Benjamin Bagby (born February 20, 1950) is an American singer, composer,

harpist The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing ...

, and performer of

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred music, sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the Dates of classical music eras, first and longest major era of Western class ...

Biography

Born in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

, Bagby was educated at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, Ohio, and the

Schola Cantorum The Schola Cantorum de Paris ( being ) is a private conservatory in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera. History The Schol ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Bagby founded the ensemble Sequentia with Barbara Thornton in 1977. This group takes an innovative approach to medieval repertoires, especially with respect to their treatment of

mode Mode ( meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * MO''D''E (magazine), a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is the setting fo ...

: they rely on the harmonic qualities of their voices to guide them through the different modes. Sequentia has released many recordings, most of them on

Deutsche Harmonia Mundi Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (founded 1958) is a German classical music record label. It was founded by Rudolf Ruby and based in Freiburg, Breisgau. The company was acquired by BMG Music in 1992 and is now part of Sony Music Entertainment. Ruby had Alf ...

. During the 1980s and 1990s, the group specialized in the music of

Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen Benedictines, OSB (, ; ; 17 September 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictines, Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mysticism, mystic, visiona ...

; many of their most famous recordings are from this period. The group has also performed music written in the 12th century from the musical centers

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

Aquitaine Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...

, and

Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris ( ; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a Medieval architecture, medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissemen ...

. Benjamin Bagby's work as a composer also contributes to his recreations of the ancient epics, such as ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

'', the Icelandic ''

Edda "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been applied by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poems ( ...

'' and German music from the 10th and 11th centuries on their recent recording ''Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper.'' His version of ''Beowulf'', which he has been touring around the world since the 1990s, is available on DVD (from a show in Copenhagen); his performance on May 9, 2003, at the

International Congress on Medieval Studies The International Congress on Medieval Studies is an annual academic conference held for scholars specializing in, or with an interest in, medieval studies. It is sponsored by the Medieval Institute at the Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, ...

is documented and discussed in, and was an impetus for, the 2012 anthology ''Beowulf at Kalamazoo''. He gave presentations internationally including at the

University of Chicago Laboratory Schools The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (also known as Lab, Lab Schools, or U-High, abbreviated UCLS) is a private, co-educational, day pre-school and K-12 school affiliated with the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Almost half ...

. Bagby (widowed from his longtime collaborator Barbara Thornton) married Croatian chant scholar

Katarina Livljanić Katarina most commonly refers to: * Katarina (given name), a feminine given name Katarina may also refer to: *Katarina nad Medvodami, former name of Topol pri Medvodah, a settlement in Slovenia * Katarina (''Doctor Who''), a character in the tel ...

Discography

* ''Spielmann und Kleriker'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 1981, EMI 1988 * ''Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 1982, EMI 1987 * ''Spruchdichtung des 13. Jahrhunderts'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 1983, EMI 1988 * ''Trouvères'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 1984, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1987 * ''Hildegard von Bingen: Symphoniae/Geistliche Gesänge'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 1985, 1989 * ''English Songs of the Middle Ages/Englische Lieder des Mittelalters'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 1988, 1989 * ''Philippe le Chancelier (ca. 1165–1236) – Conductus, Lai, Sequence, Rondellus/School of Notre Dame'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1990 * ''Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361) – Motets and Chansons'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG 1991 * ''Vox Iberica I: Donnersöhne/Sons of Thunder – Gesänge für den hl. Jakobus (12. Jahrhundert)'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 1992 * ''Vox Iberica II: Codex Las Huelgas – Gesänge aus dem königlichen Konvent Las Huelgas de Burgos (13./14. Jahrhundert)'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1992 * ''Vox Iberica III: El Sabio – Gesänge für König Alfonso X. von Kastilien und Léon (1221–1284)'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1992 * ''Bordesholmer Marienklage (ca. 1475)'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1993. * ''Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376-1445): Lieder/Songs'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1993. * ''Hildegard von Bingen: Canticles of Ecstasy'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1994. * ''Dante and the Troubadours'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1995. * ''Hildegard von Bingen: Voice of the Blood'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1995. * ''Visions from the Book'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1996. * ''Shining Light – Christmas Music from Aquitanian Monasteries (12th c.)'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1996. * ''Aquitania – Christmas Music from Aquitanian Monasteries (12th c.)'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1997. * ''Hildegard von Bingen: O Jerusalem'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1997. * ''Hildegard von Bingen: Saints'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1998. * ''Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo Virtutum'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1998. * ''Edda: Myths from Medieval Iceland'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 1999. * ''Frauenlob (Heinrich von Meissen, ca. 1260-1318) – The Celestial Woman/Frauenlobs Leich, oder der Guldin Fluegel, zu latin: Cantica Canticorum'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 2000. * ''The Rheingold Curse – A Germanic Saga of Greed and Vengeance from the Medieval Icelandic Edda'', Marc Aurel Edition 2001. * ''Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/BMG Classics 2004. * ''Krone und Schleier: Musik aus Mittelalterlichen Frauenklöstern/Crown and Veil: Music from Medieval Female Monasteries'', Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der BRD (Bonn)/Ruhrlandmuseum Essen 2005. * ''Chant Wars – The Carolingian “Globalization” of Medieval Liturgical Chant'', a collaboration with the ensemble Dialogos, directed by Katarina Livljanic, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi/Sony-BMG Music 2005. * ''Fragments for the End of Time/Endzeitfragmente'', Raumklang 2008. * ''Hildegard von Bingen: Celestial Hierarchy'', Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (Sony) 2013. *
Boethius: Songs of Consolation
', Glossa 2018.

References

External links

*
Benjamin Bagby
on google scholar {{DEFAULTSORT:Bagby, Benjamin American performers of early music Living people Schola Cantorum Basiliensis alumni 1950 births