The Pursuit of Beauty with Matthew Wilkinson

Matthew Wilkinson
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Music Commentary

We explore topics such as classical music, Orthodox chant, Bach, Messiaen, architecture, symbolism, the philosophy of mind, aesthetics, and the general pursuit of Beauty.

  1. Oct 17

    How to Build a Voice

    Can an aging voice lose its wobble? Voice scientist Dr. Stephen Austin says yes, and explains the exercises that brought a 70-year-old soprano's voice back to how she sounded in her forties.If you lead a church choir, sing in one, or teach voice, this conversation will change how you rehearse. Dr. Stephen F. Austin, Professor Emeritus of Voice and Vocal Pedagogy at the University of North Texas, trained in voice science under Ingo Titze at the University of Iowa. He spent more than three decades teaching singers at LSU and UNT. He is also one of the leading historians of voice teaching, and brings both worlds to the questions church musicians actually face.We start with myths still taught in choir rooms everywhere: that breath support is the cure for every vocal problem, that you can "place" the voice, that you should "sing in the mask," and that the sinuses make the sound. Steve explains why each one falls short, and what actually builds a voice. The answer is targeted exercises that strengthen the small muscles of the larynx and even change the shape of the vocal folds themselves.From there we get practical. Steve explains why teenagers at a 30-hour all-state choir weekend can go home with vocal nodules, how five-minute silent breaks protect your singers, and why a long rehearsal right before a concert leaves the best singing in the rehearsal room. He tells the story of a soprano in her seventies whom every choir in town had turned away because of her wobble, and the 18 months of daily exercises that gave her voice back.We also cover laryngeal position in opera, pop, and Southern gospel singing; how sopranos can extend their high range ("drop to the top"); the controversy over glottal onset, explained with a cello bow; vocal registers and falsetto; how to learn a trill; why singers' careers burn out; boy choirs; posture and the choir folder; when not to sing at all; and how to blend a choir without wearing out your trained singers.What you'll learn:- Why "just support more" doesn't fix high notes or volume- Why the voice can't be "placed," and what's really happening when you feel it in your face- How to rehearse a choir without wearing out their voices- Why chest voice exercise matters, especially for women- What causes the "wobble" in older voices, and the exercises that fix it- How larynx position separates operatic, pop, and Southern gospel sound- "Drop to the top": how sopranos can sing higher with less effort- Glottal onset: what it is, why it's controversial, and how much is too much- How to sing straight tone in a choir without strain- Warm-ups for volunteer choirs: why to stay low, and which vowels to use- Why you should never sing on a hoarse voice🎧 THE EXTENDED VERSIONPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/MatthewWilkinsonMusicSubstack: https://substack.com/@matthewwilkinsonmusicYouTube Memberships: https://www.youtube.com/@matthewwilkinsonmusic/membership📖 DR. STEPHEN AUSTINhttps://www.thepracticalpedagogue.com/Provenance: Historic Voice Pedagogy Viewed through a Contemporary Lens: http://insideviewpress.comCHAPTERS3:11 Welcome5:46 From opera singer to voice scientist13:07 Is vocal imagery useless?16:20 Are choirs singing too much?20:30 Rehearsing smarter: descants and rest breaks26:12 The support and placement myths30:00 "Sing in the mask" and the sinuses32:25 Building the instrument: chest voice35:30 Fixing the wobble in older voices42:13 Learning to trill46:22 Support: flooding the engine51:27 The historical exercise sequence57:28 Larynx height: opera vs. pop1:05:37 A Southern gospel tenor1:10:08 Registers: chest, head, and falsetto1:19:51 Extending the top: "drop to the top"1:30:42 Onset: rosin on the bow1:41:23 When onset goes too far1:45:58 Why singers burn out1:50:05 Young voices and boy choirs1:53:41 Posture and the choir folder1:57:50 Don't sing hoarse2:00:31 Choir vs. bel canto: blend and straight tone2:11:51 Advice for volunteer choir members

