Focus on Flowers

For seven centuries, medieval Spain had a unique intersection of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic peoples coexisting in a climate that nurtured special developments in the music of its various regions. This week Harmonia explores music inspired by the Sephardic Jews, Persian poet Ziriyab, and Alfonso "El Sabio."

Mr. Scrooge won't be the only one revisiting history in December. 2006 marks 15 years of Harmonia programs, and this week we'll be celebrating by traveling back in time with a retrospective of holiday shows from the past 5 years. Also, new releases by the Orlando Consort as well as Paul Hillier and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

Early music has inspired numerous 20th century musicians both classical and otherwise. Arrangements abound from unique perspectives. This week on Harmonia we'll take a peek at arranging early music, 20th century style.

On Harmonia this week, the second half of a two-part program featuring an interview with viola da gamba virtuoso Jordi Savall. Also, a new release of sonatas and partitas from John Holloway.

Renowned Catalan viola da gambist Jordi Savall remarked that people of Cervantes’ time would have “heard a soundtrack in their minds while reading" Cervantes' Don Quixote. This was the inspiration for a recording project by Hesperion. This week and next week, Jordi Savall will tell us more about this and many other recent recording projects.

On Harmonia this week: The Broken Consort repertoire was unique to Elizabethan England. Its varied yet limited instrumentation yielded very beautiful results. This week on Harmonia, we'll explore the repertoire and its different guises.

As we know from pop culture’s fixation on Corleones and Sopranos, there is a fascination with powerful Italian families. Politics and gangsters aside, Italian families in the Renaissance were also some of music’s most generous patrons. This week we look at the musical contributions of the Gonzagas, who ruled Mantua for nearly four hundred years.

Baroque composers were notorious for ingratiating themselves to people of power, wealth, and influence. One way they usually did this was to dedicate a composition to a person who had something they wanted. We'll look at dedication pages and their results.

On Harmonia this week: Witchcraft and black cats, horror and death. We'll provide these and more with spooky, scary, and strange music from the past. And after you've gotten a good dose of chills appropriate to the season, we'll give you a treat with a new recording from Stephen Stubbs and Teatro Lirico.

On Harmonia this week: Music performed during funerals normally has little direct significance for the deceased. Yet in the Baroque Era, a person of high profile would be honored with music especially composed in their honor. This week on Harmonia, we'll look funeral music of the Baroque.