The Beautiful Crunch: From Medieval Dissonance to Jazz Harmony: A Concert for Community

May 29, 2027, 7pm | First Parish, Lincoln, MA | $25 - $50 per ticket *suggested donation* (as you are able!) 

100% of net proceeds go to critical needs.

The Beautiful Crunch: From Medieval Dissonance to Jazz Harmony

What do early music and jazz harmony have in common? More than you might think.

The Beautiful Crunch explores the irresistible pleasure of musical tension: suspensions that ache before they resolve, chromatic lines that bend the ear, and chords made richer by sevenths, ninths, and unexpected notes.

Performed by eight singers with strings, cello, harpsichord/organ, and piano, this lively program travels from the startling harmonic experiments of medieval and Renaissance music through the expressive world of Purcell and the English Baroque, then into the lush sonorities of jazz-influenced choral writing.

Along the way, our musicians will take the music apart and put it back together, showing how composers across centuries have used dissonance, ornamentation, repeating bass lines, and harmonic surprise to create beauty, drama, and emotional intensity.

The result is part concert, part musical discovery: sophisticated enough for devoted music lovers, but playful and welcoming for anyone who has ever heard a delicious chord and wondered, “Why does that sound so good?”

No theory degree required—just curious ears.