  2. Oct 6

    Troubadours, Cathars, and why Jugglers go to Hell

    Love songs that are secretly prayers. A dawn song that started in a monastery. A troubadour who became a bishop and persecuted heretics. Medieval singer Evgeny Skurat and instrumentalist Danil Ryabchikov join me from Montenegro to explore the hidden sacred side of troubadour music, and to perform it.We usually think of the troubadours as poets of courtly love, endlessly pining after women they couldn't have. But of the roughly 260 troubadour songs that survive with their melodies, some are outright prayers, and many more are soaked in monastic and liturgical imagery. Yevgeny and Daniil have spent over fifteen years performing this repertoire, and their latest program takes a radically different approach: soft, intimate, and sung in church acoustics, closer to how the noble and monastic world that produced this music might have heard it.We talk about who the troubadours actually were (and why they weren't wandering bards), why medieval jongleurs were told they had no hope of salvation, troubadour "rap battles" and female troubadours (the trobairitz), crusade songs, and the enueg, the medieval "annoyance song." We get into how troubadour music was notated, how you reconstruct rhythm from poetry, Pythagorean tuning, and how you accompany a melody when the manuscript gives you nothing but the tune, using the citole, chifonie, and guitarra latina.Then we turn to the bigger picture: monasteries as medieval hotels, the conductus and Unicornis captivatur, the Goliards and the 12th-century renaissance, why Kotor in Montenegro sits on the fault line between East and West, Beneventan chant and its Byzantine borrowings, whether the troubadours were secret Cathars, and how songs like Reis glorios use quotations of chant to give a love song a sacred meaning.CHAPTERS00:00 Cold open: Welcome to the Medieval World01:47 Welcome, Evgeny Skurat & Danil Ryabchikov02:03 sacred troubadour music?02:31 Who were the troubadours?04:46 Troubadours vs. trouvères05:24 Not wandering bards: troubadours vs. jongleurs06:54 Can medieval musicians be saved?08:21 Were troubadour songs all about unattainable women?09:04 Pastourelles, trobairitz & troubadour "rap battles"12:27 Crusade songs & Bertran de Born13:59 The enueg: 13th-century country music14:39 The sacred troubadour project15:37 The alba, an anti-war song & troubadour prayers17:50 How troubadour music was notated19:11 Reconstructing rhythm from the poetry20:27 Modes & Byzantine parallels22:10 Pythagorean tuning23:08 How do you accompany a melody with no accompaniment?26:54 Drones & "doodles in the margins"29:55 Where do you get medieval instruments?32:18 Vielle, harp & the jongleur's instrument list34:29 Ornamentation & melodic formulas36:03 Was the hurdy-gurdy a monastic instrument?38:08 Monasteries as medieval hotels39:43 A soft, intimate approach in church acoustics41:26 Unicornis captivatur & the conductus43:43 Goliards, Abelard & the 12th-century renaissance45:43 Why Montenegro? Kotor between East & West49:02 Beneventan, Old Roman & the chant traditions52:28 Byzantine melodies in Beneventan chant59:55 Were the troubadours secret Cathars?1:03:59 Marcabru & songs against Rome1:05:54 How text and music fit together1:06:46 Reis glorios & hidden sacred meanings1:09:58 What is an alba? Phebi claro1:12:41 Script vs. performance: music and text as one1:14:45 Performing melismas & proportion1:18:23 Historically informed vs. "folk medieval"1:19:15 How audiences have received it1:20:20 The Tollite Portas festival & Kotor's Venetian wind bands1:23:17 How Yevgeny & Daniil met1:24:07 What's next: Slavonic chant in Freiberg1:25:11 The legend of the vanishing organ1:27:09 ClosingEVGENY SKURAT: https://chronosart.bandcamp.com/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrrWFuo-zMbVXGronlsjuaQDANIIL RABCHIKOV: https://www.danilryabchikov.com/enTOLLITE PORTAS – KOTOR EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL: https://www.tolliteportas.me/

