Sacred Music -BBC

This is Part 1 (The Gothic Revolution) of a fantastic BBC series on sacred music. I just caught it on TV tonight. It's an amazing history lesson in the development of modern polyphonic music. There's lots of beautiful 13th century chant performed in breathtakingly ornate and massive cathedrals. For me personally it was an education on that era of music and it's importance in the evolution of modern four part harmony. Even though most if not all harmonies are voiced in octaves, fourths and fifths it is still intricate, delicate and emotionally moving. Very impressive composition skills using a very restricted access to intervals.

One thing I was struck with at one point was how the pulse, breathing and vocal arrangement of many of these chants reminded me so clearly of Inuit throat singing. Go to 49:00 mins of the documentary. Does anyone else hear it that way? There is, to my ear, an absolutely direct relationship. :shock:

Absolutely fantastic documentary.

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Cheers boney .. That looks terrific. Im gonna check it out when i get home tonight.

Brilliant - tha's a gem -thanks BG!

Brilliant - tha's a gem -thanks BG!

Pretty cool, eh?

Did you think that the overall character of the chant at 49:00 min had a strikingly similar effect to it as Inuit throat singing or do I need to go back on my meds?

Yes I hear the drone serving a similar purpose musically - and the staggered breathing too - but while there was relative rawness in this sacred music - characteristically (and what I found interesting) the balance between the organic (of the body sound) and the divine( the amazing acoustic of the cathedrals) had to be observed if the musicians didnt want to end up somewhere hot!

And yet compared to Western music later - it seems obvious that there was more interest and respect for the sound of the 'body' than in the classical era - where purity in sound becomes such a feature. I can only imagine it was because so much of the knowledge from the Ancient Greeks was still revered in Mediaeval times - The Greeks revered the spiritual in what was plainly organic - who knows?

The Inuit singing is deeper and earthier - to expose the sound of the throat so obviously in European music at the time surely would have ended you up on the roaster -

Some really interesting thoughts Geoff. Thanks.

In a sense then I suppose it could be said that the basic nature of music (and about a million other activities) was seen to be profane (or at least mundane) but with the proper intervention of righteous men it could be lifted into the realm of the sacred.

And you know in a certain sense I can agree with that for some reason. My sense of that is informed from a very different set of beliefs but I can definitely get to a place inside myself where I arrive at a similar conclusion.

One obvious difference as a result of my beliefs may be that I hear the throat singing as equally sacred and beautiful because of it's raw earthiness.

I think the intention of both of these musics is the same though. To transport both listener and performer to a different realm; a sacred state of mind. Each has it's own distinct 'rules' for how to get to that place though.


I guess I'll have to watch the other three episodes now.

I think the intention of both of these musics is the same though. To transport both listener and performer to a different realm; a sacred state of mind. Each has it's own distinct 'rules' for how to get to that place though.

Absolutely - and the giveaway in this first episode is in the time and detail that goes into describing the architecture of the cathedrals - and there is something that symbolises that in the architecture of the music itself. The crucial thing about that imo is that the two become inseparable - the cathedral 'houses' the music - in a highly refined ,reverberant structure - and also free of the sounds of the outside world. Its illusory - part of the illusion of the cathedral itself as a symbol of power - awe inspiring though it is. I remember walking in the beautiful 12thC cathedral in Amiens many years ago and singing a note - out of curiosity. It actually draws the sound of your body away from you - all the consonance seems to dissipate so that what is left is just 'vowel'.

Inuit and Tuvan throat singers - and all manner of folk musics are performed in all manner of places or venues - in the sacred sense the big difference is that in folk music - the body is the temple - or if you follow the Orphic principles in the Greek theogenies - the world is the temple.

There was a definite attempt in the design of the cathedral to be 'apart' from the world - closer to heaven. A very different set of beliefs indeed.

If you're ever in Venice Italy I'd recommend hearing some Antiphonal polyphony in San Marco Cathedral (St. Marks).
Hearing something in the place where it was written to be sung is quite something.
Giovanni Gabrielli, Dufay, Landini, Machaut, etc.

Thanks. I used to listen to Millennium of Music every Sunday night on NPR but it's long gone from the stations around here.

That was great.