The Living Music of the Middle Ages

Think medieval music is all candlelight and solemnity? Think again. The Unbroken Thread challenges that reputation. This is music that is sacred, bawdy, and full of surprises.

It was loud, messy, inventive, and that is the spirit we bring to this programme. You will hear the soaring devotion of sacred chants alongside the untamed energy of dance music that could make a peasant spin in the dirt.

The Unbroken Thread links past and present through improvisation. Musicians of the time did not follow scores like robots. They invented, riffed, and flirted with chaos.

Improvisation drives this performance. The performer leans into the unknown and invites the listener to do the same. Music becomes a conversation that stretches across centuries.

This is a world of contrasts. Medieval art paired intricate detail with figures of almost absurd simplicity, as in the Madonna and Child of the Book of Kells. That tension between complexity and simplicity, solemnity and absurdity, powers the music here. It is spirited, serious, and mischievous all at once.

In a world dominated by screens and algorithms, The Unbroken Thread reminds us of warmth, imperfection, and invention. Spirituality and joy, reverence and irreverence, profundity and humour coexist without apology. Follow the thread through centuries of sound and imagination. Sacred and profane, exuberant and solemn, intricate and absurd, it is all connected and unbroken.