Music Meditations - Les Délices: Recent Episodes
Les Délices
Les Délices Music Meditations combines poetry and music to bring soul-soothing and life-affirming art into your day.
Featuring classic and contemporary poetry by Northeast Ohio writers along with curated performances from Les Délices live-performance archives, each episode concludes with prompts for mindfulness or guided listening.
This meditation pairs "Whatever I carry" by Shei Sanchez with an old Scottish tune called “Love is the cause of my mourning,” performed by baroque oboe, viola da gamba, and lute. The simple texture and gapped scale of the melody lend the song a feeling of sweet innocence that resonates with the sense of satisfaction in Sanchez's poem.
This meditation features the poem "Right Eye" by Eric Odum, in which the speaker repeatedly explains that his right eye has been tearing up constantly. At once a symbol of release and pent-up emotions, "Right Eye" volleys between different sentiments such that Odum wonders, "how many of these are from pain to come, or an overwhelming joy to live." We pair Odum's poem with Jean-Philippe Rameau's Entree de Polymnie, excerpted from final opera Les Boréades. Performed by a pair of violins accompanied by viola da gamba and harpsichord, this piece feels lush, comforting, and warm, though there’s an undeniable underlying melancholy that echoes the coexisting sentiments in Odum’s poem.
In this meditation, poet Darlene Montonaro uses water imagery – of pouring rain or a flooded, rushing river – to signal the weightiness of loss, the journey of grief, and ultimate emotional release. We pair Montonaro's poem "Parting" with François Couperin's character piece, Les langueurs tendres, or The Tender languishing. Performed here by baroque oboe and harpsichord, the melody constantly “leans in” to small dissonances designed to make us “feel” something. Some of those dissonances might make you feel a mere twinge of nostalgia or regret; others might contain longing or a weightiness that corresponds to the sentiments of Montonaro’s poem.
This meditation pairs the poem "How to Escape Madness Under a Full Moon" by Darlene Montonaro with instrumental piece for strings with organ by the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier that sparkles while remaining humble. Ultimately, it feels deeply spiritual and it is based on a Latin chant fragment, “Pange Lingua.” As you listen, try to focus on the rise and fall of the lowest voice - doubled by the organ - which spins out the chant. What words might you use to describe how the violins respond or react to the tune in the bass?
In this meditation, we have paired Eric Odum's poem "In the storm" with Marin Marais' "Tombeau de M. de St. Colombe," an intense and deeply personal work. “Tombeau,” means tomb in French, and the music is a tribute by Marais to his former teacher and mentor M. de St. Colombe. Though the music is extremely intimate - performed by just viola da gamba and harpsichord - the emotions portrayed are almost operatic in their extremes. The music's emotions – from reflection to sadness and even occasional violence – are all echoed in Odum’s poem.
This episode features poetry by Northeast Ohio poets Cathy Barber, Marion Boyer, and Shei Sanchez. Each poem offers a different perspective on our place in the world, whether that’s admiring a vast wilderness, considering a view of earth from space, or backyard stargazing - set to the profound music of J.S. Bach.
This episode features Eric Odum's poem "Trust Fall" paired with a Caprice de chaconne for baroque guitar by Francesco Corbetta.
This Meditation on Time features "Some Days" by Philip Shalom Terman and "Waiting for Words to Come from a Moonlit Sky" by Darlene Montonaro paired with a Chaconne en Rondeau by French Baroque composer François Chauvon.
This episode pairs Shei Sanchez's "The End of Things" with a fantasia for viols by Renaissance composer William Byrd that was originally created for Les Délices' SalonEra series.
This episode features poems by three Northeast Ohio-based writers. Each poem captures a single fleeting moment, a single encounter with nature, that somehow encapsulates an eternity. "Crow Tongue" by Ray McNiece, "Cicadas" by Cathy Barber, and "Sunbeams" by Marion Boyer are heard alongside an anonymous dance Bel fiore dança (or, lovely dance in Italian) that survives in a manuscript from around 1400.
Julie Warther's extended haiku poem "One Child's Candle," explores themes beauty and stillness in imagery from Christmas Eve, including a whispered, reverent third verse of the carol "Silent Night," performed here by members of Les Délices (featuring soprano Elena Mullins) from the group's 2020 virtual concert Noel, Noel.
Dave Lucas's poem "Three Kings," reframes the Epiphany as a universal quest about possibility. In this meditation, we pair Lucas's poem with an instrumental performance of the old French carol, “Or nous dites Marie,” arranged by the French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, as performed by Les Délices for our 2020 virtual concert Noel, Noel.
This meditation pairs Thomas Campion's classic poem "Now winter night's enlarge," with the 17th-century English ballad Drive the Cold Winter Away, sung in this performance by soprano Elena Mullins. The theme of both the poem and the song is that quality time spent in each other’s company on those longest and coldest nights of the year offers unique opportunities for building community.
Diane Kendig's poem "At the Christmas Tree, on a line by Seamus Heaney," delights in flashes of recognition and nostalgia. The music, John Playford's seventeenth-century variations on the ancient tune Greensleeves features violinist Julie Andrijeski.
Christina Rossetti's classic poem "Christmas Eve" contrasts the miracle of Jesus’s birth with his sacrifice. In this Meditation, recited by Dee Perry, we hear an instrumental noel, "Le Roy des cieux vient de naître" arranged by French Baroque composer Michel Corrette, performed live in concert by Les Délices in 2018.
Featuring the poems Mary Ann and Jellyfish by Joyce Nichols, read by Debra Nagy. The music comprises a short prelude and the rondeau Les Sylvains by French Baroque composer Robert de Visée performed live by lute player Lucas Harris in concert with Les Délices in 2019.
Featuring the poems Being in the Country and Dancing by Dalin Evans and Ode to 1795 by Mike Dayton, read by the authors. The music comprises two movements (a Prelude and Allemande) by French Baroque composer Louis Antoine Dornel performed live by Les Délices in 2013 with baroque oboe, viola da gamba, and harpsichord.
Featuring the poems God is On Your Side by Mildred Dixon and Transformation by Mike Dayton, read by the authors. The music is an instrumental work by French Baroque composer Marc Antoine Charpentier, his Symphonie on the chant fragment "Tantum Ergo," performed live by Les Délices in 2015 with an ensemble of strings and organ.
Featuring poetry by Laura Grace Weldon: Self-defined and music by François Couperin Couperin: Prelude in C (live performance by Mark Edwards, harpsichord)
Featuring poetry by Kathleen Cerveny: Forsythia read by Leon Bibb. Music by François Couperin: La Vivacité from his Neuvième Concert.
Featuring poetry by Diane Kendig, Writ in Water, read by Leon Bibb with music by Henry Purcell.
Featuring the poem Beach Glass by John Gabel, read by Leon Bibb. Music by François Chauvon.
Featuring the poem Stars by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) read by Leon Bibb. Music by François Couperin: Sarabande La Noble fierté from Neuvième Concert Il ritratto dell’amore (arr. Nagy).
Featuring the poem Common Ground by Laura Grace Weldon, read by Leon Bibb. The music is by an anonymous composer from around 1400. This textless piece has the title Andray Soulet. Performed here by replicas of Medieval instruments: recorder, plectrum lute, and vielle (a medieval fiddle), arranged by Debra Nagy.
A Meditation on Love featuring “Poppies” by Elsa Johnson with music by François Couperin (Sicilienne in g minor from Concert no. 7).