Projects

Lost Songs

In the mid-1980’s, Benjamin Bagby began his work on the reconstruction of the Beowulf epic, and since then he has been deeply involved with those European musical repertoires which have literally ‘vanished’, for which the surviving manuscripts do not provide enough information for a reliable transcription. Aided by musicologists and philologists (such as Sam Barrett and Peter Dronke of Cambridge University, Jan Ziolkowski of Harvard University, and Heimir Pálsson of Uppsala University), Bagby – often working together with his colleagues in Sequentia – has built on his work with Beowulf to reconstruct the music of other early sources: Anglo-Saxon texts (such as Deor and the Wanderer); the deep reservoir of stories found in the Icelandic Poetic Edda; the Old Saxon Heliand; the Old High German Muspilli, the Hildebrandslied and Otfrid von Weissenburg’s Evangelienbuch; the Latin and German lyrics found in the 11th century manuscript known as the Cambridge Songs. Many of these have been recorded (see below) and other projects are in preparation.

Programs and recordings

• Fragments for the End of Time / Endzeitfragmente
  (Sequentia concert program 2005-2009; CD in 2008)
• Beowulf
  (solo concert 1990-2009; DVD in 2007)
• Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper
  (Sequentia concert program 2000-2007; CD in 2004)
• The Rheingold Curse: A Germanic Saga of Greed and Revenge from the Medieval Icelandic Edda
  (Sequentia music-theater project 2001-2; concert program 2001-2010; CD in 2001)
• Edda: Myths from Medieval Iceland
  (Sequentia music-theater project 1995-7; CD in 1999)

Programs in preparation
[working titles]

• Canticles for the Frankish King (7th-9th centuries)
• Anglo-Saxon Elegies (7-8th century laments in Old English)
• Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (6th century Latin song)

Read Benjamin Bagby's article Searching for the Lost Voice of My Germanic Ancestors which appeared in Early Music America

Upcoming Concerts

13 April 2010
Konzerthaus Berlin, Germany
The Rheingold Curse

19 June 2010
Montalbâne Festival, Germany
Fragments for the End of Time

24 September 2010
Cité de la Musique, Paris
The Rheingold Curse

See full concert schedule

News

Visions of Paradise

In September 2009 a new film about the life of Hildegard von Bingen, directed by Margarethe von Trotta and starring Barbara Sukowa, was released in Germany. More

Interview with Benjamin Bagby

WNYC, New York Public Radio, aired an interview with the ‘Beowulf’ performer, B. Bagby. Listen to the show

Beowulf on DVD

Benjamin Bagby’s legendary performance of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf (part I) recorded live in Helsingborg, Sweden.
Visit the Beowulf website