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