A Celebration of German Poetry & Song, c. 1150-1450

Guest artistic director Priscilla Herreid leads Blue Heron singers and members of Philadelphia’s Piffaro—playing winds, brass, and strings—in a program of German music from the minnesängers to Oswald von Wolkenstein.

Journey through three-hundred years of secular medieval song (c. 1150-1450) during a time when poetry was king and rhythm is derived from the text. Experience Sophie Michaux, Jason McStoots, Sumner Thompson, and David McFerrin singing poetry of love, mortality, and strife in solo unaccompanied songs, lightly-accompanied minnelied, and love duets hushed by the dutiful “watchman.” Hear the vivid colors of the shawm, sackbut, slide trumpet, douçaine, and bagpipe in music composed for 15th-century civic wind bands.

The program includes poetry and music by Walther von der Vogelweide, Neidhart, the Monk of Salzburg, and Oswald von Wolkenstein, as well as anonymous works from the Glogauer and Lochamer songbooks and the Buxheimer organ book.

2-for-1 Concert Special: All ticket holders will also receive complimentary online access to Piffaro’s fall concert, Tools of the Trade, streaming October 24–November 6.

All concert dates, programs, and personnel are subject to change without notice.

Ticket purchases are non-refundable.

Blue Heron is pleased to be participating in the Card to Culture program by extending free tickets to EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders.
Instructions for claiming a ticket via your card may be found by locating Blue Heron on mass.gov’s list of Card to Culture Organizations for the Greater Boston Area

Doors open half an hour prior to the concert start time. If needed for mobility, use office entrance next to the playground on Garden Street; all others please use main entrance to the sanctuary.