Old Roman Chant, a musical palimpsest.

 

We have used a photograph of a wall of one of the most fascinating churches in Rome -Santa Maria Antiqua- as an illustration for the announcement of the course about Old Roman Chant. This is no coincidence. Not only is it one of the oldest churches in the eternal city, but its walls bear witness to the first centuries of Roman liturgy and the various influences and changes of the Rome of the first millennium. It also reflects the time of the Greek influence in Rome and its liturgy, as well as the subsequent stages that followed.

This changing vitality comes to an abrupt halt in 847 when an earthquake seriously damages the church which ceases to be used and, from the 11th century, is buried for more than a millennium. When it was discovered in the 20th century, one of the most striking aspects which attracts the attention is the image that we reproduce, in which we can see the superimposed remains of different layers of paintings from the different periods that have been overlapped, which is why this wall is called the ‘palimpsest’: in reference to the manuscripts of antiquity in which we find texts overwritten over others.

Old Roman Chant in a sense has a parallel history to this palimpsest, recording different stages in the development of liturgical music in Rome and at one point being ‘frozen’ in time. In the case of chant, due to its immaterial character, we cannot have an observable testimony such as this wall, the challenge is therefore to be able to revive its fundamental features through the traces that it has left us.

As this is a theoretical and practical introductory course, no previous knowledge is necessary, although it is advisable to read the documents that can be downloaded from this links. 

Here you can read an article by Marcel Pérès on the Old Roman Chant.

https://www.dropbox.com/t/aoOqET1xJScHnnoT

And here you can read a more generic article explaining the fundamentals of Marcel Pérès' interpretation of early liturgical music.
https://www.dropbox.com/t/AzVNLpSJY4aW0rgp

And a full discography of Marcel Pérès and his Ensemble Organum.
https://www.dropbox.com/t/G9BKdNWn0oRiUAt9

There is not obligatory to attend both days.