The ‘Canterbury Tales’ remain an object of fascination for scholars to this day, but how about the story’s musical worth? On this morning’s Vox Nostra, Vlad Smishkewych explores the various juicy bits woven into Geoffrey Chaucer’s magnum opus, viewing it through a musical lens. We’ll hear about miracles, anecdotes and other tales within tales that were common enough around Europe to make their way into everything from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, to the French Roman de la Rose, to works by Petrarch, Dante and Boccaccio—and eventually became part of the quite pan-European Canterbury Tales. Vlad is hot on the trail of music from Chaucer’s time, and rounds off his early music playlist this morning with excellent choral music and madrigals from Hans Leo Hassler and Thomas Weelkes on the programme.
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 25th October, 7am-10am