Barbara Thornton
Beverly Simmons
November 9, 1998
Barbara Thornton, died the morning of November 8 in Koeln, Germany, due to
complications related to a brain tumor. She was 48.
Ms. Thornton, was best known as co-director of the Ensemble Sequentia which
she founded with Benjamin Bagby in 1977. Sequentia grew to become the
internationally-acclaimed leader in its field combining vocal and
instrumental virtuosity with innovative research and programming to
reconstruct the living musical traditions of Medieval Europe. Ms.
Thornton, in particular, specialized in the music of medieval abyss
Hildegard von Bingen. She trained numerous singers on the vocal style of
Hildegard based on her research and with the ensemble has recorded the most
comprehensive collection of Hildegard's music for BMG. She was in large
part responsible for the current popular interest in Hildegard's music.
This year, Seqeuntia has celebrated the 900th anniversary of the birth of
Hildegard with performances of her only staged work (perhaps the first
known music drama) Ordo Virtutum. Ms. Thornton's last appearance in North
America was at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York during performances
of this work in July. The ensemble is currently in the midst of a tour, in
North America.
Barbara Thornton was born in New Jersey, and attended Sarah Lawrence
College where she received her degree in 1972. While on tour with the
Sarah Lawrence European Chorus she decided to stay in Europe to study
music. She studied voice in Amsterdam and continued operatic training in
Zurich and Italy, but her interest in Mediaeval music led her to Basel
where she received an advanced diploma in performance practice from the
Schola Cantorum Basilienses in 1977. It was in Basel, in 1974, where she
met Benjamin Bagby who became her musical partner as well as her long time
companion. They have been living in Koeln since 1977.
Ms. Thornton is survived by Benjamin Bagby and by her parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Fletcher Thornton of Exeter, New Hampshire and two sisters Susan Frey
Starbuck of Seattle, Washington, and Anne Thornton Bridges of Woodstock,
Vermont.
Contact: Jon Aaron, 212/874-2790 x 211
Jon_...@aaronconcert.com
Todd Michel McComb
Beverly Simmons <bx...@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
>Barbara Thornton, died the morning of November 8 in Koeln, Germany,
>due to complications related to a brain tumor. She was 48.
This is very shocking and sad news. I want express my public
condolences to all involved, including Ms. Thornton's family and
close colleagues, as well as the entire medieval music community.
Todd McComb
mcc...@medieval.org
Kate Brown
on her music for some years, in all the recordings I've listened to,
Sequentia's have been consistently the most inspirational, the ones that
have kept me going.
And not only me - I was playing the 'Canticles of Ecstasy' recording one
evening, when my five-year-old niece (more used to the Spice Girls) came
in, said 'This is the most beautiful music I've ever heard', lay down
and listened to it for hours. She took it with her, and it's been a
kind of talisman for us both ever since.
Barbara Thornton will be very much missed.
--
Kate Brown
London
Rosie Salas
This is very sad news. I would like to add my condolences to Todd's,
to her family and friends. I have always enjoyed Ms Thornton's voice
and artistry and shared with her a particular love of Hildegard. I
and my colleagues got to know the Sequentia recording of the Ordo
Virtutum well while we were preparing the first New Zealand
performance of the work, and I have a strong recollection of her voice
singing this music.
I hope wherever she is, she is surrounded by such beautiful music as
she produced.
Rosie Salas
Neal Plotkin
(Beverly Simmons) wrote:
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>
> November 9, 1998
>
> Barbara Thornton, died the morning of November 8 in Koeln, Germany, due to
> complications related to a brain tumor. She was 48.
The New York TImes printed an obituary for Barbara Thornton yesterday (Nov
15), available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/obit-thornton.html
written by Allan Kozinn, one of their music critics.
Sequentia's performance of "Ordo Virtutum" in Ann Arbor Friday evening was
quite moving. The ensemble consisted of the female choir (led by Pamela
Dellal), the devil (Franz-Josef Heumannskaemper, also stage director), and
three instrumentalists. Ben Bagby wasn't there, obviously. At the
conclusion, the ensemble performed "O Presul Vere Civitas", in tribute.