  3. Sep 29

    so... why aren't you Orthodox? | Paul VanderKlay

    Three years ago they were listening to Sam Harris. Now they're kissing relics. Reformed pastor Paul Vander Klay joins me to talk about the Orthodox moment, why liturgy is having a renaissance, and what screens have to do with it.Paul has spent years at the center of the conversation around Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, and John Vervaeke, and he's the co-founder of Estuary, a network of small conversation groups meeting all over the world. We talk about how Estuary gets atheists and Christians talking without the polemics, why Paul thinks "attentional weaponry" is pushing people toward liturgical worship, why Coptic churches have TV screens, and his first experiences of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy.We also get into relics and the "religious con," the myrrh-streaming icon that ended my panic attacks, what Paul still holds as a Christian Reformed minister (including why icons don't work for him), what Protestants are missing that the Orthodox have, Kuyper, Bavinck & Barth, the Heidelberg Catechism vs. Westminster, Vervaeke's "religion that's not a religion," and why you can't live off the religious buffet: fans are not a home.This is The Pursuit of Beauty, conversations on sacred music, iconography, architecture, and the theology of beauty across Christian traditions.CHAPTERS00:00 Cold open00:50 Welcome, Paul Vander Klay02:09 The Pursuit of Beauty & moving beyond polemics05:55 What is Estuary?13:35 How Estuary avoids polemics15:31 Evangelism without the bait-and-switch17:18 The future of Estuary18:56 Bible studies vs. real conversation20:18 What modernity took from us: feasting, the Supra21:25 "Attentional weaponry" & the liturgical renaissance25:13 Why Coptic churches have screens26:36 Is liturgy really in the vernacular?28:25 Paul's first Orthodox liturgies31:18 From the emerging church to Orthodoxy33:22 The "Orthobros" & a diverse Orthodox landscape35:29 Relics, universal history & the "religious con"37:29 A myrrh-streaming icon & the end of my panic attacks38:21 The Eucharist, relics & Luther's elector40:59 What Paul still holds as a Protestant42:34 Icons: looking at vs. looking through46:38 What Protestants lack: confession, the hours, fasting & the saints49:47 A son of the Reformation51:02 Kuyper, Bavinck & Barth56:07 Westminster vs. Heidelberg58:34 How Paul met Vervaeke & Pageau1:04:05 Bishop Maximus & the earliest Byzantine chant1:05:06 Vervaeke's project & the "religious buffet" problem1:12:29 Why you need a home: the difficult neighbor in the pew1:14:23 Commitment, marriage & "fans are not a home"1:16:01 Peterson's providential timing1:17:10 ClosingPAUL VANDER KLAYYouTube: [link]Estuary: [link]SUPPORT THE PURSUIT OF BEAUTYPatreon: [link]Substack: [link]Shop: [link]#Orthodoxy #Liturgy #PaulVanderKlay

