Since we've played plenty of Christian, Sephardic and even Islamic music, my program for this event was entirely music on Pagan themes. The feature item was Philip Glass' Akhnaten, for which I made up an outline so people could follow the action. Appended to the outline are extensive notes correcting historical inaccuracies in the opera.

Akhnaten - Philip Glass

My menu was unrelated to the subject matter this time - it was all Philippine. The Chicken Coconut Adobo, Lumpia Shanghai and Fruit Salad were the favorites.

Menu for Music Donavania event 24 June 2017

I have a 2-1/2 pound book with three full CDs of music of the Cathars (Albigensians) which cost me deep in the purse. I probably have even more stuff in the 1600 CD collection of (mainly) Medieval and Renaissance music I have acquired. We will probably do it again in the not too distant future.

Most people have no idea that the First Crusade was not against Islam, but against the Gnostic "heresy" of Southern France, wiping out the most sophisticated culture in Europe at the time, a culture that established the foundation of European musi