View source for Sequentia (group)

{{Short description|Early music ensemble}}
'''Sequentia''' is an [[early music]] ensemble, founded in 1977 by [[Benjamin Bagby]] and [[Barbara Thornton]]. The group specializes mainly in [[Medieval music]]. Sequentia focuses particularly on music with texts, specifically [[chant]]s and other stories with music, such as the Icelandic ''[[Edda]]''. They are interested in the interplay between [[drama]] and [[music]], and sometimes do partially staged performances, such as that of [[Hildegard of Bingen]]'s ''[[Ordo Virtutum]]''. Bagby and Thornton have both been active in original research on the projects they perform.<ref>https://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2017/05/sequentia-makes-an-ancient-world-timeless-and-transcendent/</ref>

==History==
Originally formed in [[Basel]] in 1977, the group moved to [[Cologne]], Germany the same year,{{sfn|Neumann|1999}}{{sfn|Zahn|2001}} where they would work for more than twenty years. In 2002, Sequentia relocated to Paris.

In 1977, while still at Basel, Thornton and Bagby, together with the group [[Studio der frühen Musik]] and some associated singers, staged two 12th century [[miracle play]]s relating to [[Saint Nicholas]]; the plays were taken on tour and a live recording from a performance in Amsterdam was put out the following year on an LP entitled ''Ludi Sancti Nicolai'' ("Plays of St.Nicholas"; EMI Electrola, 1978). Although the singers involved used the name "Ensemble Vocale [[Guillaume Dufay]]", this experimental staging of two church dramas can be regarded as the debut record of Sequentia; the dramatic and angular vocal style and the approach to partly improvised instrumentation already has much in common with their later recordings.

In 2016 the group performed ''Songs of Consolation'', a piece written in the year [[523]] by the philosopher [[Boethius]] during his imprisonment prior to his execution. It followed restoration work of the 11th century manuscript stolen from [[Cambridge University]] that contained the pieces.<ref>https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/videos/boethius-song-1000-years/</ref>

The only long-term members of Sequentia have been [[Benjamin Bagby]], [[Barbara Thornton]], Norbert Rodenkirchen, and Katarina Livljanic after Thornton's death. [[Margriet Tindemans]] was a member for the first nine years of the group's existence.{{sfn|Bagby|2015}} Tenor Wolodymyr Smishkewych has sung with several projects since 2000. The rest of the members are hired according to the needs of the particular project.

They mainly record on the [[Deutsche Harmonia Mundi]] label.{{sfn|Weber|2001}}

== Discography ==
* ''Ludi Sancti Nicolai'' (1978, as ''Ensemble Vocale Guillaume Dufay'', with [[Studio der frühen Musik]])
* ''Spielmann und Kleriker'' (1981, subtitled ''Minstrels and Clerics'' and ''Jongleurs et Clerics'')
* ''Wandering Satirists of Medieval Germany'' (1983)
* ''Trouvères. Courtly love songs from Northern France'' (1984)
* ''English Songs of the Middle Ages'' (1988)
* ''[[Philippe le Chancelier]]: School of Notre Dame'' (1990)
* ''[[Heinrich Frauenlob|Frauenlob]]. Heinrich von Meissen'' (1990)
* ''[[Philippe de Vitry]]: Motets and Chansons'' (1991)
* ''Vox Iberica'':
** I: ''Sons of Thunder. Music for St. James the apostle. Codex Calixtinus, 12th century'' (1992)
** II: ''[[Codex Las Huelgas]]'' (1992)
** III: ''El Sabio. Songs for King [[Alfonso X of Castile]] and Léon'' (1991)
* ''The Bordesholm Lament of the Virgin Mary'' (1992)
* ''[[Oswald von Wolkenstein]]: Songs'' (1993)
* ''[[Dante]] and the Troubadours'' (1993)
* ''Aquitania. Christmas Musik from Aquitanien Monasteries'' (1994/96)
* ''Visions from the Book'' (1996)
* ''Shining Light. Christmas Music from Aquitanien Monasteries'' (1996)
* ''Edda. Myths from Medieval Iceland'' (1996)
* ''The Rheingold Curse'' (2001)
* ''Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper'' (2004)
* ''Chant Wars'' (2004)
* ''Fragments for the End of Time / Endzeitfragmente'' (2008)
* ''[[Hildegard von Bingen]]: Complete Edition''
** ''Symphoniae. Spiritual Songs'' (1985)
** ''[[Canticles of Ecstasy]]'' (1994)
** ''Voice of the Blood'' (1995)
** ''O Jerusalem'' (1997)
** ''Saints'' (1997)
** ''Ordo Virtutum'' (1982, re-recorded 1998)
** ''[[Hildegard von Bingen: Celestial Hierarchy|Celestial Hierarchy]]'' (2013)
*''[[The Consolation of Philosophy|Boethius: Songs of Consolation]]'' (2018)<ref>[http://www.glossamusic.com/glossa/reference.aspx?id=465 ''Songs of Consolation''], glossamusic.com</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|18em}}
'''Sources'''
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Bagby|2015}}|reference=[[Benjamin Bagby|Bagby, Benjamin]]. 2015. "[http://www.sequentia.org/news/tindemans.html Margriet Tindemans (1951–2014)]". SQ (Sequentia) website (accessed 15 March 2015).}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Neumann|1999}}|reference=Neumann, Klaus L. 1999. "Barbara Thornton, 1950–98". ''[[Early Music (journal)|Early Music]]'' 27, no. 1 (February): 169.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Weber|2001}}|reference=Weber, Jerome F. 2001. "Harmonia Mundi". ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Zahn|2001}}|reference=Zahn, Robert von. 2001. "Cologne". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.}}

==Further reading==
* Tick, Judith. 2001. "Women in Music, §I: Historiography". ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan.

==External links==
* {{official|http://www.sequentia.org/}}
* [http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/performers/sequentia.html Sequentia discography]
* [https://boethius.mus.cam.ac.uk "Restoring Lost Songs: Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy"], Sequentia's collaboration with the University of Cambridge to reconstruct the lost songs of [[Boethius]]

{{Early music ensembles}}
{{Portal bar|Classical music}}
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[[Category:German musical groups]]
[[Category:Mixed early music groups]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1977]]
[[Category:Musical groups from Cologne]]