A concert last Saturday which gave much enjoyment also raised some
questions...A short intro first: I am by profession a philosopher, but
most of my time am preoccupied with music in different aspects and guises.
I am an active amateur-musician and write about music from time to time
but right now I still make most of my money in a regular day-job.

I was pleasantly surprised by a performance of Britten's Sacred and
Profane, Eight Medieval Lyrics (Op.91) in the Concertgebouw.  The music
was wonderful and suited the texts perfectly.  It is these texts, from
Davies' 'Medieval English Lyrics: a Critical Anthology' which have
prompted a question regarding pronunciation.  How does one pronounce
'middle/medieval English'? Are there any handbooks on this which people
can recommend? Same goes for Renaissance English: in singing Weelkes,
Morley etc.  how do I determine the right pronunciation?

The above reminded me that I have long desired to be able to read the
Canterbury Tales in the right 'language', which prompts another question:
is there any music based on/inspired by the Canterbury Tales?

And last but not least I would like to share that I greatly enjoyed the
Dutch premiere of Kagel's Schwarzes Madrigal (1998-99).  A wonderful work
for a capella choir with percussion, trumpet and tuba.  The lyrics are
based on names of African cities, and the result of these relatively
nonsensical texts was a beatiful musical word-painting with an awful lot
of swing which was obviously enjoyed greatly by both choir (the Groot
Omroepkoor) and soloists.  This, together with the beautiful duets for
trumpet and tuba which recur throughout the piece make me recommend this
work to anyone who has a chance to hear it live!

Best Regards,

Else Kramer