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PGM 614R "STRINGWAY to LIGHT" : Week of Dec. 25th...

Descending into the cold days and long nights around the winter solstice, our longing for warmth and need for light brings the wire-strung instrument family to the foreground.

For centuries, the lyre, the harp, and the dulcimer have brought us comfort and expressed our deepest feelings. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we once again visit the rich and brilliant world of wire-strung sounds on a program called STRINGWAY TO LIGHT.

Music is by CHERYL ANN FULTON, CAROL TATUM, GILLIAN SHAW & SHAUN ELDER, LISA LYNNE, MAGGIE SANSONE, RUDIGER OPPERMANN, JOHN ROSE, AINE MINOGUE, and ANGELS of VENICE.

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Our 2009 holiday prayer

pgm 896 "HYMNS and PSALMS" : Week of Dec. 18th...

In our year-end festivals of sacred music, we touch a human ritual whose origins are lost in time.

For millennia, we've gathered in churches and sanctuaries to sing, worship, listen and renew our spirits. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a year's end celebration of the treble voice, the massed chorus and the sublime world of sacred sound, on a program called HYMNS and PSALMS.

Music is by LIBERA, STATE OF GRACE, GIORGIA FUMANTI, HAYLEY WESTENRA, LUMINOUS WORLD ORCHESTRA, KEVIN KELLER, ARVO PART, and ALFRED SCHNITTKE.

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PGM 895 "WINTERSONGS 2" : Week of Dec. 11th...

In a time of cold and dark, we instinctively move toward warmth and light. So the winter songbook that comes down to us from Northern and Eastern Europe is replete with warm harmonies and brilliant timbres.

From Norway, Bulgaria, Moldavia, Germany and Austria, music of the folk and classical traditions is wonderfully alive and resonant at this time of year. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, cold day hymns, songs, lullabies, and the immortal music of BACH...on a program called WINTERSONGS 2. 

Music is by IRARI, IREN LOVASZ, MEDIAEVAL BAEBES, LISA HAMMER, JOSEPH HEBERT & MERRILL COLLINS, KITKA, TRIO MEDIEVAL, JOHANN HEINRICH SCHMELZER, and JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH.

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pgm 545R "CELTIC HARPESTRY" : Week of December 4th...

a winter celebration of the wire-strung harp

There's something that goes well beyond the rational in the sound of the wire-strung harp: the accumulated tradition of centuries, of course — and the ability to set loose waves of joy and sorrow with just a touch. And when you hear its clear and delicate overtones in the crisp December air, well, it becomes almost irresistible.

On this early December transmission of Hearts of Space, an hour of lyrical spacemusic for this venerable and much-loved instrument...on a program called CELTIC HARPESTRY.

Music is by RUDIGER OPPERMAN, JOHN DOAN, KIM ROBERTSON, DEBORAH HENSON-CONANT, LISA LYNNE, AINE MINOGUE, DEREK BELL, HECTOR ZAZOU, and LOREENA McKENNITT.

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86 on the black caps

UPDATE: After receiving a second sample of the black caps, we've pulled them from the HOS store. No one had actually ordered one yet, and it's a good thing — the results were very disappointing.

The designs are not embroidered as we originally thought from the description on the site, but printed onto white patches using a "dye sublimation" printing process. Whatever they call it, it sucks. We've started looking for an alternative and will post here when we have it.