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Sequentia

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Sequentia is an early music ensemble, founded in 1977 by Benjamin Bagby and Barbara Thornton. The group came into being in Basel and moved that same year to Cologne, where it worked for more than twenty years. In 2002 it settled in Paris. The group concentrates mainly on medieval music, and in particular on music with text: Gregorian chant and stories with music, such as the Icelandic Edda. Bagby and Thornton did their own research into the projects they performed.

Music and breakthrough

The group's first record is considered to be Ludi Sancti Nicolai from 1978, the recording of two twelfth-century miracle plays about Saint Nicholas, which they staged in 1977. The style was already dramatic and angular, with partly improvised instrumentation. Albums followed such as Ordo virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen, English Songs of the Middle Ages, Motets and Chansons, the series Vox Iberica and Aquitania. The recordings appeared mainly on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. In 2016 the group performed Songs of Consolation, written by the philosopher Boethius in the year 523, after a stolen eleventh-century manuscript had been recovered.

Influence

The core members were Bagby, Thornton, Norbert Rodenkirchen and, after Thornton's death, Katarina Livljanic. The other singers and players are chosen for each project. Sequentia showed that medieval music need not sound stiff, but can be lively, narrative and almost theatrical.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Garrit gallus / In nova fert and notice the different voices, each singing a text of its own at the same time. Can you hear how the voices cross one another without the line getting lost?

Discography

Studio albums

See also

Categories: ArtistsArs nova