#4950, Modern Medieval-Inspired Works
Hear works that blend modern and medieval from American composers Kate Soper, Majel Connery, and Lisel, along with music from Irish soprano Caitriona O’Leary and her band Anakronos.
Photo of Kate Soper by Maggie Shannon
Pulitzer Prize finalist composer, performer, and writer Kate Soper blends medieval and renaissance polyphony with abstract modernism, minimalism, and rock in her two-act opera The Romance of the Rose. The original libretto is inspired by the medieval French poem Le Roman de La Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de -Meun. Along with the Wet Ink Ensemble, for whom the opera was written, Kate Soper herself sings on the album, playing the role of Shame, with other allegorical characters The Lover, Lady Reason, Pleasure, and The Dreamer. Hear some selections from the opera.
Then, listen to music using texts from Boccaccio’s famous Decameron, from Irish soprano Caitriona O’Leary and her band Anakronos from a double-album called Citadel of Song, where they combine medieval forms with modern sounds, like sax, electric guitar, global percussion, and live electronics. Also, there’s music by Majel Connery, the composer, vocalist, keyboardist, and member of the art-rock/post-classical group Oracle Hysterical, who tours her own music as “electro-art-dream-pop with repressed classical influences.” Listen to selections from her Orphea, a song cycle reimagined from a woman's perspective as her Baroque-rock retelling of Monteverdi's opera, L'Orfeo. Plus, hear work by American composer Neely Bruce which combines new music with medieval vocal and madrigal writing, with a dose of rock, rhythm & blues and jazz, released in the early 1990’s in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4950, Modern Medieval-Inspired Works (First aired 11/19/2024)
ARTIST: Electric Phoenix
WORK: Neely Bruce: The Plague [1:02]
RECORDING: The Plague and other Vocal Works
SOURCE: Mode Records
INFO: https://moderecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-plague-mode
ARTIST: The Dreamer: Lucas Steele, tenor | The God of Love: Phillip Bullock, baritone | Lady Reason: Anna Schubert, soprano | Shame: Kate Soper, soprano |The Lover: Devony Smith, mezzo-soprano | Idleness: Ariadne Greif, soprano | Pleasure: Ty Bouque, baritone | Wet Ink Ensemble
WORK: v. The Narcissus [3:23]
RECORDING: Kate Soper: Romance of the Rose
SOURCE: New Focus Recordings
INFO: https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-romance-of-the-rose
ARTIST: The Dreamer: Lucas Steele, tenor | The God of Love: Phillip Bullock, baritone | Lady Reason: Anna Schubert, soprano | Shame: Kate Soper, soprano |The Lover: Devony Smith, mezzo-soprano | Idleness: Ariadne Greif, soprano | Pleasure: Ty Bouque, baritone | Wet Ink Ensemble
WORK: xi. Lady Reason's Symmetrical Virelai [3:24]
RECORDING: Kate Soper: Romance of the Rose
SOURCE: New Focus Recordings
INFO: https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-romance-of-the-rose
ARTIST: The Dreamer: Lucas Steele, tenor | The God of Love: Phillip Bullock, baritone | Lady Reason: Anna Schubert, soprano | Shame: Kate Soper, soprano |The Lover: Devony Smith, mezzo-soprano | Idleness: Ariadne Greif, soprano | Pleasure: Ty Bouque, baritone | Wet Ink Ensemble
WORK: xii. Reason vs. Love I [4:46]
RECORDING: Kate Soper: Romance of the Rose
SOURCE: New Focus Recordings
INFO: https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-romance-of-the-rose
ARTIST: Caitriona O'Leary, Anakronos
WORK: Tanto è, Amore, il bene [9:19]
RECORDING: Citadel of Song
SOURCE: Heresy Records
INFO: heresyrecords.com
ARTIST: Electric Phoenix
WORK: Neely Bruce: The Plague [11:29]
RECORDING: The Plague and other Vocal Works
SOURCE: Mode Records
INFO: https://moderecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-plague-mode
ARTIST: Majel Connery
WORK: Of Music [2:54]
RECORDING: Orphea
SOURCE/INFO: majelconnery.bandcamp.com/album/orphea
ARTIST: Lisel
WORK: Plainsong [3:47]
RECORDING: Patterns for Auto-Tuned Voices and Delay
SOURCE: Ba Da Bing!
INFO: lisel.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Majel Connery
WORK: Eurydice's Lament [3:20]
RECORDING: Orphea
SOURCE/INFO: majelconnery.bandcamp.com/album/orphea