  4. Sep 27

    The Maronite Chant Tradition

    In the mountains of Lebanon, monks still chant the liturgy in Syriac, a form of Aramaic, the language Christ spoke. Fr. Toufic Maatouk, a monk of the Antonine Maronite Order, conductor, and scholar of Maronite chant, joins me to explore one of the least-known chant traditions in the Christian world.Why is Holy Week a season of joy rather than lament for the Maronites? How can about 125 melodies carry an entire liturgical year? And what is the "neutral third," the note that sits between major and minor and can be heard as either Western or Arabic? Fr. Toufic explains the roots of Maronite chant in the Christian Levant, the legacy of St. Ephrem the Syrian and St. Maron, shuhlofo (the transformation of melodies in Holy Week), centonization, the arrival of the organ, oud, and qanun, the history of Maronite notation from Dom Jean Parisot to Fr. Boulos el-Achkar and Fr. Louis Hage, the shift from Syriac to Arabic, the Maronite anaphoras, and what it means to keep this tradition alive in Lebanon today. Along the way, he sings.This conversation is part of my ongoing series of long-form conversations with someone from every major Christian chant tradition: Gregorian, Byzantine, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Georgian, Malankara, and now Maronite.All Maronite chant recordings in this episode are from "The Syriac Hymnal of the Antonine Maronite Order" (2023), used with the kind permission of Fr. Toufic Maatouk.Transcription and notation: Fr. Toufic Maatouk, OAMVocals: Elias Shamata, OAMRecording: Studio Ralph Sleiman© 2023 Toufic Maatouk. All rights reserved.Listen to all 125 recordings (Vol. I – Ordinary Time, Vol. II – Passion):https://www.touficmaatouk.com/syriac-hymnal-audio-recordings/Scores shown are from Fr. Toufic Maatouk's forthcoming notated edition of the Syriac Hymnal (Antonine University Editions). Notation © Toufic Maatouk.Hymns featured include Enono Nuhro Shariro (Ordinary Time and Passion), Shubho Lhao Roio, Setoro Tobo, Hoyen Lhatoyé, and 'Adlo Nizoun.Fr. Toufic Maatouk: https://www.touficmaatouk.com/FURTHER READING━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Sebastian Brock, "The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of St Ephrem"St. Ephrem the Syrian, "Hymns on Paradise," trans. Sebastian Brock (St Vladimir's Seminary Press)Sebastian Brock, "Treasure-House of Mysteries: Explorations of the Sacred Text through Poetry in the Syriac Tradition"━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CHAPTERS━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━0:00 Holy Week in the Maronite Church is joyful2:24 Welcome4:08 Who are the Maronites? Saint Maron and the Maronite Church6:15 Praying in Syriac, a form of Aramaic7:04 The origins of Christian worship in the Levant11:30 Acculturation: shared singing traditions in Lebanon13:34 Saint Ephrem and the Syriac hymnal14:45 Modes, temperament, and the maqam question17:15 Why aren't Ephrem's great hymns in the hymnal?23:31 Saint Maron and Saint Ephrem24:55 125 melodies, changing texts, and shuhlofo32:07 How Latinization brought lament to Holy Week32:48 Holy Week melodies and Syriac rhythm35:45 One melody, three names: centonization39:01 One book for every monastery41:09 Is there a Maronite Oktoechos?42:23 The neutral third and the Zalzalian modes47:22 Organs, oud, qanun, and percussion50:42 Preserving tradition vs. organs and polyphony54:34 How far back can Maronite chant be traced?56:41 From Dom Parisot to Boulos el-Achkar and Louis Hage1:00:35 A new notation of the Syriac Hymnal1:03:09 Hear the neutral third sung two ways1:04:07 Ornamentation and the two choirs1:06:05 Arabic, Syriac, and the congregation1:08:01 Maronite vs. Syriac Orthodox melodies1:09:15 Maronites, Melkites, and the many anaphoras1:13:16 Married priests and celibate bishops1:14:32 Music, land, and the Maronite diaspora1:15:42 Life in Lebanon today1:19:51 The Qadisha Valley

