Singer & Scribe
Welcome to our blog, where members of Idrîsî can share thoughts and dreams connected to our work. To kick things off, here’s the programme notes for our “Singer & Scribe” concert - a quick introduction to anyone desirous of understanding our music.
John Dagenais posited that the colonisation of the past is an indispensable companion of empire, characterising the Middle Ages as a vastness of time ripe for exploitation. Nations are indeed narrations, stories are at the heart of our struggles for power and territory. The articulation of modernity hinges on the appropriation and negotiation of medieval and non-European histories: in the context of classical music, nowhere is this more apparent than in the field of plainchant.
Old Roman chant is virtually absent from the UK scene: until recently, the only performance practice specialist was based in France. However, it provides a miraculous insight into late antiquity traditions, and constitutes an invaluable resource on medieval ornamentation practices, one strikingly consistent with period treatises. Only rediscovered in the 20th century, Old Roman chant was first neglected and pronounced a decadent, distorted chant. Concurrently, prominent liturgists such as Théodore Nisard described microtones as ‘monstrosities’ akin to ‘the meowing that we call Arabic Music’. Even today, very few cantors take the risk of interpreting Old Roman chant, as it challenges enduring myths of foundational purity, and theories that have prevailed for a century about the interpretation of Gregorian chant and medieval music. One hundred and thirty years after its discovery, Old Roman chant has yet to claim the central place it deserves in our collective imagination. These manuscripts reveal the syncretic nature of our cultures and religions, transporting us back to the ancient Mediterranean – a realm of porous borders, fluid identities and ceaseless contradictions. The vocal techniques required for its performance, along with the aesthetics captured in these manuscripts, must be reclaimed as integral components of our own histories.
Musicological research overwhelmingly points to the necessity of incorporating intangible heritage into our performances of medieval repertoire. Nurturing such a dialogue between singer and scribe is not only necessary to make sense of this extraordinary music, but may also help us uncover alternative legitimacies, timelines, histories, and structures of knowledge production that do not exist yet in our institutions. I am convinced that meaningful psychological change can occur if we adapt our understanding, teaching, and performance of these key building blocks of our identities. The ancient Mediterranean, intrinsically woven into the narrative of modernity, always already complicates postcolonial discourses of alterity and conflict. By returning European history to the sea – alongside plainchant and troubadour song – we may observe and renegotiate their contours and constitution.
Thomas Fournil