The name Ensemble Gaudior (pronounced gow-dee-or) was taken from the following passage:

THE ANCIENT HARMONIES

In the fantasy, A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle, young Charles Wallace is on the back of the unicorn Gaudior.* They are time traveling. Charles Wallace is tired from an encounter with the evil ones, the Echthroi. Gaudior tells him he must stay awake. Charles Wallace is not sure he can.

"Sing, then," Gaudior commanded. "Sing to keep yourself awake." The unicorn opened his powerful jaws and music streamed out in full and magnificent harmony. Charles Wallace’s voice was barely changing from a pure treble to a warm tenor. Now it was the treble, sweet as a flute, which joined Gaudior’s mighty organ tones. He was singing a melody he did not know, and yet the notes poured out his throat with all the assurance of long familiarity.

They moved through the time-spinning reaches of a far galaxy, and he realized that the galaxy itself was part of a mighty orchestra, and each star and planet within the galaxy added its own instrument to the music of the spheres. As long as the ancient harmonies were sung, the universe would not entirely lose its joy.

He was hardly awake when Gaudior’s hoofs struck ground and the melody dimmed until it was only a pervasive beauty of background. With a deep sigh Gaudior stopped his mighty song and folded his wings into his flanks.

*Gaudior: the name means "that joy, without which, the universe would fall apart and collapse"