  5. Sep 23

    Appalachian Music: Sacred Harp Explained with Tom Ivey

    Sacred Harp: A Living Tradition, with Thomas A. IveyWhat is Sacred Harp, and why are thousands of people still singing it every weekend? In this episode of Pursuit of Beauty, I talk with Tom Ivey, a shape-note singer for more than thirty years, a longtime member of the Charleston Sacred Harp singing (begun in 2008), and a composer whose tune "Blessed Road" appears in the new 2025 edition of The Sacred Harp.— RESOURCES MENTIONED —Sacred Harp Publishing Co.: http://sacredharp.comShenandoah Harmony: http://www.shenandoahharmony.comSacred Harp Bremen (part-by-part practice tracks): https://www.sacredharpbremen.orgSingings calendar & indexes: https://fasola.org— RECORDINGS USED —Excerpts are used for commentary and education, with thanks to the singers and those who recorded and shared them. If you're a creator and would like a clip removed or credited differently, please contact me and I'll take care of it right away.Stratfield142 (Texas Sacred Harp Singers)- 410t The Dying Californian – Young People's Convention, Austin TX, 2014 – https://youtu.be/DNDgfS8CBPw- What Wondrous Love – Henderson TX, 2012 – https://youtu.be/aRpV9H9ZpB0- 45t New Britain – Southwest Convention, McMahan TX, 2011 – https://youtu.be/uPOo4dOuPbQ- Bound for Canaan – Bethel Primitive Baptist Church, McMahan TX, 2012 – https://youtu.be/5FTVuNqEBh8- 501 That Beautiful Land – Bethel Primitive Baptist Church, McMahan TX, 2012 – https://youtu.be/xTbJ5axaUnA- 254 Rose of Sharon – Coker UMC, San Antonio TX, 2011 – https://youtu.be/u_afgYrZe9g- 178 Africa – Coker UMC, San Antonio TX – https://youtu.be/YZrO3P7AQOQ- 457 Wayfaring Stranger – https://youtu.be/-S-Mb8K6cE8PLBrayfield- 110 Mount Vernon – Missouri State Convention, 2014 – https://youtu.be/9LxmTypxn50- Jordan (Billings) – Missouri State Convention, 2018 – https://youtu.be/uK7u0loWB00- 236 Easter Anthem – Kalamazoo All-Day Singing, 2009 – https://youtu.be/_TgfhYsmGEQ- 284 Garden Hymn – Southern Wisconsin Singing, Dodgeville, 2011 – https://youtu.be/TKQb8PM0Au8RI Sacred Harp- 160b Turn, Sinner, Turn – Rhode Island All-Day Singing, 2019 – https://youtu.be/-BG4MkqzQlo- 163t Morning – Rhode Island All-Day Singing, 2017 – https://youtu.be/pCd1ShMg3tI- 414 Parting Friend – Rhode Island All-Day Singing, 2018 – https://youtu.be/AwUgBjRYGX0Secondmdus – Lloyd's Hymnbook, Mars Hill Primitive Baptist Church, Hoboken GA, 2007- O How Happy Are They – https://youtu.be/BCPsSnn07Hc- I Walked Abroad One Morning Fair – https://youtu.be/emb-xLtcSkUSacred Harp Museum- 493 Blessed Road (Thomas A. Ivey, 2010; © 2025 Sacred Harp Publishing Company) – 2025 Edition Debut Singing, Atlanta, 2025 – https://youtu.be/eEA9zZewSOkOther channels- 346 The American Star – Camp Fasola, 2024 – Esther Morgan-Ellis – https://youtu.be/DJ_4LQ98gzY- 155 Northfield – Henagar Union Convention, 2012 – Mrkyess1 – https://youtu.be/IjMLGGGwzaI- Angel's Hymn – Northern Shenandoah Valley Singing, 2014 – SuperDonkeyEars – https://youtu.be/B2pygw2_JJg- 326t We've No Abiding City Here (Shenandoah Harmony) – Lehigh Valley All-Day, 2016 – Rachel Hall – https://youtu.be/wnQ4heCBc60- Jacob's Vision – Germany Sacred Harp Convention, 2018, led by Georges Boboé – Sacred Harp Bremen – https://youtu.be/o2N095OV33w- Hail Smiling Morn (Spofforth) – The Marsh Warblers, West Gallery choir – bothybats1 – https://youtu.be/pcJz_oZfVVs- Gaelic Psalm singing, Psalm 122 – Rev. Jack Morrison, 1992 – Don Aldmor Rison – https://youtu.be/XXnqemuXVOc- Bill of Rights: First Amendment (Neely Bruce) – Rebecca Nurse Homestead, Danvers MA, 2016, dir. Tom Carmody – https://youtu.be/msJs4zvG8OwBostonSing Shapenote Resources- Piccolo Spoleto 2010 (Charleston) – https://www.bostonsing.org/recordings/piccolo-spoleto/- Vintage recordings – https://www.bostonsing.org/recordings/vintage-recordings/

