Trobár Talks

This month we chat with our friend and colleague, David McCormick. David is the Executive Director of Early Music America, the Artistic Director of Early Music Access Project, a beautiful vielle player, and an overall delightful human being. We get to hear all about how he came to early music, and what his hopes and dreams are for the field.

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In this episode we take a tour through Conrad von Zabern's 15th c. treatise on singing chant, "De modo bene cantandi choralem cantum." Von Zabern's exhortations are entertaining and still relevant today!

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In this month's episode we interview award-winning playwright and poet Robert Kehew. Kehew was gracious enough to let us use some of the translations from his book Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours, a Bilingual Edition, for our latest season program, Found in Translation 2.0. You can learn more about the book and even hear some live readings of their translations by Kehew and W. D. Snodgrass here, and here's a link to a talk given by Kehew at the Library of Congress shortly after his book was published.

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A long-overdue episode detailing our 2022-23 season that started a month ago (cue rending of garments and gnashing of teeth).
Check out our season details here! 

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In this episode we read and discuss a letter that Hildegard wrote to the Prelates at Mainz, who had placed her and her nuns under interdict for failing to follow their instructions. The interdict had deprived them of the ability to sing the divine office, a punishment that Hildegard believed was not just unnecessarily harsh, but also contradictory to the will of God.  In this letter, she makes some of her strongest recorded statements about music's essential role in worship, and its power to connect humanity with its maker.  You can access the letter (pp. 76-80) and many others at this link. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

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In this episode, we explore the symbolically rich descriptions of the appearance and dress of the virtues that Hildegard experienced in her visions, and described in her work Scivias (c. 1150).

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In this episode, we explore the symbolically rich descriptions of the appearance and dress of the virtues that Hildegard experienced in her visions, and described in her work Scivias (c. 1150).

In this episode we get a bit more acquainted with one of our favorite saints, the 12th-c. abbess, writer, composer, mystic, visionary, philosopher, and botanist Hildegard von Bingen. As impressive a person as Hildegard was, she was not uncontroversial in her own day. An exchange of letters between Hildegard and a Mistress Tengswich reveal aspects of her world view and ways of operating that may trouble you as much as they did some of her contemporaries. You can access those letters (pp. 127-128) and many others at this link. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

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In this episode we get a bit more acquainted with one of our favorite saints, the 12th-c. abbess, writer, composer, mystic, visionary, philosopher, and botanist Hildegard von Bingen. As impressive a person as Hildegard was, she was not uncontroversial in her own day. An exchange of letters between Hildegard and a Mistress Tengswich reveal aspects of her world view and ways of operating that may trouble you as much as they did some of her contemporaries. You can access those letters (pp. 127-128) and many others at this link. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

In this month's episode we interview award-winning playwright and poet Robert Kehew. Kehew was gracious enough to let us use some of the translations from his book Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours, a Bilingual Edition, for our latest season program, Found in Translation 2.0. You can learn more about the book and even hear some live readings of their translations by Kehew and W. D. Snodgrass here, and here's a link to a talk given by Kehew at the Library of Congress shortly after his book was published.