Fragments for the End of Time

From the time of Christianity’s introduction into Central Europe until well after the end of the first millennium, medieval poets created a powerful body of sung poetry, often using obscure visionary images and language, to prepare listeners for the End of Days and the Last Judgement. Some of these images and words were borrowed from pre-Christian, Germanic sources. In this unique recording of largely unknown repertoires, Sequentia explores the musical world of these surprising and powerful apocalyptic texts -- some of them surviving only as fragments – as they were heard by early medieval Christians in Aquitaine and in German-speaking lands.