Every road trip needs a soundtrack. In the Middle Ages, on the storied pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, those tunes would be sacred music chanted by monks and catchy cantigas sung by the faithful. On our Honors Passport journey we were fortunate to be accompanied by flute-player and composer Nikola Radan, a UA professor who studies the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria that were composed by Alfonso X of Castile. We had some musically talented students in our ranks as well, who signed on to form an impromptu Honors College Pilgrim Band that busked in town squares and performed inside cathedrals along the way.

Here on campus, and at Subiaco Abbey in Paris, Arkansas, the Honors College presented a concert, “Songs from the Camino,” featuring the renowned Schola Cantorum choir, directed by Stephen Caldwell, and the new World Music Ensemble, directed by Radan. Selections included the cantigas that were the pop music of the day, and sacred music by Sermisy, Peñalosa and Pérotin that pilgrims would have heard performed in churches along the Camino de Santiago.

These concerts captured in Europe and Arkansas, together with music composed by Radan using the medieval hurdy-gurdy and santoor, provide a historically accurate and spectacularly rich tapestry of sound for Buen Camino.