  6. Sep 8

    A Pillar of Anglican Worship - Barry Rose at 92

    Barry Rose OBE is one of the towering figures of Anglican church music. At ninety-two he looks back over sixty years at the heart of the English choral tradition, with warmth, humour and disarming candour. He built the choir of Guildford Cathedral from nothing at twenty-six, rebuilt the choir of St Paul's Cathedral as Sub-Organist and then Master of the Choir, trained the choristers who sang at the 1981 royal wedding, served as Master of the Music at St Albans Abbey, and produced BBC Radio's Choral Evensong for nearly twenty years. He studied organ with C. H. Trevor at the Royal Academy of Music, orchestrated Stainer's Crucifixion, and worked with Paul McCartney and Elton John along the way. This is a long, candid conversation about English cathedral choirs, boy choristers, church organ playing, Anglican chant, sacred music and what is happening to the tradition he helped build. We begin with the most pressing question in English church music: what is happening to the cathedral boy choir. Rose speaks plainly about mixed treble lines at St John's Cambridge, St George's Windsor, Hereford and Chichester, the case for separate boys' and girls' choirs on the Salisbury and Truro models, and what he believes is being lost. From there, how he actually trained choristers: why he never chased a manufactured "choral sound," letting each child sing with the voice they were given; probationers, humming, an hour on a single hymn; soft consonants and stopping the sound a millisecond before the D in "God." For Rose the words got there first and the music came later — the music is only a handmaid to bring the words alive. We discuss Anglican chant, Coverdale and the Book of Common Prayer, why the Creed should be said and not sung, and his definition of a descant: a decoration, never an annihilation. He takes us inside the choral establishment — Guildford's absorbent-plaster vault, relearning tempo for the echo of St Paul's, recording straight to stereo with no chance of repair, and why AI will give you a four-part choir but it won't have any soul. Then the stories: persuading McCartney to ring the choir school headmaster, clashing with Sir David Willcocks over descants at the royal wedding, and C. H. Trevor telling him he would never be a good organist — but would always be a good musician. Near the end he says, simply: "I'm at the end of my life, so I can say what I'd like really now."━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CHAPTERS00:00 "The words got there first, the music came later"02:46 "That tradition is being killed off in the name of equality"13:06 The 20% tax closing England's choir schools15:33 Training boys versus girls — and the bus16:57 "You call a spade a shovel": rehearsing children honestly22:17 The silences between the notes — Laurence Olivier23:58 Founding the Guildford choir on chant and hymns alone27:39 Why the Creed should be said and not sung28:47 Guildford's absorbent plaster and the St Paul's echo37:37 Can AI make music? "It won't have any soul"45:00 Messiah: tempo, Jennens, and divine inspiration49:56 C. H. Trevor: "You'll never be a good organist"53:51 Paul McCartney, Elton John, and the choristers56:39 The royal wedding, Willcocks, and the descant58:31 How it ended at St Paul's1:03:10 The "holpen" story, and bright eyes in a voice trial1:07:17 The Responses everyone wrongly attributes to him1:14:51 "My favourite organ is the one I'm playing now"1:21:47 "A descant is a decoration, not an annihilation"1:32:33 Howells, Charles Wood, neglected composers1:44:48 The Road Home━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#SacredMusic #ChoralMusic #AnglicanChurchMusic

  7. Aug 27

    Epic Conversation: Every Style of Georgian Chant Explained with Dr John Graham

    Why does the same ancient chant melody sound completely different depending on which corner of Georgia you're standing in? Musicologist John A. Graham returns for Part 2 of our exploration of **Georgian Orthodox chant**, this time going deep into the three great transcribed monastery schools: **Gelati, Shemokmedi, and Svetitskhoveli**. At the heart of Graham's research is a fascinating argument: the schools inherited essentially the same model melodies, but each region learned to harmonize and ornament them through the sound-world of its own **Georgian folk polyphony**. The chanters who sang in church were often the same master singers who performed at the feast table afterward, and the two traditions shaped one another over generations. We explore the east–west divide created by the Likhi Range, the nearly lost chant tradition of Svaneti, whether Georgian congregations historically sang, the ninth chords of Gurian polyphony, voice crossing, the three levels of ornamentation, the ornamented middle voice of Vasil Karbelashvili, the musical "signatures" that let scholars identify individual chanters in manuscripts, and the controversy over whether Trio Mandili represents authentic Georgian folklore. ⏱ **CHAPTERS** 00:00 — Cold open: voice crossing, village singers, and Petritsi 03:46 — Welcome back 05:59 — Why the same chant sounds different across Georgia 08:29 — The published Georgian chant volumes 09:16 — Svaneti: a chant tradition almost lost forever 10:06 — Svetitskhoveli, Davit Gareja, and Bodbe 12:23 — The Likhi Range and Georgia's east–west divide 14:22 — Svaneti: slower, simpler, chordal chant 17:37 — Open fifths and the Svan sound 20:41 — Gelati: the "nest" of Georgian chant 26:01 — Melody, harmony, ornamentation: what actually differs? 28:53 — How master chanters ornamented a melody 31:03 — Did ordinary people sing in church? 34:05 — The Lord's Prayer and unornamented recitative 37:06 — Why great singers were village VIPs 46:13 — Ioane Petritsi, the Trinity, and three voices becoming one 47:06 — The east–west argument summarized 49:10 — Why Gelati harmony sounds different 50:40 — Shemokmedi and the ninth 54:09 — Gurian polyphony and the ninth chord 58:57 — Why Georgian singers deliberately seek dissonance 1:02:01 — Georgian tuning: 170 cents, not 200 1:04:58 — Georgian harmony works from the melody downward 1:08:28 — Octaves in eastern and western Georgian music 1:15:22 — Cadences across the three monastery schools 1:21:12 — How Vasil Karbelashvili built and ornamented a chant 1:24:06 — The individual style of master chanters 1:26:52 — Musical signatures: identifying a chanter by his hand 1:33:07 — Arakishvili and the ornaments notation left out 1:34:35 — How much should modern ensembles improvise? 1:38:34 — The Sakhioba Ensemble and the CD era 1:39:40 — Is Trio Mandili really Georgian folklore? 1:41:38 — The St. George troparion: my favorite chant 1:48:10 — Can the lost art of improvisation be revived? 🎼 **GUEST — JOHN A. GRAHAM** Website: https://www.johnagraham.com Georgian tours & chant resources: https://www.johngrahamtours.com Georgian Chant: https://www.georgianchant.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV0vT4n6QKcbk6lAS1CSO9Q 📖 **DISSERTATION** *The Transcription and Transmission of Georgian Liturgical Chant* John A. Graham, Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 2015 🎵 **MUSIC & FOOTAGE** Chant recordings and video used by permission of John A. Graham. Filmed at Bana Monastery, Kintsvisi Monastery, and Ubisa. Troparion to St. George performed by the Sakhioba Ensemble. Additional chant performed by the Anchiskhati Church Choir, directed by Malkhaz Erkvanidze. Historical recordings include the Apolon Tsamtsishvili Choir (Tbilisi, 1903), Gigo Erkomaishvili Choir (Kutaisi, 1907), Samuel Chavleishvili Trio (Kutaisi, 1909), and Erkomaishvili brothers (1965). Notation and photographs from Graham's dissertation, reproduced by permission. #GeorgianChant #OrthodoxChant #SacredMusic

