Edda

More and more musicians-researchers are exploring very early music. This cycle presents a sample of their discoveries. Dialogos and Sequentia offer musical reconstructions of literary works such as the Edda and The Vision of Tondal. The Capilla Flamenca takes us to a later period, that of the Ars Nova. The ensemble Mala Punica creates instrumental and vocal variations on French and Italian music of the fourteenth century.

Sequentia was founded by Benjamin Bagby and the late Barbara Thornton in 1977 and presents a repertoire extending from the tenth to the fourteenth century. The ensemble has its headquarters in Cologne and scored a ‘world hit’ with its recording of the Canticles of Ecstasy by the mystic Hildegard von Bingen. 

Edda is one of the oldest Icelandic legends and tells the story of the Rhinegold, which also inspired Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Bagby’s research led him to Icelandic and other traditional Norse folk music. Sequentia sings the original texts of the Edda (c. 800-1000).