Focus on Flowers

Harmonia takes a trip this week through Renaissance England, Italy, and Spain with the London-based ensemble Circa 1500 and its director Nancy Hadden. Music from the time of the Mary Rose, the Courts of Mantua and Ferrara, the Spanish Kingdoms, and the London streets... plus, their latest release of German motets entitled “Sacred Concerti.”

"It may best to learn what you have to learn without a gun. Not killing, but watching birds and animals go in and out of shelter, at will." Those lines are from David Wagoner's poem "Staying Alive."

A Youtube video of a Renaissance hit ("O che nuovo miracolo" by Emilio de Cavalieri).

In my Indiana garden in midsummer, after the bearded iris and peony duet of bloom is only a memory, the beardless Japanese iris bloom with great abandon and considerable style.

Alexander McCall Smith has written more than sixty books, including the best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

This week’s edition features three settings of the Venus and Adonis story, including works by Henry Desmarest, John Blow, and Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco.

This week’s edition features three settings of the Venus and Adonis story, including works by Henry Desmarest, John Blow, and Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco.

Ensemble La Morra’s exploration of late-medieval French songs from a Cyprian manuscript, and a new release by Le Jardin Secret entitled Musique pour Mazarin!

Ensemble La Morra’s exploration of late-medieval French songs from a Cyprian manuscript, and a new release by Le Jardin Secret entitled Musique pour Mazarin!

On this edition of The Poets Weave, Heather Derr-Smith reads from her new book The Bride Minaret the poems "One Season from Another," "Evening, Mount Vernon, Iowa" and "Ash-Sham."