Music Meditations
Latest Episode:
A Meditation on Creation
Eric Odum's poem, "...from dust you came," is paired with a Sarabande for baroque guitar by Francesco Corbetta (performed live in concert by Lucas Harris) that echos the poem's powerful rhythm.
LD Music Meditations combines poetry and music to bring soul-soothing and life-affirming art into your day.
Featuring classic and contemporary poetry by Northeast Ohio writers along with curated performances from Les Délices live-performance archives, each episode concludes with prompts for mindfulness or guided listening.
Listen online or call the toll-free Music Meditations Hotline: 216-859-5800
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All Episodes
A Meditation on Our Place in the World
This episode features poetry by Northeast Ohio poets Cathy Barber, Marion Boyer, and Shei Sanchez. Each poem offers a different perspective on our place in the world, whether that’s admiring a vast wilderness, considering a view of earth from space, or backyard stargazing - set to the profound music of J.S. Bach.
Listen →A Meditation on Vulnerability
This episode features Eric Odum's poem "Trust Fall" paired with a Caprice de chaconne for baroque guitar by Francesco Corbetta.
Listen →A Meditation on Time
This Meditation on Time features "Some Days" by Philip Shalom Terman and "Waiting for Words to Come from a Moonlit Sky" by Darlene Montonaro paired with a Chaconne en Rondeau by French Baroque composer François Chauvon.
Listen →A Meditation on Nostalgia
This episode pairs Shei Sanchez's "The End of Things" with a fantasia for viols by Renaissance composer William Byrd that was originally created for Les Délices' SalonEra series.
Listen →A Meditation on Nature
This episode features poems by three Northeast Ohio-based writers. Each poem captures a single fleeting moment, a single encounter with nature, that somehow encapsulates an eternity. "Crow Tongue" by Ray McNiece, "Cicadas" by Cathy Barber, and "Sunbeams" by Marion Boyer are heard alongside an anonymous dance Bel fiore dança (or, lovely dance in Italian) that survives in a manuscript from around 1400.
Listen →A Meditation on Creation
Eric Odum's poem, "...from dust you came," is paired with a Sarabande for baroque guitar by Francesco Corbetta (performed live in concert by Lucas Harris) that echos the poem's powerful rhythm.
Listen →A Meditation on Stillness
Julie Warther's extended haiku poem "One Child's Candle," explores themes beauty and stillness in imagery from Christmas Eve, including a whispered, reverent third verse of the carol "Silent Night," performed here by members of Les Délices (featuring soprano Elena Mullins) from the group's 2020 virtual concert Noel, Noel.
Listen →A Meditation on Possibility
Dave Lucas's poem "Three Kings," reframes the Epiphany as a universal quest about possibility. In this meditation, we pair Lucas's poem with an instrumental performance of the old French carol, “Or nous dites Marie,” arranged by the French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, as performed by Les Délices for our 2020 virtual concert Noel, Noel.
Listen →A Meditation on Togetherness
This meditation pairs Thomas Campion's classic poem "Now winter night's enlarge," with the 17th-century English ballad Drive the Cold Winter Away, sung in this performance by soprano Elena Mullins. The theme of both the poem and the song is that quality time spent in each other’s company on those longest and coldest nights of the year offers unique opportunities for building community.
Listen →A Meditation on Nostalgia
Diane Kendig's poem "At the Christmas Tree, on a line by Seamus Heaney," delights in flashes of recognition and nostalgia. The music, John Playford's seventeenth-century variations on the ancient tune Greensleeves features violinist Julie Andrijeski.
Listen →A Meditation on Humility
Christina Rossetti's classic poem "Christmas Eve" contrasts the miracle of Jesus’s birth with his sacrifice. In this Meditation, recited by Dee Perry, we hear an instrumental noel, "Le Roy des cieux vient de naître" arranged by French Baroque composer Michel Corrette, performed live in concert by Les Délices in 2018.
Listen →A Meditation on Otherness
Featuring the poems Mary Ann and Jellyfish by Joyce Nichols, read by Debra Nagy. The music comprises a short prelude and the rondeau Les Sylvains by French Baroque composer Robert de Visée performed live by lute player Lucas Harris in concert with Les Délices in 2019.
Listen →