Guide to Christian Mysticism right now, and I just finished a chapter on Meister Eckhart, the 13th century German theologian (who has the wonderful quote, “if the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, it will be enough”).…