The Orlando Consort
The Rose, the Lily, and the Whortleberry:  Background


This program explores the inventiveness of composers from the 13th to the 16th centuries from all over Europe who have employed floral imagery to illustrate earthly and heavenly love, in pure and sometimes erotic manner.

From France in the 13th and 14th centuries come some of the earliest of all written songs and music by Machaut, possibly the greatest of all musical portrayers of courtly love. From England, spellbinding sacred music from the 15th century in motets from the Song of Songs.  From 15th and 16th century Burgundy, France, and Italy, music by Dufay, Brumel, Jannequin, Willaert, and others that effortlessly switches between enchanting representations of horticulture and sentiments that would make any keen gardener blush!

Thou art all fair, my love, and there is not a spot in thee.
Thy lips are as a dropping honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tongue,
For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone,
The flowers have appeared, the vines have yielded their perfume,
And the voice of the turtledove hath been heard in our land.
From “Tota pulchra es,” by John Forest