Rune

Rune. Lost in Contemplation: Saints and Miracles

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Rune
Lost in Contemplation: Saints and Miracles
St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield. 26 May 2026

Rune, the five-strong group specialising in music “from 700 years ago and beyond”, completed a UK tour at their home base of St. Bartholomew the Great in London’s Smithfield, one of the finest medieval buildings in London, where they are Medieval Ensemble in Residence. Their concert was based on four stories of miracles, each illustrated by sequences of music, sacred and secular, ranging from 12th century Occitan Troubadour songs to the 15th century polyphony of Machaut, with birdsong-related and Marian music in between. The four stories were narrated by the members of the group, to the varying degrees of comprehension allowed by the microphone and loudspeaker situation.

Continue reading →

Rune & Ensemble Gamut!

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Rune & Ensemble Gamut!
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe
Sunday 1 June 2025

There is medieval music, and there is medieval music, as demonstrated by this double-bill concert in the 18th-century riverside church of St Mary, Rotherhithe, a church known to organists for its 1764 John Byfield organ. The medieval music in the first half came from Rune, a recently formed London-based group of five musicians, but on this occasion, four: Angela Hicks, soprano & harp, Daniel Thomson, tenor, May Robertson, vielle, and Daniel Scott, recorders. Their name originates from the Old English ‘rūn’, meaning a mystical spell-song, and reflects their fascination with music from 700 years ago. Their programme was based on stories from the 14th-century Decameron, described in the concert flyer as “portraying various aspects of human nature and experience through some of the most beautiful music of the time”.

Photo: Ben Tomlin

Continue reading →