The Middle Ages spanned hundreds of years, encompassing multiple languages and geographies. This was not the Dark Ages with strict divisions between the sacred and secular that people today often imagine. To medieval philosophers, poets and musicians, Nature was written—like a book to be read—by the Creator; one could discover the world in a drop of water or the Divine in the eyes of a beloved. The sacred could be seen in the devotion of a sister who tread the earth in bare feet, or in the way the world springs back to life despite harsh winters of time and history. Deep correspondences flourished between divine and human love, prayer and longing, songs of praise and communion with the natural world. What was real was sacred, and what was sacred could be expressed through the human ability to recognise divinity in the world, and to create and sing about these experiences straight from the heart’s mind.

This programme features selected lyrical gems that express a sacred quality of Man’s profound connection to nature and one another. These songs span five centuries, many languages and cultures, but they are all stories and cries from the heart. When we encounter this music, we can feel we are in the presence of fellow voices from the past.

Text by Catherine Herrmann