Lancelot: Sword and Sorrow.

This program explores the life of Sir Lancelot du Lac, alternating music with readings from medieval Arthurian sources. The story traces Lancelot’s journey from King Arthur’s greatest knight, through the Grail quest and his love affair with the queen, leading to tragedy in the death of Arthur and the fall of Camelot. Readings are drawn from Le Morte d’Arthur (Sir Thomas Malory, 1416-1470). The music comprises selections from the troubadour, trouvere, and Middle English repertoires, and Latin hymns. Composers represented include the knight and troubadour Bertran de Born, as well as St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk who has been associated with Lancelot and the knights of the Round Table.

Marginalia is an ensemble of early music specialists dedicated to the performance of the rich, varied, and often virtuosic repertoire of medieval vocal and instrumental music. The ensemble uses vielle, rebec, medieval harp, recorder, medieval bagpipe, hurdy gurdy, percussion, and other instruments to recreate the music of medieval minstrels and singers as it could have sounded.

Peter Walker, voice, winds
Sarah Walker, narrator
Dongmyung Ahn, vielle
Christa Patton, harp, winds

1:15 - 2:00 pm
All concerts are free; no tickets or reservations are necessary.

The Chapel at St. Bartholomew's Church
50th St. and Park Avenue