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Episode details

Radio 3,11 Apr 2026,56 mins

Available for 36 days

19 May 1182. The High Altar of the new Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris is consecrated. Within the walls of this architectural wonder, a musical revolution takes place. Responding to the cathedral's awesome acoustics, musicians working and worshipping there develop the most complicated and elaborate music yet: Notre-Dame polyphony. Gillian Moore is joined by a roster of distinguished historians for this major new BBC Radio 3 series, charting a course through 1000 years of classical music history. For the first eight programmes, historian Michael Wood is in the chair, as together they explore the bold new sound worlds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Producer: David Fay Academic Consultant: Professor Laura Tunbridge, University of Oxford Story Consultant: Kate Leys Series Editor for BBC Audio: Emma Harding Key Changes theme tune composed by Joseph Howard and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Kerem Hasan. MUSIC DETAILS Leonin: Viderunt omnes Tonus Peregrinus Anthony Pitts (conductor) Perotin: Viderunt omnes The Hilliard Ensemble Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro Della Beata Vergine (Deus in adjutorium) Venice Monteverdi Academy Choir Ensemble Lorenzo da Ponte Roberto Zarpellon (conductor) Herbert Howells: The Winchester Service (Magnificat) Winchester Cathedral Choir Andrew Lumsden (conductor) Simon Bell (organ) Cecilia McDowall: Alma redemptoris mater The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge Stephen Layton (conductor) Charles-Marie Widor: Toccata (Symphony No. 5) Olivier Latry (organ of Notre-Dame de Paris) Anonymous: Estampie Fragment (Robertsbridge Codex) Guy Bovet (organ of Valere Basilica, Sion, Switzerland) Perotin: Viderunt omnes BBC Singers Owain Park (conductor) Steve Reich: Music for 18 musicians Steve Reich and musicians Anonymous: Ce que je teing / Certes Mouts / Bone compagnie / Manere (Montpellier Codex) Anonymous 4 Anonymous: On parole / A Paris / Frese nouvele (Montpellier Codex) Clemencic Consort

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