This month's Imaginary Song Hunt is a little bit spooky (happy Halloween!)... We're on the trail of ancient tablets that hold intriguing curses and charms.

We spoke to Charlotte Spence – lecturer in ancient history at St Hilda's College, Oxford and expert in ancient curse tablets. Thousands of (mostly lead) tablets survive from across Europe, dating from as early as the 6th century through the end of the first millennium CE. They hold curses covering a range of topics ranging from love (or at least desire) through to stolen possessions and featuring some rather horrible requests for gruesome misfortunes and ailments to befall the "cursee".

We learn from Charlotte how to make a lead curse tablet and inscribe our curse, exploring some of the rituals practices that may have been involve, and, of course, wondering how they might have sounded when spoken (or chanted?!) out loud.

If you want to learn more about this intriguing topic, Charlotte's book 'Appeals to the Supernatural in Ancient Curse Tablets: The Dead and the Divine' is available.

The Imaginary Song Hunt, Episode 10

🎧 The Imaginary Song Hunt is a series about reimagining lost songs from history, using evidence, creativity, and a willingness to step beyond what’s written down.

👉 Follow the hunt on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lotos-lab

or Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aFzqum...

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Next full episode (4 November 2026): Stef and Jonathan chat about a song recorded in a manuscript from High Medieval England...

This Imaginary Song Hunt continues our trail through the music of one of history's most extraordinary composers: Hildegard von Bingen. This is Part 2 of 2.

Continuing our conversation with Jasmina Črnčič, we go deeper into the technical side of singing Hildegard's music. Jasmina walks us through her working process, starting with a piece's range, then reducing a melismatic line to its syllabic "skeleton" before layering the ornamentation back in. We explore how Hildegard builds her modes from a mix of narrow, tightly connected phrases and wide leaps, and how the same handful of gestures recur and vary across her output. We also look at Hildegard's joyful mass movement Kyrie eleison and Aer enim volat, the antiphon for St Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins.

This Imaginary Song Hunt is on the trail of one of the most extraordinary composers in music history: Hildegard von Bingen.

We spoke to Jasmina Črnčič, a singer who specialises in singing the music of Hildegard, to learn about Hildegard's life and music. We hear about Hildegard's early life in a monastery, how she later became the abbess of her own convent and was something of a polymath. On top of all of this, she composed a vast range of chants including hymns, liturgical chants and even a music drama. We begin exploring the notation she used and how to go about singing these chants.

We also talk about her mystical visions, as recorded in works such as Scivias, and ask the crucial question: was Hildegard von Bingen on mushrooms?

Because Jasmina has so much to share (and because September has five Wednesdays this year), we'll be releasing a second episode next week (9th September). There we'll delve deeper into how to sing Hildegard's chants as well as looking a little more at some notation and manuscripts...

Sources consulted and discussed:

– Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes et al. Graduale triplex. Solesmes: Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, 1979

– Riesencodex: Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek, Hs. 2 (ca. 1180-85) – available here: https://hlbrm.digitale-sammlungen.hebis.de/handschriften-hlbrm/content/titleinfo/449618

– Dendermonde Codex: Belgium, St.-Pieters-&-Paulusabdij Cod. 9 (Villarenser codex) (ca. 1174/75) – available here: https://data.idemdatabase.org/IE9129581/representation

Ego peccator, Riesencodex, f.480v

Kyrie Eleison, Riesencodex, f.472v

The Imaginary Song Hunt, Episode 8

🎧 The Imaginary Song Hunt is a series about reimagining lost songs from history through evidence, creativity, and a willingness to step beyond what's written down.

👉 Follow the hunt on: YouTube: / @lotos-lab

For news and updates, sign up to the Imaginary Song Hunt mailing list: https://song.stefconner.com/sign-up-i...

If you enjoyed this episode, you can support the project via the Lotos Lab Tip Jar: https://lotos-lab.com/donate/ or by joining our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/Lotos_Lab/

Next full episode (9 September 2026): Stef and Jasmina discuss Jasmina's approach to singing Hildegard and delve deeper into some notation and manuscripts...