Photo by Constructed Space

BY DCist Contributor Caroline Baxter

Fans of medieval music are in for a real treat this weekend. Delightful all-male vocal ensemble Lionheart teams up with the Folger Consort to perform a selection of English medieval pieces from the time of Geoffrey Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales. Some pieces may be familiar, like “Miri it is,” and “Sumer is icumen in,”- and if those pieces are appealing, so too will be the whole set.

Equal to the beauty of the music is the beauty of the setting. The National Cathedral, though a modern building, was constructed in the style of an English 14th-century building, and so it offers the closest approximation to a period location for this music. The acoustics pick up the sound and wrap it around you like a sonic blanket. And what a sound: the Folger Consort is one of the premiere interpreters of this type of music in the country. If you want to hear medieval music in a setting similar to that in which it was originally played, you could do worse than buy a ticket to this.

Lionheart and The Folger Consort perform tonight and tomorrow at the National Cathedral | $30-$50.