  8. Aug 16

    How Old is Coptic Chant, Really? Dr. Michael Henein

    Is Coptic chant really 3,000 years old? Dr. Michael Henein set out to prove it — and his own experiment said no.Coptic Orthodox chant is often described as the last living echo of ancient Egyptian music, sung continuously since the time of the Pharaohs. Dr. Michael Henein decided to test that claim. With permission from the Cairo Museum, he had replicas made of ancient Egyptian flutes and asked a musician to play the responses of the Liturgy of St. Basil on them. The oldest flute produced exactly the scale the liturgy uses. It looked like proof — until he added a control group.In this conversation we go deep into how Coptic chant actually works: the maqam system underneath it, why the melodies function as icons rather than compositions, the century-long effort to notate an oral tradition that had never been written down, and what happened when thirteen shared Greek-texted responses were sung side by side by Coptic and Greek Orthodox cantors.Dr. Michael Henein is Professor of Cardiology at Imperial College London, the University of Siena, and the University of Nicosia; a sub-deacon at St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church, London; founder and director of the St. Kiril Coptic European Choir; and Executive Vice-Chancellor of the European Academy of Coptic Heritage.0:00 Every flute gave the same answer2:02 Meet Dr. Michael Henein2:39 From Handel's Messiah to a Coptic choir9:43 Greek words, Coptic melodies13:42 Why the whole congregation sings18:58 Instruments, the takht, and the liturgy20:39 Polyphony, Komitas, and hymns vs. songs28:41 Melody as icon: why nothing may change32:32 Inside the maqam: Huzam, Nahawand, and the ajnas40:45 Notating an oral tradition: Newlandsmith, Moftah, Tóth52:50 How old is Coptic chant, really?1:00:25 The flute experiment1:06:47 Which layers of the liturgy are oldest?1:10:46 Coptic and Greek: thirteen responses compared1:15:14 Ethiopian and Syriac parallels1:16:35 Cymbals, triangle, and rhythm1:20:12 What makes Coptic music unique1:27:04 Osama Fathi and the cadences that break the rules

See All (59)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

We explore topics such as classical music, Orthodox chant, Bach, Messiaen, architecture, symbolism, the philosophy of mind, aesthetics, and the general pursuit of Beauty.

Information

You Might Also Like