Playlist: Early Music
Compiled By: Don Maue

Programs and producers creating packages on the subject of Early Music
Harmonia Early Music: Specials (Series)
Produced by WFIU
Most recent piece in this series:
Harmonia Holiday Triple Spin
From WFIU | Part of the Harmonia Early Music: Specials series | 59:03
- Playing
- Harmonia Holiday Triple Spin
- From
- WFIU
This hour, in light of the holiday season, we’re simply spinning some discs of three favorite early Christmas tunes.
One of the tunes originates as chant, but the other two have very danceable melodies despite their seasonal lyrics. We’ll experience medieval, renaissance, and baroque European music based on Angelus ad virginem, Hodie Christus natus est, and In dulci jubilo from composers with famous names like Gabrieli and Praetorius and Bach, with lashings of music by the eponymous Anonymous.
Plus, our featured release of the week is the 2021 recording Marc-Antoine Charpentier: A Christmas Oratorio, performed by Les Arts Florissants, directed by William Christie.
Holiday Light: Singing Angels, Silver Bells
From William Zukof | 58:23
The Western Wind's Christmas Special, narrated by Roma Downey
- Playing
- Holiday Light: Singing Angels, Silver Bells
- From
- William Zukof
Holiday Light is a wonderfully diverse collection of holiday music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the present sung by The Western Wind one of America's preeminent vocal ensembles. The music is a delightful mix of familiar and historical songs and carols, including "Angelus ad Virginem," a popular carol from the thirteenth century; Spanish Renaissance motets and villancicos by Victoria, Guerrero, and Fernandes; early American music by William Billings; Appalachian folk songs and spirituals; and contemporary English and American carols. Featured are unique arrangements of the popular Christmas songs "Silver Bells," "Angels We Have Heard on High," and "Christmas Time is Here," created especially for the Western Wind.
Guest host, Roma Downey, weaves together the music with a narrative that is informative, witty, fresh and moving. Ms. Downey became a household word through her portrayal of the angel Monica in the hit CBS television series Touched by An Angel.
The narration was written by Reverend K Karpen, the spiritual leader of the Church of Saint Paul and Saint Andrew on the upper West Side of Manhattan, a well-known center of social activism. Karpen takes a relevant and charming approach to the themes and stories of Christmas that makes the events seem like they happened just yesterday.