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Episode details

Radio 3,05 Apr 2026,59 mins

Easter: A Seasonal Journey... Paschal Plainchant

The Early Music Show

Available for 28 days

Hannah French explores the use of plainchant in today’s Early Music Show, whether we hear it in its original single line as a cantus firmus (the fixed song that anchors a lot of Renaissance polyphony) or whether composers have made a free setting of the plainchant text to carry the transition from the gloom of Lent to the joy of Easter. To listen to this programme using most smart speakers, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play The Early Music Show."

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Tracklist

  1. Track
    Artist
  2. 1.
    Dum transisset Sabbatum
    Dum transisset Sabbatum
    Thomas Tallis
  3. 2.
    Vexilla regis
    Vexilla regis
    Tomás Luis de Victoria
  4. 3.
    Mass Propers for Easter Day
    Mass Propers for Easter Day
    William Byrd