CONTINUUM: Samson & Deliah and Hercules

WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio | By Milton G. Scheuermann, Jr.

Published February 28, 2021 at 6:00 AM CST

Continuum presents a program by the outstanding early music ensemble Sequentia, now in its forty-fourth year of performing medieval music, some of which has been hitherto unknown. This program focuses on two major works from around the year 1200, The Story of Samson & Delilah and The Labors of Hercules. These two pieces are in the form of narrative lais, a medieval type of storytelling in a vocal style prevalent in medieval times. The recordings used are: Spielmann und Kleriker (um 1200) - Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 7 49704 2, Visions from the Book - Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77347 2, and English Songs from the Middle Ages - Deutsche Harmonia Mundi CDC 7 49192 2.

Milton G. Scheuermann, Jr.

Milton has been the co-host (with Thais St. Julien) of Continuum since 1976. Continuum is an hour long program of all kinds of early music recorded by groups around the world. Milton, an architect by trade, harbors a life long passion for vocal and instrumental music of the 10th though 17th centuries. He co-directs a professional early music ensemble, Musica da Camera where many of the over 100 instruments played were constructed from original manuscript drawings. Additionally, Milton has a passion for the music of Richard Wagner and for magic as a performing art.

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