Listening to music, especially live music, can be a religious experience. Recently, most of us have said that figically, but for the medieval monks it was literally true. Every aspect of life in a monastery was intended to bring you much closer to God, especially in the time when everyone gathered and sang. For the English monks accustomed to that lifestyle, it would have come as a considerable shock when King Henry VIII ordered the disbandment of the monastery between the mid-150s and early-40s. Not only were the residents of those shelter sent to pack, but their sacred music was thrown into the wind.
Almost six months later, the music is still recovering. As reported by GuardianStephen MorrisUniversity of Exeter historian James Clark found his latest example while studying the still standing Buckland Abbey in Devon for the National Trust.
“It was known that books that set the customs that the monks followed were rather boring, and that there were books held in the British Library.” But, behold, the leaves of parchment that were held behind contained fragments of chants, both in early 16th century music, or rather textual and notation, a rare and unusual kind of artifact of medieval monastic life.
Just this month, for the first time in almost five centuries, the music of “Buckland Book” resonated again within the walls of Buckland Abbey. You can hear the clips from the performance just above the University of Exeter Chapel Choir. “The theme is heavy – a threat from diseases and crop failure, not to mention powerful rulers, but the polyphonic style is bright and fun. This contrasts with the tragic chants most associated with the monk ks,” writes Morris. For 21st century listeners, these compositions offer an additional transcendent dimension of aesthetic time travel. The only way their rediscovery could be more accidental is if it happened in time to benefit from the Gregorian Winners boom of the 1990s.
Related content:
See Guidonian Hand, a medieval system for reading music.
A YouTube channel completely dedicated to medieval sacred music: Listen to Gregorian chants, Byzantine chants and more
Medieval Prohibition on “Tritone the Devil”: Uncovering the Great Myth in Music Theory
New Digital Archives Realize Medieval Hymns: ProjectAMRA features 300 digitized manuscripts and many audio recordings
Beatbox Buddhist monk k creates music for meditation
History of Classical Music with 1200 Tracks: From Gregorian Chorus to Gorekki (100 Hours of Audio)
Based in Seoul Colin marshall Write and broadcasting stationTS about cities, languages, and culture. His projects include the Substack Newsletter Books about cities And the book The Stateless City: Walking through 21st century Los Angeles. Follow him on social networks previously known as Twitter @colinmarshall.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
